Several varietals are produced in a late harvest fashion not just Zin. Why not ban those as well? Flavors and tastes are the opinion of the consumer, if someone likes a “hot” or high alcohol content wine then it is their choice. All wine shop proprietors, especially a succesful one like Corti knows this. When he then retracts his standing to carry certain brands, further proof is found in the fact that he is not devout on the decision.

However he has made a great decision in coming up with this hair brained scheme for it has been picked up by many media sources!

BTW, I wrote about Randy Dunn’s letter to consumers, asking them to go for lower alcohol. The story first appeared in Appellation America, and I applaud Dunn for this move. Which I’m sure is filling his inbox with nastygrams.

EvWg

Bah humbug. I’ve had many higher alcohol Zinfandels that blow the lesser ones out of the water. I hardly ever go through a bottle of any wine in one day and many of them get better on day two.

Wine is a subjective product and never is the mantra that the customer is always right ring more true then with this art form. I don’t think a blanket ruling to eliminate any wine should be made, judging each wine individually is far more sensible and reasonable.

Now if we were talking about white Zinfandel I might have to reconsider my opinion!

What if his opinion is that Italian reds aren’t satisfying? Does he stop selling Italian reds?

My idea of a really good bottle of wine is one that *I* like and that complimets the food I am eating with it.
In MY opinion…

1) He will continue to sell Amarone (can be over 16.5% alcohol) because they are made that way. Which suggests that other winemakers make high alcohol wines by accident! Head scratcher, that one!

2) He will sell wines above 14.5% if a customer asks for it. Just ask Mike Officer about the call he got from Corti seeking to buy one of his Zinfandels. Carlisle wines are not alcohol shy, and not below 14.5%. The 2003 Sonoma County Zin I had last week was 15.8%!

3) If he is served a wine above 14.5% and he likes it he may buy it. After all as he said “I made the rule, I can break it.”

Yes, Darrell Corti has driven a stake into the high alcohol fracture; not actually sure what that means but it sounds graphic. Its just that the fracture seems to shift so much its hard to figure out where he is aiming. A medal for inconsistency. Hanged, drawn and quartered for not providing his customers with the full spectrum of wine options.

AVwineguy - his choice! It has at least gotten his store some free publicity. Other stores “ban” general categories of wine (e.g. you can’t get a Rioja at Italian Wine Merchants) but this has novelty value of driving a stake into the high alc fracture.

Mark - True enough. I guess he’s just particularly up in arms about Cali wines. No mention of Australia or Spain…

From the article:

There will be no exceptions…
(snip)
Some say, “You sell Amarone, which is over 16.5.” Yes, but they’re made to be like that.

And a Turley zin isn’t made to be like IT is? Ahh, hypocrisy.

More power to him, as a businessman, to make decisions based on his tastes, and if it works out for him, great. But his logic has some holes in it.

How’s that for a middle position?

Has anyone else noticed how difficult it is to find the alcohol level on many bottles these days? Some producers are even resorting to printing the degree level in a print color that is practically off-white. Beware of ‘ghost’ alcohol listings…

But you said yesterday that I looked like a Bush in that illustration–so why not act like one too?

Polls are for yay or nay. Post a comment for nuance! Harrumph! (And surely there is room for nuance here–amarone anyone?!?)

Are you suggesting that high-alc Zin fans like to go Medieval on their foes?