The Wine Broad's Board

Oaky Chardonnay: On the Way Out or Here to Stay?

Over the last few years I've read quite a few articles in wine magazines and newspapers declaring that Americans are over those big ol' oaky Chards and are embracing oak-less versions, or unwooded varieties like Riesling and Gruner Veltliner. Could it be true? Well, sort of. If you look at sales growth by percentage, wines like Riesling and GruV are kicking Chardonnay's ass. But when you consider the fact that Chardonnay still has waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more market share than many of those unoaked varieties combined, the trend seems far less revolutionary.

A look at the white wines in my sample stash reflects the reality of the market: California wineries are still putting out a hell of a lot of Chardonnay. And they wouldn't be doing it if nobody was drinking the stuff. Mind you, not all of it is over-oaked--but it seems that the higher up you go in price the more oak influence the wines seem to have. ("I paid $900 each for those French oak barrels, damnit, so by god, people are going to taste them!") What I wouldn't give to find a nice bottle of Gruner Veltliner on my doorstep...

You won't be surprised to read that California Chard doesn't top the list of my favorite white wines (too many splinters in the throat can make anyone jaded). But there are some that have won my heart. Namely:

Stony Hill Vineyard 

MacRostie - Carneros or Sonoma Coast

Dutton Goldfield - Dutton Ranch

Marimar Torres - "Acero"

Steele - Bien Nacido Vineyard

Of the Chards listed above, only one (the Marimar Torres) is unoaked. The appealing thing, to me, about the wines is that the purity of the fruit shines through, and isn't overshadowed by oak. It's all about balance, baby.  

My questions for you, dear readers, are the following: Do you think Americans are truly moving on from Chardonnay to unwooded (or less wooded) varieties? And which California Chardonnays (unoaked or otherwise) tickle your fancy?

 

Parker's Bitch: The Movie

Those of you who've followed this blog for a while may remember my little "Robert Parker's Bitch" post from about a year ago. It included a photo of winemaker/blogger extraordinaire Josh Hermsmeyer of Pinotblogger.com wearing a t-shirt bearing the cheeky slogan, which I had made for him and dared him to wear. (He liked the shirt so much he actually wore it to this year's Parker-hosted Bordeaux tasting at the CIA in Napa. Now that's cojones!

In November, I was asked to speak at the American Wine Society conference in Sacramento. I'm not much for giving Powerpoint speeches, so instead I decided to make a documentary about a controversial topic: The wine media's influence on winemaking styles. I think you can guess the title!

Josh appears in the film--and makes some great points--and he was kind enough to post it online so I can share it with fellow bloggers and others in the industry. Here's where to check it out: 

Vimeo (password: parkersbitch) 

And just a note of thanks to Rob Merletti, publisher of Vineyard & Winery Management magazine, for letting me run with this.

Now where did I leave that popcorn?

Who's Your Guru?

During a recent conversation with some wine industry colleagues, the subject of "gurus" came up. Some mentioned famous winemakers like Helen Turley and Paul Dolan, while others named respected vineyard experts like Phil Coturri and David Abreu.

For those of you who work in the wine industry, this brings me to the question: Which American winemakers and viticulturists do you most admire? If you could have anyone you wanted on speed dial to answer your every vineyard/winemaking question (free of consulting fees), who would it be? 

 

  

Wine Culture in America: Still Here?

Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned; it's been eight months since my last post. Eight months! But rather than dwelling on the reasons (excuses?) for my non-blogging, I'm going to launch right into my topic of choice: The latest wine consumption stats from Wine Market Council.

If you scroll down to my post "Wine Culture in America: It's Here!" (January 08), you'll see that the news was all good: per-capita wine consumption in the U.S. had finally reached 3 gallons (pathetic, really, when you compare it to other countries, but a milestone nonetheless), and consumption by volume had reached the highest point in the country's history. Even more promising for high-end wine producers was the fact that the $15-and-over category of wines showed the strongest growth rate.

Fast forward to January 2009 and the picture is a little less rosy. Though wine sales in the U.S. are still growing, that growth has slowed considerably--even more than it did right after 9/11. And the under-$6 wine category has replaced the over-$15 wine category as having the strongest growth rate in the U.S. market. That's no big surprise, given the state of the U.S. economy. Millions of people have lost their jobs, and millions more are adopting a more cautious approach to spending in case the hatchet falls in their direction. People are cutting back on luxuries, and that includes wine. (If the wine industry had done a better job of positioning wine as an everyday, part-of-the-meal drink this might not be the case, but alas...)

So now the U.S. wine industry is faced with the task of offering cheaper wines that people will actually want to drink. Yes, there are wines on retail shelves that cost under $10, but let's face it: They're not very exciting, and many of them are crap. So how do you find the ones that are worth drinking? Since it's unlikely that you'll find many reviews of extreme-value wines in wine magazines like Wine Spectator and the Wine Advocate, budget-minded wine drinkers will have to turn to non-traditional sources. You know... like blogs! (There's a whole wine blog devoted to cheapish wines: Good Wine Under $20.) 

Retailer recommendations can also be really helpful, if there's a local wine merchant you trust. And you just might have to venture outside of your comfort zone to experiment with wines in non-traditional packaging--as in Tetra Pak (like juice boxes) and wine-in-a-box containers (For more on wine-in-a-box, with reviews, see my latest column for Wine Review Online) . Higher-quality wines are now being packaged in these non-glass containers, and because they often cost wineries less to buy and transport, the wines can be priced lower than their traditionally packaged counterparts.  

With a little extra effort, we'll all be able to get through this recession with our wine glasses firmly in hand.

So, anyone out there want to share their recommendations for good $10-and-under wines? OK, I'll start:

Wine Cube, California (United States) Chardonnay 2007 ($17 per 3L box): This Target wine comes in a hip-looking cube-shaped, three liter box.  It has a pretty aroma of vanilla and melon, along with crisp fruit flavor and a nice balance.  A tasty wine for a great price.

Cycles Gladiator, Central Coast (California) Chardonnay 2006 ($10): Made by the folks at Hahn Estates, this is a really tasty Chardonnay for the price. It has aromas of peach and butterscotch, along with vanilla and pear notes. The wine has similar flavors, with pear and vanilla notes, and butterscotch on the finish. It's a crisp and fresh wine, with good balance.

Cycles Gladiator, Central Coast (California) Pinot Grigio 2007 ($10): The aroma of this Hahn-made Pinot Grigio has a pretty touch of peach imparted by 4% Orange Muscat. It also has a crisp citrus-kissed aroma of grapefruit. The wine is simple, clean and fresh, with a subtle peachy flavor.

Windy Ridge, Central Coast (California) Chardonnay 2006 ($8): Though the label doesn't say the wine in 'unoaked,' this Chard was made without the aid of barrels.  On first whiff, the wine smells like SweetTart candies, then reveals hints of melon.  Its flavor is similar, with some crisp green apple and lemon peel notes added to the mix.  This is a tasty everyday Chardonnay for people who would rather taste fruit than oak.

 

Enologist Humor

I just returned from the annual ASEV trade show and conference, in Portland. The show has been slowing down over the last few years, and during the 2007 event the organizers announced that 2008 would be its last hurrah. (The annual meeting will take a different form next year, without the trade show part of the event.) As a result, 2008 trade show attendance was painfully S-L-O-W. At one point I spotted a couple of exhibitors watching a TV screen in their booth with rapt attention--only the TV was showing psychedelic squiggly lines, rather than any actual programming. Now that's boredom.

On a semi-humorous note, I overheard an interesting conversation on the plane ride from Oakland to Portland. The woman behind me, who was apparently giving a presentation at the conference, asked her companion to help her come up with a joke about Brettanomyces. They made a few lame attempts, then gave it up as hopeless.

Being the smart-ass that I am, I became determined to come up with a Brett joke, find this woman at the Portland convention center and pass the joke on to her just in time to make her presentation the hit of the show. (I have small dreams.) I never did find her, but here's the joke in case you're ever in need:

Two Brettanomyces walk into a bar. One of them orders a glass of red wine, jumps in, and starts swimming around. After a while he calls out to his buddy: “Hey Brett! Come on in—the wine is fine!” So Brett does a cannonball into the glass, splashing wine all over the bar, and the two friends start goofing around, dunking each other and having a great old time. The bartender looks over, sees the mess they’re making and yells, “Hey you two, quit horsing around! Were you born in a barn-yard?”

 

Yeah, I know: It's pretty terrible. But could you do any better? I hereby challenge you to post a Brett joke of your own. Come on: It's the yeast you can do!

Have Wine Will Travel

The next time you travel to a wine-y destination, don't let TSA regulations stop you from bringing back a couple souvenir bottles. Though you still can't bring wine onto airplanes in carry-on luggage, you can stash a couple bottles in your suitcase.

Yeah right, you say, but what if they break? No need to worry about getting Brunello all over your boxers if you bring along a couple Wine Skins. I first encountered these handy little bubble-wrap wine sleeves a few months ago, at the opening of Souverain's new tasting room in Healdsburg. Just slide your bottle into the wine-shaped plastic pouch, seal it and shash it in your suitcase along with your unmentionables. Even if the bottle breaks--which is unlikely, since the Wine Skin is made of extra-thick bubble wrap--the sleeve is leakproof. Pretty cool, eh? They cost just a few bucks each. Find out where to get 'em at http://www.ftscontent.com/.

If that's too much work, you can do what I did on my last trip to Italy: drag along a couple wine-shipping boxes in an empty suitcase. You won't need to ship the boxes home, just place the wine safely inside the Styrofoam, seal the boxes up and check them along with your luggage. 

Bon Voyage!  

Too Hot to Handle

Ever notice on a particularly hot day that your wine bottles are leaking up through the corks?

Heat is one of wine's many enemies--along with light, vibration and neo-Prohibitionists. When the going gets hot, your wine could quickly go from tasty to nasty. How? Heat forces wine to lurch forward in its aging process in a decidedly ungraceful way. Even if your heat-exposed wine manages to escape immediate damage (the wine can have a "stewed" taste), it will usually start going downhill on a rapid rate. When that happens it's time to open that bottle and drink up!

Protecting wine from heat can be a challenge if you--like me--live in an older home, without air conditioning or even a nice cool basement for wine storage. One of these days I'll suck it up and buy one of those nifty temperature-controlled wine chillers, but until then, I'll just have to live with a few leaky bottles per year. (Anybody out there want to share their clever wine-storage ideas to help beat the heat?)

For more on the science and heartbreak of heat exposure, check out my latest column for Wine Review Online.

 

 

 

A Lesson in Noodling

       

On the few occasions that I’ve made pasta from scratch, I’ve felt downright angst-ridden at not being able to produce uniform sheets of perfectly rectangular pasta. The ones you see in foodie magazines are always exactly the same length and shape, but mine never looked like that! Today, I found out why: They cheat. Their pasta sheets are trimmed for their photo-ops, making home cooks like me feel like linguine losers.

This culinary epiphany came courtesy of my Aunt Lena, family matriarch and keeper (in her head, not on paper) of all the Caputo family recipes. I recently spent the day at her house, learning how to make pasta her way—the right way. What had I been doing wrong? A few things:

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1)    I mixed the dough with a food processor, which made it stiff. Only by kneading it with your hands can you feel if the texture is right.

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2)    I only let the dough rest one time, which made it even stiffer. It also made ME stiff, since I didn’t get any relaxing wine breaks*.

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3)    Because my dough was so unyielding, I had to run it through the roller to flatten it out many more times than normally would be necessary; this made the process take way longer than it should have!

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Sure, our pasta sheets varied in length and width, and had rounded ends instead of perfectly straight edges. But these babies were the real thing—and more delicious than anything I’ve ever attempted to make with a star chef’s recipe. As a bonus it only took us about 2 hours to make twice the amount of pasta I’d previously made solo in 5-6 torturous hours.

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Here’s how we did it, step-by-step—no off-camera tricks, no airbrushing:

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Ingredients:

-         5 lb. bag of all-purpose flour

-         12 eggs (room temp.)

-         16 oz. tepid water

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          Pour flour into a large, wide bowl and make a well (hole) in the center. Pour the water into the well, crack eggs into the well, and mix them with your hands to break the yolks. Using your hands, begin scooping flour into the well a little at a time from the sides of the bowl and mix into the eggs. (Don’t mix too vigorously.)

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          Dump dough out of bowl onto a table and knead. (Don’t push down hard or dough will become stiff; instead, push your hands across the top of the dough and roll away from you with fingers curved over the dough.) Knead into a log shape. (Dough need not be perfectly smooth.) You can cut the roll in half to make dough easier to work with.

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          Cover dough with bowl (turned upside down) and let it rest 10-15 minutes. While you’re waiting, relax and drink some wine (very important!).

          Knead again for a few more minutes until dough is smooth, then cover with bowl and let rest for another 10-15 minutes (don’t forget the wine).

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          Cut each dough roll in half; add a little more flour if needed.

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          Knead again, dust dough rolls with flour. Cover and rest again, 10-15 minutes (again with the vino).

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          Cut rolls into slices and dip each one in a pie plate filled with flour to coat. (Brush off any extra flour.) Roll each slice with a rolling pin to flatten into small ovals. 

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          Roll dough slices through pasta machine three times, at the 8, 4 and 2 settings. When dough is coming out of the roller, pull on it gently to stretch it out. (You shouldn’t need to roll it more than once on the same number.) Dough should be smooth, elastic and not too thick.

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          Lay sheets on a tablecloth, dust with a little flour and turn them over to let dry. When edges begin to dry (in about 20-30 minutes), the pasta is ready to cut. (Don’t let it dry too much, or sheets will buckle and get caught in roller.) What should you do while you’re waiting? You shouldn’t need to ask!

   

          Put a pie pan beneath the cutting roller to catch pasta as it comes out. Feed dough into the cutter to make angel hair or linguine, sprinkle with a little flour and fluff with fingers to make “nests” on a tablecloth. Leave the pasta to dry overnight, then carefully turn over to finish drying. (Or, you can cook the pasta immediately after cutting, if you like.)

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Estimate 1.5 “nests” per person as a main course (you’ll probably have a little left over). Full recipe makes about 30 nests.

   

In Defense of Blends

Among the many great wines I sampled during my trip to Western Australia last month was an array of Sauvignon Blanc-Semillon blends.  These wines are everywhere in Western OZ, and it' s no wonder: They're fresh, lively and perfect for summertime drinking. Depending on the ratio of the grape varieties, the combo of SB and Semillon can yield a grassy, herbaceous wine, or one that's a bit rounder with passionfruit notes. Just thinking about it makes me thirsty!

But before you start drooling, I should tell you that these Western Australian beauties aren't easy to find in the US of A. Why? Because someone went and told the Aussies that Americans think single-varietal wines are better than blends. Do people in the U.S. really still believe that? Most wines these days have a little something blended in to help balance their flavors, give them better color or add more enticing aromas. Many people unknowingly drink Cabernet enhanced with Merlot or Malbec, or Syrah kissed with a touch of Viognier (another fairly common Aussie combination, following the Rhone model), because the blending grapes aren't always listed on the labels. There's no shame in mixing different grape varieties--most of the time such inter-grape blending results in tastier wine.

But I don't have to tell you that, right? If you're reading this blog, you're probably well aware of the benefits of blending. So back to my original subject: Sauv Blanc/Semillon blends from Western Australia. Though I've painted a pretty bleak picture of their availability here, some have managed to make it over to our hemisphere. Here are reviews of some of my favorites, taken from my latest column for Wine Review Online:

Chalice Bridge, Margaret River Semillon-Sauvignon Blanc 2007 ($20, Vinum Global):  Made from 65% Semillon and 35% Sauvignon Blanc, this is Chalice Bridge's top-selling wine.  It's fresh and clean, with passion fruit/guava aromas, grassy notes and good concentration. 

Clairalt, Margaret River Semillon-Sauvignon Blanc 2007 ($20, Clairault, Inc.):  A 50-50 blend, the wine has a lovely floral aroma and nice roundness, while retaining its fresh grapefruit aroma and flavor.  It's crisp, but more complex and balanced than the winery's straight Sauvignon Blanc wine. 

Moss Wood, Margaret River Semillon-Sauvignon Blanc 2007 ($22, USA Wine Imports):  Made in stainless steel tanks, this SSB is heavy on the Semillon (70%), which gives it soft, round flavors of melon, along with flinty, mineral notes and balanced crispness. 

Watershed, Margaret River Sauvignon Blanc-Semillon 'Shades' 2007 ($18, America Uncorked):  With tropical aromas of passion fruit and guava, Watershed's SBS (70% Sauvignon Blanc, 30% Semillon) has refreshing grapefruit/citrus flavors and a fresh, clean finish.  This is one of my favorite Western Australian SBS wines. 

Barwick Estates, Pemberton, Margaret River  Semillon-Sauvignon Blanc 2007 ($13, Great Sunsan Imports):  The Barwick SSB's tropical fruit aroma is accented with a pleasantly grassy edge.  On the palate, it's crisp and balanced, with zesty citrus/lime flavors and mineral notes.  It's a great value at just over $10. 

Leeuwin Estate, Margaret River Sauvignon Blanc-Semillon 'Siblings' 2007 ($18, Old Bridge Cellars):  Leeuwin's winemaker prefers to make his SBS in the grassy-herbal style, rather than in the tropical-fruit style some others prefer.  The wine's aroma has notes of freshly cut grass and green beans, with crisp lemon-citrus flavor and balanced, bright acidity. 

To find the wines in your area, check search-engine sites like Wine Searcher. Or, if you live near San Francisco, head for The Jug Shop, which has a terrific selection of Australian wines.

It's worth the effort, I promise! 

Eating in OZ: mountains of marron

Before my trip to OZ in February, I had only a vague idea of what people in Australia eat. Vegemite sandwiches? Shrimp on the barbie?   Endless "WD40" cans of Foster's lager? 

To my gluttonous glee, I was met in Western Australia with a gorgeous array of fresh seafood--particularly a large and delicious freshwater crustacean called a "marron." (At left: shrimp on the barbie.)  

While in OZ I made it my mission to eat as many of the lobster-like beauties as I could jab a fork in. When I wasn't busy shooting photos of wine bottles and vineyards, I pointed my camera at my dinner plate. I ended up with so many marron shots that I joked about devoting a photography exhibition to them: "Marron I Have Known (and Subsequently Eaten)."

Wineries are home to some of the best restaurants in Western Australia (Voyager, Leeuwin and Capel Vale come to mind). The food is top-notch, beautifully presented and wonderfully creative. Unlike many U.S. tasting rooms, which send you on your way with an empty stomach as soon as you're finished sampling the wines, the wineries in WA invite you to relax on a beautiful patio overlooking the vineyards while enjoying a fantastic meal--served with their wines, of course. This is the way it should be done, people! (Above photo: marron at Leeuwin; below: marron at Salitage.)

At this pace, you can't hit five wineries in a day, but so what? I'd rather take the time to stop and smell the marron.

Stay tuned for Part II: Dukkah and Pies.

(Below: shrimp, scallops and marron at Voyager Estate.)