Affordable-wine crusader making lot of cents
Jon Bonnéunday, May 17, 2009
Silly me, suggesting to Fred Franzia - lord of Two Buck Chuck - that his wines are low priced.
"Who says we're lower priced? We're the best price. The others, I think, are overpriced," he retorts. "Maybe we're the ones who are right and everyone else is wrong because they're overcharging."
At a moment when expensive wines are fully in the doldrums, when high-priced Cabernets gather dust in warehouses, Franzia is sounding pretty logical.
After all, wine drinkers are trading down. Two Buck Chuck may have resonated in a sound economy, but these should be salad days for Franzia's Bronco Wine Co. in Ceres (Stanislaus County), which produces not only Charles Shaw but also Crane Lake, Napa Ridge and dozens more inexpensive (surely that term would fly) labels.
They are. Bronco's sales by volume are as much as 25 percent ahead of last year, Charles Shaw is currently running at about 6 million cases annually and no less a publication than the New Yorker profiles Franzia this week about his quest toward 100 million cases a year. Franzia says markets like China want to take Chuck global; next month he plans to unveil an Australian Chardonnay, Down Under, at half the price of Yellow Tail. His only worry seems to be that he might run out of wine - even though he controls reportedly 40,000 acres and buys far more in bulk. "We'll probably have to allocate. Imagine that."
After his endless battles with the wine elite - notably his unsuccessful court fight with the Napa Valley Vintners - irony drips off those words when Franzia says them. This is the year, after all, when cult-wine allocations are being busted, when retailers can cherry-pick the finest wines. And yet many wineries still won't flinch on pricing. Suddenly, Franzia's crusade against high prices - he still believes no wine should cost more than 10 bucks - has an eerie resonance.
Granted, the wisdom should be considered in context. Franzia still despises talk of terroir and insists appellations smaller than plain old California are "the worst thing to happen to this industry"; he shrugs off concerns about water supplies to his San Joaquin Valley grapes. He's also still facing blowback after a pregnant 17-year-old worker died last year while working a vineyard controlled by a company tied to Bronco.
But at a time when logic is a precious commodity in the wine industry, Franzia is working smart - reducing weights of most bottles by about 4 ounces. When you're Bronco, with an estimated 20 million cases per year, that's a lot less weight to be hauling around.
He's not the only one ready to capitalize on a down market. A handful of high-end labels are starting to trim prices, like Chappellet, which lowered the price of its 2006 Signature Cabernet to $42 from $51. But the pain felt around Napa Valley - Franzia's longtime foil - seems to fill him with glee.
Two Buck Chuck taps into a fundamental, inconvenient fact: At some point, most people want basic, drinkable and cheap. Yet it should feel respectable, which is why Franzia won't switch to plastic from the corks he uses in Charles Shaw (more an assemblage of small cork bits than a single piece of bark), despite an estimated $3 million savings. Chuck looks, basically, like a real bottle of wine.
And California's wine market bolsters Franzia's stance. Bulk wine - either a winery's excess or juice that didn't make the cut - is the engine of all those cheap labels. (Bronco has mastered the art of blending endless lots into something drinkable.)
Despite two slight vintages in 2007 and 2008, Napa and Sonoma wines face falling prices on the bulk market, while buyers increasingly seek cheaper Central Valley fruit. Chris Welch, a partner in the Ciatti Co. wine brokerage, is suddenly hearing from "higher-end guys" wanting to make under-$10 wines for the first time. In other words, to tangle in Franzia's world.
So Franzia is waiting for August, when top producers with wine still in tanks are forced to sell cheap before the 2009 vintage. If that wine ends up in Bronco's bottles, well, that's how Two Buck Chuck got started. "There's plenty of prestige, in my opinion, in being able to afford consumers wine at a price they can they can drink every day," he concludes.
A sage bit of advice for gentleman farmers out there, tending fields of attempted glory.
Jon Bonnés The Chronicle's wine editor. E-mail him at jbonne(a)sfchronicle.com or find him at sfgate.com/blogs/thecellarist.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/17/FDFN17IDUL.DTL
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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 *
Mmmmm. Champagne.
but $89 a year is a bit stiff. That's 3 bottles of
Champagne!
An in-depth guide to Champagne
Craig Lee/The Chronicle
It takes a steady hand ...
For as much as Champagne is beloved, there's a gaping void in advice about it once you move beyond the same few obvious names.
Part of this is intentional: Champagne more than most places is dominated by its largest brands (in turn run by large corporations with more than bubbles on their minds), and despite the endless enthusiasm of we writer types for many smaller houses, most have neither the money nor werewithal to compete. So Champagne remains wrapped in a well-woven mystique.
It has been a pleasure, then, to road-test the newly launched ChampagneGuide.net, created by Peter Liem, a writer and senior correspondent for Wine & Spirits who moved to the Champagne village of Dizy in 2006 from the United States. (Liem is also a contributor to The Chronicle.)
Liem is one of the keenest Champagne tasters around. After nearly three years of filling notebooks, he has turned his collected wisdom into one of the most comprehensive efforts yet on the subject, writing with an informed on-the-ground perspective that's virtually unmatched.
Profiles of more than 100 houses are already available -- a mix of famous names like Krug and obscure gems like Ulysse Collin. Liem plans to add more regularly; Champagne has thousands of producers, so he has no shortage of source material, but as readers of his blog know, he has a precise radar for newsworthy and talented vignerons, regardless of size.
The profiles are perhaps the most detailed anywhere, expanding on works like Richard Juhlin's "4000 Champagnes" and Tom Stevenson's "Champagne." Liem elevates them above the usual frothy prose, as he offers a sense of each house's philosophy, style and methods of working. (Example: Larmandier-Bernier finds spraying with a helicopter beneficial for its biodynamic regimes.)
Tasting notes -- with about a half-dozen for each producer, there's already more than 600 -- are equally thoughtful, with Liem's precise palate extending well beyond the usual mix of fruit. The Gatinois Brut Rosérand Cru is "a vividly aromatic wine, showing brambly notes of crushed red fruit with the peculiar sense of concentrated berries typical of (the Champagne town of) Ay."
Added bonus: A Google mashup map locates each producer, providing a valuable geographic anchor often missing from discussion of Champagne.
At $89/year, it is priced for the connoisseur. I asked Liem about the pricing last week, and he said he wanted to price competitively but felt that amount was the least he could justify for his years of work. (At a time when it's fashionable to give away your collected wisdom online, that's a laudable stance.) He intends to expand to other formats including, potentially, the dead-tree sort.
Of course, the price is about two bottles worth of good Champagne. If you drink more than that in a year, Champagneguide.net should prove a valuable guide through a region where quality is often obscured by endless layers of marketing fizz.
More at Champagneguide.net. (See a sample profile here.)
Y mucho mas: If you haven't yet checked out the 30/30 project by Chronicle contributor Paul Clarke to commemorate the fourth anniversary of his Cocktail Chronicles site, do so. Like so many bloggers (say it, brother) Paul found his original momentum for writing about new cocktails had flagged. This is his revival effort (currently on No. 27) with everything from the Tchoupitoulas Street Guzzle to more au courant picks like the Wibble. The only thing better than a week of cocktails is a full month; 30/30 is like cocktail grad school on overdrive.
Posted By: Jon BonnéEmail) | May 14 2009 at 01:50 PM
Listed Under: Champagne, Cocktails, France, Sparkling Wine, Spirits, Web
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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 *
Zinfandel and Barbecue for Memorial DayA rib recipe from New York's Blue Smoke restaurant, plus nine great Zinfandels to pour alongsideLaurie WooleverPosted: Friday, May 15, 2009Memorial Day marks, in many parts of the United States, the start of outdoor grilling season, and the long holiday weekend affords you the time to do some proper barbecuing. Kenny Callaghan, executive chef and partner at New York's Blue Smoke, provided this flavorful recipe for baby back ribs that are seasoned with a savory spice rub, then started in the oven and finished on the grill. We've also included an excellent barbecue sauce recipe. And because barbecue and Zinfandel have a natural affinity, we've put together a selection of 9 recently rated Zinfandels to pour at the pincic table.BABY BACK RIBS
Rib recipe by chef Kenny Callaghan of Blue Smoke; sauce recipe adapted from Steven Raichlen's How to Grill (Workman 2001).For the rub:
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon Spanish paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon granulated onion
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon granulated garlic
• 1 teaspoon ancho chile powder
• 1 teaspoon chile powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon celery salt
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon dark brown sugarFor the meat:
• 2 full racks baby back ribs, skin removedFor the barbecue sauce: (you may also use your favorite recipe or prepared sauce):
• 2 cups ketchup
• 1/4 cup cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons molasses
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1 1/2 tablespoons Tabasco
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 2 teaspoons liquid smoke
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper1. In a large bowl, combine all the rub ingredients and mix well. Place both racks of ribs on a cutting board or wood slab. Gently massage the rub mixture into the ribs, making sure to coat well. Cover and refrigerate for 12 to 24 hours.2. Pre-heat oven to 300°. Place ribs on baking sheet in pre-heated oven. Ribs should cook for two hours, or until tender.3. While the pork cooks, make the barbecue sauce. Combine the ketchup, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, sugar, molasses, mustard, Tabasco, chili powder, liquid smoke and black pepper in a nonreactive saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium and simmer 10 to 15 minutes or until sauce is dark, thick and rich. Adjust sweetness, sourness and hot pepper to taste.4. Heat your outdoor grill to high heat. In a small saucepan, warm the barbecue sauce over low heat. Remove the ribs from the oven and transfer to the grill. Cook for 5 minutes,
then turn and cook for an additional 5 minutes. Brush the warmed barbecue sauce over the meat and cook the ribs for 2 minutes more on each side. Remove from the grill and let sit 5 minutes.5. Using a sharp knife, cut ribs in between bones. Serve immediately. For saucier ribs, apply a second coat of warmed sauce just before serving. Serves 6 to 8.ZINFANDELS FOR MEMORIAL DAYORIN SWIFT The Prisoner Napa Valley 2007 Score: 92 | $35Offers both style and structure, with lively aromas of black raspberry, cracked pepper and mocha that lead to plush, layered flavors of wild berry, fresh sage and licorice. Ripe tannins sneak in on the finish. Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Petite Sirah, Charbono and Grenache. Drink now through 2014. 39,000 cases made. —T.F.SEGHESIO Zinfandel Sonoma County Old Vine 2006 Score: 92 | $36This is what great Zinfandel is all about. Ripe but balanced with lively acidity, jammy but concentrated and well-structured. Offers
fresh wild berry, raspberry, vanilla and cracked pepper notes, but with layers of intriguing sage, lively mineral and smoke accents. Drink now through 2014. 8,600 cases made. —T.F.RIDGE Geyserville Sonoma County 2006 Score: 90 | $35Just like the tasty Sonoma field-style blends of yore, with distinct toasty dill and berry cobbler aromas and zesty raspberry, cracked pepper and earthy sage flavors that end with slightly rustic tannins. Zinfandel, Carignane, Petite Sirah and Mataro. Drink now through 2015. 12,000 cases made. —T.F.MURPHY-GOODE Zinfandel Sonoma County Liar's Dice 2006 Score: 89 | $21A vibrant and jammy wine, with lively raspberry and pepper aromas and soft, supple black cherry and toasty vanilla flavors. Drink now through 2013. 11,000 cases made. —T.F.RIDGE Three Valleys Sonoma County 2006 Score: 89 | $22A ripe bruiser, yet with an underlying sense of structure and finesse. Shows aromas of blueberry pie and toasty dill, with
concentrated plum, licorice and smoky pepper flavors that are wrapped in muscular tannins. Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, Carignane and Grenache. Best from 2010 through 2015. 26,000 cases made. —T.F.RAVENSWOOD Zinfandel Napa Valley Old Vine 2006 Score: 88 | $18Offers smoky plum aromas and stout, deep blueberry, sage and licorice flavors that finish with burly tannins. Best from 2010 through 2014. 22,000 cases made. —T.F.BEAULIEU VINEYARD Zinfandel Napa Valley 2006 Score: 87 | $13Appealing smoky wild berry aromas lead to dense huckleberry, white pepper and herb notes that build toward big but ripe tannins. Drink now through 2012. 7,000 cases made. —T.F.ARTEZIN Zinfandel Mendocino County 2007 Score: 86 | $18Distinctive aromas of fresh basil, thyme and plum lead to modest but spicy blackberry and herb flavors. Drink now through 2013. 15,000 cases made. —T.F.NAPA CELLARS Zinfandel Napa Valley 2005 Score: 86 | $22Briary but appealing for its smoky
plum aromas and boysenberry, roasted sage and loam flavors. Drink now through 2012. 5,200 cases made. —T.F.
Not all buzzez come from wine.
But all wine comes from buzzez....
Cheers,
Jim
April 28, 2009, 9:49 pm
Guest Column: Let.s Hear It for the Bees
Left, Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times Honeybees getting nectar. By Leon Kreitzman
Gardeners know that plants open and close their flowers at set times during the day. For example, the flowers of catmint open between 6:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m.; orange hawkweed follows between 7:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m.; field marigolds open at 9:00 a.m.
In .Philosophia Botanica. (1751), the great taxonomist Carl Linnaeus proposed that it should be possible to plant a floral clock. He noted that two species of daisy, the hawk.s-beard and the hawkbit, opened and closed at their respective times within about a half-hour each day. He suggested planting these daisies along with St. John.s Wort, marigolds, water-lilies and other species in a circle. The rhythmic opening and closing of the plants would be the effective hands of this clock.
Plants have carefully timed routines determined by internally generated rhythms. In 1729, Jean-Jacques d.Ortous de Mairan, a French astronomer, put a Mimosa plant in a cupboard to see what happened when it was kept in the dark. He peeked in at various times, and although the plant was permanently in the dark its leaves still opened and closed rhythmically . it was as though it had its own representation of day and night. The plant.s leaves still drooped during its subjective night and stiffened up during its subjective day. Furthermore, all the leaves moved at the same time. It took another 230 years or so to come up with the term circadian . about a day . to describe these rhythms.
In a similar vein, tobacco plants, stocks and evening primroses release their scent as the sun starts to go down at dusk. These plants attract pollinating moths and night-flying insects. The plants tend to be white or pale. Color vision is difficult under low light, and white best reflects the mainly bluish tinge of evening light.
But plants cannot release their scent in a timely manner simply in response to an environmental cue, like the lowering of the light levels. They need time to produce the oils. To coincide with the appearance of the nocturnal insects, the plant has to anticipate the sunset and produce the scent on a circadian schedule.
Flowers of a given species all produce nectar at about the same time each day, as this increases the chances of cross-pollination. The trick works because pollinators, which in most cases means the honeybee, concentrate foraging on a particular species into a narrow time-window. In effect the honeybee has a daily diary that can include as many as nine appointments . say, 10:00 a.m., lilac; 11:30 a.m., peonies; and so on. The bees. time-keeping is accurate to about 20 minutes.
The bee can do this because, like the plants and just about every living creature, it has a circadian clock that is reset daily to run in time with the solar cycle. The bee can effectively consult this clock and .check. off the given time and associate this with a particular event.
Honeybees really are nature.s little treasures. They are a centimeter or so long, their brains are tiny, and a small set of simple rules can explain the sophisticated social behavior that produces the coordinated activity of a hive. They live by sets of instructions that are familiar to computer programmers as subroutines . do this until the stop code, then into the next subroutine, and so on.
These humble little bees have an innate ability to work out the location of a food source from its position in relation to the sun. They do this even on cloudy days by reading the pattern of the polarization of the light, and pass this information to other bees. In the dark of the hive, they transpose the location of a food source in the horizontal plane through the famous .waggle. dance into communication in the vertical plane of the hive.
Honeybees can tell their sisters how far away the food is up to a distance of about 15 kilometers. For good measure, they can also allow for the fact that the sun moves relative to the hive by about 15 degrees an hour and correct for this when they pass on the information. In other words, they have their own built-in global positioning system and a language that enables them to refer to objects and events that are distant in space or time.
German scientists in the early part of the last century called this ability of bees to learn the time of day when flowers start secreting nectar and visit the flowers at appropriate times Zeitgedätnis, or time-sense. But the species of flowers in bloom, say, this week, is likely to be replaced by a different species at a different location next week or the week after. The bee needs a flexible, dynamic appointments system that it continually updates, and it has evolved an impressive ability to learn colors, odors, shapes and routes, within a time frame, quickly and accurately.
While the initial dance by a returning scout bee informs her sisters of the location and distance of food plants and the quality of their nectar, bees that visit the food source learn to synchronize their behavior with daily floral rhythms, foraging only when nectar and pollen are at their highest levels. At other times, they remain in the hive, conserving energy that otherwise would be exhausted on non-productive foraging flights.
Although most animals, including humans, cannot sustain long-lasting periods of activity without circadian rhythms, honeybees have developed a marked flexibility in their circadian rhythm that depends on the job they are doing. Whereas a particular circadian determined behavior is usually fixed to a certain phase of the cycle, in honeybees the circadian rhythm is dependent on the job the bee is doing.
Adult worker bees perform a number of tasks in the hive when they are young, like caring for eggs and larvae, and then shift to foraging for nectar and pollen as they age. However, if the hive has a shortage of foragers, some of the young nurse bees will switch jobs and become foragers. The job transition, whether triggered by age or social cues, involves changes in genes in the honeybee brain; some genes turn on, while others turn off.
Young worker bees less than two weeks of age who typically nurse the brood around-the-clock display no circadian rhythms. Older workers (more than three weeks) typically perform foraging activities and have strong circadian rhythms that are needed for the time-compensated sun-compass navigation and timing visits to flowers.
Recent research in Israel has shown that when young worker bees are removed from caring for the brood and placed in individual cages, they rapidly show circadian rhythms in their behavior. Newly emerged bees isolated in individual cages typically show circadian rhythms in locomotor activity when at 3 days to 14 days old, ages at which most bees in the hive perform around-the-clock nursing activities as mentioned above. Older foragers who revert to nursing duties switch back to around-the-clock brood care activity similar to that of young nurses in typical colonies.
The molecular clockwork mechanism that produces the circadian rhythm works by a series of feedback loops in which the proteins produced by several genes feedback to repress their own production. It is a complicated system, but the end result is a near-24-hour cycling in the levels of various proteins that in turn result in the cycling of the secretion of hormones and other substances.
It seems that there is a plasticity, or flexibility, in the organization of this molecular clockwork mechanism in honeybees, and that the social factors that influence division of labor in honeybee colonies are important also for the regulation of this circadian mechanism. As there is mounting evidence for increased pathologies and deterioration in performance when around-the-clock activity is imposed on most animals, including humans, detailed study of the plasticity of the circadian organization in honeybees may provide pointers for ways for us to have our 24/7 cake and eat it.
Honeybees are remarkable not just for the organization of their circadian clockwork. James Gould of Princeton first studied bees as an undergraduate. It was his pioneering study that showed conclusively that Karl von Frisch, who won a Nobel Prize for elucidating the waggle dance, had been right in concluding that the dance was a means of conveying information.
Ironically, an allergy meant that Gould had to stop working directly with the creatures, but his respect for them is enormous. As he has pointed out:
When a human decides whether to recommend a restaurant, taking into account its menus, the tastes of the friend being advised, the cost of the food, the distance to the establishment, the ambience of the dining room, the ease of parking and all the other factors that enter into such a decision, we have little hesitation in attributing conscious decision-making to the calculation. When a small frenetic creature enclosed in an exoskeleton and sprouting supernumerary legs and a sting performs an analogous integration of factors, however, our biases spur us to look for another explanation, different in kind.
We have been exploiting honeybees for thousands of years by systematically robbing them of their honey. The least we can do is take proper care of these wondrous creatures. Instead we are killing them off in their billions through our befouling of their environment. The honeybee brain has only a million or so neurons, several orders of magnitude less than ours. It is a moot point as to whether humans or honeybees make the best use of their neuronal resource.
**********
NOTES:
For a discussion about how bees know what to do, and when, see the appropriately titled paper by Pahl M., Zhu H, Pix W., Tautz J., Zhang S. .Circadian timed episodic-like memory . a bee knows what to do when, and also where . J Exp Biol. 2007 Oct, 210(Pt 20):3559-67.
For circadian plasticity see Shemesh Y., Cohen M., Bloch G. .Natural plasticity in circadian rhythms is mediated by reorganization in the molecular clockwork in honeybees. FASEB J. 2007 Aug;21(10):2304-11.
James Gould quote from Gould, J. L. & Gould, C. G. (1999) .The Animal Mind.. W. H. Freeman, New York.
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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 *
Dan Neil is a Pulitzer prize winning author - normaly writes about a cars.
He's branched out, does a column on marketing. I suppose it's hard
to bring prize winning flair to an article about a Prius, Insight, Fit, etc.
Anyway, FYI/FYE.
Cheers,
Jim
>From the Los Angeles Times
Ed Hardy wines? Christian Audigier's branding machine grinds on
Audigier is building, slowly and frighteningly, a 360-degree brand bubble for his clientele.
By DAN NEIL
April 28, 2009
There are no rules in branding, save for the law of the jungle. We live in a world where it's possible to buy Nascar brand meat snacks, Burger King-themed underwear, Harley-Davidson cake-decorating kits. Money is no respecter of decency and logic. Personally, I love beer-flavored frosting.
But perhaps no brand hookup makes less sense to me than Ed Hardy -- a tattoo-themed street wear imprint of fashion megalomaniac Christian Audigier -- and wine. Yet there it was at my local Whole Foods, stacked in orderly end-cap pyramids.
(The notoriously man-tanned Audigier will be signing wine bottles at the Whole Foods in Venice on Saturday).
Wine is a cultivated taste of a delicately cultivated product, a source of savored satisfaction and nuance, a living liquid that rewards reflection and restraint. The haute-trash Ed Hardy brand -- as near as I can parse it -- represents getting wasted in Las Vegas and leaving your $50 trucker hat in the cab on the way to the airport.
And yet, of course, I am wrong. The Audigier empire is pillared on a single brilliant concept, which is the ecumenical emptiness of branding itself.
A little background: Audigier, who is from Avignon, France, but lives in Los Angeles, began his career as a designer of pret-a-porte jeans and other clothing. He made his branding bones as the tastemaker behind Von Dutch, based on the graphical work of L.A. pin-striping artist Kenny
Howard. Audigier is, in fact, the fashion criminal behind
the Von Dutch trucker hat (worn by the likes of Ashton Kutcher, Britney Spears, Madonna and a billion loutish wannabes).
In 2004, Audigier scored a licensing agreement with tattoo and graphics artist Don Ed Hardy, a Bay Area legend in ink, and soon Ed Hardy graphic designs began appearing on, well, everything: T-shirts, hoodies, purses and perfume, socks and sunglasses, barware and bedding, swimwear and underwear. The brand has pretty much exploded.
Audigier's conglomerate now comprises eight global brands -- including the modestly titled Christian Audigier imprint -- and more than 75 licensees. Las Vegas nightclub, Beverly Hills boutique . . . you feel me, dog? There is, apparently, no shark Audigier dare not jump. In March, Audigier announced a licensing agreement with Beverly Hills "celebrity" dentist Eric Fugier to create a line of Ed Hardy branded toothbrushes, dental floss and mouthwash. Ay ay ay.
To be honest, I wouldn't be caught dead in Ed Hardy. For one thing, there is a huge metaphorical hole in this brand, which trades on the committed authenticity and street-level edginess of Don Ed Hardy's skin art to sell overpriced T-shirts to kids at the mall. Hermes it's not.
Audigier has saturated the market to the extent that now Ed Hardy stands for trend slavery at its most vacant-eyed and autonomic. As a brand, Ed Hardy is even more promiscuous than Juicy Couture.
Of course, I'm twice the target demo and my late-night partying involves seven to nine hours of deep, restful sleep. The truth is I admire Audigier's audacity in challenging the wisdom that a brand
image must convey some kind of verity about the product, however slight. I mean, Cabernet Sauvignon at Whole Foods? How skate punk is that?
Although he's not the first to invoke the phrase "lifestyle brand," Audigier is well on his way to giving it the force of literalism. Consider the range of Ed Hardy-branded beverages: vodka, beer, energy drinks, coffee, tea, whiskey, tequila, energy "shots," something called "structured water." And, of course, wine. It is now possible to go from cradle to rehab drinking only Ed Hardy-branded fluids.
Audigier is building, slowly and frighteningly, a 360-degree brand bubble for his clientele, an immersive ecology of labeled merchandise, an off-the-rack psyche. And in an age where a cool, ephemeral brand means everything and nothing, that's brilliant.
As for the wine, it's really not half bad. It's bottled in France by the Castel Group and imported by Nicolas Wines in Connecticut. The Ed Hardy label goes for $10, and the Christian Audigier label goes for $20 at Costco.
The Ed Hardy label helps address a specific problem in the wine business, according to Nicolas Vice President Gene Schaeffer.
"There's nothing really new and exciting in the wine business," Schaeffer says. "When this idea came along I thought we could develop new wine drinkers."
Claude Ruau-Choate, the wine buyer for Whole Foods in California, says the same. "In the long term, we're trying to build an audience," Ruau-Choate says. "This is the perfect introduction. It's fun. Wine doesn't have to be difficult."
I'll have a glass of the flaming skull, please.
dan.neil(a)latimes.com
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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 *
Thirst: Practical advice from an everyday drinker
Jon BonnéSunday, April 19, 2009
Kingsley Amis raises a glass when he was awarded the Book...
In the interest of oversimplification, I split wine writing into what might be called the British and American styles. The British school is wine by comparison: This '02 Savigny is reminiscent of that cheeky '93 Chambolle. The American school is fruit salad: quince, blueberry, pineapple and tangerine. Both run the risk of boring us all to death.
So it was doubly refreshing to finally dive into Kingsley Amis' "Everyday Drinking" (Bloomsbury; $20) which might well be the best drinking book of the past year. That's not entirely a legit statement, since Sir Amis died in 1995 and the book's a reprint of Amis' three drinking tomes written between 1972 and 1984: "On Drink," "Everyday Drinking" and "How's Your Glass?"
The first two are nothing short of a salve for the shortcomings of modern drink writing. (The last is in quiz form, essentially one long boozy bout of Trivial Pursuit.) For at a time when drinking well is nearly acceptable as a noble pursuit, the art of the bibulous scribe - like all writers - seems ever more in peril.
Amis, to me, is a dose of salvation. Perhaps that's because, when not contemplating the inside of his glass, he was also one of the last century's most accomplished British novelists. He was also the supreme drunken skeptic, which allows "Everyday Drinking" to be a manifesto against pretense. As in this declaration: "Drinks writers have got to put on a show of covering the whole subject, but I would never believe a man who claimed to be equally interested or qualified in all the kinds of booze."
Admittedly, Amis is an imperfect messenger. His clearly conflicted relationship with wine, for instance, gives pause, only because he seems to have had an innate distaste for the stuff, or at least willful ignorance. At various turns he spurns it ("Vintages - aargh! Most of the crap talked about wine centers on these"), tolerates it and occasionally offers worthy advice: "(A) good policy is to forget names, labels and vintages and go for a wine imported by a shipper whose wares you have enjoyed in the past."
Such is his conflict that at times it descends into outright contradiction, as when he argues to "drink any wine you like with any dish" on one hand, then suggests that "it doesn't go with all food, or even most food, not in the UK." And there are moments when his declarative style falls short. When he says of Champagne that "any wine from France under this name will be good," you can't help but wonder how much of an uncritical drinker he might have been.
Much has been made of Amis' bolder themes, particularly on hangovers both physical and metaphysical. (To cure the former, he recommends, among other things, "half an hour in an open aeroplane"; for the latter, read the final lines of "Paraside Lost.") His "Mean Sod's Guide," on fooling guests into happily drinking swill, is a classic of tipsy misanthropy.
But there is no shortage of practical advice; his thoughts on stocking a bar should be mandatory reading. I especially endorse the suggestion of a separate drinks-only fridge, so it won't be filled "with irrelevant rubbish like food."
The true pleasure here is Amis' comfort with his own limitations and prejudices. In an era of utter objectivity about drink - Moses came down from the mount, and on these tablets he scoreth an 87 - we can reflect back about how Amis wrote simply as a drinker experiencing the world. No press junkets. No mixologists' navel-gazing. No wine babble.
Amis was a brilliant writer, turned loose on booze. In the Twitterific era, when enthusiasm handily trumps skill, his lucid prose is a reminder why wordsmithing matters.
The net result is an brilliantly imperfect guide to drink, happily nested with inconsistencies. A moment after declaring Scotch an unsuitable base for a cocktail, Amis finds a recipe for a Godfather (three parts whisky, one amaretto) and must recant. As he puts it: "So much for infallibility just now."
We whose job it is to codify pleasure should be required to hang that on our walls.
Words to drink by
"An underregarded but surely powerful argument against wine is that very few of us can afford to drink quality wine with any regularity, whereas a fair number can afford reasonable amounts of the best beer available most nights of the week. ... And yet the blighters keep insisting on wine, not just with food but before meals, after meals, anytime."
On when to drink Champagne: "Best of all on its own, I have heard its admirers say, about 11:30 a.m., with a dry biscuit. Which leaves plenty of time to sneak out to the bar for a real drink."
"What I have not done is drink first-rate table wines at their place of origin, work my way through classic vintages and develop an educated palate. To do that, what you really need, shorn of the talk, is a rich father, and I missed it."
On hangovers: "Immediately on waking, start telling yourself how lucky you are to be feeling so bloody awful. This ... recognizes the truth that if you do not feel bloody awful after a hefty night then you are still drunk, and must sober up in a waking state before hangover dawns."
>From "Mean Sod's Guide": "The point here is not simply to stint your guests on quality and quantity - any fool can pre-pour Moroccan red into Burgundy bottles, or behave as if all knowledge of the existence of drink has been suddenly excised from his brain at 10 p.m. - but to screw them while seeming, at any rate to their wives, to have done them rather well."
"Whatever the men in the know may say, a German wine label is a fearful thing to decipher."
"One infallible mark of your true drink-man is that he reads everything on the subject that comes his way, from full-dress books to those tiny recipe-leaflets the makers tend to hang round the necks of their bottles."
Jon Bonnés The Chronicle's wine editor. E-mail him at jbonne(a)sfchronicle.com.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/19/FDSP16RJD2.DTL
This article appeared on page E - 5 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 *
Some good quotes here.
"Mixing is easy, bartending is difficult." (paraphrased)
" Negroni
If it takes you longer than 30 seconds to learn how to make a decent Negroni, you might want to think about hiring a real bartender to fix drinks when you have folk over. Repeat after me: Gin. Campari. Sweet vermouth. Equal proportions. On the rocks. Orange-wheel - or orange twist - garnish. Got it?"
Cheers,
Jim
10 essential cocktails you can make at home
Gary Regan
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Daiquiri Manhattan Mai Tai Old-Fashioned More...
The Chief asked me to come up with a list of 10 drinks that you absolutely must learn how to make if you want to hold your head high in this world of cocktail mavens. Although it wasn't easy to keep it to 10, I'm pretty pleased with the drinks that we ended up with. I say "we," because the Chief played a role here. And you should be happy that he did. Without him you might have a list of 10 different styles of Manhattans.
If you learn how to make the drinks I've detailed here, your repertoire will be diverse enough to convince anyone that you're a dab hand with a shaker. If you don't learn how to make them, you might find yourself in a spot of bother. I'm planning on turning up on your doorstep sometime next week to test you. Have plenty of ice on hand. And plenty of whiskey, too.
Before we get down to the cocktails, though, perhaps it would be good if I pointed out some fairly straightforward, but often overlooked, facts about making drinks in general.
-- It's best to shake a cocktail over ice for at least 10 seconds, and if you're stirring, double that amount of time. Any less that that and your drink will not be cold enough, and neither will it contain enough water melted from the ice to make the cocktail "gulpable." The water soothes the soul of the spirit in the drink.
-- Serve cold drinks in chilled glasses.
-- Recipes are not written in stone. Unless specific brand names are called for in the case of each and every ingredient, try to look at recipes as guidelines.
A good way to master this is to taste your ingredients individually before you make the drink for the first time. Now follow the recipe precisely, and taste the drink. If it's too "this" or not "that" enough, think back to each ingredient and alter the ratios of the ingredients accordingly. Now you're thinking like a bartender.
-- Don't use those marzipan-flavored, clown-nose-red maraschino cherries. You can buy Luxardo maraschino cherries online if your gourmet food store doesn't carry them, or you can make like the Windmill Lounge in Dallas, Texas, and marinate some frozen cherries in Luxardo maraschino liqueur for a minimum of two days. Either way, if you use one of these, you'll bring your cocktail geek friends to their knees.
-- Make simple syrup by dissolving 1 cup of granulated sugar into 1 cup of warm water. Allow it to cool, and store it in the fridge.
I have one more thing to add, and it's a tidbit of information that all good bartenders know: Making drinks is easy. Don't be intimidated. It's a piece of cake. Honest.
Now, what's not easy is being a bartender: being able to deal with a multitude of people - owners, managers, waitstaff, chefs and guests that can include lawyers, grocers, bikers and experts on just about every subject under the sun - while making drinks, making change, making fancy garnishes and making eyes at the one customer you're hoping will stick around until your shift ends. Don't for a moment think that because you can make drinks you might be a great bartender.
But learning how to make great drinks? It's a cinch.
Inside: The quintessential recipe for 10 cocktail classics, plus wallet-friendly tips on stocking the home bar.
Stocking the liquor cabinet
As Gary Regan was hard at work choosing his 10 must-know cocktails, we wondered: How much would it cost to be fully prepared to show off your bar skills? (Clearly, we'd been Boy Scouts in the distant past.)
To make all 10 of these drinks, special ingredients are required. Some are available in mini-bottles, but the cost might prompt you to become a master of, say, eight out of 10. Unless the Aviation cries out to be your signature drink - or you're not wedded to its original formulation - you might pass on the creme de violette.
Still, you can fully stock a bar, and respectably so, for less than $250. Here's a handy road map, using prices in Bay Area stores (750 ml bottles except as noted). The dashing bar cart costs extra.
Vodka: Don't bother splurging. Locally owned Skyy ($15) or Tito's ($18) from Austin, Texas, are both very good. But Smirnoff ($13) works just fine and leaves you cash for other things. Cost: $13
Gin: How much you enjoy gin will dictate your expense. For cocktail basics, Beefeater ($17) or Broker's ($20) more than suffice. Myself, I'd skip the vodka and splurge a bit on gin: Plymouth, Martin Miller's, Damrak and American stars Bluecoat and 209 all hover around $30. Cost: $17
Whiskey: For cocktail purposes, choose two between bourbon, rye and blended Scotch. If guests are that particular about whiskey, they can bring their own. For Scotch, Famous Grouse ($19) continues to outperform. For bourbon, a value choice is Evan Williams Black Label ($10); up the chain are Elijah Craig 12-Year ($20)and our pick, Buffalo Trace ($21). But rye will make a bigger impression. Try the Rittenhouse 100 Proof ($20) or its 80-proof cousin ($18). Cost: $39 (Famous Grouse and Rittenhouse 100)
Rum: Aged rum seems like the way to go, especially once Dark and Stormy season comes around. Good aged rum isn't cheap, but the Barbancourt 8-year ($26), or even the Haitian brand's 4-year ($20) or White ($19) offer depth and slightly higher proof. Cost: $26
Brandy: Tough choice, because quality shows. Some reliable picks: Hardy VS Cognac ($26), Ferrand Ambre Cognac ($33) and Asbach Uralt ($28) from Germany. Backups include Hennessy VS ($25) and Korbel VSOP ($14). Cost: $26.
Tequila: A proper bar includes a 100 percent agave specimen (marked on the bottle). Yet, affordable choices are tricky to find. Look for Milagro Silver ($25), Cabrito Reposado($20) or Pueblo Viejo Reposado ($25). Cost: $25
Liqueurs and bitters: You could skimp with things like cheap triple sec, in which case your drinks will suck. Instead, choose your needs carefully. Real Cointreau is most economical in the 1-liter size ($42). Other essentials: Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur ($28) and Campari ($24). Buy others in 50 ml sizes as needed; they'll stay fresher. A bottle of Angostura bitters ($6) is mandatory. Cost: $72 (Cointreau, Campari, Angostura bitters)
Vermouth: Buy small bottles; keep them in the fridge. Noilly Prat (for dry) and Martini & Rossi (for sweet) come in 375 ml sizes ($4). Cost: $8
Equipment: One steel shaker ($6) with pint-size mixing glass ($3). Jigger ($3). Bar spoon ($2). Strainer ($2.50). Cost: $16.50
Total cost: $242.50
- Jon BonnéDaiquiri
Manhattan
Mai Tai
Dry Gin Martini
Champagne Cocktail
Ramos Gin Fizz
Aviation
Negroni
Margarita
Old-Fashioned
Champagne Cocktail
Teach yourself to make the best Champagne cocktail on the face of the earth, and once you've fixed it, drink it. Toast your own self for a job well done.
The secret behind this one lies in a scant half-ounce of the very finest Cognac you have on hand. Add this to a traditional Champagne cocktail - a drink that dates back well over 150 years - and you'll know what good drinks are all about. They're about complexity, and they're about simplicity. It's that easy. And it's that intricate.
Makes 1 drink
* 1 sugar cube soaked with a few drops of Angostura bitters
* 1/2 ounce Cognac
* 5 ounces chilled Champagne
* -- Lemon twist for garnish
Instructions: Pour the ingredients into the order given in a Champagne flute. Add the garnish.
Mai Tai
Now you're going to learn how to make a mai tai, and you can't make a mai tai without orgeat syrup - mainly almonds with a hint of orange flower water. You might not find any in the convenience store on the corner, but it's not too hard to locate in a city like this. The mai tai is akin to the Ramos gin fizz in that the recipe makes it look a little daunting, but in reality it's a piece of cake. The other thing you should know about the mai tai is this: It sounds kitschy, but it tastes oh-so-serious. If you don't have the two rums called for in this recipe, ask at the liquor store for an assertive aged rum and substitute it for the full 2 ounces of rum - you won't go too far wrong.
Makes 1 drink
* 1 1/2 ounces 10 Cane rum
* 1/2 ounce Wray & Nephew overproof rum
* 1/2 ounce Grand Marnier
* 3/4 ounce orgeat syrup
* 1/2 ounce fresh lime juice
* 1 mint sprig, for garnish
Instructions: Fill a cocktail shaker two-thirds full of ice and add all of the ingredients. Shake over ice and strain into a crushed ice-filled old-fashioned glass. Add the garnish.
Negroni
If it takes you longer than 30 seconds to learn how to make a decent Negroni, you might want to think about hiring a real bartender to fix drinks when you have folk over. Repeat after me: Gin. Campari. Sweet vermouth. Equal proportions. On the rocks. Orange-wheel - or orange twist - garnish. Got it?
The incredible aspect of the Negroni that not everyone understands is that it works every time, no matter what brands of gin or sweet vermouth you use. And you can slap my wrist and call me Deborah if it doesn't also work no matter what ratios you use, too. Seriously. Go up on the gin, go up on the Campari, go up on the vermouth. These three ingredients are soul mates, and they support each other no matter how you try to fool them.
And to serve Negronis before dinner is, indeed, a thing of great beauty.
Makes 1 drink
* 1 1/2 ounces Campari
* 1 1/2 ounces sweet vermouth
* 1 1/2 ounces gin
* 1 orange wheel, or orange twist, for garnish
Instructions: Pour all of the ingredients into an ice-filled old-fashioned glass and sir briefly. Add the garnish.
Manhattan
The Manhattan is in the same ilk as the martini inasmuch as everyone has his or her own favorite way of making them, but some rules hold true for near-as-darn-it everyone when making this one: Use a goodly amount of sweet vermouth, don't spare the bitters and use a good bourbon or straight rye whiskey as your base. (Read my full take the Manhattan at sfgate.com/ZGSK.)
Balance is everything in a Manhattan, and the best way to achieve same is to taste each ingredient - bitters included - before you assemble the drink. Now let the universe take the reins, and just pour till it feels right. I prefer mine on the rocks, and if you do, too, it's best to prepare it exactly the same way you'd prepare a straight up version, then strain it into an old-fashioned glass filled with fresh ice cubes.
Makes 1 drink
* 2 ounces bourbon or straight rye whiskey
* 1 ounce sweet vermouth
* 2 to 3 dashes Angostura bitters
* 1 Luxardo maraschino cherry, for garnish
Instructions: Combine all the ingredients in a mixing glass. Add ice. Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Add the garnish.
Old-Fashioned
You'll need to know how to make a great old-fashioned if you want to impress your boss when you have her over for dinner. And get ready to put your dukes up for this one - many a cocktail geek will tell you that the only fruit that belongs in an old-fashioned is a lemon or orange twist.
Historically, they're right, but make this baby with muddled fruit, and enough Angostura bitters to make a grown man cry, and you'll win this round hands down. The secret is in the bitters. And the cherry. You do remember what I said about the cherries, right?
Makes 1 drink
* 1 sugar cube
* 3 to 5 to 7 dashes Angostura bitters
* 1 Luxardo maraschino cherry
* 1 half-wheel orange
* 3 ounces bourbon or straight rye whiskey
Instructions: Muddle the sugar, bitters, cherry and orange in an old-fashioned glass. Add ice and the whiskey. Stir briefly, for about five seconds.
Dry Gin Martini
Would you like to know how to make the quintessential dry gin martini? Me too. It's absolutely impossible to begin to tell you how to make this correctly, simply because every martini-drinking man and woman on the face of the earth has his or her own version. Even though mine happens to be the very best dry gin martini that anyone has ever tasted in the known universe, I've yet to find anyone who agrees with me. Go figure.
Here is a recipe that's not even written in soap, let alone stone. Fiddle with ratios. Choose your own gin - Beefeater, Junipero, Plymouth and Tanqueray all work. Pick whichever dry vermouth you like - so long as it's Noilly Prat. And decide for yourself whether it's an olive or a lemon twist that tickles your fancy. Just don't be silly enough to pick the lemon twist. Do try adding a dash or two or orange bitters, though. They were present when the drink was born, circa 1900, and they stayed there for about half a century, so . . .
Some people like to shake their martinis. I'm pretty sure that they have to explain themselves for this when they reach the pearly gates, so I highly recommend that you stir this baby.
Makes 1 drink
* 2 ounces gin
* 1/2 ounce dry vermouth
* 1 to 2 dashes orange bitters
* 1 olive, for garnish
Instructions: Combine all the ingredients in a mixing glass. Add ice. Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Add the garnish.
Ramos Gin Fizz
The Ramos gin fizz is one of God's gifts to the bibulous. It's not as hard to make as everyone seems to think, so this is a great drink to have up your sleeve. You'll impress the snootiest of guests if you can pull this one off, and as long as you don't get intimidated by the ingredients, it's easy.
Henry Ramos, creator of this Fizz, had his own methods of making sure that the drink was prepared correctly: He hired a bevy of bartenders who passed the shaker from one to the next until the drink reached the desired consistency. At the 1915 Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans, "35 shaker boys nearly shook their arms off, but still were unable to keep up with the demand," reported author Stanley Clisby Arthur in his book, "Famous New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix 'Em."
Guess what you have that Henry Ramos didn't have? A blender, that's what.
The Ramos Gin Fizz is not a frozen drink, so you're using the blender to get the right consistency, not to turn it into a Slurpee. The rule of thumb when making frozen drinks is use as much ice in the blender as it takes to fill the glass, but for a drink like this you'll need just half that much. They make fabulous brunch drinks. Just fabulous.
Makes 2 drinks
* 2 ounces gin
* 1 ounce cream
* 1 raw egg white
* 1/2 ounce simple syrup
* 1/2 ounce fresh lime juice
* 1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice
* 2 dashes orange flower water
* -- Club soda
* 2 half-wheels orange, for garnish
Instructions: Combine in a blender everything except for the club soda with enough ice to fill one Champagne flute, and blend until the ice is pureed. Divide the mixture between two Champagne flutes, and top each drink with a splash of club soda. Add the garnishes.
Aviation
First detailed in the nineteen teens, the Aviation has come back into vogue in recent years. When it first captured the attention of cocktailian bartenders, it was impossible to re-create the original, but now, since creme de violette, a liqueur that for a good many years was unavailable in the United States, is back on the scene, we can once again taste the drink as it was meant to be made. And the Aviation is indeed a high-flying cocktail.
I use the Rothman and Winter bottling of creme de violette, though there might be others out there that I haven't yet heard of. Maraschino-wise I'm a fan of the Luxardo brand - it's highly scented and marries very well indeed to a good gin. I like a straightforward, gutsy gin when I make Aviations. There's actually a gin called Aviation, which works well here. Otherwise I suggest you go with Beefeater, Junipero, Plymouth or Tanqueray.
The Aviation is a great drink to serve to people who are fond of telling you "I don't like gin." It tends to go down far better than a slap upside their head as you yell, "Well, it's about time you learned to like it, you . . ."
Makes 1 drink
* 1 1/2 ounces gin
* 1/2 ounce maraschino liqueur
* 1/2 ounce creme de violette
* 1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice
Instructions: Combine all the ingredients in a shaker. Add ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Daiquiri
The daiquiri is a simple drink, but when it's badly made it's an abomination. Most daiquiris served at bars are frozen and watery, and many of them contain products that taste green rather than like lime, but if you can make a good daiquiri - and you can - your guests will marvel at the frisky romp that takes place in their glasses when sugar, lime juice and a good rum get together to play. The secret is in the balance, and it's also in the rum. Use a good white rum: Appleton makes a sterling example, for instance. If you insist on Bacardi, use Bacardi 8, not its white rum. That's a rule. It's written in stone.
Makes 1 drink
* 2 ounces light rum
* 1 ounce fresh lime juice
* 1/2 ounce simple syrup
* 1 lime wedge, for garnish
Instructions: Combine all the ingredients in a shaker. Add ice. Shake and strain into an ice-filled wine glass. Add the garnish.
Margarita
The margarita is probably the most important drink to know intimately, since once you can make a margarita you'll also be able to make a sidecar, a kamikaze, even a cosmopolitan. All four of these classics have the same mainframe: three parts liquor, two parts orange-flavored liqueur, and one part fresh lime or lemon juice - with a splash of cranberry juice for the cosmo.
I tend toward Cointreau when I make margaritas, though I've been known to use Grand Marnier on occasion, too, and if that's the case I usually add a little extra lime juice to the drink to help balance the relative sweetness of that liqueur. Tequila-wise I recommend sticking to white Tequila, and try to use 100 percent agave bottlings if you want the pure peppery vegetal qualities of the spirit to shine through.
Makes 1 drink
* 1 1/2 ounces white tequila
* 1 ounce Cointreau
* 1/2 ounce fresh lime juice
Instructions: Combine all the ingredients in a shaker. Add ice. Shake and strain into a salt-rimmed (optional), chilled cocktail glass.
Gary Regan is the author of "The Joy of Mixology" and other books. E-mail him at food(a)sfchronicle.com.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/19/FDJD16V9E3.DTL
This article appeared on page E - 1 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 *
Greetings,
Russ, Sue, Alicia, Dave T and I are planning to meet this week.
Thursday, 6:30 at Arezzo in Mpls/Edina. I'm bringing wines from Piedmont
or at least in that style.
$6 per person in lieu of corkage.
Cheers,
Jim
Is Napa Valley Cabernet falling back to Earth?
Jon BonnéChronicle Wine Editor
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Given where the market for expensive wine is right now, you'd think it would be time to scoop up deals on primo Napa Cabernet.
The primo part is right, at least for the 2005 vintage still largely found on shelves. The deals part? Not so much.
Our recent Chronicle tasting of about 40 Napa Valley Cabernets in current release, almost entirely from the 2005 and 2006 vintages, had its ample share of highlights, which we'll get to in a moment. But deals were a bit harder to come by, which is our tasting was geared toward more affordable, accessible wines.
To sample this cross-section, I was joined by two panelists: Nicole Burke, wine director at Epic Roasthouse in San Francisco; and Cezar Kusik, a wine consultant at Fourcade & Hecht Wine Selections who previously was wine director for Rubicon restaurant. Both have sold more than their share of Cabernet.
Let's start with the good news. The 2005 vintage was fantastic for Napa Cabernet, with high yields and a moderate growing season that warmed in the home stretch, allowing for even, steady ripeness and late picking dates.
By contrast, 2006 was a rollercoaster: a wet, cool spring; summer heat spikes that presaged an early harvest; then an extended temperate summer that lengthened the growing season, perhaps past the point of wisdom. It was a vintage that revealed winemaking talents and shortfalls.
Those that did it right made gorgeously ripe wines, like the 2006 Tor Kenward Cimarossa Vineyard, which showed plenty of depth despite a huge structure (15.1 percent alcohol). But many expensive 2006s tasted like they'd been pushed to the limit of ripeness, with too much jam, too much oak, too much extract. Some seemed confected more than made.
Both of our panelists pointed out that the plusher, more heavily fruited style remains a big sell in restaurants - especially those of the steak-friendly variety. Even in that context, however, many examples were too lavished with oak to want to drink. If recent claims of winemaking restraint are true, we might have to wait until the 2007 vintage to see it. Certainly the alcohol levels and thick gobs of fruit didn't give much indication.
It's no surprise, then, that many 2005s are still in the market, especially given the near-stagnant pipeline for high-end wine. It seems many restaurants and retailers are thinning their inventories and not acquiring a whole lot more. With a slow market for expensive wine, and an uneven vintage sitting in the wings, these may not be the cheeriest of times along Highway 29.
But if the top end of Napa Cabernets faces a headwind - and I suspect there's a limited number of tears to be shed on that front - there's clearly an opportunity for less expensive labels to get some exposure. We found at least a half-dozen under $50 wines that are worth drinking now. This essentially dials back price tags to when Napa wines felt like more of an affordable luxury.
Among the names in this cheaper category, we found a mix of familiar and new. The 2006 Napa Valley bottling from Buehler followed its consistent quality tradition for this more basic effort from largely purchased fruit. Conn Creek, the longtime brand owned by Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, offered solid value, as did wines from Trinchero and Chappellet. On the other hand, the 2007 The Table - can it possibly be time for 2007s yet? - from newly unveiled Once Wines, a sister entity to the Evening Land Vineyards project, shows exceptional winemaking (from Sashi Moorman of Stolpman Vineyards) for under $30.
If you're still hunting 2005s, there is no shortage of good wine to stock up. Looking back to our tasting last November, we found standouts from Corison, Round Pond, Caymus and more. And in coming months, you're likely to find the 2005s at ever more discounted prices.
I often point out to Cabernet producers that they should remember how much competition exists around the world - never more than at times like these, when the pride of place meets the humility of the pocketbook. So to find affordable quality in the Cabernet mother lode that is Napa Valley strikes me as a truly hopeful sign.
As to those who can't or won't adjust their prices to the current reality - yes, even in a realm where over 60 tons of Cabernet sold last year above $20,000 per ton - an Icarus moment may not be far off.
E-mail comments to jbonne(a)sfchronicle.com.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/12/FDJD16TSQE.DTL
This article appeared on page E - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
Where to get a taste of Napa's cult Cabs
Jon BonnéSunday, April 12, 2009
It's easier to schedule a Vanity Fair cover shoot than get a dozen of Napa Valley's biggest stars in the same room. But Karen Williams and David Stevens of St. Helena's Acme Fine Wines make a habit of getting these folks on speed-dial. Now they've coordinated a tasting with winemakers like Andy Erickson (Leviathan, Arietta), Heidi Barrett (La Sirena, Lamborn), Russell Bevan (Showket, Dry Stack) and Philippe Melka (Vineyard 29).
Not all their projects will be featured - no Screaming Eagle, sorry - but each is scheduled to tote along at least three; Celia Masyczek is set to bring nine, including bottles from Lindstrom, Keever and Scarecrow. The $175 price tag may feel extravagant, but with more than 50 wines, and the chance to chat up Napa's current A-team, the Acme folks have raised the stakes.
The Acme Atelier tasting is from 1 to 4 p.m. April 25 at 1080 Fulton Lane, St. Helena. Tickets are $175 at (707) 963-0440 or www.acmefinewines.com.
- Jon Bonnéhttp://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/12/FDJD16VVV2.DTL
Napa Valley Cabernet
Jon BonnéSunday, April 12, 2009
Chateau Montelena Napa Cabernet.
2005 Bardessono Maxine's Vineyard Yountville Cabernet Sauvignon ($60) Tom Bardessono's family has been growing grapes in Yountville for decades, and this vineyard is named for his mother, who still resides there. Lots of big, ripe fruit, with an inviting nose highlighted by cocoa, graphite and dust. Lighter cassis and deeper plummy notes provide a full palate defined by equally ripe tannin. Subtle for its notably deep-fruited style.
2006 Chappellet Signature Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon ($42) Chappellet's trademark effort, made by Phillip Corallo-Titus, shows the hefty ripeness of Pritchard Hill fruit even in a leaner year. An upfront, generous wine, with oak-tinged plum, plus dried branch on the finish. The well-robed structure still reveals plenty of backbone.
2005 D.R. Stephens Estate Moose Valley Vineyard Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon ($125) Big and sultry, this effort made by Celia Masyczek from fruit near St. Helena is dominated by chocolate, pencil lead and deep black fruit. Lifted bright mineral and citrus add more depth, and it's gripping and rich across the palate. Give it four to five years or more to improve, but this is full-bore (15.1 percent alcohol) spare-no-cost Napa Cab, and it all pays off. The 2005 Hunnicutt ($48), from Stephens general manager Justin Hunnicutt Stephens, caught our attention, though a dried-fruit character divided the group.
2006 Robert Craig Affinity Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon ($48) With fruit from the Mount George area east of the city of Napa, the winery's Left Bank-style blend, with a bit of Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot in the mix, outperforms for the price. A clean, pure Cabernet nose: graphite, cassis, hints of dried citrus peel to brighten things. Polished and sleek, with a lingering sweetness to the finish.
2005 Conn Creek Limited Release Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon ($25) Quite a pleasant surprise, as the Conn Creek wines have been lost in the background noise for a long time. Clearly a lighter style, which is no surprise given the price and sourcing from vineyards throughout the valley, and perhaps a bit mellow given the extra year's time in barrel for a wine of this price. But with dusty intrigue and solid, ripe Cabernet notes of bright black berry and cassis, this once-popular label is getting good fruit and worth watching again.
2006 Trinchero Chicken Ranch Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon ($30) The Trinchero family may have sold off their ranch winery facility, but they've kept access to the fruit from this 28-acre parcel just south of St. Helena. Earthy overtones of graphite and loam dominate at first, but with plenty of ripe black fruit and dried herb. A more textural, low-key style from an often overlooked name.
2006 Buehler Vineyards Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon ($28) A classic, approachable Napa Cab, with savory tones of black olive, coffee and toasted plum. Tannins are generous and tight, and there's mineral lift for nuance. Ready to drink now, Buehler remains one of the top deals in Napa Cabernet.
2005 Chateau Montelena Estate Calistoga Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon ($135) Montelena's benchmark estate bottling is exuberant in this banner year, with a ripe nose showing typical cassis and pencil shavings. A hint of dry herb rounds out a full, elegant package that underscores Napa's potential for complexity when done right. Should last a dozen years or more.
2006 Tor Kenward Cimarossa Vineyard Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon ($75) Winemaker Jeff Ames again coaxes remarkable power and nuance from this mountainside vineyard, thanks in part to 18 months in a mix of French oak. Its signature cinnamon aroma steps forward on a complex violet-tinged nose. Racy black fruit and cassis fill the palate. Strong and precise, it's an outstanding example of how complexity can emerge in the modern Napa profile.
2007 Once Wines The Table Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon ($28) Still a baby, in this case birthed as a part of the Once project, which brings together sommeliers to make wines for both their wine lists and retail stores. Made by Sashi Moorman, this is the result of a 2008 blending session involving Larry Stone and a handful of superstar wine directors at sommelier Daniel Johnnes' La Paulee tasting. What do you get in Cab blended at a Burgundy event? Eighteen percent Cabernet Franc adds more blue fruit to the mix, with sweet figgy aromas and raspberry. Juicy, fresh and ready for the near-term.
2005 Terra Valentine Spring Mountain District Cabernet Sauvignon ($38) The oak's a bit forward now, but Terra Valentine's mountain vineyard wines have no shortage of tannic structure, so this can easily be laid down to mellow. Rich coffee, savory black olive and charred blackberry on the nose, with a rich, dense palate that moves to toast and fine, hefty tannins.
- J.B.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/12/FDJD16TSQB.DTL
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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 *
FYI
----- Forwarded message from Alicia Anderson <sauternes76(a)gmail.com> -----
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Date: Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:02:22 -0500
Subject: Need to post something - please help
From: Alicia Anderson <sauternes76(a)gmail.com>
To: "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu>
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Hi Jim,
I am hoping that you would help me with this. I would like to put
out an email to folks in the Barn, and have had trouble doing so.
At any rate, I am on the WineFest Wine Advisory board (I think this is
my 9th year, YIKES!) and we are trying to secure some more fine wine
$50 and up for donations to pour by the glass at Winefest No 14's Fine
Wine Bar, Saturday, May 9. We are low on the following: Bubbles,
Chardonnay, Cabernet, Pinot Noir, and Rhone-Style wines, if anyone
would like to contribute. Of course, we would be grateful for any and
all wine donations of that caliber! This is a tax deductible donation
for the cause. More information about the event can be found at
http://thewinefest.com/.
Please let me know if this can be done.
Thanks and Cheers,
Alicia
----- End forwarded message -----
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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 *
