The Wine Broad's Board

Separated at Birth?

Remember the food-pairing wine brand released about a year ago, Wine That Loves (fill in the blank)? It was widely criticized (or, in my case, mocked) by the wine press for its no-brainer approach: "No need to trouble yourselves with details like grape variety or appellation! All you need to know it that it goes with chicken/pizza/pasta/yak/squirrel terrine!"

I never got a chance to taste the wine (what a waste of a perfectly good yak), but they did do a nice job with the packaging--and who knows, maybe some consumers out there welcomed the Garanimals approach to wine-pairing. Frankly, I haven't heard much about it since its release.

Well, there's a new food-pairing wine in town: Goes With (fill in the blank) wines. The concept with this one is exactly the same as for Wine That Loves, including the lack of varietal/origin on the label. The only difference seems to be that Goes With includes a recipe on its back labels so you can cook the dish that goes with the wine. The brands are so similar in concept, packaging and story that when I received the GW sample last week, I was sure it had a be a re-launch of the WTL brand. Apparently not, which makes me wonder: Were the GW people blatantly copying the WTL concept, or were they totally oblivious? Not a great endorsement either way.

The GW brand is still in prototype stage, so the Sonoma-based company is looking for feedback: Is this something consumers want?

Well, readers, I'll leave it to you to answer that. What do you think about the concept (assuming the pairings actually work): Clever or crap?

 

Tube-ular Wine

There's good news for those of you who wouldn't touch wine-in-a-box with a 10-foot straw: It now comes in tubes! Revelry, a new brand from Washington's Columbia Valley, is exclusively packaged in nifty 1.5L tubes. The line includes a 2005 Merlot, 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon and 2005 Chardonnay.

I've seen wine-in-a-tube before, but this two-bottle version is more compact. In fact, when I first saw it I thought it held only a single bottle.

It was a little tricky getting the tap into the right position to pull it through and open the thing, but once I did, it was smooth sailing. The Merlot is perfectly respectable everyday wine, with smooth black cherry flavors and a touch of spice. The bonus feature is that, in it's recyclable bag-in-tube package, it will stay super-fresh for a month.

Now for the bad news: I have absolutely no idea how much the wine costs. The Revelry folks sent me a folder crammed with information about the company, founder Jared Burns and the wines. Conspicuously absent was the retail pricing info. As a former wine PR rep, this sort of thing makes me insane. Why bother to send all that info, only to make the wine writer call you to find out a crucial piece of information like price? (No, it's not on the website either: I checked.)

So, this wine could be a great value at, say, $10, or it could be a rip-off at $30. Which is it, Revelrers??? 

New development: I finally got over my annoyance (damned curiosity!) and called for the price: $19.99 for each tube-o-wine. This is a bit better, I think, than your average $10 California Merlot, so that's not a bad deal.

Spotted in Sonoma: Bob's Bitch

So there I was, making the rounds at a trade tasting in Sonoma, when I ran into none other than Haiku-master Randy Hall. He spotted my name tag, introduced himself, then proceeded to open his flannel shirt to reveal the t-shirt underneath: You guessed it, Robert Parker's Bitch. Gotta love it! Randomly stumbling across Randy wearing this shirt seemed like a little too much of a coincidence.... Does he wear it every day? Man, I sure hope so.

By the way, Randy is a host on the excellent wine-y podcast, Wine Biz Radio. Each week the show takes a lighthearted look at what's going on in the industry. Special guests may include winemakers, industry gurus or even... Wine Broads. Yes, Randy has asked me to come by and sit in with the crew on Monday, the 19th, and I have a feeling it's going to be fun. Bob says: Check it out! (OK, he didn't actually say that, but I'm sure he would if he saw Randy sporting that shirt.)  

Michigan Wine: Apple of My Eye

If you think good American wines can only come from California, you need to get out more. A couple summers ago while visiting my family in Michigan, I tasted some excellent wines in the Leelanau and Old Mission Peninsulas, near Traverse City. (If you're a Michigander, now is the time to hold up your left hand and point to the pinky area to show the location.) They make some delicious Rieslings and Gewurztraminers up that way--most of which are better than any I've had from West Coast wineries.

During my most recent visit to my homeland, I was introduced to a surprising new favorite: Gill's Pier Icebox Apple Wine ($10). If your eyes automatically roll back into your head at the mention of fruit wines, because you think they're all tooth-achingly sweet, think again. This one is refreshingly tart, with a crisp fermented apple aroma.

I've you've ever been to Barcelona and washed down your tapas with Sidra, the local sparkling hard cider, Gill's Pier's Apple Wine has that exact flavor (minus the sparkle). I'm an absolute junkie for Sidra, and you just can't find the stuff in the U.S. (at least, I haven't seen any). I'll definitely be placing an order with Gill's when my annual tapas party rolls around.

So, how do they make the stuff? 

Winemaker Bryan Ulbrich (who made excellent Rieslings for Michigan's Peninsula Cellars, and now has his own winery called Left Foot Charley), uses four different kinds of apples: Northern Spies, Golden Delicious, Rhode Island Greenings and Ida Red. It's made like a white wine in that it is cool fermented for four to six weeks and only aged on the light lees for about two months. They bottle it with about 2.5% residual sugar (yet it's surprisingly dry). The winery only bottles 250-300 cases per year, so get your hands on some while you can.