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Yountville, CA

Temperature: 72°F
Humidity: 56.7%
Wind: NNE at 4 mph
Clouds: Clear Skies
Sunrise: 5:57 am GMT-8
Sunset: 8:14 pm GMT-8
Updated: 6:54 am GMT-8

May 2008
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Archive for the 'Wine News' Category

Sleep Deprivation in Paradise

April 26, 2008 in Vineyard Update and Wine News. 1 Comment

As our Winemaker/Vineyard Manager, Geoff, remarked “This is global warming???”

Ya gotta feel for him. It’s become a regular thing, getting up at 2:00 or 4:00 a.m. to hang out in the vineyard checking temperatures and listening to the radio until the sun’s up or he’s convinced we’re out of frost danger. Then it’s back to the winery to do some odds and ends before collapsing on his desk to catch a few zzz’s about the time the rest of us come strolling in at the leisurely hour of 9:00-ish.

Geoff blearily acknowledges “I have to count my blessings. We haven’t had any crop loss, so far, but at this point I’m about ready to sell my soul for a good night’s sleep.”

He’s absolutely right. The Napa Register has reported over a million dollars in frost damage in Napa County so far this year, the worst year for frost in about thirty years - only the old timers remember a spring like this.

The buds for clusters appear almost the moment the growing season starts, and damage begins when it drops below 32 F. Some growers protect the new growth by turning on overhead sprinklers. If they have enough water, the ice insulates the tender shoots and buds as the temperature drops. We use a wind machine, a big fan, really, which mixes the warmer air, above, with the cold air that’s settling down on the vineyard to raise the temperature a bit. In many areas of the north coast, wind machines just couldn’t cut it when faced with temperatures in the mid-twenties, but we’ve been lucky so far. Some growers don’t have any form of frost protection at all.

A local vineyard management company estimates 27 frost nights over six weeks, since the growing season began in mid March. That’s bad. But it doesn’t tell the whole story. There are all those nights when it hits the mid thirties, which requires showing up at the vineyard just in case. So, even if it doesn’t actually freeze, you’re up in the middle of the night, driving around the vineyard sipping high-octane brew out of a thermos.

A little cloud cover, or rain or a good, old-fashioned warm front would provide some very welcome relief. We’re usually out of danger by about mid-May. Keep your fingers crossed and send some No-Doze…

Global Warming: Napa Valley Cools its Heels

December 22, 2007 in Wine Education and Wine News. 0 Comments

As I dragged myself out of bed to 27 degrees F. this morning, one of many freezing mornings in recent weeks, I thought there just might be something to this very interesting article from Appellation America. There wasn’t an actual comment on winter weather but, jeepers, it’s cold!!!Anyway, to get to the point, the article quotes Dr. Andy Walker, of UC Davis, as saying what those of us who live here have noticed (and appreciated!) - that the last three growing seasons have been cool ones. Last summer’s weather was so wonderfully mild that it had a veteran grower crowing about the great conditions and predicting the vintage of the century in August, before harvest even started. Growers, wisely, tend to reserve comment until it’s all in the barn, but he may be right. It was a heckuva good harvest!!Dr. Walker thinks it’s more than a coincidence about the mild weather. As more wine grapes are planted in southern England and Germany enjoys improving fruit maturity, presumably, due to warming, he predicts that the vast, already-toasty San Joaquin Valley, in California’s interior, will heat up, too (yikes!), and work like a vacuum to pull in marine air from the Pacific into Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino and Lake Counties. That makes perfect sense. We’ve been boring you for years explaining the way the summertime heat rises in our very small valley, and then lures the cooling San Pablo Bay fog up-valley in the evening, conveniently trapped between our two mountain ranges. I guess we’re just looking at a much grander scale, here.

Global warming in Napa

Dr. Walker said that “the average temperature drop in Napa and Sonoma could well be so significant over the next few years that it could radically change the character of many wines over the next decade.” He thinks Lake and Mendocino counties will experience only a slight change - probably a relief to the Mendocino growers.

Polar Napa

Now, that might sound a little scary until you think about the hot - no pun intended topic on everyone’s lips lately - hangtime. How to get full fruit maturity without also getting outrageously high alcohols. Well, if it’s cooler it will take longer for the sugar to accumulate while we wait for flavor development and seed maturation. We won’t have to worry as much about the sugars, and therefore alcohols, climbing too high. Will the “radical change” take the form of enjoying wines with ripe, wonderful flavors that are 13 or 13.5% instead of 14 or 14.5%? Works for me! Seems to me we’re already on our way. I can hear myself reporting harvesting mature fruit and moderate sugars in recent harvest updates and Winemaker Notes. Yippee!!!Of course, water will become an even greater issue than it is now and already there’s greater discussion about dry farming and “off-dry farming”. We know that there’s a history of dry farming wine grapes in California, just because irrigation used to be so difficult, so perhaps we’ll revisit the past to plan for the future. Using rootstocks that send the roots down rather than out, more frequent cultivation and widening the spacing (again, moving forward to the past) are other recommended ways to decrease water use. It sounds like a manageable challenge if we’re smart about it and think ahead when we replant.So, I hope he’s right! I can certainly live with a cooling trend although, at the moment, I’m still waiting for my feet to thaw out on this freezing-cold first day of winter! Happy solstice!

The Next Big Thing

August 9, 2007 in Rants and Wine News. 0 Comments

I don’t like to poke fun at the Wine Lover’s Page because it’s such an incredible resource (I especially love their wine quotes page), but I was kind of chuckling over their wine nutrition charts and thinking “Too much information!”

wine nutrition facts mock-up label

But, wait. I think I feel a little egg dripping down my face. I’d barely wiped that smirk off my face when I came across this report that the Treasury Department is considering requiring charts very much like what the Wine Lover’s Page had posted. Argh!!! Do you think anyone is primarily motivated by nutrition when they elect to drink a glass of wine??? I certainly hope not! Frevvin’s sake…

The good news: if you take a look at these charts, you’ll notice the glorious absence of fat and carbs (and low cholesterol, too!). Who knew? The ultimate diet drink!

The bad news: Unfortunately, those aren’t zeros by the calorie count. Please don’t remind me…

As you read on, you basically see a bunch of zeros, which implies that wine has no nutritional value. Fair enough. Nutritional charts tend to be generic and non-specific to the particular food, just as this chart isn’t wine-specific and doesn’t include the polyphenols that seem to be so good for us. Will the Treasury Department include the goodies along with the baddies? Do we really need this information? Just asking…

I know I’ve had my moments of obsession about wine’s influence on my ever-increasingly Rubenesque physique. So, I look at wine like I do any other food and have a vague idea about how much that glass of wine is ratcheting up my daily intake. Some calories are more fun than others and I’d much rather get my calories from wine than a Coke or even a piece of boysenberry pie (ouch!). But, do I need to know that the wine in my glass has trace amounts of thiamine, riboflavin and niacin? No, I do not.

On a sort-of-related note, Pinotblogger recently posted an amusing item about how California wine makes us eat more. Yikes, what a thought!! They served the same wine to a bunch of people and told half of them that it was from California and the other half that it was a North Dakota wine. The California half ate 12% more than the other half.

North Dakota wine license plate

Of course, what’s really interesting is the psychology of the whole thing. Why is a glass of, supposedly, California wine more of an appetite stimulant and more relaxing than a glass that we think is from North Dakota (it also mentioned that folks tend to stay at the table longer when they’re told it’s California wine)? Lord knows, the ingredient labeling would look about the same. As usual, it’s all upstairs. We’re hard-wired with the idea that the California wine is better, and therefore we’re having more fun and should eat more and stick around at the table awhile longer, too.

It may not be fair, but since North Dakota’s first winery was bonded in 2002, it just doesn’t seem to get a whole lot of attention from the media. But, think of the implications there. It looks like we taste what we expect to taste - big surprise, right? Keep that in mind next time you’re contemplating breaking the bank to track down a bottle of Petrus or Maya or some other cult wine. Ah - the eternal question: just how good can a bottle of wine get?

On the other hand, here’s the next big thing! It’s the great, new wine diet! If you want to lose a few pounds but you really don’t want to give up your wine, just convince yourself that the wine’s from North Dakota. You’ll eat 12% less, probably drink less, too, and the pounds will melt away! Bon appetit!

I Can’t Keep Up, Can You?

August 3, 2007 in Wine Business and Wine News. 0 Comments

So, I’m reading as I walk back into the house with my Wednesday morning SF Chronicle and is the headline about Iraq? Something about health care? Maybe the stock market? Nope. We bay-area folk certainly have our priorities straight. The blaring headline on the front-page article was, of course, about the acquisition of Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars by St. Michelle and Antinori. The world and its problems be damned, this is important stuff. I’ll bet Jon Bonné, the Chron wine editor, never expected to see his byline on the front-page!

stags leap winery label

Read on to find out that Duckhorn, another icon, has sold controlling interest to GI Partners, a private equity firm whose investments include pubs and nursing homes (???).

duckhorn winery label

And with it came the gloom and doom predictions about the consolidation and corporatization of the romantic wine industry. Scroll down to the bottom of the article to see a list of recent transactions. I know if I try to explain any of this this to someone 6 months from now my memory will be completely garbled and I’ll get it all wrong (GI Partners??).

But, low and behold, William Hill and Canyon Road, which have been corporate owned, have also been sold - to family-owned and operated Gallo. Perhaps, correctly, you don’t think of Gallo as small family winery - well - the family is small. But they ain’t IBM either.

That’s my Wednesday story.

My Tuesday story is that yet another visitor asked me how to find some little winery I’d never heard of. A quick search reveals that it’s practically in my back yard in St. Helena. Happens all the time… I check out the wine selection at a local shop and there are Napa Valley brands that are complete strangers to me. I can’t keep up, and I live here. New wineries with great spirit and ambition, nearly always family run, continue to spring up like wildflowers in the spring around here and all over the state. Maybe this obscure little place will turn out to be the next Duckhorn!

Sure, some consolidation and changing of the guard happens. Sure, corporate ownership can spell the end of the artisan approach. But, it depends on the corporation. Coca Cola got in and out of the wine business in a flash, presumably because you can’t turn around a wine “product” like you can a bottle of coke. St. Michelle is a wine corporation that appears to be doing a bang-up job and has been a key player, if not THE key player in putting Washington wine on the map (2^nd biggest producer in the US!). Can’t vouch for GI partners…

So, who can keep up with all these acquisitions and new brands? I guess my point is that it’s hard for me to see the tragedy in Warren Winiarski making a decision to retire and selling his beloved winery to a responsible organization in the absence of an heir to carry the torch. To paraphrase him, it’s kind of like seeing your daughter get married. There are mixed emotions, but it’s inevitable.

Warren Winiarski

We’re a long way from becoming a buttoned-down bunch of suits here in the valley. So, happy retirement to Mr. Winiarski, and well deserved! And, for the rest of us - not to worry.

Global Warming and our Future?

July 5, 2007 in Wine Education and Wine News. 0 Comments

For those of us who lie awake worrying that Yountville may become the next Fresno due to global warming there’s good news (I think). Recently the Napa Valley Grapegrowers got together for a conference called “The Future of Napa Valley: Beyond Hang Time.” They spent some time on the potential effects of global warming and of course talked about the ever-present hangtime issue itself.

global warming

When you read that more and more people are planting wine grapes in England due to climate change, you can seriously start to wonder about the future of a region that already errs on the warm side. However, as with most things in life, generalizations don’t always work. Like winegrowing itself, it’s site specific.

southern England

So here’s the not-so-scary-sounding forecast from those who are in a better position to know than most:

Number one, the soils ain’t gonna change for the next 100 to 1000 years unless there’s a whopper of an intervention by the Gods or man since, as Dr. Deborah Elliot-Fisk of UC Davis pointed out, “The soils in Napa Valley are 100,000 years old.” She predicts the soils will be stable, except for possibly decreased soil moisture due to warmer temperatures. Sounds like more drought-resistant rootstock is in our future and smart, strategically-timed irrigation practices will be essential so we don’t run through our water supply.

Number two falls in the “people are funny” category and produced my favorite quote from the session. Regarding temperature change and perceived quirky weather patterns, Dr. Rick Snyder of UC Davis said: “All my life people have been saying the weather is unusual.” Yup. I’ve heard a number of people blame this year’s low rainfall on climate change, totally forgetting that we had nearly double our normal rainfall in 2006.

But he foresees climate change, as does Dr. Elliot-Fisk. She predicts that the warmer temperatures in the upper Napa Valley may shift south a little not necessarily meaning hotter hots, but making a bigger percentage of the valley warmer. Good-bye to Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and bubbly?? She says the mountaintops will either stay the same or cool slightly due to increased fog. It may be that the state of California overall will be warmer by about 5 degrees Fahrenheit by 2055 to 2075, with 15 more days of temperatures over 90 degrees. But with our marine influence and Dr. Elliot-Fisk’s predicted increase in fog, the California model won’t necessarily be the Napa Valley reality.

Dr. Snyder summarized the results of a study on Napa Valley weather patterns between 1917 and 2006 and came to the conclusion that “From a grower’s standpoint, the weather has actually improved in Napa.” It shows an increase in the average low temperatures for January and also an increase in average high temperatures at harvest time. But the study shows less risk of extreme rainfall or extreme high or low temperatures today than we had prior to 1988. Living here, it’s hard to believe, but he said there’s been less flooding recently than in the past. Dr. Snyder added that “It’s the extremes that hurt you, not averages”.

The dueling Drs. seem to think that these are manageable changes as long as our viticultural practices shift along with the change.

professional wine grape pickers

Of course, these are projections and none of it is certain. But it’s easier to sleep at night, cooled by the evening fog, minus the nightmares about Yountville’s future as the next raisin capital of the world. More on the hangtime issue to come.

Good-bye, Mr. Gallo

March 10, 2007 in Observations and Wine News. 0 Comments

It’s hard to believe he’s gone. He’s one of those people who appears to be indestructible. And yet, the services take place this very day.

Ernest Gallo Photo

As so many have said, regardless of what you might think of his business practices or the wines, you have to admire what he and his brother built from virtually nothing. I was very lucky to get a rare peek at Gallo headquarters in Modesto many years ago. One thing you can never forget is a tank (not in use at that time) that holds a million gallons! And when is the last time you toured a winery in a van? The compound is so massive that walking it is impractical. How many wineries are so large that they find it best to make their own bottles???? Part of the tour was a run through the dizzying blur of activity in their bottle factory. And now that behemoth is only one of a number of facilities around California and the globe.

Gallo Facility

With very little money or knowledge, using winemaking books they borrowed from the Modesto public library, they created what became the largest winery in the world. Constellation passed them up recently, but you can’t really compare the two companies. Gallo is a privately held, family company that built dozens of brands as opposed to a large, public company that became a colossus mainly by way of acquisition. We used to always say “If the label says Modesto, whether or not it says Gallo, it’s Gallo!”

Many view Ernest Gallo as the single most influential figure in California wine history. His good friend, Robert Mondavi, summed it up nicely: “Ernest was a visionary. He was committed to making America a wine-drinking country.” That’s reason enough to honor the passing of a perhaps controversial businessman, but ultimately, someone who contributed immeasurably to re-building the industry following prohibition and to the success we all enjoy today.

Millennials, Gen X and “Rich, Old White People”

February 24, 2007 in Selling Wine, Wine Business and Wine News. 0 Comments

There were a couple of articles this week - one on the demise of Wine X magazine and the other on the purchasing habits of the Millennials– that seemed to be sending the same message in very different ways.

WineX Banner

Of course, theories abound as to why Wine X folded after 10 years. Wine X founder and editor, Darryl Roberts, was quoted as saying ‘The wine industry says it’s interested in young adults but spends all of its ad and promo money targeting the same people it’s been targeting for the past 30 years - rich, old white people.’

While no one would accuse Wine X of marketing to that demographic description, I wonder how well they were reaching today’s up and coming wine drinkers, the Millennials. Perhaps this Gen-Xer has failed to speak meaningfully to his intended market. I think we’re all guilty of thinking that we’re cool enough and smart enough to know how to communicate with and market to younger generations, but we’re probably fooling ourselves. It may be a hard realization for Roberts, but getting old is hell. Ten years have gone by and perhaps he and his staff failed to reach their target group because their leader must be looking at 40 candles here pretty soon and his world view is somewhat different than that of his intended readers.

He certainly evidenced a glaring blind spot by focusing on glossy print media to reach out to this generation. Of course there’s a website, but it has the look of something that’s trying to promote the hard copy. I like to think that these wine-intrigued 20-somethings are reading this blog right now instead.

The evidence indicates that as a generation the Millennials like wine and they’re curious about it. That’s good. But we Californians better wake up and smell the Zinfandel, and soon, because evidently these folks are far more inclined to shop around in other parts of the world for their wine than prior generations. That’s potentially bad. The San Francisco Chronicle stated that “Twelve percent of both Baby Boomer and Generation X wine drinkers bought imports, compared with 32 percent for the Millennial generation…” and added that there are 70 million Millennials in the United States, compared with 44 million Gen Xers and 77 million Boomers.

Now, we can assume that this has something to do with price. The Boomers and increasingly Gen-X will spend more per bottle than the average Millennial because most of us have long since finished paying off student loans and are established in our careers. But attitudes and habits that are developed now are likely to persist as time goes by. If we want these new consumers to shop for fine wine from California in the future we’d better gain their loyalty by offering them a good value and do our homework on how to market and package it right now. My hat’s off to Don Sebastiani and Sons for leading the charge in the under $15.00 range. And Three Thieves has a new brand with a page on MySpace.

Regarding marketing, Karen Ross of the California Association of Winegrape Growers said that “Every major wine-producing country has an aggressive program in the United States, and California needs to make sure there is a California message out there.” She said the association is launching a public relations campaign focused on “informing U.S. wine consumers and wine trade media of the vineyard practices that add value to California wines.” Sounds pretty sexy, huh? Hmmm. We haven’t been very good at this in the past. Can we possibly come up with the wine equivalent of “got milk”?

It seems to me that Wine X had the right concept: make it fun and informal. Lose the elitism and the snootiness. Perhaps they just lost their way. And perhaps there’s some truth to Roberts’ assertions that we’ve been overly attentive to those “rich, old white people” to the detriment of building a future with this new consumer base.

The market potential is there. The challenge is there. Let’s hope we can rise to the occasion.

A Fire at Winecast

February 12, 2007 in Wine News. 2 Comments

Our thoughts are with our great friend at Winecast, Tim Elliot. His home, family and wine cellar were at risk due to a fire caused by his plumber last night (talk about a bad day…).

He has posted an update this morning and, to our great relief, he and his family are fine. So is his wine! He’s remarkably philosophical about the soggy mess he’s left with.

Please send him your best wishes!

Have Some Fish Wine with your Fish

January 15, 2007 in Rants and Wine News. 0 Comments

Why don’t we just put a warning label on everything that says “Life is dangerous.” Already our wine labels warn us about sulfites, birth defects and unspecified “health problems” and now we have to list fining agents? Which aren’t really ingredients at all?

There’s actually a draft for a new federal regulation that will require that if we fine with egg whites, isinglass or casein we state that the wine contains eggs, fish or milk respectively. I hope we still have room on the label for the name of the producer, region and variety.

We all know that the most dangerous thing about wine, by far, is the alcohol, but by all means, let’s talk about milk protein! This stuff drives me crazy for a number of reasons.

One is the government as nursemaid thing. It’s so embarrassing…

Another is that the burden of proof that these fining agents aren’t actually ingredients is on the producers, yet according to the Wine Institute “there are no methods available for testing the presence of eggs, milk, wheat or fish in wine…” But, we all know that the fining agents are added to remove something else. If there’s any trace left, it’s minute. If they insist on a regulation like this they should establish the level at which the substance must be listed as an ingredient, like the 10 parts per million for sulfites, and devise a way to measure it.

And that leads to the confusion issue. Many winemakers feel this requirement is misleading, since the fining agents aren’t actually ingredients. I hope no one expects to benefit from the calcium in casein! But, following the history of sulfites and labeling, folks will think we’re the only ones who make wine with fish (or clay or milk protein) if we’re the only ones with the labeling requirement. Yuck! Talk about a marketing issue.

And that leads to competing in the global market. This can’t be good for sales, plus it raises labeling costs. I can almost hear our competitors snickering in disbelief. Of course ultimately, regulations like this hurt all of us.

This, from a country that permits blending wine from Australia into “American Wine.”

But, it’s still only a draft. If I understand it correctly, the comment period is over and some kind of decision will be made by the end of the year. Perhaps reason will prevail…

And Now, it’s Procyanidins!

November 23, 2006 in Wine News. 0 Comments

So, we’ve just gotten past the resveratrol craze and realized we’d have to drink enough wine to kill us to get the benefit (although now they say it might also help to prevent strokes–stay tuned). And now it’s procyanidins, which apparently are condensed tannins found in red wine that are thought to be beneficial to blood vessels and arteries. So, it’s back to the old polyphenol story, which is also the resveratrol story, which is also the French Paradox story. It seems it’s all about anti-oxidants.

Yippee! We can add this very positive piece of news to the growing heap of data about the potential benefits of drinking a little red wine every day. Even if a bunch of studies come out to contest the efficasy of procyanidins next week, it’s great publicity.

Now, this stuff, I just love: “Wines richest in these tannins had the greatest protective effect on the cells and were from regions - Sardinia and southwest France - that use Old World winemaking techniques.” This, according to a story in WebMD (and everywhere!) regarding a study done at the William Harvey Research Institute at the Queen Mary’s School of Medicine and Dentistry in England.

I’m not questioning the results of the research, which found these wines to have significantly higher levels of procyanidins than the other wines they tested. It’s just that these generalizations kind of annoy me. The thing is, with global communication, you can find old-world and high-tech winemaking happening side-by-side in virtually any wine-producing region in the world these days.

Another article on the subject said that there’s an unusually high percentage of centenarians in Madiran, a wine-producing region in southwestern France. Perhaps that explains the old-world approach to winemaking? Presumably their longevity is a testament to drinking lots of dark, tannic Madiran wine.

Madiran

So, now the poor retailers have to scramble to track down and stock the formerly somewhat obscure wines of Madiran and reds from Sardinia, just as health-food stores are struggling to keep resveratrol supplements on the shelves.

Anyway, I suspect this has more to do with the grape varieties used, and less with the winemaking techniques. There was a reference to 21-day skin contact times in Madiran winemaking. Well, that’s not unusual for a good Napa Valley Cab, though it may be lower in procyanidins even so. I don’t know.

Southern France

Then, finally, they mention that the red grape variety of choice in Madiran is Tannat, a variety almost unique to southwest France. According to Jancis Robinson, “Young Tannat can be so deeply coloured and tannic that it recalls Nebbiolo.” Hmmm. I wonder if they did any tests on Barolo?

Whatever… Of course, we all like to hear good news about the benefits of drinking red wine. As the article said: “Several studies have shown that moderate drinkers of red wine have less heart disease than non-drinkers” and, if true, it’s good for for all of us, producers and consumers. As much as has been written about polyphenols, you begin to think there might be something to it. Even if reports on what’s good or bad for us change as often the weather.

Me, I drink wine, whatever its color, because I like it. But the message is clear: whatever else you consume, be sure and drink a glass or two of red wine a day. It could be good for our health, and we KNOW it enhances our lives and, of course, our sense of well-being! Bottoms up!