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Gerald D. Boyd

Recycled Wine Buying Advice

 

 

The following is a piece on wine buying from a magazine article I wrote in 2013.  A few changes have been made to bring it up to date, but the suggestions are still relevant, especially as we enter the holiday entertaining season.

If you haven’t been wine shopping lately, you may be in for a bewildering surprise.  Whether you’re buying a bottle to have with tonight’s dinner or one to lay away for a special occasion,  you’ll find that even the most modest wine shop is stocked with a wide range of wines from most of the major wine regions at prices to fit all budgets.

Don’t panic! 

Before you head out to shop, decide if the purchase is a wine for casual drinking or for a meal, and how much you can spend.  Wandering aimlessly up and down the aisles staring at bottle after bottle of wine will get you nowhere.  

A good approach, for all budgets, is to find a wine shop where you can get some quality one-on-one advice on buying a wine that you’re going to like and that won’t break the budget.  Supermarket wine sections are convenient but not likely to have a clerk to help you select the right wine. So if the market is where you shop for wine, be prepared to do some searching on your own.

Buying a bottle of wine is like shopping for any other food product; you want to know how it tastes and how much it costs.  Read as much as you can before going wine shopping.  Numerous wine magazines (Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast, to name two) and wine newsletters (Robert Parker's Wine Advocate) are helpful for the novice wine consumer as well as the hard-core wine collector.   

For immediate and up-to-date advice and recommendations, go online and click on any of the many wine sites and blogs devoted to wine, such as "Wine Review Online," and "Gerald D Boyd On Wine."

Now that you have a bottle of wine, the next step is finding a good food to have with it?  Matching wine with food can be involved, but there are a few simple rules that make the choice easier.  The pairing can be very specific, even scientific, but using commonsense will  result in a pleasing wine and food match.  

The old adage of white wine with fish, red wine with meat, still has merit, but even more important is how the dish is seasoned and what sauce or garnishes are used.  Commonsense says that a heavy Zinfandel, with its full tannin, is not a good match with a lightly sautéed lemon sole, nor will an off-dry Riesling please the taste buds when paired with roast beef.

Generally, white wine is lighter in body and weight than red wine, so Sauvignon Blanc, with its crisp acidity and lighter body will not be as heavy as Cabernet Sauvignon or Syrah.    There are, of course, exceptions that have been proven time and again to be as close to perfect as you can get in wine and food pairing, such as Pinot Noir and grilled fresh salmon and Sauvignon Blanc with goat cheese.

If you're adventurous and want to make a pairing outside the box, then ignore the rules and drink whatever wine you like with any food.  Food and wine pairing suggestions are only guidelines, not gospel.

Wine availability and price vary from market to market.  Here are six wines, all priced at $20 or less, that should be in stock where you buy wine or with a little searching: La Crema Monterey California Chardonnay; Barnard Griffin Columbia Valley Washington Sauvignon Blanc; Elk Cove Willamette Valley Oregon Pinot Gris; Kenwood Vineyards San Joaquin County/Sonoma Count Pinot Noir; Mettler Family Lodi California Zinfandel; Francis Ford Coppola Diamond Collection California Cabernet Sauvignon.

Wine shopping is personal.  If the store where you shop doesn't carry the wine you want, ask the clerk for a special order, or try a recommended substitute.

Next post: Armagnac

Leave a comment, without signing on to Google, at boydvino707@gmail.com

 

 

 

Sierra Foothills

Sprawling along the west side of the Sierra Nevada mountains, the Sierra Foothills wine region offers wine drinkers variety and diversity.  Situated along the front range, the foothills are an easy day trip from the Bay Area and other popular northern California locations.  

The multi-county Foothills AVA is  east of Sacramento, the state capitol and fifth largest city.  Further east are the lofty Sierras, a mecca for winter sports fans. Lodi, a celebrated wine region, in its own right, is a short distance south of Sacramento.

One way to define the Sierra Foothills, at least in wine terms, is by referring to the Sierra Foothills AVA of 1987, that encompasses these eight counties: Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, Mariposa, Nevada, Placer, Tuolumne and Yuba, plus a small group of sub-AVAs.  

Elevation and volcanic soils are key to the grapes that grow best in the Sierra Foothills.  All of the expected grapes, like Chardonnay and Cabernet, are there.  In recent years there has been a push for Rhone varieties, notably Syrah, Viognier, Roussanne and Marsanne.  Interest in varietal Viognier is not what it once was and a lot of Foothills Viognier now goes into white blends. 

                                       

 There's gold in them thar vines!

More than any grape, Zinfandel is the single variety that defines the Sierra Foothills.  In the early days of Ridge Vineyards, Paul Draper thought enough of Foothills Zin, starting in 1976, to make a Fiddletown Amador County Zinfandel. 

Since the early 20th century, books and lengthy magazine articles have attempted to tell the real story of where Zinfandel came from and how it got to California. It took heavy research by a California wine historian and DNA analysis to uncover the complete story.  A Long Island nurseryman named George Gibbs, and not California wine pioneer, Agoston Harazthy, is now credited with bringing Zinfandel to America.  Part of that heritage is the understanding that Zinfandel is related to both a Croatian and and an Italian grape.  

How Zinfandel arrived in the Foothills is another unexpected story.  The short version is that gold miners in 1849 panned for the rare metal but came up dry, so they turned to agriculture, ordering vines from a Long Island nursery, owned by Mr. Gibbs.  Unsuspecting sourdoughs and their descendants found their gold in Zinfandel.

Over the years, Foothill Zins built a reputation for boldness with underlying finesse, fruit purity and acidity; things that made Cabernet Sauvignon drinkers look at Zinfandel with new respect.  Zinfandel became another wine to learn about and enjoy.  

More than Zinfandel

In time, the Foothills wine region began to expand.  And, as more winemakers took to the hills, an understanding developed that the same conditions that worked for Zinfandel, could also work for other varieties.  There were a lot of choices, with Cabernet Sauvignon and other Bordeaux varieties, showing an affinity for the diversity of climate, soils and elevation.  

Later, Syrah and other Rhone varieties came into their own in El Dorado and Amador counties and California Shenandoah Valley.  But not without controversy. Leon Sobon and colleagues in the California Shenandoah fought to use the name Shenandoah Valley,  losing to the historic presedence of Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, resulting in the awkward three-word California Shenandoah Valley appellation. 

            

El Dorado County is one of the coolest wine regions in California.  High vineyards were reaching up to almost 4,000 feet.  Growing conditions are cool at that height, forming an ideal environment for Merlot, Riesling, Chardonnay and cool-climate Syrah. 

At the far north end of the Sierra Foothills is the North Yuba AVA.  In the late 1990s, the Fellowship of Friends, an obscure religious group, founded Renaissance Vineyard & Winery and began releasing acclaimed late harvest Rieslings and a few controversial red wines, aged in German oak. The Rieslings won awards but the reds were just odd enough to keep them out of the main stream.  Today, Renaissance makes Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and late harvest Riesling.

Sierra Foothills destinations are as varied as the region's wine.  Bay area wine fans, planning  a day trip or weekend away, make the easy trek to foothills towns like Murphys, for relaxing inns and B&B's and a little wine and food.  With a visit to your local wine merchant, you can enjoy Foothills wine without leaving home.

Next post: Recycled Wine Buying

Leave a comment, without signing into Google, at boydvino707@gmail.com

  

Yammerin' About Wine Sales

   

You may not have noticed, but the wine industry is in a tizzy about shrinking wine sales and by extension, the desertion of wine drinkers for other  beverages.  Thing is, the uproar is hardly mentioned outside the trade, except for the occasional newspaper business article. 

Unless you follow wine trade news, you'd never know there's a problem.  But, is there  a problem, and if so, why is there a problem?  

Numbers bore me, so I don't keep up with wine sales, but I do read wine business articles and the occasional wine blog that often subject readers to "the sky is falling" posts.  Depending on who is writing, the yammering is either considerate or chaotic. 

Now, I am not saying that we shouldn't worry about falling wine sales , or that consumers, especially young ones, seem to prefer other beverages. What I am suggesting is the problem is complicated. 

Among those things that are complicating wine sales and causing confusion at the retail level, are: too many lists of "overrated" wines by writers and  sommeliers, who should know better; too many columns about inaccessible wines;  too much complaining about the three-tier system; too many new wines with names that have nothing to do with wine; and most egregious, too much bowing and scrapping before so-called "Influencers."

 -  I first became aware of influencers when I saw a piece by the "Wine Fashionista," a woman who displayed limited wine knowledge, attempted to show, while fawning for the camera and insinuating herself into every photo, how fashionable she, and  wine were. The Wine Fashionista is a glaring example of using wine for self promotion, while not promoting wine.

- Then, there are the headlines for wine articles that leave the reader with the impression that wine is a profane joke.  An example is this headline in the British publication "Punch," accompanying an interview with a young Scottish wine writer: "Meet Hannah Crosbie, the UK's Shitposting Anti 'Trad Wine Writer.'"  I read that headline again, and charitably thought , maybe I'm just an old  geezer trying to understand  how the use of profanity, in what claims  to be a piece about wine,  helps bring younger consumers, who reportedly are the ones not buying wine, into the fold.  

The interview is full of softball questions, but then I dug deeper and found that wine and the 27-year-old Crosbie are not full of s#@$.  Crosbie agrees that wine is not being marketed to young consumers correctly and that "trad" wine writers need to get up to speed.  Crosbie is  not the first person to make those claims.  

There's more to the interview, but my point is that while a profanity loaded headline may speak to the "anti trad" reader,  it fails to take wine seriously.

- Unless you're a tech millionaire, it's not likely you'll be attracted to wine by reading about wines costing hundreds, or even thousands of dollars.  "Wine-Searcher," the wine e-zine has a running series of "The World's Most Expensive" wines, and I wonder how many readers, new to wine, are drawn to their lists.  

Sommeliers share some of the blame for this blatant inflation, by flogging expensive wines.  Check the wine list of any upscale white tablecloth restaurant and the prices will make you gasp.  Wine is expensive, but there are plenty of moderately priced wines that may help bring more new customers into the wine fold.

(Full disclosure: In the Sept. 27 posting of this blog, my intent was to write about three excellent Super Tuscan wines, and not about expensive wine.  As it turns out, though, the Super Tuscans I chose cost $175, $250 and $300.) 

- The evils of the Three Tier system is a subject that gets too much attention, at least in the trade press.  The three tiers - importers or producers, distributors, retailers - frequently work together to determine wine pricing in the United States.  But the apparent collusion is what it is and endlessly yammering about it doesn't seem to be moving the needle, so maybe some of that energy should be channeled into a more positive way to promote wine.  

- Finally, I question if wine names like "Whiny Baby" encourage people  to think wine.  Really, do these names suggest clever marketing, or are young parents and expectant mothers the target audiences?  I don't know, but I do know that it is misguided marketing.  Craft brewers have used goofy names to market their beers for years, so I guess it was inevitable that wineries would say, why not?  But, if there's a wine connection, it's hard to see.  

   

Those are just a few of the reasons I think could be causing a drop in wine sales.  Here are three positive things I noticed recently that could give slumping sales a boost. 

+  Chris Sawyer, an energetic, unabashed disciple of wine, moderates "The Varietal Show," an on-going interview and tasting program, available on You-Tube.  Sawyer's approach is a casual tasting and chat with a winemaker, geared to bring out the personality of the interviewee and their wine.  "The Varietal Show" is a simple, non-stuffy way to promote any wine.  

+ "Harvest Stomp" is an annual, boisterous music-filled al fresco dinner and auction, to support the Napa Valley Farmworker Foundation and Napa Valley Grapegrowers.  The short promotional video shows people having fun amidst what appears to be organized chaos.  An easy-going harvest dinner-auction is an effective way to show young people that wine need not be stuffy. 

+ Simplify wine is a no-brainer.  Presenting wine as elitist and complicated will turn novice wine drinkers away from wine.  Don't dumb down the bare basics, but keep it easy-to-understand and personal.  People like stories and want to know about the winemaker and other key winery and vineyard workers. 

+ Finally, "Come Over October," is a national campaign to get people to share friendship and community over a glass of wine.  It's an idea we can all get behind.  Find out more about Come Over October at www.comeoveroctober.com. 

The wine industry has been wandering around talking to itself, crowded by a lot of individual promotions, but little combined effort to tell the story of wine, like Come Over October.  It's time to stop yammerin' about falling sales and start thinking positive thoughts about all wine.

 

Next post: Sierra Foothills

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California's "Other" Wine Regions

Every wine-producing country in the world has a premier region.  Most countries have one area that stands above the rest: in Argentina it's the Mendoza Valley, Rioja has long been the classic region of  Spain, and in Australia, there's the Barossa Valley. 

A few countries boast two top wine regions: Piedmont and Tuscany in Italy; Burgundy and Bordeaux in France.  Based on diversity and size, California is generally accepted as the top U.S. region, with the Napa Valley at the top of the list in the Golden State. 

Of course, putting Napa Valley first rankles some California wine fans, who point to Sonoma, as well as other regions.  And it should be said that there are others who object to California as premier, voting instead for Washington state or Oregon. 

But, even if we agree that Napa Valley and Sonoma are the California leaders, there are many other places in the state known for wine.  Here is a short list and the wine or wines that bring each area the most attention. 

Looking toward the bay in Los Carneros

Carneros, or more correctly, Los Carneros, is one of California's two-county appellations. Carneros stretches across  the north end of the San Francisco Bay, in Napa and Sonoma counties. Los Carneros ("the rams" in Spanish) is a cool climate region, suited for Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and sparkling wines.  Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah are also grown.

 Lake County, on the eastern flanks of Napa and Mendocino, is not as accessible as either of these places.  The seven official sub-appellations are gathered around or near Clear Lake, with most vineyards exposed to more sunshine, at elevations of 1,500 feet or higher.  An added benefit  is the moderating influence of Clear Lake.  Lake County is most known for Cabernet Sauvignon,  Sauvignon Blanc and Tempranillo.

Lodi is the Goldilocks wine region, neither too hot nor too cold.  Located in California's  northern Central Valley, Lodi grows an impressive 128 wine grapes, but is known for Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay.  Breezes from the nearby Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta moderate the climate, allowing for popular old-vine blends, with Carignan and Alicante Bouchet.

Livermore Valley was a premier wine region before the rising popularity of Napa and Sonoma. Today, its popularity trails behind both places. East of the San Francisco Bay, Livermore is a warm area that still manages to produce Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc.  Other varieties of note are Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, Cabernet Franc and Tempranillo.

Mendocino is known for its two distinct main growing areas: the warmer inland area around Ukiah and the cooler marine-influenced Anderson Valley.  The interior area, including Redwood Valley, is suited for growing Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay, while in the cooler Anderson Valley Pinot Noir, Riesling and sparkling wines are best known.  

Monterey, in agricultural terms, has a split personality.  The inland Salinas Valley, known as "America's Salad Bowl," grows row crops like lettuce, artichokes and carrots.  Coastal Monterey is wine country, especially in the Santa Lucia Highlands, noted for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, and Arroyo Seco, long an area for Riesling and Rhone varieties.

Paso Robles is where Zinfandel had its day in the 1880s, with the planting of the regions first Zin and the founding of York Mountain Winery.  Situated in San Luis County, the large region has 11 sub appellations, specializing in Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon and white and red Rhone varieties, supplied in large part by the winery and nursery of Tablas Creek.

Santa Barbara County vineyard

Santa Barbara has an unusual land arrangement with the Pacific Ocean.  The mountains run east-west, instead of the more usual north-south.  The open passage exposes vineyards to cooling sea breezes.  Chardonnay came first in Santa Barbara, followed by Pinot Noir, established by Sanford & Benedict in the early 1970s.  Burgundy varieties found a home in the Santa Maria Valley, whereas, because of the east-west orientation,  a more diverse group of grapes, including Rhone varieties, are planted in the Santa Ynez Valley. 

Santa Cruz Mountains appellation, between Santa Cruz and San Jose, is slowly being encroached by spreading commercial development.  Still, thanks to pioneers like Ridge Vineyards, David Bruce and later, Randall Grahm, cool climate grapes like Pinot Noir and Chardonnay were well suited.  Grahm's Bonny Doon Vineyard pushed for Rhone varieties and Ridge took advantage of the warmer part of the region for Cabernet Sauvignon.

Sierra Foothills multi-county wine region, along the western edge of the Sierra Nevada mountains.  The area's heritage as a wine region goes back to the aftermath of the 19th century Gold Rush, when miners traded panning for gold for planting vines.  Zinfandel was among the first varieties to take root in places like Amador County.  In no particular order, Bordeaux varieties, Rhone white and red grapes and Spanish varieties like Tempranillo, followed.

California is a big state with numerous wine regions and a lot of wine.  Take a break from Napa and Sonoma and pull the cork on a wine from one of California's other wine regions. 

 

Next post: Yammering About Wine

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