win August 2008

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[wine] Barbera at Arezzo (R=8, N=7+, t=6:30pm)

by Jim L. Ellingson

And then there were 7+. Might be prudent to bump the res from 8 to 10. Always prudent to reserve your spot with Bob or the list. Date: Tue, 26 Aug 2008 17:01:45 -0500 From: "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu> To: wine(a)thebarn.com Subject: [wine] Barbera at Arezzo (R=8, N=5, t=6:30pm) User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.13 (2006-08-11) Update: Bob made the reservation for eight people (R=8). Five have spoken (N=5). We need to call if we'll be more than eight persons. Time is damn near always 6:30 and this is no exception (t=6:30pm). ----- Forwarded message from "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu> ----- Date: Tue, 26 Aug 2008 16:36:33 -0500 From: "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu> To: wine(a)thebarn.com Subject: [wine] Babera at Arezzo??? Here's what I know. Lori and Dave would like to do Barbera at Arezzo. No idea on others or who's making the reservation. It's been a long time since we were there. Recall we pay $6/head in lieu of corkage at Arezzo. yeses "festive" Bob Pronto Pup Ruth "Brush after eating that junk" Lori Dave "Old Mill" T Jim "The Bees" E Bill "Barns" S Betsy "Krafts" K Hoping to join us. Alicia "Sausage Queen" A. regrets: Warren Russ/Sue Fred P Shee-raw (?) Cheers, Jim ----- Forwarded message from "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu> ----- Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2007 08:09:35 -0500 From: "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu> To: wine(a)thebarn.com Subject: [wine] Other Italian at Arezzo Jim-We decided on Arrezzo for Thurs. The wine is not Piedmont and not Tuscany. Everything else goes. The players are Bob, Betsy, Ruth and Lori. Bob will call today for a reservation. We don't have a back up plan. Lori ----- End forwarded message ----- Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2007 11:35:43 -0500 From: "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu> To: wine(a)thebarn.com Subject: [wine] Barbera at Arezzo Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2006 12:52:29 -0500 From: "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu> To: wine(a)thebarn.com Greetings, The group is going to Arezzo, 6:30 on Thursday. Vin du jour is Other Italian i.e. not from Tuscany, not from Piedmont. > on 6/12/06 5:46 PM, Jim L. Ellingson at jellings(a)me.umn.edu wrote: > > > Greetings, > > Bob will make the reservation for 8. Can adjust up or down as needed. > > > > Bob has negotiated a $5 per person charge in > > leu of corkage. Menu is on line. Wine list is not on line.... > > > > Prices are reasonable, w/ $10-12 pizza and most entrees (Primi) under $20. > > > >> Who > > Arezzo Ristorante > > 612 285-7444 > > 5057 France Ave S, Minneapolis, 55410 > > www.arezzo-ristorante.com ----- End forwarded message ----- Cal-Ital's second act After a slow start, Italian grapes find their place in California Tim Teichgraeber, Special to The Chronicle Friday, August 1, 2008 Winemaker Greg Graziano examines clusters of Sangiovese g... Graziano produces Pinot Grigio, Sangiovese and Tocai Friu... Chris Dearden, who makes Italian-style wines for Benesser... Benessere's 2005 Napa Valley Sangiovese. The winery relea... During the last two decades, California wines made from Italian grape varieties have seen both a promising boom and a crushing bust, leaving only the most dedicated specialists still standing. Their hope is that grapes like Sangiovese, Barbera and Nebbiolo, maybe even Dolcetto, Cortese and Aglianico will yet have their day in the California sun. Whether motivated by their love of the grapes and the wines they make or a desire to pay tribute to their Italian heritage, a few Cal-Ital champions remain dedicated to their cause despite tough financial challenges. "Sometimes it's easier to make headway doing something different," says Jim Gullett, whose Vino Noceto winery produces several such wines in the Sierra Foothills. At least that was the rationale among California's early proponents of Italian varieties. Many would learn that the varieties were surprisingly challenging to grow, and sometimes even harder to sell. After two decades of learning the hard way, the movement's survivors can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel, and may be able to show others the way. Make no mistake, Cal-Ital wines are still a tough sell, but by most producers' accounts the resistance to them seems to be waning now that many of the weakest have been weeded out, the best have improved, and the weak dollar has driven up the price of imports and making for a mixed, but bullish, market. Almost one-third fewer tons of Sangiovese grapes were crushed in 2007 than a year earlier, according to the Wine Institute, but the price rose almost one-third. Less prominent grapes like Dolcetto, Cortese and Nebbiolo have all shown increases, though plantings remain small. There was never a compelling reason why Italian grape varieties shouldn't succeed in California. The climates of the two regions are generally similar. And with tens of millions of Americans of Italian descent, Cal-Ital wines - California wines made from Italian grapes - shouldn't be hard to like. At least that's what a lot of people thought in the late 1980s. Unfortunately, sometimes even the best laid plans go awry. Two decades later, only Pinot Grigio has emerged as a bona fide success. Sangiovese was the great red hope of the Cal-Ital movement, a more elegant alternative to Cabernet Sauvignon, modeled after Tuscany's Chianti Classico, which Americans already knew and loved. By the early 1990s, a number of wineries scattered around the state had begun producing Sangiovese and a few other varieties like Barbera, Nebbiolo, Dolcetto and Pinot Grigio. Among them were Martin & Weyrich in Paso Robles; Montevina, Boeger and Vino Noceto in the Sierra Foothills; Greg Graziano's Enotria and Monte Volpe brands in Mendocino County; and Seghesio in Dry Creek Valley, which had been growing a little bit of Sangiovese since 1910. Even Robert Mondavi launched a Cal-Ital brand called La Famiglia with winemaker Jim Moore at the helm. Moore had worked in Montalcino, the home of Italy's great Brunello wine, and he knew how great Sangiovese was made. Moore believed that Sangiovese planted in the right place, like the Napa Valley hillsides, could make world class wine, and he wasn't alone. Movement gains credibility In 1987, renown Italian producer Piero Antinori announced that he was partnering with British brewing concern Whitbread and Bollinger in the purchase of a property atop Atlas Peak in Napa Valley and he was going to plant Sangiovese - not Cabernet. Suddenly the Cal-Ital movement had credibility. Others followed suit in planting Italian grapes, including winemaker Chris Dearden of Napa Valley's Benessere Vineyards, which released its first Sangiovese in 1995. "I thought we could be the pinnacle of production for Italian varieties publicized by Antinori and Mondavi," says Dearden. He was just one of many that saw Sangiovese and other Italian grapes as a growing opportunity. You can often identify pioneers by the arrows in their backs. Some of the early Cal-Ital wines showed real promise - specifically those from farmers who knew how to grow difficult grapes like Sangiovese, and those who had tasted enough Italian wines to know what made them great. Unfortunately, others were simply chasing a trend and had no idea what they were getting into. The result was a flood of mediocre Cal-Ital wines that undermined the good ones. "Most of the winemakers that were making Italian varietals didn't have a f- clue about what Italian wine tasted like," says winemaker Greg Graziano. "All they cared about was what their neighbor was making, and they had no idea what was going on in the world." Graziano produces Northern Italian-style wines in Mendocino County from Nebbiolo, Arneis, Barbera, Cortese and Dolcetto grapes under his Enotria brand and several other Italian varieties like Sangiovese, Pinot Grigio and Montepulciano under his Monte Volpe label, a sort of tribute to the Italian wines he loves. For the most part he purchases grapes to make his wines, and has coaxed Mendocino farmers into planting several varieties, often persuading them to grow them organically or biodynamically. Courting retailers Graziano is a road warrior, traveling the country to ferret out adventurous retailers and sommeliers willing to try and judge Cal-Ital wines on their merits. Not everyone had as clear an aesthetic vision. Even Atlas Peak, the $25-a-bottle Sangiovese that was supposed to lead the way stumbled through the 1990s. Piero Antinori's estate never managed to make extraordinary Sangiovese, and was generally seen as overpriced. Young vineyards, inexperienced winemakers and competitively priced Italian wines were all part of the problem. Italian varieties like Sangiovese and Nebbiolo were never intended for novice growers or winemakers. "If you think Pinot Noir is tough (to grow and vinify), Sangiovese is Pinot Noir squared, and Nebbiolo is Pinot Noir cubed," says Moore. "Nebbiolo is the toughest red grape to make in the known universe." Nebbiolo, the noble grape of Piedmont, is the source for the brilliant wines of Barolo and Barbaresco, but it hasn't made outstanding wines anywhere else. Moore even has a "Letterman top 10 list" of Nebbiolo's fatal flaws, "10: It buds out too early; 9: It ripens too late; 8: It has too high in acid and tannin ..." Martin & Weyrich's Nebbiolo vines were planted in 1992 from Italian vine cuttings sourced from unnamed persons at an undisclosed rendezvous location during the 1990 Italian World Cup, and smuggled into the United States as a so-called Samsonite clone. "Twenty-five years of experience with the variety is the key, and we still have so much more to learn," says winemaker Craig Reed. Today Reed makes 4,500 cases of Nebbiolo, and it's the winery's No. 2 or 3 seller behind a wildly successful wine called Allegro, a slightly sweet, lightly bubbly Moscato that sells 70,000 cases a year. "That one keeps the lights on," says Reed. Moore says that even with a few good Nebbiolos out there, "Nebbiolo may never succeed in California. If it has to any degree, it's where Pinot Noir was in 1970, when there were a handful of decent ones, but it wasn't on anyone's radar screen." Likewise, Sangiovese is no easy grape to manage. "Young Sangiovese just produces and produces," says Montevina general manager Jeff Myers. Growers who don't cut back the crop wind up with watery, pale wines that lack body and color. "With vineyards now approaching 20 years old, we're getting better concentration and consistency." Producers unite Still, the Cal-Ital movement had momentum. Producers of Italian varieties banded together to form the Consorzio Cal-Italia and staged annual tastings at Fort Mason in San Francisco that drew thousands of wine fans. At its peak, around the year 2000, the consorzio had about 140 members. Then came 9/11. Only a week before, Moore had sold one of his L'Uvaggio di Giacomo wines to Windows on the World restaurant atop the World Trade Center, placing it on one of the most iconic American wine lists. By 2002, the market had stagnated. Even the wineries making good wines from Italian varieties were struggling to sell them to the broader market but were continuing to sell them directly to loyal consumers who had come to know their quality. Moore and Greg Graziano and Martin & Weyrich found open-minded retail and restaurant buyers in the Midwest, while others, like Noceto and Benessere, sold directly to customers that were looking for something different. Vintners shapen skills Through the hard years, dedicated Cal-Ital vintners honed their skills, and their vineyards matured. Even Nebbiolo has made remarkable progress in California, most notably at Paso Robles' Martin & Weyrich winery. "We considered giving up on it, but it's a labor of love," says winemaker Reed, whose favorite wines are Barolo and Barbaresco made from Nebbiolo. Though Pinot Grigio has been a big hit, Sangiovese, Dolcetto and Aglianico from California are still a hard sell, even when well executed. Today's Cal-Ital wines are often as good as their like-priced Italian equivalents, especially now that the weak dollar has European prices rising, but they're often regarded as being "fake Italian" when French varietal wines like Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from California are regarded as perfectly legitimate rivals to their European counterparts. "The wine business has always been Franco-centric," explains Moore. "We've all gone to the Italian restaurant, and you meet the Italian guy. He's like, 'But this wine's not Italian,' " says Graziano. "I'll say, "What do you have that's Italian? You've got dried pasta and olive oil! Your bread is from L.A., your vegetables are from Southern California, and your meat is from California. Don't give me this crap!' " "I had that experience at Angelini on Melrose, one of the best trattorias in Los Angeles," echoes Moore. "I showed him my wines and he was blown away. I said, 'Are you going to buy any?' He says, 'No, because I have my Italian wines.' I said, 'Wait a sec, you have Burgundy and you have Russian River Valley Pinot Noir. You have Napa Cabernet and you have Bordeaux. Should you have only Rhone Syrah and none of this Australian Shiraz?' He says, 'You know, you have a point.' But did he buy any? No." Unpopular label For some the term Cal-Ital itself has been a sore point. "I don't want to hear the term Cal-Ital anymore," says Benessere's Dearden. Does anybody say Cal-Franco? Cal-Espana? Get rid of it," says Dearden, who is tired of his work being regarded as a "failed experiment." The most dedicated California devotees of Italian varieties have proven that it can, in fact, be done well. Though it's easy to wonder if some would have chosen another path if they had it to do all over, Noceto's Jim Gullett sees a light at the end of the tunnel in consumers in their 20s and 30s who are looking for something new. "Now people are interested in what's new and different ... You need to be a little bit zealous about it and have a good story and a lot of confidence. You have to be willing to accept a little defeat." "How long did it take California, and Oregon to figure our how to make Pinot Noir with consistency? It's at least as tough to make Sangiovese as Pinot Noir," says Gullett. He has no regrets, but is he happy? "Yes, but I probably wouldn't be if it was much harder to sell," says Gullett. For the best California producers of Italian varieties, the clouds are parting. They're looking forward to a decade where they're more competitive in quality and value to the Italian wines they were modeled after, Cal-Ital producers once again see the glass half-full. Montevina's Jeff Myers puts it succinctly: "We're real happy with where we're at." Tasting notes WHITES 2007 Benessere Napa Valley Carneros Pinot Grigio ($26) A superb California interpretation of the Italian style - ripe, flavorful and full with green apple, nectarine and cream flavors and a crisp, minerally finish. 2007 Enotria Mendocino Cortese ($15) From the grape that makes Gavi di Gavi in Piedmont, this lovely white is every bit as refined as the best Italian examples, with sweet-tart Granny Smith apple, cream, fennel and lemon drop flavors. 2006 Monte Volpe Mendocino Pinot Grigio ($14) Fresh and expressive and flavorful with zesty green apple and lilac aromas, fresh apple flavors and a clean finish. A terrific value. 2007 Terra d'Oro Santa Barbara County Pinot Grigio ($16) Focused and aromatic with beautiful freesia, lavender and honeydew aromas and crystalline citrus, melon and mineral flavors. Excellent. REDS 2003 Benessere Napa Valley Aglianico ($50) This powerful Southern Italian red variety seems to like Napa Valley. From a 1/2-acre block of the BK Collins vineyard comes this dark, full red with vanilla, licorice, blackberry and blueberry aromas and deep plum and berry flavors finishing with sturdy tannins on the graceful finish. The most Cabernet-like of the great Italian reds. Winery only. 2006 Enotria Mendocino Dolcetto ($17) This wine captures well the many charms of this underappreciated Northern Italian variety from its pretty violet aromas to its bright blackberry and cherry fruit, racy acidity and gritty tannins that soften with age. 2004 Enotria Mendocino Barbera ($17) Beautiful blueberry and blackberry pie aromas, vanilla, fruity middle, very approachable with a nice spank of acidity and tarry tannin on the finish. Lovely. 2005 L'Uvaggio di Giacomo Lodi Barbera ($18) Very young, with tight blueberry, blackberry and cranberry aromas. Dark, very ripe blackberry fruit in the middle and a tight finish, but should develop some jammier flavors and soften soon. 2002 L'Uvaggio di Giacomo Il Leopardo Central Coast Nebbiolo ($36) Another solid showing. Elegant, perfumed, textbook Nebbiolo from Stolpman Vineyards in Santa Barbara County with complex plum, cherry, cinnamon, licorice and tar flavors. 2003 Martin & Weyrich Reserve Il Vecchio Paso Robles Nebbiolo ($22) A seamless, beautifully matured red from the frustrating variety of Barolo and Barbaresco with amber-rimmed brick red color, dried rose, lavender, sweet oak, licorice and mushroom aromas, pretty, expressive, tangy cherry and raspberry fruit kissed with toast and a velvety finish. Superb. 2006 MonteVina Amador County Barbera ($12) A fruity red that's at once bright and deep with juicy cherry, raspberry, rose, toast and tar aromas, a round mouthfeel and bright cherry fruit on the finish. Perfect for a picnic or pizza. 2005 Monte Volpe Mendocino Sangiovese ($17) Delicious, fruit-driven California Sangiovese with youthful violet aromas, fresh blueberry and cherry pie flavors trailing into a moderately astringent finish typical of the grape. Washington and Oregon Wash-Ital and Or-Ital might not have the same ring as Cal-Ital, but the Golden State isn't the only place where growers and vintners have been honing their skills with Italian varieties. Benchmark producer Ponzi makes a very nice white from Arneis, which is native to Piedmont. Earl and Hilda Jones of southern Oregon's Abacela Vineyards grow a daunting pastiche of Italian grapes, including the varieties Dolcetto, Sangiovese and Freisa. A number of Washington state wineries are making first-rate wines from Italian varieties, especially Sangiovese. Star Walla Walla producer Leonetti makes a small batch of it each year. Like its other wines, the Sangiovese is excellent and at around $70 a bottle, pricey. Stella Fino, also of Walla Walla, and Cavatappi are two Washington wineries that focus on Italian varieties with great success. Stella Fino sources its Sangiovese ($25) from the excellent Pepper Bridge vineyard in Walla Walla, and Cavatappi's superb Maddalena Nebbiolo ($25) comes from Washington's historic Red Willow vineyard, where many varieties were first planted in Washington. Others to look for include Andrew Will's Ciel du Cheval Vineyard Sangiovese ($30) and Maryhill's Brunello-like Reserve Sangiovese ($32). Some Italians are still wary of growing Italian grapes in the New World. After abandoning his Sangiovese dreams in Napa Valley, Tuscan producer Piero Antinori partnered with Chateau Ste. Michelle on Washington's Red Mountain in an estate dubbed Col Solare, which makes one red wine, a Bordeaux blend, without a drop of Sangiovese. Tim Teichgraeber is a San Francisco writer. E-mail him at wine(a)sfchronicle.com. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/01/WIMT11K9VO.DTL This article appeared on page F - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle -- ------------------------------ * Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu * * University of Minnesota, mobile : 651/645-0753 * * Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 * ----- End forwarded message ----- -- ------------------------------ * Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu * * University of Minnesota, mobile : 651/645-0753 * * Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *

17 years, 3 months

[wine] Barbera at Arezzo (R=8, N=5, t=6:30pm)

by Jim L. Ellingson

Update: Bob made the reservation for eight people (R=8). Five have spoken (N=5). We need to call if we'll be more than eight persons. Time is damn near always 6:30 and this is no exception (t=6:30pm). ----- Forwarded message from "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu> ----- Date: Tue, 26 Aug 2008 16:36:33 -0500 From: "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu> To: wine(a)thebarn.com Subject: [wine] Babera at Arezzo??? Here's what I know. Lori and Dave would like to do Barbera at Arezzo. No idea on others or who's making the reservation. It's been a long time since we were there. Recall we pay $6/head in lieu of corkage at Arezzo. yeses Bob Ruth Lori Dave T Jim guesses Russ/Sue Betsy Shee-raw (?) Cheers, Jim ----- Forwarded message from "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu> ----- Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2007 08:09:35 -0500 From: "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu> To: wine(a)thebarn.com Subject: [wine] Other Italian at Arezzo Jim-We decided on Arrezzo for Thurs. The wine is not Piedmont and not Tuscany. Everything else goes. The players are Bob, Betsy, Ruth and Lori. Bob will call today for a reservation. We don't have a back up plan. Lori ----- End forwarded message ----- Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2007 11:35:43 -0500 From: "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu> To: wine(a)thebarn.com Subject: [wine] Barbera at Arezzo Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2006 12:52:29 -0500 From: "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu> To: wine(a)thebarn.com Greetings, The group is going to Arezzo, 6:30 on Thursday. Vin du jour is Other Italian i.e. not from Tuscany, not from Piedmont. > on 6/12/06 5:46 PM, Jim L. Ellingson at jellings(a)me.umn.edu wrote: > > > Greetings, > > Bob will make the reservation for 8. Can adjust up or down as needed. > > > > Bob has negotiated a $5 per person charge in > > leu of corkage. Menu is on line. Wine list is not on line.... > > > > Prices are reasonable, w/ $10-12 pizza and most entrees (Primi) under $20. > > > >> Who > > Arezzo Ristorante > > 612 285-7444 > > 5057 France Ave S, Minneapolis, 55410 > > www.arezzo-ristorante.com ----- End forwarded message ----- Cal-Ital's second act After a slow start, Italian grapes find their place in California Tim Teichgraeber, Special to The Chronicle Friday, August 1, 2008 Winemaker Greg Graziano examines clusters of Sangiovese g... Graziano produces Pinot Grigio, Sangiovese and Tocai Friu... Chris Dearden, who makes Italian-style wines for Benesser... Benessere's 2005 Napa Valley Sangiovese. The winery relea... During the last two decades, California wines made from Italian grape varieties have seen both a promising boom and a crushing bust, leaving only the most dedicated specialists still standing. Their hope is that grapes like Sangiovese, Barbera and Nebbiolo, maybe even Dolcetto, Cortese and Aglianico will yet have their day in the California sun. Whether motivated by their love of the grapes and the wines they make or a desire to pay tribute to their Italian heritage, a few Cal-Ital champions remain dedicated to their cause despite tough financial challenges. "Sometimes it's easier to make headway doing something different," says Jim Gullett, whose Vino Noceto winery produces several such wines in the Sierra Foothills. At least that was the rationale among California's early proponents of Italian varieties. Many would learn that the varieties were surprisingly challenging to grow, and sometimes even harder to sell. After two decades of learning the hard way, the movement's survivors can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel, and may be able to show others the way. Make no mistake, Cal-Ital wines are still a tough sell, but by most producers' accounts the resistance to them seems to be waning now that many of the weakest have been weeded out, the best have improved, and the weak dollar has driven up the price of imports and making for a mixed, but bullish, market. Almost one-third fewer tons of Sangiovese grapes were crushed in 2007 than a year earlier, according to the Wine Institute, but the price rose almost one-third. Less prominent grapes like Dolcetto, Cortese and Nebbiolo have all shown increases, though plantings remain small. There was never a compelling reason why Italian grape varieties shouldn't succeed in California. The climates of the two regions are generally similar. And with tens of millions of Americans of Italian descent, Cal-Ital wines - California wines made from Italian grapes - shouldn't be hard to like. At least that's what a lot of people thought in the late 1980s. Unfortunately, sometimes even the best laid plans go awry. Two decades later, only Pinot Grigio has emerged as a bona fide success. Sangiovese was the great red hope of the Cal-Ital movement, a more elegant alternative to Cabernet Sauvignon, modeled after Tuscany's Chianti Classico, which Americans already knew and loved. By the early 1990s, a number of wineries scattered around the state had begun producing Sangiovese and a few other varieties like Barbera, Nebbiolo, Dolcetto and Pinot Grigio. Among them were Martin & Weyrich in Paso Robles; Montevina, Boeger and Vino Noceto in the Sierra Foothills; Greg Graziano's Enotria and Monte Volpe brands in Mendocino County; and Seghesio in Dry Creek Valley, which had been growing a little bit of Sangiovese since 1910. Even Robert Mondavi launched a Cal-Ital brand called La Famiglia with winemaker Jim Moore at the helm. Moore had worked in Montalcino, the home of Italy's great Brunello wine, and he knew how great Sangiovese was made. Moore believed that Sangiovese planted in the right place, like the Napa Valley hillsides, could make world class wine, and he wasn't alone. Movement gains credibility In 1987, renown Italian producer Piero Antinori announced that he was partnering with British brewing concern Whitbread and Bollinger in the purchase of a property atop Atlas Peak in Napa Valley and he was going to plant Sangiovese - not Cabernet. Suddenly the Cal-Ital movement had credibility. Others followed suit in planting Italian grapes, including winemaker Chris Dearden of Napa Valley's Benessere Vineyards, which released its first Sangiovese in 1995. "I thought we could be the pinnacle of production for Italian varieties publicized by Antinori and Mondavi," says Dearden. He was just one of many that saw Sangiovese and other Italian grapes as a growing opportunity. You can often identify pioneers by the arrows in their backs. Some of the early Cal-Ital wines showed real promise - specifically those from farmers who knew how to grow difficult grapes like Sangiovese, and those who had tasted enough Italian wines to know what made them great. Unfortunately, others were simply chasing a trend and had no idea what they were getting into. The result was a flood of mediocre Cal-Ital wines that undermined the good ones. "Most of the winemakers that were making Italian varietals didn't have a f- clue about what Italian wine tasted like," says winemaker Greg Graziano. "All they cared about was what their neighbor was making, and they had no idea what was going on in the world." Graziano produces Northern Italian-style wines in Mendocino County from Nebbiolo, Arneis, Barbera, Cortese and Dolcetto grapes under his Enotria brand and several other Italian varieties like Sangiovese, Pinot Grigio and Montepulciano under his Monte Volpe label, a sort of tribute to the Italian wines he loves. For the most part he purchases grapes to make his wines, and has coaxed Mendocino farmers into planting several varieties, often persuading them to grow them organically or biodynamically. Courting retailers Graziano is a road warrior, traveling the country to ferret out adventurous retailers and sommeliers willing to try and judge Cal-Ital wines on their merits. Not everyone had as clear an aesthetic vision. Even Atlas Peak, the $25-a-bottle Sangiovese that was supposed to lead the way stumbled through the 1990s. Piero Antinori's estate never managed to make extraordinary Sangiovese, and was generally seen as overpriced. Young vineyards, inexperienced winemakers and competitively priced Italian wines were all part of the problem. Italian varieties like Sangiovese and Nebbiolo were never intended for novice growers or winemakers. "If you think Pinot Noir is tough (to grow and vinify), Sangiovese is Pinot Noir squared, and Nebbiolo is Pinot Noir cubed," says Moore. "Nebbiolo is the toughest red grape to make in the known universe." Nebbiolo, the noble grape of Piedmont, is the source for the brilliant wines of Barolo and Barbaresco, but it hasn't made outstanding wines anywhere else. Moore even has a "Letterman top 10 list" of Nebbiolo's fatal flaws, "10: It buds out too early; 9: It ripens too late; 8: It has too high in acid and tannin ..." Martin & Weyrich's Nebbiolo vines were planted in 1992 from Italian vine cuttings sourced from unnamed persons at an undisclosed rendezvous location during the 1990 Italian World Cup, and smuggled into the United States as a so-called Samsonite clone. "Twenty-five years of experience with the variety is the key, and we still have so much more to learn," says winemaker Craig Reed. Today Reed makes 4,500 cases of Nebbiolo, and it's the winery's No. 2 or 3 seller behind a wildly successful wine called Allegro, a slightly sweet, lightly bubbly Moscato that sells 70,000 cases a year. "That one keeps the lights on," says Reed. Moore says that even with a few good Nebbiolos out there, "Nebbiolo may never succeed in California. If it has to any degree, it's where Pinot Noir was in 1970, when there were a handful of decent ones, but it wasn't on anyone's radar screen." Likewise, Sangiovese is no easy grape to manage. "Young Sangiovese just produces and produces," says Montevina general manager Jeff Myers. Growers who don't cut back the crop wind up with watery, pale wines that lack body and color. "With vineyards now approaching 20 years old, we're getting better concentration and consistency." Producers unite Still, the Cal-Ital movement had momentum. Producers of Italian varieties banded together to form the Consorzio Cal-Italia and staged annual tastings at Fort Mason in San Francisco that drew thousands of wine fans. At its peak, around the year 2000, the consorzio had about 140 members. Then came 9/11. Only a week before, Moore had sold one of his L'Uvaggio di Giacomo wines to Windows on the World restaurant atop the World Trade Center, placing it on one of the most iconic American wine lists. By 2002, the market had stagnated. Even the wineries making good wines from Italian varieties were struggling to sell them to the broader market but were continuing to sell them directly to loyal consumers who had come to know their quality. Moore and Greg Graziano and Martin & Weyrich found open-minded retail and restaurant buyers in the Midwest, while others, like Noceto and Benessere, sold directly to customers that were looking for something different. Vintners shapen skills Through the hard years, dedicated Cal-Ital vintners honed their skills, and their vineyards matured. Even Nebbiolo has made remarkable progress in California, most notably at Paso Robles' Martin & Weyrich winery. "We considered giving up on it, but it's a labor of love," says winemaker Reed, whose favorite wines are Barolo and Barbaresco made from Nebbiolo. Though Pinot Grigio has been a big hit, Sangiovese, Dolcetto and Aglianico from California are still a hard sell, even when well executed. Today's Cal-Ital wines are often as good as their like-priced Italian equivalents, especially now that the weak dollar has European prices rising, but they're often regarded as being "fake Italian" when French varietal wines like Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from California are regarded as perfectly legitimate rivals to their European counterparts. "The wine business has always been Franco-centric," explains Moore. "We've all gone to the Italian restaurant, and you meet the Italian guy. He's like, 'But this wine's not Italian,' " says Graziano. "I'll say, "What do you have that's Italian? You've got dried pasta and olive oil! Your bread is from L.A., your vegetables are from Southern California, and your meat is from California. Don't give me this crap!' " "I had that experience at Angelini on Melrose, one of the best trattorias in Los Angeles," echoes Moore. "I showed him my wines and he was blown away. I said, 'Are you going to buy any?' He says, 'No, because I have my Italian wines.' I said, 'Wait a sec, you have Burgundy and you have Russian River Valley Pinot Noir. You have Napa Cabernet and you have Bordeaux. Should you have only Rhone Syrah and none of this Australian Shiraz?' He says, 'You know, you have a point.' But did he buy any? No." Unpopular label For some the term Cal-Ital itself has been a sore point. "I don't want to hear the term Cal-Ital anymore," says Benessere's Dearden. Does anybody say Cal-Franco? Cal-Espana? Get rid of it," says Dearden, who is tired of his work being regarded as a "failed experiment." The most dedicated California devotees of Italian varieties have proven that it can, in fact, be done well. Though it's easy to wonder if some would have chosen another path if they had it to do all over, Noceto's Jim Gullett sees a light at the end of the tunnel in consumers in their 20s and 30s who are looking for something new. "Now people are interested in what's new and different ... You need to be a little bit zealous about it and have a good story and a lot of confidence. You have to be willing to accept a little defeat." "How long did it take California, and Oregon to figure our how to make Pinot Noir with consistency? It's at least as tough to make Sangiovese as Pinot Noir," says Gullett. He has no regrets, but is he happy? "Yes, but I probably wouldn't be if it was much harder to sell," says Gullett. For the best California producers of Italian varieties, the clouds are parting. They're looking forward to a decade where they're more competitive in quality and value to the Italian wines they were modeled after, Cal-Ital producers once again see the glass half-full. Montevina's Jeff Myers puts it succinctly: "We're real happy with where we're at." Tasting notes WHITES 2007 Benessere Napa Valley Carneros Pinot Grigio ($26) A superb California interpretation of the Italian style - ripe, flavorful and full with green apple, nectarine and cream flavors and a crisp, minerally finish. 2007 Enotria Mendocino Cortese ($15) From the grape that makes Gavi di Gavi in Piedmont, this lovely white is every bit as refined as the best Italian examples, with sweet-tart Granny Smith apple, cream, fennel and lemon drop flavors. 2006 Monte Volpe Mendocino Pinot Grigio ($14) Fresh and expressive and flavorful with zesty green apple and lilac aromas, fresh apple flavors and a clean finish. A terrific value. 2007 Terra d'Oro Santa Barbara County Pinot Grigio ($16) Focused and aromatic with beautiful freesia, lavender and honeydew aromas and crystalline citrus, melon and mineral flavors. Excellent. REDS 2003 Benessere Napa Valley Aglianico ($50) This powerful Southern Italian red variety seems to like Napa Valley. From a 1/2-acre block of the BK Collins vineyard comes this dark, full red with vanilla, licorice, blackberry and blueberry aromas and deep plum and berry flavors finishing with sturdy tannins on the graceful finish. The most Cabernet-like of the great Italian reds. Winery only. 2006 Enotria Mendocino Dolcetto ($17) This wine captures well the many charms of this underappreciated Northern Italian variety from its pretty violet aromas to its bright blackberry and cherry fruit, racy acidity and gritty tannins that soften with age. 2004 Enotria Mendocino Barbera ($17) Beautiful blueberry and blackberry pie aromas, vanilla, fruity middle, very approachable with a nice spank of acidity and tarry tannin on the finish. Lovely. 2005 L'Uvaggio di Giacomo Lodi Barbera ($18) Very young, with tight blueberry, blackberry and cranberry aromas. Dark, very ripe blackberry fruit in the middle and a tight finish, but should develop some jammier flavors and soften soon. 2002 L'Uvaggio di Giacomo Il Leopardo Central Coast Nebbiolo ($36) Another solid showing. Elegant, perfumed, textbook Nebbiolo from Stolpman Vineyards in Santa Barbara County with complex plum, cherry, cinnamon, licorice and tar flavors. 2003 Martin & Weyrich Reserve Il Vecchio Paso Robles Nebbiolo ($22) A seamless, beautifully matured red from the frustrating variety of Barolo and Barbaresco with amber-rimmed brick red color, dried rose, lavender, sweet oak, licorice and mushroom aromas, pretty, expressive, tangy cherry and raspberry fruit kissed with toast and a velvety finish. Superb. 2006 MonteVina Amador County Barbera ($12) A fruity red that's at once bright and deep with juicy cherry, raspberry, rose, toast and tar aromas, a round mouthfeel and bright cherry fruit on the finish. Perfect for a picnic or pizza. 2005 Monte Volpe Mendocino Sangiovese ($17) Delicious, fruit-driven California Sangiovese with youthful violet aromas, fresh blueberry and cherry pie flavors trailing into a moderately astringent finish typical of the grape. Washington and Oregon Wash-Ital and Or-Ital might not have the same ring as Cal-Ital, but the Golden State isn't the only place where growers and vintners have been honing their skills with Italian varieties. Benchmark producer Ponzi makes a very nice white from Arneis, which is native to Piedmont. Earl and Hilda Jones of southern Oregon's Abacela Vineyards grow a daunting pastiche of Italian grapes, including the varieties Dolcetto, Sangiovese and Freisa. A number of Washington state wineries are making first-rate wines from Italian varieties, especially Sangiovese. Star Walla Walla producer Leonetti makes a small batch of it each year. Like its other wines, the Sangiovese is excellent and at around $70 a bottle, pricey. Stella Fino, also of Walla Walla, and Cavatappi are two Washington wineries that focus on Italian varieties with great success. Stella Fino sources its Sangiovese ($25) from the excellent Pepper Bridge vineyard in Walla Walla, and Cavatappi's superb Maddalena Nebbiolo ($25) comes from Washington's historic Red Willow vineyard, where many varieties were first planted in Washington. Others to look for include Andrew Will's Ciel du Cheval Vineyard Sangiovese ($30) and Maryhill's Brunello-like Reserve Sangiovese ($32). Some Italians are still wary of growing Italian grapes in the New World. After abandoning his Sangiovese dreams in Napa Valley, Tuscan producer Piero Antinori partnered with Chateau Ste. Michelle on Washington's Red Mountain in an estate dubbed Col Solare, which makes one red wine, a Bordeaux blend, without a drop of Sangiovese. Tim Teichgraeber is a San Francisco writer. E-mail him at wine(a)sfchronicle.com. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/01/WIMT11K9VO.DTL This article appeared on page F - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle -- ------------------------------ * Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu * * University of Minnesota, mobile : 651/645-0753 * * Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *

17 years, 3 months

[wine] Babera at Arezzo???

by Jim L. Ellingson

Here's what I know. Lori and Dave would like to do Barbera at Arezzo. No idea on others or who's making the reservation. It's been a long time since we were there. Recall we pay $6/head in lieu of corkage at Arezzo. Lori Dave T Russ/Sue Betsy Bob Jim Cheers, Jim ----- Forwarded message from "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu> ----- Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2007 08:09:35 -0500 From: "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu> To: wine(a)thebarn.com Subject: [wine] Other Italian at Arezzo Jim-We decided on Arrezzo for Thurs. The wine is not Piedmont and not Tuscany. Everything else goes. The players are Bob, Betsy, Ruth and Lori. Bob will call today for a reservation. We don't have a back up plan. Lori ----- End forwarded message ----- Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2007 11:35:43 -0500 From: "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu> To: wine(a)thebarn.com Subject: [wine] Barbera at Arezzo Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2006 12:52:29 -0500 From: "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu> To: wine(a)thebarn.com Greetings, The group is going to Arezzo, 6:30 on Thursday. Vin du jour is Other Italian i.e. not from Tuscany, not from Piedmont. > on 6/12/06 5:46 PM, Jim L. Ellingson at jellings(a)me.umn.edu wrote: > > > Greetings, > > Bob will make the reservation for 8. Can adjust up or down as needed. > > > > Bob has negotiated a $5 per person charge in > > leu of corkage. Menu is on line. Wine list is not on line.... > > > > Prices are reasonable, w/ $10-12 pizza and most entrees (Primi) under $20. > > > >> Who Bob Betsy Ruth Lori Jim Russ Dave T Bill S Karin/Nicolai? > > Arezzo Ristorante > > 612 285-7444 > > 5057 France Ave S, Minneapolis, 55410 > > www.arezzo-ristorante.com A sampling of great Italian dessert wines Leslie Brenner * Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu * * University of Minnesota, mobile : 651/645-0753 * * Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *

17 years, 3 months

[wine] Fictitious restaurant wins Wine Spectator Award of Excellence

by Russell McCandless

Please click on: http://www.drvino.com/2008/08/19/fictitious-restaurant-wins-wine-spectator-a ward-of-excellence/

17 years, 3 months

[wine] Slate Article: How Bureaucrats Are Wrecking French Wine

by Warren＠warrenswineworld.com

Warren Gregory has sent you an article from Slate Magazine <http://www.slate.com> . this article appeared in Slate and is a good summation of what's broken in the French AOC system. discuss amongst yourselves Warren <http://letters.slate.com/W0RH020B9669EDE063B3630DEEC1A0> drink <http://letters.slate.com/W0RH0208EC89FCFB9593E30D20DEA0> How Bureaucrats Are Wrecking French Wine It's time to throw out the rule book. By Mike Steinberger Posted Friday, Aug. 22, 2008, at 6:13 PM ET Jean-Paul Brun, one of the leading winemakers in the Beaujolais region of France, is just weeks away from picking this year's grapes, but he is also dealing with a major hangover from last year's harvest: Most of the 2007 version of his signature red, the L'Ancien Vieilles Vignes, has been denied Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée, or AOC, status. The AOC designation is the highest in French winemaking. AOCs are geographic zones within which certain types of premium wines are made. Wines produced in these areas are not automatically entitled to advertise their noble roots; in order to claim the AOC imprimatur, they must, among other things, pass a taste test meant to ensure that they conform to the standards of the appellation—that they exhibit sufficient typicité. Two of the three samples of the '07 L'Ancien that Brun submitted were rejected because they allegedly had off aromas, even though they were the exact same wine as the third, approved sample, and I'm unaware of anyone else who has tried the '07 L'Ancien and found it to be anything but delicious. Brun has thrice appealed the verdict and lost every time, and the result of a fourth and final appeal is expected next month. If the original judgment is upheld again, around 5,200 of the 7,500 cases of the '07 L'Ancien will have to be sold as vin de table. That's the lowest classification in French wine and one that permits neither the vintage nor the appellation name (in this case "Beaujolais") to appear on the label, omissions that could seriously impede sales. It is possible Brun is the victim of an innocent mistake or one aberrant decision. However, this sort of thing keeps happening to talented French winemakers. In recent years, stars like Jean Thevenet, Didier Dagueneau, Eloi Dürrbach, Marcel Lapierre, Thierry and Jean-Marie Puzelat, Marcel Richaud, Georges Descombes, and Philippe Jambon have all had wines turned down for being insufficiently representative of their respective appellations. So they were: They were excellent wines produced in districts that mostly churn out swill. This curious trend comes at a time when much of the French wine industry is in crisis, and the economic gap between good producers and not-so-good ones is becoming a chasm. The taste tastes are conducted by committees made up of appellation insiders, and in any given year, 95 percent to 99 percent of the wines submitted are approved. The evaluations are done blind (that is, the names of the producers are concealed), but in light of all these facts, it doesn't take a conspiracy theorist to wonder what exactly is tripping up vintners like Brun. This much is clear: The system for classifying and administering French wines is broken and in dire need of reform. Controlled appellations were formally introduced in France in 1935. They were, firstly, an effort to map out the boundaries within which various wines, such as Châteauneuf-du-Pape, could be made and to keep these names from being used elsewhere. As such, they were also meant to be a form of consumer protection—an assurance that what was on the label corresponded with what was in the bottle. More broadly, creating appellations was an attempt to codify what centuries of trial and error had established: that wine was chiefly a product of the land, that some vineyards were superior to others, and that matching the right grape to the right site was the route to good wine. The aim, in other words, was to give the concept of terroir the force of law. It is frequently claimed that the AOC imprimatur was never intended to be a guarantee of quality, but that isn't true; according to Hervé Briand, an official with the Paris-based Institut National des Appellations d'Origine, the people who conceived the appellation system did indeed view it as a quality-control mechanism, and only the finest vineyards were supposed to be eligible. As such, appellation status was conferred sparingly in the early years. By 1940, there were only between 100 and 150 appellations (precise figures are hard to come by), and the number grew incrementally over the next several decades. Through the 1950s and '60s, fewer than 20 percent of French vineyards fell within AOCs. But in the 1970s, regulators decided that putting more vineyards (and therefore more wines) under the AOC umbrella was the way to ensure continued French domination of the global wine market. This proved to be a disastrous move, one that has completely diluted the AOC concept. There are now 474 wine appellations, encompassing more than 50 percent of all French vineyards and accounting for 45 percent of France's total wine production. But it isn't just the vastly increased number of appellations that has undermined the overall caliber of AOC wines; it is also the way in which the appellations are governed. The rules vary from appellation to appellation, but they cover just about everything a winemaker does in his vineyard and cellar—from planting density to harvest dates to crop yield. In theory, all these edicts promote quality; in reality, they often serve to undermine it, and that's because of how they are applied and by whom. It is often assumed that the wine industry, like other sectors of the French economy, is micromanaged by bureaucrats in Paris. The INAO does oversee the appellation system, but as wine writer Tyler Colman (a friend of mine) notes in his informative new book, Wine Politics, viticulture is an exception to the norm in France, in that it is mostly administered locally by the winemakers themselves. This arrangement, plainly fraught with conflicts of interest, has had onerous consequences. In some appellations, the boundaries have been extended to include land not fit for making decent wine. Yield limits are now routinely flouted in many appellations, and a number of them also permit mechanized harvesting, which is a surefire way to produce rotgut. Then there are the taste tests, whose results are about as trustworthy as Zimbabwean presidential elections. In a survey released last year by the French consumer group UFC-Que Choisir, wine industry insiders acknowledged that as many as one-third of all AOC wines were undeserving of the distinction. Local control, combined with reckless growth, has been a disaster, and the wine-buying public has taken note. In the past decade or so, the French share of the global wine market has declined sharply. Fine cabernets and chardonnays are being produced around the world nowadays, and while the most celebrated French wines—the Romanée-Contis and the Latours and Lafites—are more popular and expensive than ever, the market for many lesser ones has all but dried up. Alain Bazot, UFC-Que Choisir's president, summed it up well: "For years, there has been a steady fall in the quality of many AOC wines which has completely undermined the confidence of consumers in the system." This, combined with the continued decline of domestic consumption in France (it has plunged 50 percent over the last four decades), has left thousands of winemakers in danger of losing their livelihoods. La crise viticole, as it is known, has hit the two lowest categories, vin de table and vin de pays, hard, but it has also driven many AOC vintners to the brink. But rather than seeking to root out the bad wines and incompetent producers, some appellations seem to be punishing the good ones, and it appears that Brun, who owns an estate called Domaine des Terres Dorées, is the latest target. Brun fashions classic, lip-smacking Beaujolais, the sort that is increasingly difficult to find in an area drowning in cadaverous, insipid wines. The dismal quality of so much of the output in Beaujolais goes a long way to explaining why the region is mired in a slump that, by some estimates, is likely to put 30 percent to 50 percent of its winemakers out of business. In a rational universe, Brun would be considered a local hero and a beacon to his neighbors. Unfortunately, viticultural France is not such a place. Joe Dressner of Louis/Dressner Selections is Brun's U.S. importer and also represents a handful of other winemakers who have run afoul of the wine commissars. Dressner thinks the '07 L'Ancien will find buyers but says it will have to be sold mainly through specialty shops that have the time and desire to explain to clients why it is no ordinary vin de table. Dressner is hopeful that reason and logic will one day reconquer France's vineyards, but he believes that the appellation system, in its current form, is a joke. "I don't care if some guy in Vosne-Romanée [an appellation in Burgundy] makes swill, but I do care if he is making it impossible for winemakers there to do otherwise," Dressner told me by phone from France. "I think they should just let the market decide what's good or not good." I agree. When it comes to the AOC system, I've become militantly libertarian—which is to say, I think the taste tests and most of the regulations ought to be dropped. (If the Cato Institute ever branches out into wine studies, consider this my application.) The AOC designation should serve one purpose: to indicate a wine's place of origin. Beyond that, and apart from a few basic rules guarding against fraud, vintners should be left to decide for themselves how they work, and it should be left to the market to decide whose wines reflect well on an appellation and whose do not. There is a lot of talk about overhauling the AOCs, but it is delusional to believe that the French government is capable of fixing the problem. As one Bordeaux official recently told the Wine Spectator, "Proposing important agricultural reforms yet rarely putting them into practice is a great French tradition." Even if Paris were to come up with a sensible plan—and any sensible plan would necessarily include a sharp reduction in the number of appellations—it would likely run into insurmountable, possibly even violent <http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/26/europe/fuel.php> opposition. The protracted, farcical battle <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/24/world/europe/24bordeaux.html?n=Top/Re ference/Times%20Topics/People/E/Erlanger,%20Steven> over efforts to update the chateaux rankings in Bordeaux's Saint Emilion appellation is indicative of just how deep resistance to change runs. No doubt, the idea of scaling back the significance of the AOC designation would strike many in France as blasphemous. As Tyler Colman pointed out in an e-mail, even the most laissez-faire, freethinking French vintners consider the system sacrosanct. But rigid classifications and bureaucratic red tape are not the source of France's viticultural glory; it is the quality of the land (some of it, anyway) married to a centuries-old winemaking tradition. Moreover, if the logic undergirding the appellation regime—the idea that certain grapes pair better with certain sites than others—is true, why does it need legal enforcement? Hundreds of years of experience have demonstrated that pinot noir flourishes like no other grape in Vosne-Romanée. Is Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, which is located in Vosne-Romanée, suddenly going to rip up its pinot vines and replace them with cabernet sauvignon if no longer prevented from doing so? Pinot noir is what works best in Vosne-Romanée, it is what oenophiles want from Vosne-Romanée, and that is not going to change anytime soon. True, Vosne-Romanée is a successful appellation where the qualitative bar is set high, consumer demand is strong, and producers are generally doing well. The fear is that if the rules are swept away in appellations that aren't so prosperous, part of France's rich viticultural heritage might be swept away in the process. But many of the ailing appellations don't have illustrious pasts, and whether they do or they don't, the AOC mechanism can't sustain vintners and regions that ultimately can't sustain themselves. In too many places, it has become a drag on quality, promoting lowest-common-denominator winemaking at the expense of good winemaking. Fortunately for the competent producers, the market increasingly holds the whip, and thanks to the proliferation of wine criticism and the advent of the Internet, it is becoming ever-more efficient at identifying and rewarding excellence and punishing failure. That's why millions of bottles of insipid French wines now go unsold each year and why (sadly but unavoidably) hundreds of vintners are going bust. But it is also the reason why those 5,200 cases of the '07 L'Ancien won't necessarily be collecting dust in Brun's cellar if his last appeal is rejected. More and more, the market is treating AOC status as simply a geographic indication—a wine's birth certificate. French officialdom should do likewise. Mike Steinberger is Slate's wine columnist. He can be reached at slatewine(a)gmail.com. Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2198405/ Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC

17 years, 3 months

[wine] WA state Syrah

by Jim L. Ellingson

The Chronicle Wine Selections: Washington state Syrah Jon BonnéFriday, August 22, 2008 Some familiar names were missing from this year's lineup, but Washington state again showed its potential. Vintners have been aided by two stable vintages, 2005 and 2006, both of which offered a cool spring and hot, dry summer, relief after 2004's devastating freeze. As always, Washington's potential to balance ripeness and acidity, thanks in part to its cool harvest seasons, was evident. Though Washington state remains on a winery growth spurt - 540 and counting - most of the names we encountered among the 30 wines tasted turned out to be familiar, a sign that quality isn't wavering even among large, established properties. Our 10 recommendations span the range from recognizable supermarket offerings to near-cult efforts, which should be no surprise given the region's abilities with this grape. Rating: TWO AND A HALF STARS 2006 Abeja Walla Walla Valley Syrah ($32) Winemaker John Abbott is better known for his refined Cabernet and Chardonnay, but this Syrah from the Mill Creek Vineyard shows the same restraint and elegance. A sweet oak-driven nose offers spicy smoked bacon, polished blueberry and white flowers. Slightly soft, generous edges mask a solid grip to the finish. Rating: TWO AND A HALF STARS 2006 Cadaretta Columbia Valley Syrah ($32) Rick Middleton's family got its start in logging near the Washington coast in the late 19th century. More recently, they invested in Walla Walla on the other end of the state, hiring the talented Virginie Bourgue, formerly at Bergevin Lane, as winemaker. This promising blend from such noted vineyards as Pepper Bridge and Alder Ridge, offers up terrific aromas of herb tea, charred wood, cured meat and plum. The palate is sweet and tangy, though rougher tannins dominate slightly. Give it air to smooth things out. Rating: TWO AND A HALF STARS 2005 Chateau Ste. Michelle Ethos Columbia Valley Syrah ($28) Ethos is the top tier of wines from Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, Washington's largest winery. The wines are typically made from a blend of the best vineyard sites, in this case a blend of two hot sites: the Wahluke Slope and Ste. Michelle's Cold Creek vineyard. It's deep, leathery, full-bore Syrah, with lots of rich oak and extract, and gobs of brown spice - nutmeg and allspice. But it remains taut on the palate even with loads of dark fruit, still a bit jammy but lifted. Rating: TWO AND A HALF STARS 2006 Columbia Crest Grand Estates Columbia Valley Shiraz ($13) The Columbia Crest label, owned by Ste. Michelle, has made itself into one of the most consistent dollar-for-dollar values on the market. This 30,500-case mainline bottling is made from a mix of appellations - Horse Heaven Hills, Wahluke Slope and Yakima Valley - and offers fine black pepper, blue plum and a touch of classic bacon fat, leading to a rich cherry profile, impressively expansive mouthfeel and salty hints on the finish. Drink now. Rating: TWO STARS 2006 Hogue Columbia Valley Shiraz ($10) This pioneering Columbia Valley winery, now owned by Constellation Brands, still turns out good-value bottlings, and these days is naming them to match the market - note this $10 effort is Shiraz, while the $16 Genesis gets the Syrah moniker. In any case, the Shiraz side of the coin is actually quite lean and peppery, if a touch green, with a fresh palate of tart plum and some amply ripe tannin that adds a bit of depth. Rating: TWO STARS 2006 K Vintners Pheasant Vineyard Wahluke Slope Syrah ($35) This is a new vineyard for K, located outside Mattawa and owned by the Milbrandt family, which helped pioneer the Wahluke area for wine. It's a touch rustic, with a savory cheese-like note, whole peppercorns and overt alcohol on the nose, leading to soft, generous, slightly savory fruit - like a salted bowl of cherries. Rating: THREE STARS 2006 K Vintners Cougar Hills Walla Walla Valley Syrah ($50) Walla Walla's Charles Smith turns out some of Washington's most appealing Syrahs, but it was sad news that 2006 marked his final vintage from this vineyard located near Seven Hills, consistently the site of his best effort. The dense nose offers up layered pepper, fennel seed, burnished cherry and blueberry. That leads to a briny, rich, oak-tinged palate, an impressively broad structure and refined tannins. Completely engaging, and despite the limited production (257 cases), worth the hunt. Rating: TWO STARS 2005 Spring Valley Vineyard Nina Lee Walla Walla Valley Syrah ($50) The Nina Lee Syrah is less well known than the Bordeaux-style wines from this vineyard developed by the Corkrum and Derby families and now controlled by Ste. Michelle. Yet it has often been a standout - powerful, long-lived. That power is still evident in the 2005, but wood notes and tannins dominate. There's still great buoyancy amid sweet cured meat, blackberry and cherry pit notes, but the extract and alcohol (15.6 percent) are a bit over the top. Rating: TWO STARS The Magnificent Wine Company The Originals Columbia Valley Syrah ($20) The label on this negociant effort (which also makes the popular House Wine) conceived by K Vintners' Charles Smith carries the same playful black-and-white look as K's minimalist labels, though the brand is now run by Seattle's Precept Wine Brands. A jammy, slightly sweet profile is matched by punchy Syrah notes of game meat and chamomile amid red-fruit highlights. Tangy, with a savory finish. Rating: TWO AND A HALF STARS 2005 Three Rivers Winery Boushey Vineyards Yakima Valley Syrah ($50) On a Yakima Valley slope, Dick Boushey grows some of Washington's best fruit - always mindful of how vintners use it. Walla Walla's Three Rivers got enough for just 254 cases of wine, but made the most of it. It's a flashier style, with lots of oak (54 percent new) but also white pepper, sweet blueberry and a firm mineral backbone. The tannins are nuanced and refined, and the fruit and aromatics shine through beautifully. Panelists: Jon BonnéChronicle wine editor; Alan Murray, wine director, Masa's. For additional recommended wines, go to sfgate.com/wine. Key: Rating: FOUR STARS Extraordinary Rating: THREE STARS Excellent Rating: TWO STARS Good http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/22/WIKM12BA0G.DTL This article appeared on page F - 6 of the San Francisco Chronicle -- ------------------------------ * Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu * * University of Minnesota, mobile : 651/645-0753 * * Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *

17 years, 3 months

[wine] Sulfites (fwd)

by Jim L. Ellingson

Reconsidering sulfites Progressive vintners weigh the pros and cons of the controversial winemaking tool Wolfgang M. Weber, Special to The Chronicle Friday, August 22, 2008 Winemaker Michael Dashe leans on a 900-gallon cask he use... The Zinfandel grapes that went into L'Enfant Terrible wer... At the crusher: Sulfur dioxide in the form of a diluted l... Barrel cleaning and maintenance: Sulfur dioxide was once ... More... On almost every wine label, a challenging subject is concealed behind an opaque, almost nonchalant warning: "contains sulfites." The term encompasses sulfur dioxide as well as many derivative forms of sulfur. Sulfites are present in all wines both as an additive and as a natural by-product of fermentation, and many countries require that their presence be indicated on the label. Long viewed as a necessary, if unromantic, tool by winemakers, and either ignored or completely misunderstood by consumers, the role of sulfur in wine has become a hot topic. From health issues (see "Debunking myths," Page F4) to sulfur as a winemaking tool at a time when there's a push within the industry for wines made with minimal intervention, sulfur dioxide is in the spotlight like never before. Sulfur dioxide has been used in the production of wine for centuries - primarily as a buffer to keep wine from reacting with too much oxygen, but also to inhibit microbial spoilage (from bacteria or rogue yeasts) that could lead to off flavors and aromas, and as a winemaking technique to partly control fermentation. It's is one of the most useful and powerful tools available to a winemaker. "You have to think of it as something that will keep a wine clean and help its ageability," says Mike Dashe of Dashe Cellars. Contemporary attitudes toward the use of SO{-2} are changing, most notably in Europe, but also increasingly in the United States. Indeed, working with little to almost zero SO{-2} is one of the rallying points of the natural wine movement, a blanket term used to describe wines made according to a philosophy of minimal intervention in the vineyard and cellar. In recent years in both France and Italy, winemakers such as Marcel Lapierre in Morgon and Stanislao Radikon in Friuli have pushed the envelope on SO{-2} use, simultaneously embracing a traditional approach - no additions of sulfur - while at the same time eagerly cultivating the market for such wines in Europe and the United States with a modernist fervor. As with organics and biodynamics before it, wine made without SO{-2} may be the next trend in the current green craze. The interest in such wines has extended to California. Though a few organic vintners have long tried making unsulfured wines with little real success, a handful of more mainstream winemakers have begun experimenting with using as little sulfur as possible. Dashe's daring experiment Dashe, who makes wine out of a cavernous warehouse in Oakland, recently began his own sulfur dioxide experiment in a new Zinfandel he calls L'Enfant Terrible. The genesis of this particular wine came about almost by accident while Dashe was visiting Guinness McFadden's organic farm in Potter Valley (Mendocino County) just before last year's harvest. McFadden grows mostly white grapes (including fruit for Dashe's Riesling), but Dashe noticed a small Zinfandel vineyard on a hillside. "It was a light-colored clone and reasonably cropped," he recalls. After tasting the grapes, which he found to be low in sugar for Zinfandel, he filed the vineyard away in his memory and headed back to Oakland. The next day, Dashe spoke with Mark Ellenbogen, wine director at the Slanted Door in San Francisco. According to Dashe, the two had talked about what kind of California wines might complement the restaurant's food and work with Ellenbogen's Euro- and Riesling-centric list. Ellenbogen said any potential new wine needed to be made from grapes farmed organically or biodynamically, picked early, then processed in a way that avoided high fruit extraction or the heavy flavors of new oak. "We didn't really talk about sulfur, but that's certainly part of it," Ellenbogen says. After their conversation, Dashe called McFadden and bought all 8 tons of Zin. The grapes were harvested relatively early at about 23.5 Brix, a measure of sugar. Organic, check; early picked, check. So far, everything met Ellenbogen's qualifications. At this point, Dashe took the first of two gambles, and decided on native yeast fermentation. Then he took minimal intervention a step further and decided to back off on his sulfur additions. "I added SO{-2} at crushing to keep bacteria down, but that was it," he says. "It was so clean to begin with, so I didn't think the wine needed it." That the wine was "clean" was an important factor in his decision. Dashe felt he could minimize his SO{-2} use because the wine was going into new, clean barrels. The wine's naturally high acidity offered a certain level of protection as well. "L'Enfant Terrible was the first wine that I had ever added SO{-2} once and never again," Dashe said later in an e-mail. The result is an aromatic and fresh wine that clocks in at 13.8 percent alcohol - a relatively low percentage for any California wine, let alone typically high-octane Zinfandel. "The clarity and precision of flavor really expresses the site," says Ellenbogen, who ended up buying a sizable portion of L'Enfant Terrible's total production of 550 cases. The wine is currently featured by the glass at the Slanted Door. "We've already sold about 20 cases," Ellenbogen says. Parr goes low sulfur Styling a wine in the manner of L'Enfant Terrible could be catching on. Rajat Parr, wine director for the Mina Group, has made his own low-sulfur wine called Cuvee Anika. Parr says the idea for Cuvee Anika came from the site-driven, minimally handled expression of Syrah that Thierry Allemand achieves in the Rhone appellation of Cornas. "I wanted to see if we could do something like that here." Parr's first vintage of Cuvee Anika, which he made with Sashi Moorman of Stolpman and Piedrasassi, was in 2006. The wine is all Syrah, sourced from a vineyard near Cambria (San Luis Obispo County), one of the most marginal growing areas along the Central Coast. As a result, Parr says, the wine is high in acid and low in pH, with enough structure and tannin to keep it fresh. "It was fairly hearty wine," he recalls. The numbers seemed to stack up in favor of making a wine with minimal handling or additives. Like Mike Dashe with L'Enfant Terrible, Parr and Moorman added a bit of sulfur when they crushed the grapes, but left it at that. The duo took things further in 2007. One Syrah, made from the biodynamically farmed Purisima Mountain Vineyard in Santa Ynez Valley (Santa Barbara County), was harvested at 23.5 Brix. A small amount of SO{-2} - about 7 grams per ton of grapes - was added at the crusher, and then the grapes were left to undergo a whole-cluster fermentation relying entirely on native yeasts. Another Syrah, which Parr gleefully refers to as his flagship "wine geek wine," was sourced from the Rim Rock vineyard near Nipomo in Arroyo Grande (San Luis Obispo County). With Brix levels of around 21 and a finished alcohol around 12 percent, Parr and Moorman added even less SO{-2} to the wine - 1 or 2 grams per ton. Both wines are fresh expressions of Syrah, with bright, vibrant fruit and mineral character. If anything, the Rim Rock feels more brisk, playing its pure expression off an inherent coolness. Moorman says that although the two sites are completely different - Rim Rock is extremely cool, while Purisima Mountain is warmer but with high amounts of limestone in the soil - they both yield wines with high natural acidity, which eased concerns. Parr is quick to acknowledge the risks involved with making a wine with little to no added SO{-2}: Stability and oxidation become major factors. "The wines can mature much quicker," he points out. It seems, however, that a wine from a well-farmed vineyard handled correctly and attentively is stable enough to take the risk. As Parr sees it, his goal isn't to make a non-sulfured wine, but rather a wine that shows purity and clarity: "Exuberance," Parr says. "The wine just shows more." For Moorman, the greater satisfaction lies somewhere else. "It shows that you can pick grapes at low sugar." A magic combination Decisions to reduce sulfur use are complicated. Sometimes they're made not based on numbers but simply personal conviction and the desire to take a risk. Phillip Hart, who grows grapes at Ambyth Estate in Paso Robles (San Luis Obispo County), combines low sulfur use with such practices as biodynamics and dry farming. Hart cites Frey Vineyards, the Mendocino pioneer of unsulfured wine in California, as one of his main inspirations for making unsulfured wine. "I really like Frey wine, and I love the fact that a lot of people say you can't do it," he says. Hart, who grew up on a sheep farm in Wales, makes a Grenache blend at Ambyth. As an experiment, he used minimal amounts of SO{-2} for most of the wine (regulations by Demeter, the Biodynamic certification agency, allow up to 100 parts per million in SO{-2} additions), but reserved a portion of it to keep sulfur-free. While he is pleased with both wines, the wine made without any sulfur addition tastes "even fresher, more pure." The only problem he reports between the two wines is that after bottling, the wine made without SO{-2} suffered from bottle shock, whereas the wine made with a sulfur addition did not. That problem, however, eventually sorted itself out. As Hart explains it, one of the advantages of making wines without SO{-2} in the modern era is that wineries themselves are cleaner and much more sanitary than in the past. Like Hart at Ambyth, Abe Schoener at the Scholium Project is another California winemaker with a strong desire to challenge his understanding of how wine is made and where additions like SO{-2} fit in to the bigger picture. For the most part, Schoener makes his wines without any added SO{-2}, save for a minuscule amount at bottling. Another technique he employs is to allow evaporation to occur during fermentation, with oxidation stopping on its own. In other words, he views oxygen both as a preservative and a component of his wine. Schoener, though, wouldn't be content to stop there. As if to hold a mirror to himself, he also makes a Verdelho with almost no exposure to oxygen. It's dosed with SO{-2} at the crusher, and then again every time the wine is racked or moved between tanks, in what is often called a reductive winemaking style. In contrast to maverick winemakers of northeastern Italy like Josko Gravner, whose wines also eschew sulfur, Schoener credits the inspiration for this method to the clean, crisp Gruner Veltliners from Austria - where such practices are highly common. "I don't feel dogmatic about SO{-2}," Schoener says. "In fact, I love it - it's so powerful, so predictable. It's a really friendly tool and I know what it's going to do." Perhaps recognizing sulfur's versatility, and risks, is the key to understanding how best to apply it. That goes for both winemakers and the rest of us. How and why sulfites are used in wine 1. At the crusher: Sulfur dioxide in the form of a diluted liquid solution is added to just-harvested grapes at the crusher to protect against oxidation. Much of the sulfur added at this stage is effectively used up during the subsequent fermentation, converting into what is referred to as "bound" form, which has almost no flavor. 2. Barrel cleaning and maintenance: Sulfur dioxide was once the primary agent used to clean barrels and larger wooden vessels like puncheons or upright fermentation tanks; in the 19th century, this was accomplished by burning a sulfur wick, which released SO{-2} gas. Today, while other techniques are used in the cleaning process, winemakers often use a gas form of sulfur dioxide to maintain a sterile environment inside of wooden containers after cleaning. 3. In the winery: Sulfur dioxide is often used when topping up barrels that have lost some volume of wine through evaporation. There is a chance that microbial spoilage can occur at this point, so sulfur dioxide (as a diluted liquid solution) may be added as a preventative measure. Additionally, low levels of sulfur dioxide will protect against oxidation in the barrel. 4. During bottling: The bottling process can be rough on a wine, and there is the chance of overexposure to oxygen. Winemakers will often dose a wine with sulfur dioxide solution just prior to bottling in order to keep it in a reductive state, protected against oxidation. This SO{-2} should dissipate over time, although traces can remain present for longer periods in wines bottled under less breathable enclosures, like screwcaps. Sulfites, sulfides and sulfur: What's in a name? Sulfite: Applied to a class of compounds that includes sulfur dioxide among several derivatives of sulfur. Sulfides: Volatile compounds of sulfur that can occur during fermentation. The smell of hydrogen sulfide closely resembles that of bad eggs and is therefore easily detectable. Sulfur: An element and the parent of several useful compounds in winemaking; in its various forms, it is applied at every stage from the vineyard to the winery. - W.W. Debunking myths There are several widespread myths about sulfur dioxide - and sulfites in general. Here are some explanations that should help you to finally avoid that headache in the morning: Sulfites in red wine cause headaches. While it's true that exposure to high levels of SO{-2} is an unpleasant experience, there's no hard evidence that proves sulfites and SO{-2} cause migraines in red wine drinkers. A phenomenon often called "red wine headache" is a combination of several things, with histamines considered one likely major factor. High levels of alcohol and residual sugar are also far more likely culprits than sulfites. When it comes to the negative effects of sulfites, asthmatics are the most vulnerable and need to closely monitor their intake of sulfites - or avoid them altogether. It's worth noting though, that many foods - dried fruit, for instance - contain higher levels of sulfites than wine. Allergic reactions to sulfites include far more severe symptoms than headaches, like hives and anaphylactic shock. Red wines contain more sulfites than white wines. The higher levels of tannin in red wines mean winemakers use less total SO{-2} in red wines than in whites. Sulfur dioxide is sometimes used to halt fermentation for wines that will be sweet, including many German Rieslings. Dessert wines, because of their high levels of residual sugar, have even greater levels of added sulfur. Organic wines don't contain sulfites. It is impossible to produce a wine without any sulfites, as sulfur dioxide is a naturally occurring by-product of fermentation. Therefore, even wines with zero added SO{-2}, such as natural and organic wines from the United States and Europe, contain small amounts of the compound. - W.W. How does sulfur dioxide work? The exact chemistry is rather complicated, but when sulfur dioxide is added to a wine, particularly at the crusher, it dissolves into two forms, bound and free. Bound SO{-2} is basically locked up with the various chemical compounds that form during fermentation, and has been thought to have little affect on the flavor of the wine, while the free portion is available to react with harmful microbes and guard against the introduction of too much oxygen. Free sulfur dioxide that remains unabsorbed by the wine can create the smells - burnt matchsticks, rotten eggs - that some associate with sulfur. - W.W. Wolfgang Weber is a senior editor and Italian wine critic at Wine & Spirits magazine. E-mail comments to wine(a)sfchronicle.com. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/22/WI83125OCG.DTL -- ------------------------------ * Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu * * University of Minnesota, mobile : 651/645-0753 * * Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *

17 years, 3 months

[wine] CA pinot noir blog

by Russell McCandless

Dear friends, Those with an interest in California pinot may enjoy checking out this blog recently launched by several CA pinot producers = www.pinotharvest.com = Look forward to seeing you in the reasonably near future - Cheers, Russ

17 years, 3 months

[wine] Old School Cab (NYT)

by Jim L. Ellingson

Greetings, I'm not aware of anything scheduled for this week. Suggestions for next week. Barbera at Arezzo ($6/head fee). I'd like to do "Old School Cal Cabs" some time. I'll suggest we go to Erte ($30/table fee, still the best deal in town.) or grill steaks somewhere. We've not been to the Strip Club. We should go back to Barley Johns while the patio is open - could work for cabs. Fresh Taste Fest was excellent. Wonderful food and wine. Big thanks to Mike Dombrow and Tournament Liquors. Cheers, Jim August 20, 2008 The Pour In Napa, Some Wineries Choose the Old Route By ERIC ASIMOV RUTHERFORD, Calif. AFTER a tour of his vineyard here in the heart of Napa Valley, and an eye-opening tasting of his Napa and Rutherford cabernet sauvignons, I sat down to lunch with John Williams, the proprietor of Frog.s Leap. Perhaps he had been inspired, too, because in a fit of possibly foolhardy exhilaration he opened a bottle of rare wine. It was a Napa icon, a 1959 Inglenook cabernet sauvignon, made by John Daniel Jr., one of the pioneers of California.s modern wine industry. The wine, graceful yet assertive with elegant floral, mineral and herbal touches, was sublime, easily one of the best older Napa cabernets I.ve ever had. .I want to make wine this good,. Mr. Williams sighed. He.s on the right track. The prevailing style of Napa cabernet today emphasizes power, weight and extravagance, but Frog.s Leap is one of a small but significant number of cabernet producers that form a kind of alternate Napa universe. They are making wines of balance and restraint that are a direct link to Napa.s past, when wines like the Inglenook forged the region.s reputation as a source of great cabernet sauvignon wines. The Frog.s Leap wines are subtle and nuanced. Like the Inglenook they.re easy to drink with a meal and rewarding, especially for one who has despaired of finding Napa cabernets that are table wines, not jammy fruit bombs that overwhelm food. You don.t hear much about these sorts of wines today. Critics and consumer publications largely ignore them while reserving their highest scores for the sweet and plush set. That.s why, on a recent trip to Napa, I was so happy to find producers who are still making the kinds of wines I crave. Some, like Mayacamas Vineyards, were once acclaimed but are now disparaged as Old School or past their prime. Which is almost laughable, especially with a glass in hand of the brilliant 2001, a wine redolent of violets and minerals, intense yet graceful. Other producers in this undersung category include Cathy Corison, who makes Rutherford cabernets wonderfully aromatic of flowers and lavender, Smith-Madrone on Spring Mountain, which makes lovely, structured cabernets, and Dyer on Diamond Mountain, which strives for balance above all. These wines are often derided by critics as rustic or green. That.s a damning term in today.s Napa that refers not only to the vegetal quality that comes from underripe fruit but also to any herbal aromas and flavors, which to my mind are integral to cabernet sauvignon. .I want freshness and vivacity,. said John Clews, vice president of vineyard and winery operations at Clos du Val, which for 35 years has been making balanced cabernets that go well with food. .I also like slightly herbal characteristics, and when that is replaced by jamminess, I miss that.. John Kongsgaard, a great chardonnay producer who made his first Kongsgaard cabernet sauvignon in 2005, said those herbal qualities are essential. .I think green is part of the varietal signature,. Mr. Kongsgaard said as we sat on a bench near the entrance to his winery on Atlas Peak in eastern Napa. .People should know that cabernet comes from a plant.. Mr. Kongsgaard used grapes from his own vineyard in the hills east of Napa and from Madrona Ranch, owned by David Abreu, the noted viticulturist, west of St. Helena. Both the 2005 and the 2006 are wonderful, dry and elegant with beautiful aromas of flowers, graphite and herbs. One stellar producer in this alternate universe has received its share of attention. Dominus Estate is owned by Christian Moueix, a director of Châau Péus, in the acclaimed Pomerol estate. But that hasn.t helped its ratings from Wine Spectator, one of the most powerful voices in shaping consumer tastes. .Smooth and harmonious, if on a modest scale,. its California critic, James Laube, wrote of the Dominus 2004, awarding it a ho-hum score of 87. And of the 2001, to which he gave an 81, Mr. Laube wrote, .disappointingly dry and austere.. Personally, I would enjoy a lot more Napa cabernets if they were dry, austere and harmonious. The Dominus 2005 is dry and elegant, and the 2006 is even better, complex, structured and, yes, deliciously austere. Unlike Mr. Williams of Frog.s Leap, the vast majority of Napa Valley cabernet producers harbor ambitions of making killer 100-point powerhouses. Most are not connected with the history of their region, making wines that bear no resemblance to either the .59 Inglenook or to almost any other cabernet that was made in California before the mid-1990.s. Many producers of the big, modern style assert that up-to-date vineyard practices, improved grape clones and vastly more sophisticated winemaking techniques dictate the style of their wines. They point to current notions of physiological ripeness, that is, judging the ripeness of a grape not merely by its sugar content but by when the tannins and seeds are no longer green. Sometimes achieving the desired level of seed and tannin ripeness requires far more .hang time. on the vine, resulting in much sweeter grapes than in decades past. Years ago, cabernet grapes might be harvested at 23 or 24 on the Brix scale of sweetness. Nowadays, producers of ultra-ripe cabernets routinely harvest grapes at 28, 29 or even 30 Brix. But to get more restrained cabernets, producers find ways to insure full ripeness at a much lower sugar level. Many strictly limit irrigation. In fact, Frog.s Leap, Dominus, Mayacamas and Smith-Madrone are fervent proponents of dry farming, with no irrigation, just as most Napa vineyards were farmed before the 1970s. They also harvest earlier for fresher, livelier flavors. Yet, regardless of questions of ripeness and California sunshine what it really comes down to is philosophy and taste. If you want to create a restrained, elegant Napa cabernet that emphasizes flowers, red fruits and a touch of the herbal, instead of a rich, plush cabernet of high alcohol and oaky sweetness, you can. That is, as long as you have a great vineyard. .It.s got to be great dirt in a great place,. said Cathy Corison, whose Kronos Vineyard, eight acres of gnarled 36-year-old cabernet vines, occupies a prime patch of Rutherford land. .I consider it a failure if I have to wait until it.s over 25 Brix to get the flavors in alignment.. Despite the lack of attention, most of these producers have found like-minded customers. .There seems to be enough people who like what I like, and that means wines with acidity, wines that age well, and wines that need a little time,. said Bob Travers, who, with his wife, Elinor, purchased Mayacamas in 1968. Mr. Travers is lean and a bit weathered, like his magnificent mountain vineyards, some of which are showing their age and will soon need to be replanted. Mayacamas is a working estate, not a showpiece of neat, meticulous rows of vines or of sleek, moneyed winemaking. Some of his old casks were purchased by Jack Taylor, the man Mr. Travers calls .my predecessor.. Mr. Travers, who trained with Joe Heitz of Heitz Wine Cellars before his first vintage, is more comfortable thinking of himself as a custodian of the land, showing his aversion to godlike control in winemaking. .In 40 years I haven.t really changed,. he said. .Joe Heitz was a great believer in hands-off dry farming and winemaking and so am I.. Mr. Heitz, who died in 2001, was an important link in the historical chain of Napa cabernet. Heitz.s Martha.s Vineyard cabernets, with their distinctive eucalyptus aromas, were among the most acclaimed Napa cabernets in the 70s and 80s. As with Mayacamas, you don.t hear much about Heitz anymore, but a 2001 Heitz Trailside Vineyard that I had recently was a marvelous example of classic Napa cabernet. Dominus, though owned by a Bordeaux legend, can make an equal claim to Napa history. Its vineyard, in the foothills on the western side of Yountville, was first planted in 1836 by the town.s namesake, George Yount. John Daniel Jr. acquired it in 1946 after he took over the Inglenook Winery, and at least some of the Inglenook .59 came from this vineyard. Daniel.s two daughters, Robin Lail and Marcia Smith, were originally partners with Mr. Moueix in Dominus, though he eventually bought them out. As Mr. Moueix and I walked through this historic vineyard, he reflected on his California ties. Dominus has often been criticized as tough, tannic and overly Bordeaux-like, but like so many in Napa Valley Mr. Moueix studied enology and viticulture at the University of California, Davis. Among his heroes are Robert Mondavi; Maynard Amerine, a renowned Davis professor who died in 1998; and especially Andréchelistcheff, another pioneer of the Napa wine industry. .He said to me, .You will be successful on one condition: move slowly,. . Mr. Moueix recalled. Indeed, Dominus wines age well . the 1991 is about perfect now, unlike some acclaimed modern Napa cabernets that fall apart at 10 years. Yet, while Dominus is not cheap . the 2004 was released at $115 . at least 65 other Napa cabernets were released at higher prices. Perhaps a greater claim to Napa history can be made by Rubicon Estate, now owned by the director Francis Ford Coppola. The estate, nestled near Pritchett Hill and Mount St. John in Rutherford, was started in 1880 by the founder of Inglenook, Gustave Niebaum, Daniel.s great-uncle. Rubicon.s Cask cabernet is a tribute to Daniel, made, like the Inglenooks, with 100 percent cabernet and aged in American oak. It strikes something of a stylistic middle-ground, with a touch of vanilla from the oak, yet dry and earthy. It will not need as much aging as the top-of-the-line Rubicon cabernet, a more structured wine with pronounced mineral and floral flavors. New wines in a restrained style are bearing some historic Napa names. J. Davies, made by Schramsburg Vineyards in honor of its founder, Jack Davies, is a balanced and delicious wine of great minerality. And the two sons of Robert Mondavi, Michael and Tim, each began to produce cabernets in the 2005 vintage. Continuum, from Tim Mondavi, is a polished, dry medium-weight cabernet, while M by Michael Mondavi is intense and floral. .I.m confident that the pendulum is coming back to more elegant wines that are complementary and balanced,. Michael said. But these sorts of wines remain a minority and far from a vogue. Still, 10 years ago California chardonnay was also characterized by ponderous extravagance. Then a great thing happened. Enough people sought out more subtle and refreshing wines that California chardonnay producers began to pull back. Today you can still find bombastic chardonnays, but it.s just as easy to find tense, tightly coiled versions. What goes around occasionally comes around. John Williams of Frog.s Leap, for one, disputes the notion that his classic cabernets are in any way old fashioned. .We think we.re more relevant today than we were 28 years ago,. he said. .Many of the things we do, we think we.re on the cutting edge.. Producers Worth Checking Out Following are some producers of balanced, restrained Napa cabernets: Chateau Montelena Clark-Claudon Vineyards Clos du Val Continuum Corison Winery Dominus Estate Dyer Forman Vineyard Frog.s Leap Grgich Hills HdV Vineyards Heitz Cellar J. Davies Joseph Carr Kongsgaard Mayacamas Vineyards M by Michael Mondavi Rubicon Estate Seps Estate Smith-Madrone Spottswoode Estate Tom Eddy Wines Trefethen Family Vineyards Truchard Vineyards White Rock Vineyards -- ------------------------------ * Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu * * University of Minnesota, mobile : 651/645-0753 * * Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *

17 years, 3 months

[wine] De Class Say

by Jim L. Ellingson

August 17, 2008 Classified Matters By EDWARD LEWINE BELLS PEALED, echoing through the ancient limestone village and out over the sea of grapevines that surrounded it. With thousands of spectators, I watched as men and women draped in scarlet robes processed up St. Éilion.s main street. They were members of the Jurade, the local winemakers. guild, whose main function seems to be to promote St. Éilion.s expensive wines with the occasional burst of pseudomedieval pomp. But there was little the Jurade could do on that sunlit September morning to dispel the legal cloud that hung over this winemaking region in Bordeaux. By coincidence, one of the people responsible for hanging that cloud turned up next to me in the street. A slender middle-aged man in a double-breasted blue blazer, he waved at the Jurade members as they passed, his sad eyes seeking their attention. Some of the scarlet-robed grandees ignored him. Others smiled weakly and turned away. Things have not been easy for Guy-Petrus Lignac since February 2007, when he and eight other vineyard owners filed an infamous lawsuit that rattled the global market for Bordeaux wine and set the normally peaceful village of St. Éilion at war with itself. .He.s a good friend of mine,. said the St. Éilion winemaker Laurence Brun, when I interviewed her last year, .but it is impossible to deal with him now. He is fighting with everyone.. Lignac has deep roots in Bordeaux. As his middle name . Petrus . suggests, his family once owned several local vineyards, including Châau Péus, whose wines can retail for $2,000 a bottle. These days, however, all that remains of what might have been Lignac.s inheritance is Châau Guadet, 13.6 acres of vines just outside the village boundary of St. Éilion. Guadet is no Péus, but for the past half-century it possessed the distinction of being in the classification of St. Éilion. A classification is a kind of order of nobility for vineyards: a ranking of the top properties in a given area (or of those that produce a certain type of wine) according to historic prestige and price. So it came as a sickening shock when, in the spring of 2006, the government commission charged with updating the St. Éilion classification tossed Guadet out of the ranking, citing poor scores on a taste test. .Being declassified was very, very difficult,. Lignac says. .My mother told me if my father were still alive he would take a gun and shoot himself.. Lignac and five other winemakers who were demoted at the same time sued. Their goal was to be reinstated in the classification. Instead, they set off a series of court cases that ended last month when the local court in Bordeaux declared the 2006 St. Éilion classification invalid and canceled it. Since then, the French government has stepped in with an emergency law that reinstates the 1996 classification for a few more years. After that, the future is uncertain. .The court.s decision came as something of a bombshell,. admits Jeffrey Davies, an American who is a high-level wine exporter based in Bordeaux. .Chateaus are confused about what they should put on their labels now, and it.s hard to know what the best way forward is for St. Éilion.. THREE DAYS BEFORE the Jurade.s parade, I joined Lignac on his morning walk through his vineyard. The vines, bright green and jaunty, marched in rows up the hillside, but September is always an anxious month, since winemakers must choose the perfect time to pick. Harvest too soon, and you lose the final days of sun that impart fullness and complexity to the grapes. Wait too long, and the same sun will bake the life out of your fruit. Lignac bent down and snapped a single merlot grape from a tight, purple-black cluster hanging low off the vine and popped it into his mouth. It was sun-warm and sweet, and the seeds imparted the pleasant mouth pucker produced by what wine buffs call tannin. .We are fighting the rain all this year,. Lignac said, referring to the soggy summer of 2007. .But we have sun in September, and I think it will be right to harvest in six or eight days.. Satisfied that all was well, Lignac walked back up the hill, past the traffic circle at the edge of St. Éilion, to the stone town house on the village.s main street where he was raised. The house has an austere beauty. Centuries old in places, it has been allowed to decay in a way that suggests old-fashioned good taste. Lignac, who is 59, is better preserved. Compact, with a full head of graying hair, he is an energetic, cerebral man of deep emotions that he plainly struggles to contain. Unlocking the heavy wooden door of his house, Lignac made his way through the cool, narrow building to the backyard. There, not 50 feet from the street, was the equipment for sorting grapes, fermenting juice and aging it in barrels. This modest setup produces around 25,000 bottles of wine a year. Lignac wouldn.t open his books, but he did say the vineyard nets just enough to support one nuclear family. That is common in St. Éilion, where the average vineyard is about 17 acres, and it is why Lignac heirs have always sought their fortunes elsewhere before returning to the vineyard in middle age. Lignac himself took over in 2000, when he was 51. .Year after year, my father would say to me, .Next year the vineyard is for you,. . he recalled. .So I worked for a pharmaceutical company and waited, but my head was always with the vines, thinking of what I would do.. Lignac is proud of his vineyard, his lineage, his wife, Catherine, and the four grown children they raised. But these days his pride is marred by anxiety. He seems haunted by conspiracy theories, all of which swirl back somehow to the demotion of Guadet from the classification. Lignac suspects fellow winemakers of cheating at competitive tastings by doctoring their wines. He also sees bias in the fact that a friend of one of the administrators he sued over the estate of the great-aunt who owned Châau Péus sat on the commission that judged wines for the classification. .He should have recused himself,. Lignac told me. THE CONTROVERSY over the St. Éilion classification is a classic village squabble, but it is a village squabble with global implications. It is a fight over who has the authority to declare quality in the wine world, a clash between 19th-century agrarian tradition and 21st-century administrative law and a sign of the growing rift between the handful of superelite vineyards in Bordeaux and the less prestigious vineyards just beneath them. It may also signal the demise of Bordeaux.s 150-year-old tradition of classification. St. Éilion is but one of more than 50 different wine growing areas, or appellations, in Bordeaux, a region in southwest France that is home to more of the world.s established high-end vineyards than anywhere else on earth. Until all the trouble started last year, Bordeaux had five classifications. The oldest and best known is the Classification of 1855, which ranks sweet white wines as well as the top 61 vineyards in the Méc and Graves areas, commonly known as the Left Bank, into five categories, from .First Growth. to .Fifth Growth,. and contains in its first rank such famed vineyards as Châau Lafite Rothschild and Châau Haut-Brion. It is no insult to Lignac.s vineyard to say it lacks the kind of international reputation enjoyed by the very top Bordeaux vineyards. In the United States, Guadet retails between $25 and $40 a bottle, far below the hundreds or even thousands fetched by elite Bordeaux wines. Most distinguished small properties in St. Éilion, an important area on the Right Bank, fall into this category. They are rarely reviewed by the important critics. They don.t come up at the big wine auctions. The winemakers aren.t personalities; they are artisans, producing an agricultural product whose biggest selling point is where it comes from rather than a brand name recognized by much of the wine-buying public. While Lignac.s wine might not have had a global reputation, it did have an internationally understood credential. Its membership in the St. Éilion classsification was signaled on the label by the words .Grand Cru Classé Seated at the small metal table underneath the squat palm tree in his garden, Lignac told me that he applied for the 2006 classification with confidence, assuming that tradition and the numerous improvements he had instituted in his vineyard would win the day. (Unlike some of the other Bordeaux classifications, whose rankings never change, St. Éilion.s version resets every decade. A government commission accepts written applications and bottle samples from vineyards and puts together a new ranking for the next 10 years.) .I had no idea anything would go wrong,. Lignac said. .My parents, other people in St. Éilion, said this wine has always had the classification. There is no problem.. But in 2006 the telephone rang in Lignac.s cluttered office on the ground floor of his town house. A French journalist was calling to ask how Lignac felt about having his wine stripped of its ranking. A few days later the letter arrived from the government. Roughly translated, it read, .A great number of the vintages tasted were judged to be insufficient by the members of the commission.. A total of 11 chateaus were demoted, Lignac.s among them. .I was amazed,. Lignac said, putting his hands to his forehead, .and I was very, very upset. I had done all of this work. We had many years of history, and it was for nothing.. This winter, while he was waiting for the Bordeaux court to render its judgment, Lignac told me that he would be content to see the entire classification canceled, if that would lead to the creation of a fairer version. This attitude was not shared by many of Lignac.s colleagues. Again and again, people in the Bordeaux wine business told me that losing the classification, even for a year or two, would be a blow. Without it, no one would know what to print on their labels, and some vineyards wondered how they would price their wines. It was said around Bordeaux that Lignac and his allies had no right to sue. They didn.t have to be in the classification, the argument went. They had applied for the privilege. So why should they complain about the results now? Anyway, their wines weren.t up to par. .The case was brought by four properties who produce rubbish,. the noted St. Éilion winemaker Nicolas Thienpont was quoted as saying in Wine Enthusiast magazine last year. .Whatever the tribunal decides, they will still produce rubbish.. Lignac professed to take this criticism in stride. .If we decide to sue him, no problem,. Lignac said of Thienpont. .We would be awarded money. But I decide, .No I won.t pour gasoline on the fire.. . LAST MONTH, after the court canceled the 2006 St. Éilion classification, the French government reinstated the one from a decade earlier, which will be valid until 2009. In theory, this will give St. Éilion time to write a new one; whether that.s possible remains an open question. There are those, especially on our democratically minded side of the Atlantic, who would be glad to see the end of the classifications. They regard them as a bit of Gallic fustiness designed to wow the impressionable and help France.s patrician farmers avoid competition with less-ennobled vineyards at home and abroad. In .Bordeaux: A Consumer.s Guide to the World.s Finest Wine,. Robert Parker includes a section mockingly titled .Who.s on First. that argues the Classification of 1855 is now largely of historic value. It is true that much has changed since 1855. Bordeaux and Burgundy are no longer the only sources for elite wines. New World wines and wines from upstart vineyards across Europe also attract attention and fetch big prices. Vast new markets have emerged in Asia and the former Soviet Union; the growing power of critics and the Internet allow obscure vineyards to rocket to fame in scant months. Yet, as Parker himself admits, the 1855 classification continues to assert a strong influence. There have been informal classifications in Bordeaux since at least the 18th century, and the prestige they confer is recognized worldwide. .I.ve had winemakers tell me they long for the kind of advantage the classifications give Bordeaux,. David Milligan, the noted U.S. importer says. .The classifications lend a legitimacy no one else can match.. As Lignac can testify, the consequences of losing classified status can be swift and harsh. After the wine was declassified, one local wholesaler who distributes Châau Guadet refused to take Lignac.s calls. Most declassified vineyard owners find that their vital distribution lines have dried up, and the market will take their wines only at a discount of 30 to 50 percent. With his revenue dropping, the owner of a demoted vineyard must decide whether to accept his new lowly status . and thereby sink into greater anonymity and lowering prices . or gamble big money on a 10-year program of upgrades that may or may not get him back into the classification. It is a gamble complicated by the problem of land value. The day a vineyard is declassified, its worth as real estate plunges. For many vineyard owners, this is the real tragedy of declassification. Yearly profits from winemaking are not high in Bordeaux; 3 percent is considered good. But the value of vineyard land has skyrocketed over the past 30 years. A winemaker stuck with a declassified vineyard that he can.t afford to whip into shape . or with a vineyard co-owned by nervous family members who want out . may be forced to sell for a fraction of the land.s potential price. Shortly after being declassified, Lignac was contacted by bottom feeders, hoping to acquire his land at a big discount. .I have received three offers,. he sniffed. .They know the earth is good.. In France, as in much of Europe, wine is thought of more in terms of soil than in terms of grape type, say, chardonnay or pinot noir. Tied up in this is the idea of terroir, the notion that topography, soil and climate can make two wines taste different, even if those wines were made from the exact same grape and grown within a football field of each other. There are those who doubt the concept of terroir, but it is held in wide esteem; the classifications are an implicit endorsement of a vineyard.s terroir. Alexis Weill, a banker specializing in high-end vineyard sales and acquisitions for the Rothschild Group in Paris, told me that a classified St. Éilion acre is worth between $800,000 and $1.2 million in today.s market. If the land were declassified, it would be worth a third as much. Many people in the wine business seem conflicted about the classifications. Clearly, they mean something: they affect the price of land and wine, and people are eager to spend time and money for the status they confer. On the other hand, almost everyone plays down their importance. It seems there is no constituency in the wine world willing to admit the classifications. power, perhaps because they would prefer to reserve that power for themselves. Critics and sommeliers typically argue that their taste buds are more reliable than any classification. Vineyard owners and wine retailers and wholesalers will argue for the primacy of the market. .The market is logical,. one Bordeaux wine trader told me. .A good wine will find its price over time with or without classification.. Still, the classifications have always been part of the conversation. The first, the Classification of 1855, was prompted by an international trade fair in Paris. In order to mount an exhibition of Bordeaux wines, the region.s wine brokers drew up a list of the best Méc and Graves vineyards, based on price records and informal rankings dating back centuries. Since then . apart from the addition of a Fifth Growth vineyard in 1856 and the promotion of Châau Mouton Rothschild from Second Growth to First in 1973 . the 1855 classification hasn.t changed, but it has grown in importance. In the 19th century, there were classified vineyards that didn.t even bother to mention their status on their labels. It wasn.t until the 20th century that the 1855 classification.s impact grew. This was especially true after World War II, when the small, English-dominated market for fine wine first went global and new buyers, many American, looked for a way to determine quality. At that time, 50 years ago, St. Éilion was a relative backwater. The wines that attracted all the money and attention were made in the Méc, where the 1855 classification reigned. St. Éilion.s village elders hoped a classification of their own would draw attention to their wines. St. Éilion based its initial 1955 ranking on several criteria, including terroir and the market value of the wines, relying on such sources as the wholesale prices the Germans negotiated with Vichy France during World War II. .We used the prices the Germans paid,. says a 90-year-old local winemaker, Thierry Manoncourt. .Those were the best records we had.. There have been five St. Éilion classifications since 1955; each has produced controversies among vineyard owners. But this has not deterred St. Éilion.s leaders from making the classification ever more rigorous. There were 84 vineyards classified in 1969. In 2006 that number was brought down to 61. .We want a classification that is serious,. says Hubert de Bouard, proprietor of a classified and critically acclaimed vineyard, Châau Angelus, and the local representative of the French government.s wine regulatory body. .It is done for the protection of consumers.. And, as de Bouard and others argue, it has worked. By updating their classification every 10 years, St. Éilion.s elders hoped to encourage competition while maintaining a recognizable St. Éilion style. And, indeed, St. Éilion has become one of Bordeaux.s hottest regions today, with wines blended with cabernet franc and merlot, among others, that, most expert tasters agree, retain a distinct local flavor. But for those who dislike the idea of classification, the opposite is true. In their eyes, St. Éilion has grown in stature thanks to the so-called .garage wines.. These are made by tiny wineries that have popped up in the past 30 years, which produce small quantities of wine, using the latest winemaking techniques. While Bordeaux is known for making perfumed, restrained, food-friendly wines that are reasonably alcoholic and capable of long aging, garage wines are known for being intense, higher in alcohol, ready to drink and, for some palates, too brash for pairing with most foods. (In recent years, there has been talk that the fad for garage wines is coming to an end. But some of these rich, opulent wines continue to do well on the market, particularly because critics, notably Robert Parker, often reward them with high scores.) Since garage wines operate outside the classification system and can sell for prices that exceed all but the very top classified wines, they are cited as proof that classification is a dated idea. .Now people buy wines according to many reasons,. Stephan von Neipperg, a German count who makes various renowned St. Éilion wines, including two classified wines and a garage wine, told me. .Who needs the classification?. Well, some answer, St. Éilion.s numerous small, traditional vineyards do. The few dozen superelite Bordeaux wines that sell for hundreds or thousands a bottle (classified historic vineyards and top garage wines alike) have benefited from globalization. Luxury goods of limited supply, they are now in greater demand than ever. But globalization has been rather unsettling for the wines just beneath this exalted category, a group that would include most of the Grand Cru Classéines of St. Éilion. How can 17-acre, family-owned vineyards, making a more traditional style of wine, compete in a global marketplace? Such vineyards have been snapped up by international beverage companies and some winemakers have discarded traditional styles in search of high ratings from critics. Vineyards in North and South America, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa benefit from reliable weather, lower production costs and less interference from government regulations. Year in and year out, they can turn out drinkable wine at lower cost. In France, by contrast, the weather is more fickle, and every aspect of wine production is subject to regulation, down to whether a winemaker can irrigate a field or introduce a new grape variety into the blend of a certain wine. .If the classification vanished, the problem will be for the less-known chateaus,. says Laurence Brun, the St. Éilion winemaker. .They are little; they are not structured to be a brand; they need the protection of classification.. De Bouard agrees: .The classification is the chance for a small vineyard to show what it can do. Maybe it doesn.t get a good score from Robert Parker, but it is classified, and maybe people will taste it and buy it.. Lignac.s critics say he produces wine that just isn.t good enough to compete in the global marketplace without the crutch of classification. Lignac argues the classification is a bulwark that allows him to compete in a marketplace that might otherwise be indifferent to his wine.s considerable charms. .I don.t like the wines that taste like they could have been made anywhere,. Lignac says. .I want to make a St. Éilion wine.. EVEN THOSE WHO would like to see French winemaking relax its traditions would concede the courtroom is not the ideal place to effect that change. When the lawyers for the demoted vineyards sued to have the 2006 classification annulled, they focused on procedural and legal arguments that had little to do with the relative qualities of their clients. wines. They argued that the commission was composed of people with conflicts of interest and others who weren.t qualified to judge St. Éilion wine. They pointed out that the commission.s methods were unfair: some vineyards were visited in person, and others weren.t. As Lignac.s lawyer, Philippe Thevenin, later admitted to me, the strategy in such cases is to throw all available arguments at the wall and see what sticks. The commission that assembled the St. Éilion classification had nine members: some were experts in St. Éilion wine with ties to the village that might influence them; others may have been less qualified to judge the local wines but were not from the area. The members met around 40 times over 18 months. At each meeting they reviewed a certain number of vineyards by tasting 10 years. worth of wine. The tastings were blind, meaning the bottles were covered and presented by French government officials who were not on the commission. After the wines were tasted and graded, the names of the chateaus were revealed, their written applications scrutinized and the new ranking voted on. Public sentiment in Bordeaux is that the commission did a good job. Not perfect; there were flaws. But as good as you can expect in judging wines, which is an inherently subjective activity. .It was done well,. says Nicolas Thienpont, who at the time managed three St. Éilion chateaus: one demoted from the classification, one raised from the lowest to the middle rank and one that held onto its ranking. In the end, the three-judge panel in the Tribunal Administratif de Bordeaux, the court charged with deciding the case, tossed the 2006 St. Éilion classification out on the grounds that the tastings were unfair because wines that were in the 1996 classification were tasted separately from those that were not in that classification. According to Lignac.s lawyer, this separation into two categories violated some general principle of fairness in French law. Lignac hailed the ruling as vindication. .Our position was correct,. he told me last month by phone from France. .The classification was not right.. But even Lignac.s lawyer called the ruling a narrow, technical one. .It was a question of form and procedure,. Thevenin said. .The court didn.t say the classification was bad.. Hubert de Bouard says that St. Éilion is hoping to write a new classification after the 2008 harvest. But he cannot or would not tell me what form he thought the new classification might take. The problem facing St. Éilion now is both legal and political. The Bordeaux court.s recent decision in the St. Éilion case didn.t really prove anything about the quality of St. Éilion.s wines. What it did prove was that an entire classification can be brought down by legal technicalities. The fear is that rather than a new, even better classification, there may be none at all. That is what happened last year. In a case strikingly similar to the St. Éilion affair, the classification of the cru bourgeois, or midlevel, vineyards of the Méc was declared illegal by a judge. As Thierry Gardinier, president of the Crus Bourgeois Association, put it: .Tradition has come up against modern law, and the law has won. We are following the American system. You need lawyers and lawyers and lawyers. VoilàThat is the modern world.. Given the classifications. current legal precariousness, the difficulty in writing a new one lies in figuring out how to keep vineyard owners happy while creating a ranking that stays current. This is the puzzle being worked on by the former cru bourgeois vineyards. According to Gardinier, the new classification they are drafting will be overseen by an independent company, to remove the appearance of conflict of interest. More important, the new classification will be reviewed every year; the period of potential demotion would be so short . one vintage . that the incentive to sue would be greatly decreased. Gardinier played a major role in writing these proposed changes, but he said what he and his colleagues have come up with isn.t really a classification in the traditional sense. .A classification is an order of nobility,. he told me. .It doesn.t change much over time. If you change it every few years, you no longer have a classification exactly; you have a form of certificate.. Toward the end of my stay in France, I spent an afternoon with two lawyers who represented disaffected winemakers in the cru bourgeois and St. Éilion cases. Alone among the major players in all of this, the lawyers were pleased. They took on high-profile cases and were much more successful than they imagined they would be. At the end of the meeting, we went out to lunch. When I first asked them if they could think of a way to challenge the famed Classification of 1855 in court, they scoffed. It was the first, they said, the one that established the others, and it had the advantage from the legal standpoint that it doesn.t change. Then over duck breast and a nice Bordeaux wine, they began to work on the problem. Eventually, they saw at least a way in. The 1855 classification was given legal status by formal government decree in 1949. But when Châau Mouton Rothschild was raised to First Growth in 1973, it was done with a lesser form of government proclamation called an arreté In French law, an arretéan never modify a decree, so the lawyers said that an argument could be made that the Classification of 1855 in its current form isn.t exactly right. .There.s always a way,. I said to Eric Agostini, who represented the disaffected vineyard owners in the cru bourgeois case. Agostini smiled. .Yes,. he said, .There.s always a way.. Edward Lewine, a frequent contributor to the magazine, is working on a book about wine. -- ------------------------------ * Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu * * University of Minnesota, mobile : 651/645-0753 * * Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *

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win August 2008