[wine] Top 5 ways to improve CA wine

OK, so just 5 ways... "top" is inferred. 5 ways to improve California wine Jon BonnéSunday, July 3, 2011 Last Independence Day, I set out five themes to define California wine (see sfg.ly/myxL7s). That seemed like a savvy July 4 tradition to continue, so I sifted through my past year's notes to devise another five. Again, these aren't about how to build a more perfectly generic Merlot. There are about how independent vintners can carve a better path to the future. And so, five more ways to continue the roll of innovation. 1. Take white wine seriously. There's a quiet cynicism about white wine - a school of thought is that no serious wine drinker will dabble in it, aside from the occasional overwrought Chardonnay. Ridiculous. Sure, there have been failures of white-wine ambition - anyone still shelling out for white Meritage? - and whites will always struggle for attention in a market where Cab and Pinot get all the glory. But the seas of bad Pinot Grigio and Sauvignon Blanc, the ho-hum Rieslings and all that bionic Chardonnay are sad testament to what California vintners think of white-wine lovers. Enough. Some of the most compelling winemaking is taking place in white wine, whether it's fermenting Sauvignon Blanc in small steel barrels to finesse its texture or the arrival of old-vine white field blends from places like Sonoma's Compagni Portis vineyard. (Even in the supermarket, a blend like Big House White acknowledges the potential of forward-thinking whites.) There's ever more energy behind Vermentino and Grenache Blanc and Albarino, any of which could make a bid to transcend their niche status. The wine-drinking world has signaled that red-wine bias isn't there; Nielsen Co. data show as much white being bought as red (55 million cases this past year). So give whites their due. 2. Stop the AVAs. What was the original purpose of an American Viticultural Area? To delineate somewhere with unique winegrowing properties. Point being, there was a time when you made wine, built a reputation for a locale and then tried to get that reputation protected by law - usually in order to preserve your franchise. Now the appellation application comes first; if you're lucky, reputation follows. You might agree that newly approved Coombsville has earned a reputation as a happy slice of Napa. Maybe the Annapolis area of the Sonoma Coast has ample cachet. But has the Lake County area of Big Valley (southeast of Lakeport), now preparing to submit its application, set the world alight? Not to target them; dozens of obscurities dot the AVA map. (Quick: Where's Covelo?) Even the federal government seems to be wary of the hinky politics behind the flood of applications. The geography geek in me has a soft spot for AVAs. Wine is all about place, and a regulatory system exists to affirm that. But let's momentarily pause and return to the hard part: building a reputation that earns a place name on a bottle. 3. Let the Pinot thing go. So Pinot was - maybe still is - the next great hope for California wine. The best of California Pinot has unquestionably earned a place at the table with Burgundy. We know that consumers want a $10 bottle of Pinot, and we know what might be required to make that happen (see sfg.ly/9M1nBE ). Now let's move on. Pinot was always meant to be special; the best way to honor it is to stop trying to turn it into confected, cheap wine. Let's exalt the beauty of grapes that do well in a $10 bottle rather than trying to use silk to sew a dishrag. In other words, let Pinot go back to being Pinot. Find another grape to overexpose. That probably will be Malbec, though let's pray that California doesn't think it's wise to take on Argentina in a race to the bottom. 4. Redefine the estate. A great tragedy of California's Wine Country is the ridiculous price now required for an enterprising vintner to buy a little slice of heaven. The prospect of an estate winery, which contains its own vineyards, has become a bauble for the well-off or well-financed. Thus we have lived for at least a decade amid a disconnect, in which those with the knowledge to make amazing wine are often the least able to control that process from budbreak to bottle - which might be why "estate bottled" has fallen into irrelevancy. I won't be so foolish as to suggest that land prices spin down. But those making wine in warehouses and sheds are trying harder than ever to control their entire farming process; consider arrangements like those made by the owners of the tiny Anthill Farms label to help farm the Abbey Harris site in Anderson Valley. You may not own the soil, but just as leaseholding has long existed in France's vineyards, you can still work it yourself. One of the most stubborn gaps in California wine is between grower and winemaker. With a new generation of winemakers who very much want to farm, but can't acquire their own land, now's the time to reconsider that gap by encouraging winemakers to hop on the tractor. 5. Simplify. Winemaking costs money. Want wood flavor? Those oak chips (to say nothing of barrels) add to the bottom line. Picked at the wrong time? All that de-alcoholization and acid addition is an added expense. In the spirit of giving a nickel for each time "great wine is made in the vineyard" has been uttered, it's time for winemakers to practice the essence of that phrase - and simplify their jobs. So: Grow better fruit (or work with growers to improve their practices) and fine-tune your picking decisions; aim for a balance of flavor so that fruit doesn't need to be tweaked in the winery; put your basic wines in simple steel tanks and your fancy stuff in whatever you think it requires; stop turning every wine into a science project. Have faith that California can grow fruit that requires no repair. Of course there are vintages that go awry and need high-tech help. Witness Germany's 2010 vintage, when outrageous acid levels forced many noninterventionist winemakers to de-acidify, usually with aghast looks on their faces. But these efforts should be a rare exception, not the rule. The bonus? You'll spend a lot less money fixing bad decisions later. Jon Bonnés The Chronicle's wine editor. Find him at jbonne(a)sfchronicle.com or @jbonne on Twitter. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/07/03/FDR71K4B5H.DTL