Fermentation: The Daily Wine Blog

Spring, Baby!!

If the first day of spring doesn't get you excited then I fear for your mental health. Everything is potential and everything is possible...even a trip to Sonoma Valley. And so in that spirit and with an expectant smile on my face, I'd like to offer my...

TOP TEN REASONS TO VISIT SONOMA VALLEY IN THE SPRING

1. Heart of the Valley Barrel Tasting
2. Local restaurants will begin to change their menus adding Fresh Spring items
3. Budbreak will be upon us
4. The tourists aren't yet here in force.
5. Sonoma National Golf Course is drying out
6. The wild flowers will begin to dot the outstanding backroads in the Valley
7. Wineries will soon begin to release their 2008 Rose wines
8. The farmers market on the Sonoma Plaza will commence
9. A seat at the Girl & The Fig's bar is usually available at night during the week.
10. Wine, cheese, shaded green grass on the the Sonoma Plaza.

My Wine Revelations

We learn about ourselves and our world through little mini revelations. I've had a few over the years as they relate to my life and wine. Here are my Top Ten Wine Revelations

10. Stony Hill Chardonnay
Stony Hill's Chardonnays, those crisp, lemony, minerally, long-lived gems, were the first wines that possessed me and put me on a quest. I wanted to taste and/or have every single one ever produced. My collection, unfortunately stops somewhere in the very early 70s, meaning I'm missing at least about 15 vintages. Still, this was the first wine that spoke to me and my palate.

9. They pay you to work in the wine industry
Can you believe it? It still gives me the giggles.

8. Wine Producing Regions Are the Best Places to Live
Say what you will about ocean-side retreats, mountain vistas, the great cities of the world and deserted islands. It's wine country, I discovered, that attracts folks that demand pleasure be given a greater space in their lives, who will support local efforts to provide that and who, as a whole, are usually very interesting to be around.

7. Austrian Ice Wine
This is a recent revelation I have Winemonger.com to thank for. Drinking these little bottled orgasms are akin to engaging in a violent wrestling match with a velvet-clad Scarlett Johansson.

6. There is No Relationship Between What's On the Outside and Inside of the Bottle
If you think that the appearance of the bottle has anything to say about the juice inside then I want your contact information and that of your family because you are bound to be a great prospect for the sale of a bridge I'm in possession of. I would have been such a prospect until I got into the business of designing wine packaging and discovered that wine packaging is often an exercise in disguising what's inside the bottle.

5. Wine is a Business That Brings Out the Hungry Dogs
It truly is a dog-eat-dog business. This I discovered when I first started dabbling in the politics of wine and discovered that all wine politics are about dividing up the spoils and that fairness plays no role in the division of wine's profits. Folks will say, do and try just about anything to control as much of wine's lucre.

4. Rose on a Summer Day is Better than Pot
I knew I was addicted to Rose & Summer when my mind habitually started drifting to this combination around January. Call me dreamy, overindulgent, hedonistic or just lazy, but to this day I can think of no better buzz than a 90 degree summer day and my own bottle of Dry Rose.

3. Top Critics know nothing about my palate
"This got 95 points? You're fucking kidding me? This is swill!"

2. BV Private Reserve: Good Wine is Good
The year was 1985 and I'd begun my wine education by reading books and drinking cheap wine while in college. I had to steal this wine off the shelf by placing the price tag of a cheap wine over the BV Private Reserve Cab's price tag. The college student behind the cash register had no idea what he was selling me so the caper went off without a hitch. I took the bottle back to my place, opened it and discovered I loved wine.

1. Serious Wine Drinkers Are Always More Interesting People
This is the single most important revelation that has hit me about wine. I has always been true and I suspect it always will. It appears that those folks that are attracted to wine in an unusually compulsive way also happen to be the folks willing to explore all sorts of interesting ideas, tend to think more deeply, tend to want to converse more seriously and tend to place great emphasis on living well. I'll take that.

Ten Wine Trends To Watch in 2008

Looking ahead is very much a process of looking backwards to see which trend lines have begun to turn upward. It's the time of year that lends itself to this kind of vision. With that, my 10 trends to watch in 2008.

Green Marketing
It started this year with a number of wineries promoting their reduced "carbon footprint" and other environment friendly acts from a production standpoint. If by referring to this as "green marketing" I appear to be dismissing the efforts and the various pronouncements, please don't take it that way. By doing so I only point to my own bias that has me looking at most of what is said and done at wineries to be be a form of marketing. The point is that 2008 will see a ramping up of wineries thinking about and implementing ways to satisfy their own, the industry's and their customer's demand that environmentally-correct approaches to life and work be implemented.

Economic Difficulties
It's entirely possible from my reading of the tea leaves that spending on moderate to high priced wines could fall in 2008 if something close to a recession kicks in and/or if the housing crisis is not addressed in terms that give comfort to the middle class. There has been very nice growth in this end of the market and this is also where growth was forecast to continue. A number of business plans were based on a continuation of good growth in wines over $25. Continuing economic difficulties will put damper on some of those plans.

The Dollar's Gift to Domestics
As the value of the dollar remains low, that means the price of imports will increase. Pretty soon retailers and restaurants are going to have to start increasing their prices on everything from classified Bordeaux to German Riesling to Australian Shiraz to Italian Super Tuscans. This is a default gift to American-made wines that begin to look like better values.

Flattering Gary
The success of Gary Vaynerchuk's Wine Library TV has and will  continue to inspire a number of other folks to launch their own Wine Video Projects. Besides being inspired by Vaynerchuk's success, it's a fact that there appear to be no technological roadblocks to streaming video and a significant and still growing set of distribution networks on the Internet. As to the success of these projects the only question is the commitment of the producers.

Legal Eagling
2008 will see a plethora of legal issues that come front and center. The Costco appeals will be settled. At least 4 different direct shipping lawsuits concerning retailer to consumer sales will find rulings and appeal will follow. On the regulatory front we will likely see a new formula for TTB issued American Viticultural areas that if not satisfactory to some could lead to lawsuits.

Direct Shipping's Increase
We'll discover this year that those who buy their wine direct from the winery and the from the retailer are quite dedicated to this channel and have no intention of decreasing their direct purchases. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if it is this year that we discover through the work of dedicated individuals a reliable measure of the direct to consumer market that only confirms this channel is the most significant growth area for wineries under 100,000 cases. This in turn will lead to even further efforts at innovation in marketing and technological efforts to take advantage of the direct channel.

Sitting in the Dark
We'll see at least two films released in 2008 that focus specifically on wine, beginning with "Bottle Shock" in January. In addition, a variety of documentaries will release. For the wine industry this spurs hopes of a Sideways-like bump in sales and interest. Whether such a specific bump in sales comes as a result is somewhat beside the point as any pop culture focus on wine will in fact create an increase in interest in the drink. The bottom line is that many unfamiliar media faces will both be associated with wine in 2008 and will otherwise be talking about wine in 2008. If there is a bump of a sort from the commercial and dramatic wine movie releases in 2008 the benefit goes to Napa Valley and the high end wines.

The "American" Wine Industry Awakens
It's not as though they has not been a renaissance in commercial winemaking all across the United States over the past decade. There has been. However, I expect 2008 to be the year when more and more people to take notice of the beautiful wines being produced in Michigan, Massachusetts, Texas, Colorado, Virginia and other states. This attention I think will primarily come in the form of wine professionals pushing the bottlings from across the country and will be followed with much more media attention. Another result of this will be a continued change in laws that make it easier for wineries in non-traditional producing states to market their wines. These moves will be opposed by certain elements of he wine industry who will work hard to restrict the ability of wine industries in various states from growing.

Consolidating the Gains of Wine 2.0
Interactive, Internet-based wine services that focus on social networking and content aggregation grew significantly in 2006 and 2007, particularly the sort that help sell or inspire sales of wines. In 2008 I suspect we'll see two things happen: 1) the demise of some of these hard fighting and innovative initiatives as well as the buyout of a few by larger concerns. The most thoughtful among us will realize that this approach to wine marketing and wine promotion works and will only grow in significance in the near future. They'll also realize that some of the better Wine 2.0 businesses represent a bargain as buyout options.

Buying a Place on the Wine Trails
The past few years has seen some amount of consolidation in the American wine industry. Older, established brands being traded and folded into larger organizations. I suspect one area where savvy investors not connected with large multi-national wine companies will be looking in terms of acquisitions are those wineries that have direct access to growing number of wine tourists that move up and down the well traveled wine routes: Highway 29 and the Silverado Trail in Napa Valley, Highway 12 in Sonoma Valley, Westside Road in the Russian River and Dry Creek Valleys, the Santa Ynez wine region, in and around Monterey. These properties are valuable to keen marketers because they provide instant access to the highly lucrative and high margin direct-to-consumer channel not only in the form of tasting room sales but incremental wine club sales that follow. The value of a tiny production winery that has a tasting room in any of these areas is made even greater by the prospects of fewer tasting room permits being issued by local authorities for fear of too much traffic.

A Wine Blogger's Lists...

So many people with so much to be thankful for. A Set of Thankful Top 10 lists...

TOP TEN THINGS FOR WHICH WINE BLOGGERS SHOULD BE THANKFUL
10. The 24th Hour in the Day
9. Cheap Wine
8. Established Wine Writers that begin Blogging
7. The Controversy that is the 100 Point Rating System
6. Spell Checkers
5. The Wine Industry's Voracious Appetite For Publicity
4. Cheap Blogging Services
3. The Wine Blogging Community
2. The American Brand of Free Enterprise
1. The Robust American Appetite for Wine Information

TOP TEN THINGS FOR WHICH THE CALIFORNIA WINE INDUSTRY SHOULD BE THANKFUL
10. The Internet
9. The Old World Winemaking Heritage
8. Robert Parker, The Wine Spectator and the Rest of the Wine Media
7. Costco
6. Undocumented Workers
5. The Japanese and East Asian Wine Lovers
4. Napa Valley
3. Having the Regulatory Freedom To Experiment
2. Existing in an Affluent Country
1. A Remarkably Good Climates for Growing Grapes

TOP TEN THINGS FOR WHICH I AM THANKFUL
10. My Blog Readership
9. A Good Education
8. The memory of my Father
7. Having a Comfortable Home
6. Having a Career I Enjoy
5. Residing in Sonoma Valley
4. True Friends
3. Having My Health
2. My Whole Family
1. Being Alive

Now go forth, eat, drink and be thankful!

10 Things That Makes America a Great Wine Country

Ten Things That Make America A Great Wine Country

1. Zinfandel
2. Kermit Lynch
3. Appellation America
4. Thomas Jefferson
5. Wineries in every state
6. The Internet
7. America's Laissez Faire Palate
8. American Technology
9. Anderson Valley
10. The 21st Amendement

Ten (scary) Things: About Being a Wine Lover

TEN (scary) THINGS:
ABOUT BEING A WINE LOVER

10. Driving on Highway 29 in Napa Valley  (or Westside Road in the Russian River Valley) at 4pm in August.

9. The "Wine List" at Dennys

8. Attempting to get a 4 wine loving friends to agree on the definition of "terroir".

7. The reaction at the eRobert Parker Forum when you suggest Mr. Parker was wrong about a wine.

6. The reaction at the eRobertParker Forum when you suggest Jim Laube was right about a wine.

5. The Reaction at the eRobert Parker Forum when you suggest Jancis Robinson or Michael Broadbent's words be read.

4. The bloodshot, enraged eyes and snarling face of a French grapegrower when he spies you drinking a Spanish Rose in the South of France.

3. The mysterious vacuum that is the inside of Jonathan Nossiter's cranium.

2. The bubbling cauldron of heat that is a 15.5% alcohol Pinot Noir.

1. The over fermented and  sanctimonious ramblings of a certain wine blogger.

TEN THINGS: For Which I'd Pay Retail-Plus

10 Things for which I'd pay retail-plus

1. A searchable database of every wine-related article published in print or on the net in the past 12 months.

2. The chance to drive the Oakville Grade/Trinity Road from Napa to Sonoma in a small, fast car with a guarantee no other cars would be on the road

3. The chance to convince a winery to change it's name to "100 Points"

4. A book that deals with Time Travel as well as the book "Reply"

5. A 100 page wine magazine that devotes each monthly issue to the thorough examination of 10 different wines

6. The New Yorker Magazine (if they had a wine columnist)

7. The chance to go a year without having to listen to someone argue the Wine Spectator gives better scores to advertisers

8. Two weeks on a white sand beach where the only noises I hear are the waves, the wind rushing through the palm trees and a voice regularly repeating, "Can I get you another Margarita, Mr. Wark?"

9. Tickets to see the SF Giants win Game 7 of the World Series

10. A REALLY good $3 Cigar.

The Top Ten "Top Ten" In Wine

Decanter Magazine, that British icon of wine publishing, recently announced its list of Top Ten White Winemakers in the World. The fact that no American winemakers made the list prodded Charles Olken of the Connoisseurs Guide to California Wine, one of our best wine newsletters, to craft his own list: Top Ten White Wine Makers West of the Rockies. The List is very intriguing. Number three on the list, for example, is an inspired choice.

Anyone who doesn't like crafting Top Ten lists just isn't trying hard enough. Ranking things forces you to consider your priorities and to question well established assumptions. And, it gives the bold among us an intriguing way to show their cards.

So as not to be left out of the game, Here is my...

Top Ten List of "Top Ten Lists" About Wine
I'd Like To See Top Ten List Makers Tackle:

10. Top Ten Wine Wine Regions That Make the Best Vacation Spots

9. Top Ten Indispensable Wine Accessories

8. Top Ten Ways To Make a Living Drinking Wine

7. Top Ten American Winemaking Regions Outside the West Coast

6. Top Ten On-Line Wine Shops

5. Top Ten American Pinot Noir Producers Making Wine For 15 Years or Longer

4. Top Ten American Appellation Based on Quality

3. Top Ten Wine Blogs That Don't Advocate Top Ten Lists

2. Top Ten Wine Regions That Need To Be Replaced with Track homes and Walmarts

1. Top Ten "Vintages Of The Century" in Bordeaux Since 1994

10 THINGS...That Keep Me Living In Sonoma Valley

10 THINGS....That Keep Me Living In Sonoma Valley

1. AN EPICUREAN LIFESTYLE
We all set priorities, some more important that others. The idea of putting epicurianism high on the list is a choice that is better than many. Just recently a cheesemonger and a chocolate maker opened up not more than 3 minutes from my house. I can purchase the best meat in the world at local markets. The restaurants in Sonoma Valley rival those of any town north of San Francisco. These are not the most important things in life. But they take the edge off in a lovely sort of way.

2. THE CREATIVE ENVIRONMENT
Sonoma County has always been a retreat for those wanting to remove themselves from the faster pace of the city and the suburbs. Amongst those who have been attracted to element are the artists and the artistic minded. Sonoma Valley has benefited from this continual influx of the artist and the mindset they seem to have blanketed the communities in which they live.

3. CLIMATE
It's the essential reason why the cost of housing is so high here. Our climate is near perfect. Not too hot in the summer, not too cold or rainy in the winter. No snow. We are able to grow nearly any plant we want here given the right microclimate

4. FRIENDS AND FAMILY
At some point you realize your friends and family are the bedrock of your life. Mine are here.

5. VINES AND WINE
After you live in wine country a while, and I mean in the middle of vines and wineries, you begin to realize that you are affected by the cycle of the seasons in a most comfortable way. Not by the coming of the snows, the thawing of spring or even the falling of leaves that many locations experience. Rather the subtle changes of the vineyards around you is something that gets inside your mind and body's cycle. Add to this the delight of seeing the results of this seasonal patter in the form of new wines made from the vines you live amongst. It's all pretty compelling in a "biopsychological" sort of way

6. SMALL TOWNS
Sonoma Valley is somewhat different than most of the other regions in Sonoma County insofar as it is broken up in to small, but very identifiable and historic communities. The town of Sonoma is the largest community at about 14,000 people. Yet it is decidedly small in character, even as it swells with tourists. Up Valley is my hometown, Glen Ellen, and farther north the little village of Kenwood. For those of you who have not or don't live in small towns it's hard to explain the draw. The intimacy of the small town acts as a regulator on people's more base instincts. That intimacy also creates the kind of bond amongst neighbors that simply cannot be found in larger communities or cities.

7. BACKROADS
I'm a sucker for a slow, winding backroad. Sonoma Valley is home t a number of truly inspiring sort of routes: Warm Springs Road, Bennett Valley Road, Trinity Road, Dunbar Road, Sonoma Mountain Road.

8. INVESTMENT
More people want to live here than we have homes. And the process of getting homes built in this neck of the woods is mired with all sorts of problems. I'm not saying that's good or bad. However, I know my home and its continued increase in value will play a large role in my retirement.

9. SAFETY
If I were ranking the reasons that keep someone living somewhere, "safety" must surely be near the top. But this isn't a ranking kind of list. Nonetheless, I've never felt unsafe in this community. We have crime, but it's insignificant for the most part. I like this. It makes everything else about one's life a little easier.

10. THE PEOPLE
I think it's the pace of life here in Sonoma Valley, though I can't be sure that's the thing. Still, I've never lived anywhere in which the neighbors and people are more accommodating and helpful and caring. It's down right weird. I've spent long periods talking with people whom I've just then met at the meat counter of the Glen Ellen Market. I can't recall a frown or grimace pointed my way by anyone on the streets. It might be the water. Maybe the wine.

TEN THINGS: To Do To Get A High Caliber Wine Education

TEN THING...
To Do To Get A High Caliber Wine Education

1. Get a job at a serious wine shop like K&L Wine Merchants or Zachys

2. Work in the Cellar at Robert Mondavi or Simi in the 1970s or 1980s

3. Agree to be Kermit Lynch's Valet

4. Read the ten fattest wine books by English writers written in the past 20 years

5. Sell wine for a distributor in San Francisco or New York for 10 years

6. Spend a few years inspecting wine consignments at a wine auction house

7. Take your inheritance and buy a well-run winery producing 20,000 cases of wine.

8. Set aside five years and work for six months each in a cellar in California, Oregon, Argentina, France, Portugal, Germany, Italy, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa

9. Plant, manage, care for and find buyers for the grapes from a 10 acre vineyard

10. Taste and take notes on ten wines per day for five years.