Dr Vino’s wine blog

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I recently stumbled on this olde tyme ad from Sonoma (in the Yalumba winery museum in Australia of all places).

In case you can’t read it, the ad says “Sonoma Valley Sobriety Test #1: If you can’t say Gundlach-Bundschu Gewurztraminer, then you shouldn’t be driving!”

I’d venture to say that both the Gun-Bun marketing and Sonoma sobriety tests have changed.

SPIT: causation!
Does moderate alcohol consumption make people lead healthier lives? That’s what research has suggested since as early as 1924. But now some researchers are now suggesting that otherwise healthy people might just enjoy a glass of wine every night making it correlation not causation. Eegad! Time to pour a glass of wine to mull this over. [NYT]

SIPPED: Hannibal Lecter
A study of 2,000 US and 1,000 UK wine consumers found strong knowledge of Bordeaux, Champagne and Burgundy but recognition of the Barossa Valley in Australia and Marlborough in New Zealand was weak. When participants were asked to free associate when presented the name “Marlborough” most American respondents said “cigarettes.” And when shown “Chianti” many replied “Silence of the lambs.” Hannibal Lecter FTW! (See the full presentation here as pdf)

SIPPED: Canadian Chardonnay
Stephen Spurrier presided over a blind tasting in Montreal akin to the Paris Tasting of 1976 that pitted American wines against French wines. The Société des alcools du Québec (SAQ) organized the event, inviting “Quebec’s top wine writers and sommeliers” as judges to reenact the Paris tasting. But they threw in come ringer wines from Canada, Australia and New Zealand in the Chardonnay category–and the Canadian Chardonnay, Le Clos Jordanne from the Niagara Escarpment, came out on top. “The result may redraw the global wine map, just as the Judgment of Paris did 33 years earlier,” opines CNN/Fortune. Le Clos Jordanne is owned by Constellation Brands (NYSE: STZ).

SPIT: Ladybug taint
Have you ever had the dreaded ladybug taint? Perhaps you know it as methoxypyrazines. Well, anyway. Scientists have now found that wine in Tetra Pak (aseptic cartons) can reduce that aroma. But, caution: the packaging is not good for aging! [NewScientist]

In Memorium: Johnny Hugel (Hugel) and Paul Avril (Clos des Papes)

Although I’d like this photo post to speak 1,000 words on its own, I’ll add a few of explanation.

In the foreground, Dean Hewitson stands in the Old Garden vineyard, which was planted in 1853 and grows today without irrigation. As you can see, the bush vines lie in unruly rows since they aren’t trellised. I tried the 2002 Old Garden Mourvedre and it had gamey aromas characteristic of the grape, as well as dark fruits and smooth sweet tannins. (find this wine; I’ll have to stick it in a blind tasting of mourvedres if I do one of those again.)

In the photo, the lights visible on the hill beyond Dean are illuminating the vast Orlando (Jacob’s Creek) wine making facility. Consider it a study in contrast.

We visited the vineyard at dusk and on the way back to the car, I heard a kookaburra laugh echo across the vineyard. For all you birders out there, you can see/hear the kookaburra here.

I’ll be in Chicago at the end of the month for a Saturday seminar at the University of Chicago Graham School. The class will explore in greater depth some of the themes related to my book Wine Politics: How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters and Critics influence the Wines We Drink. We’ll also be tasting through some excellent wines as we have done in previous installment of this course. No previous knowledge of wine is necessary and the session is non-degree and noncredit. It’s Saturday, June 27, 2:30 - 6:30 PM just off Michigan Avenue. Registration and details.

On another book related note, in case you are puzzling what to get for Father’s Day, I’m happy to reinstate my offer of signed gift copies. Send me via PayPal the amazon price, tax, and shipping (say, $25) of either Wine Politics or the practical guide, A Year of Wine: Perfect Pairings, Great Buys, and What to Sip for Each Season (which actually has more wine-related Father’s Day gift ideas in it), and I’ll send a copy of either book inscribed as you please to whatever domestic address you like. So much more interesting than a tie! Don’t delay since Father’s Day is rapidly approaching! There’s also a Kindle edition of A Year of Wine but I can’t sign that one for you without smudging your screen.

Eyebrows arching, James Halliday spots an opening and intercepts the ball. He dribbles to the other end of the court, pulls up for a jumper right before the three point line, shoots, and scores! Orlando over the Lakers at the buzzer!

Okay, Halliday, the 71 year old former vintner and author of some fifty wine books, wasn’t really in the NBA finals. But a tasting last week in the Barossa Valley did showcase some of Australia’s most amazing wines of all time. By showcasing talent old and new, it was kind of like one of those sports questions about who would be better head-to-head, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar vs LeBron James or Hank Aaron vs A-Rod kind of thing. While the younger wines showed some flash, for me it was the seniors that stole the show. Read more…

I recently had the excellent fish and chips at Doyle’s in Sydney. Unfortunately, I wolfed it down before snapping a pic but I found another similar one on flickr.

We haven’t done one of these “impossible” pairings for a while. What with such nontraditional calorie bombs as the bacon explosion and the oreo tower under our proverbial belts already, perhaps we should ease back into this theme with something a little, er, lighter (albeit not by much) or at least more conventional.

So have at it: which wine would you pair with fish and chips? Or is it…impossible?!?

The whole concept of Pinot under $20 is enough to make some Burghounds shudder. But it is a topic of recurring interest to everyone at the Dr. Vino World Headquarters with its high concentration of frugal pinotphiles.

I recently had the $19 Nicolas Potel 2006 Bourgogne rouge and found it a great value, lean, old world pinot. In previous vintages, I’ve enjoyed value Pinots from Austria (e.g. Stadlmann) and Italy’s alto Alto Adige region (e.g. Hofstatter) as well. And I’ve had some good new world Pinot under $20, such as the “H” Pinot Noir from Hamacher in Oregon. (search for these wines)

What about you? Have your say in our latest poll!

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I’m back from the fantastic Landmark Australia Tutorial. Above is a picture of (some of) the wines opened during the tremendous five days. Yes, it’s 249 bottles of wine on the wall!

Over the next few days and weeks, I’ll be posting on and off some of highlights of the conference/event, sharing my new found knowledge. Really, I could post about each and every session since they were all so interesting and informative. But I’m not turning this into an Australian wine blog (though I do wonder why there isn’t one of those focusing on the lesser-known wines; it could even be called “beyond the fruit bomb”). If you’d like to have a similar experience applications are apparently now open for the Tutorial in 2010.

After the jump, check out the above lineup in motion as I walked down the line with the video rolling. Also, check out a complete list of wines, broken down by session. Read more…

SIPPED and SPIT: rosé! Controversy continues to swirl around the proposed changes in the EU to allow blending rather than bleeding. We’re talking rosé, of course, which has traditionally been bled off red grapes but may soon be allowed to have the lower cost method of red being blended with white. Francois Millo, head of the Provence vintners’ association, brings this intra-European fight to the pages of the NYT with an op-ed arguing that their local “achievement should not be drowned in a flood of cheap imitations.” AFP previously reported that France, Italy, Spain and Switzerland are opposed to the practice. But Decanter reported that José Bové, in full EU electoral mode, has called the French agricultural minister a liar, saying that he failed to vote against the reform as a part of a broader package in January.
UPDATE: The European Agricultural Commissioner, Mariann Fischer Boel, has withdrawn the rose reform. [Guardian]

SWIRLED: wine tax increase
The Senate finance committee considers raising the federal excise tax on wine (and beer)–and introducing a tax on other beverages, such as soda–in the name of funding health reform. The last increase in the federal excise tax on wine was 1991, when it was increased to $1.07 a gallon for still wine under 14% alcohol. Prior to that, the rate had been stable since 1951 at $0.17 a gallon.

SPIT and SIPPED: New Vine Logistics
New Vine Logistics, a Napa-based company that provides order fulfillment to 200 wineries and may have been involved in the back end of Amazon wine, startlingly ceased operations a week ago. But faster than you could say “Chrysler,” it found an apparent savior in Inertia Beverage Group. Follow the action over at wineindustryinsight.com.

SPIT: signs as a threat to the environment
The steep hillside vineyards of Hermitage may be preserved under an environmental heritage act. Such an action could jeopardize the signs of Chapoutier and Jaboulet on those hillsides (”one of the region’s most beloved landmarks” according to the Chapoutier web site), which may have to be removed as a result.