FYI/FYE
Pointing fingers in Pinotgate
The French firm Sieur D'Arques supplied the fake Pinot.
AP Photo
The French firm Sieur D'Arques was convicted for supplying fake Pinot.
Let's talk about the Pinot that wasn't.
This week finally brings some resolution to Pinotgate 2010, resolved for the moment with the fraud convictions of 12 people in a French court for selling to E&J Gallo wine labeled as Pinot Noir that was nothing of the sort. The defendants, vintners and co-ops in southern France, have said they may appeal, according to the AP.
The case alleged that what Gallo received as Pinot Noir for its Red Bicyclette label from Sieur d'Arques, a large wine merchant in the Languedoc region, was in fact Merlot and Syrah. Gallo has said it is "deeply disappointed" in its supplier, and reiterated that only 20 percent of the total wine involved was ever imported, all for the 2006 vintage. (Wine Spectator has a great explanation of the whole boondoggle.)
It's only February, but this whole mess is the wine world's current frontrunner for Schadenfreude of the Year. Not only does it involve an American wine giant getting duped by the French (the freedom-fry cooks are currently heating their oil again) but it goes to the heart of what Pinot partisans have been bemoaning for years: Our precious grape has been ruined by the masses.
Pinot has always been a persnickety soul. One of many "Sideways" ironies is that the crowning moment of the very movie that sparked Pinot's mainstream turn was, in fact, a rhapsody on how difficult a grape it is. When Pinotphiles (who even among wine snobs have a slightly higher snob factor) carp about the arrival of the $8 Pinot, it's partly because we hate our beloved grape being shared with the masses. Cheapen Cabernet if you like . some of the most renowned Cabernet-based wines are still made in tens of thousands of cases . but Pinot's historic context in Burgundy only allowed it to succeed on a miniscule scale. Cab was extensible; Pinot wasn't.
This conviction, then, was an affirmation of every Pinotphile's conspiracy theory: that our beloved Pinot had been defiled by lesser grapes and the forces of large-scale industrial winemaking.
And it has been. It is a well-known reality that the road to cheap Pinot is paved with more robust grapes; many inexpensive Pinot Noirs on the shelf are anything but 100 percent pure, with Merlot, Syrah, Petite Sirah and even Chardonnay blended in. The most scrupulous wine companies simply admit what's in the bottle. Whatever the composition, it's a safe bet that industrial-scale Pinot often requires the sort of winemaking hijinks . sugar additions (for the Europeans), reverse osmosis, maybe a dose of gum arabic or Mega Purple . that are the modern tools of the corporate winemaker. (It reputedly happens for more expensive Pinot, too, but that's a different story.) The net result is a bottle that's drinkable and mainstream, if not distinguished in any way as Pinot Noir.
Curiously, a lot of bile has been directed toward Gallo: How could they not know this wasn't Pinot? Didn't anyone taste it? It's a fair question; a Gallo spokesperson replied that "there is no way to chemically test wine to establish its varietal composition with certainty." And it's entirely possible that no one tasted the wine in more than a cursory way before purchasing it.
At worst this might have been a vinous case of don't-ask-don't-tell. Bulk Pinot Noir mostly tastes red and wet, and beyond that it can be mistaken for any other mass-grown red wine. This is true not only for the Languedoc but virtually anywhere that industrial Pinot plantings have appeared. Perhaps the best compliment I've ever had for cheap Pinot is that it tastes like Pinot, sort of. So I don't doubt someone at Gallo might have tasted the faux-Pinot and found no Pinot character. They might also have tasted real Pinot and found no Pinot character.
Now there's word that Constellation Brands, the world's largest wine company, also bought fake Pinot from the same source. They, too, insist they thought it was the real thing.
But the real story of modern Pinot can be found on any supermarket wine shelf. Look at the fine print on bottles of $8 or $12 Pinot, and you'll see a self-contained tale of globalization. The brands may scream California . Beringer, Meridian, Pepperwood Grove, Redwood Creek . but the labels tell a different story: Vin de Pays de l'Herault (France), Provincia di Pavia (Italy), Valle Central (Chile), Rheinhessen (central Germany).
The metastory to the huge jump in Pinot production from last year's harvest, mostly from warm inland areas, is that those vineyards came online just in time to balance out the flood of European bulk Pinot that has been slaking our thirst for the past half-decade. Ironically, the fake Pinot that hobbled Gallo was for its Red Bicyclette label, which always was branded as a French wine. More typically, all this accent-wielding Pinot has been going to brands that speak fluent American.
So who gets the blame? We all do. The wine industry didn't just wake up one day and decide to make one of the most notoriously difficult grapes into a mass product. It responded to a huge demand for a cheap version of a wine that probably shouldn't be cheap. You could argue that big wineries have been misleading novice drinkers into a false view of what Pinot should be. But an alternate argument . and one I'm sticking with . is that until we accept that some wines just can't be made on the cheap, we're being sold the wine we deserve. If we're so worried about Merlot being quietly blended into cheap Pinot, there's an easy solution: Stop drinking cheap Pinot.
Posted By: Jon Bonn� (Email, Twitter) | February 19 2010 at 01:30 PM
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/wine/detail?&entry_id=57565#ixzz0gHi1Lt…
Cheers,
Jim
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* 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 *
Building Your Wine-Tasting Toolkit
Practical Tips for Pairing Wine and Food
If you've been to Cafe Levain
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FYI
Local shops entering a new golden age
Jon BonnéSunday, January 31, 2010
Portuguese wine from Vintage Berkeley.
A few weeks ago I mentioned the rise - again - of retail as one of the trends for this new decade.
Big retailers have been with us all along, of course, but increasingly there is virtue to the local shop with perhaps 100 bottles that proudly displays its owner's tastes.
Not every shop has brought up its game. But there are ever more Bay Area examples of retailers who believe in sharing their views of wine. Decades ago, the same was true with a pioneering band of wine sellers - Kermit Lynch setting up shop to tout a then-obscure portfolio - and I'd argue we're again entering a golden age of wine shops.
To test my supposition, I've been lurking in the wine aisles. I imposed a cap of around $20 per bottle, and since I'm usually shopping in San Francisco, I forayed farther afield. In the East Bay, I headed to Vintage Berkeley, a perennial favorite housed in a former water-pumping station around the corner from Chez Panisse (2113 Vine St.; (510) 665-8600; vintageberkeley.com)
Peter Eastlake's wine choices focus on the under-$30 realm, just right for a quick pre-dinner purchase. I browsed with my best focused look on my face; even so, the staff was eager to sort out my indecision between two Iberian whites.
There were welcome choices all over, like the white Carte Blanche from Clos Saron in the Sierra Foothills. One wine in particular, the 2007 Berryessa Gap Tempranillo ($15), brought a smile. This Winters winery is helping to raise the profile of Yolo County, and the latest vintage of its Tempranillo showed ripe fruit without the scraping tannins that can attend that grape. At not even 13 percent alcohol, it's a model for where California wine could be headed.
The store's globalism was equally refreshing. A Portuguese red, Quinta de Bons-Ventos from Estremadura (in central Portugal, near Lisbon), had both cigar-like earthiness and bright berry flavors; at $12.50 it was a total score, doubly so in screw cap. (Given the cork industry, the Portuguese using screw caps is like Texans eating tofu.)
Heading north, I stopped at Back Room Wines in downtown Napa (1000 Main St.; (707) 226-1378; backroomwines.com) Owner Daniel Dawson manages a fine balance between expected Napa names (Robert Foley), less expected (Hesperian) and a well-selected international lineup of selections, like the momentous Saumur Champigny wines from Clos Rougeard.
In that middle category, there was the 2008 Forlorn Hope Silvaspoon Vineyard Alta Mesa Torrontes ($20) from winemaker Matthew Rorick, Argentina's beloved grape but grown here not far from Lodi. It had the floral swoon that could easily be channeling high-altitude Mendoza instead of the warm stretches of Galt (Sacramento County). On the red side, there was the Bookmaker, a $17 blend under the Parlay label that Dawson compared to Orin Swift's the Prisoner. Quite so.
I often insist the best way to learn about wine is to get guidance from your local wine merchants. So next time you feel like a $20 adventure, just ask them what they'd love to drink. It's a glorious time to explore.
For tasting notes, see the link with the story on sfgate.com.
>From the notebook
2007 Berryessa Gap Yolo County Tempranillo ($15) An earthy nose of dried pepper flakes, black olive and roasted plum gives way to vibrant red fruit flavors and solid (but not intrusive) tannins. Just ripe enough to taste seamless but still retains its Tempranillo guts.
2007 Casa Santos Lima Quinta de Bons-Ventos Estremadura Tinto ($12.50) This larger-production red from central Portugal has a vivaciously juicy, high-acid palate of red fruit, meshed with scents of huckleberry, dried currant, cigar wrapper and loam. It's surprisingly broad-flavored and full, with chalky tannins bulking out the finish. Just right for pequillo peppers stuffed with tuna. (Importer: J. Oliveira Selections/Tri-Vin Imports)
2008 Forlorn Hope La Gitana Silvaspoons Vineyard Alta Mesa Torrontes ($20) Almost Viognier-like in its floral definition, but with snappy, grassy punch and kaffir lime aromas to balance out lush honeydew. Impressively tight and bright, with a tiny bit of leftover spritz. Made by Matthew Rorick Wines in Calistoga.
2007 Parlay Bookmaker Napa Valley Red Wine ($17) The name keeps making me thing of Geoffrey Rush in "Pirates of the Caribbean." No matter. Here's a big, oak-lashed whopper full of chocolate-covered cherries, tar and dried dill. Not that subtle, but absolutely delivers for its style, with plenty of brighter fruit highlights to liven up the sweetish finish. A mix of Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, Petite Sirah and Syrah made by Ramian Estate's Brian Graham.
Jon Bonnés The Chronicle's wine editor. Find him at jbonne(a)sfchronicle.com or twitter.com/jbonne.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/31/FDAD1BOE71.DTL
This article appeared on page K - 6 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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* 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 *
