Dr Vino's wine blog

Both UC San Diego and San Diego State announced this week that they are offering craft beer classes–for credit, not in dorm rooms. Much to their credit, the press release actually had a beer pong joke. Then it pointed to the commercial opportunities in the $300 million a year craft beer industry.

On a related note, I’m thrilled to be teaching my first-ever wine class for credit later next month. I know, what if a student gets an F in “Fundamentals of Wine” on their transcript?

The class is offered at the New School in the Continuing Education school. Starting on a Wednesday evening, we will have a three-hour lecture/seminar about some of the macro-historical, economic, political and critical aspects of wine. Then on Thursday, we will head to wineries in Long Island to kick the dirt, talk with winemakers, and sample wines. The next three days will offer tastings at the International Culinary Center. On Sunday evening, we will conclude by meeting in a wine shop to discuss the business of wine and retail.

I haven’t finalized the syllabus yet but each part will count toward the final grade and there will be a final essay/writing project.

As far as I know, this is the first for-credit wine course offered at a university in NYC. Should be a pretty fun two credits.

Fundamentals of Wine NFDS2830
A 5 session(s). Wed. thru Sun., 6:00 PM-9:00 PM, beg. June 26.

It’s going to be a cool and rainy Memorial Day weekend here in the Northeast–boooo! So I’ll spare you the dummer quaffers and hit you with something structured yet fun and gulpable at the same time: Sunier, Fleurie, 2011.

It turns out that although Julien Sunier is from Burgundy, he’s not from a wine family. In fact, his mother is a hair stylist. One of her customers was Christophe Roumier who allowed young Julien to to work at the Domaine, where he decided that the whole wine thing was pretty fun. After exploring the wine world’s corners in California and New Zealand he came back to Burgundy and later Beaujolais, starting making his own wines in 2008. He has parcels in Fleurie, Morgon and Regnié that have old vines, which he hand harvests and uses indigenous yeasts in the fermentations in concrete vats. After the fermentation, the wines are aged in older Burgundy barrels from… Christophe Roumier.

I bought the 2011 Fleurie for $25 (find this wine). It’s worth seeking out. I give it my highest (Beaujolais?) rating: quickly emptied.

A news item in time for travel season: You might remember that last year France passed a law requiring two breathalyzers in each car–including rentals–at all times. The French were shocked to discover that the law passed as the result of a bare-knuckles practice known as “le lobbying.”

Well, in case you had breathalyzers on your packing list for France this summer, you can take them off because the French breathalyzer law was suspended back in January.

Meanwhile, in other news in the Department of Blood Alcohol Content, the National Transportation Safety Board here has recommended reducing the BAC from the current 0.08% to 0.05%. I haven’t read up enough on the recommendation to know if it would reduce the 10,000+ alcohol-related fatalities in the US, a tragically high figure. Intuitively, it seems the answer would be yes since four beers at 5% abv in a 90-minute period for a 180-pound male does seem like taking onboard way too much before getting behind the wheel. What do you say? At any rate, the lack of response from the wine industry has been surprising. Other industry groups, such as the Alcohol Beverage Institute and the National Restaurant Association, predictably lambasted the proposal. At any rate, we know that the policy decision won’t be influenced by lobbying…

“Craft beer is too hoppy. Discuss.” I tweeted that the other day in response to this Slate article. It sparked a good conversation on the twittuh and it seemed worth continuing here.

While I like hops, there are a ton of hoppy and overly hopped beers in the market today as well as high-alcohol beers. But that’s okay. It’s probably a phase akin to liking high-alcohol, fruity wines dripping with 200% new oak. They’re obvious and almost everybody gloms on to them at some point, usually the beginning, of their enjoyment of wine.

But there will likely be a backlash against big beers. As opposed to wine, where wineries can be locked into one style thanks in large part to location and grapes planted, breweries can pursue various styles at once, meaning the backlash could come to fruition quicker than wine. In part, that’s what pils and session beers are all about, which are lower in alcohol and refreshing. I had the Tank 7 Farmhouse ale the other evening, which, at 38 IBUs, was not too hoppy (though 8% alc is getting up there but the beer has good balance).

What’s your take on hops–the secret to good beer or too much of a good thing?

Continuing the significant changes unfolding at the Wine Advocate over the past six months, the publication has announced new terms and rates for trade subscribers. Previously, subscriptions were line-priced at $99 a year. Going forward, trade subscriptions will be $199. What do they get for the extra fee? Employees can use the same login. And trade accounts get to reproduce the WA’s scores and tasting notes as shelf talkers.

This is a bizarre choice for at least three reasons: it’s hard to enforce, any enforcement would breed ill-will among the trade, and it significantly reduces free marketing for the publication in the form of shelf talkers. Retailers who use scores are not loyal to publications; rather, they are mostly loyal to high scores and will use whichever is highest and free of legal entanglements/copyright issues.

Further, the new T&C insist on the shelf talkers use RPWA–Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate–for the publication as well as identify the critic by initials and use the publication’s logo.

I guess the new owners are making a calculated risk that by doubling the price, fewer than half the trade subscribers will bolt and they will still come out ahead on revenues. To me, it’s hard to see how these changes will expand the audience for “The Independent Consumer’s Guide to Fine Wine.” If you’re in the trade, what do you think of the new rates and terms?

Just catching up with this story…last fall, Rogue Ales in Oregon announced they had sourced a new yeast strain from an unusual place–the brewmaster’s beard!

Given the huge correlation between the hirsute and the hipsters, beard yeast could be the yeast El Dorado for “natural” wines. I guess the only question would be if it had to be labeled as such?

In 1789, the price of bread surged in France. And in heads rolled as a result.

Another symbol of France–wine–is being threatened with a 1,000% tax increase. Will riots break out across the country?

Who is the man with a set of grapes big enough to dare provoke the ire of the French winegrowers and wine consumers? It’s Yves Daudigny, a socialist senator from Aisne (“The Fightin’ Aisne”) in Picardie. I bet they don’t even make wine in Picardie! Wait, what’s that, Jimmy? Champagne is partially in Aisne, Senator Daudigny’s district? Okay, scratch that.

The Senator is clearly a tough nut to crack. Last year he proposed a 300% tax on palm oil in what was dubbed the “Nutella tax.” Mmm, taxes so high you can spread them on your bread in the morning.

Now he’s unleashing his tax machine on the wine industry, proposing to raise the tax from three euro cents to €0.30-€0.60 a bottle! This would bring it inline with beer and spirits. But we all know that beer and spirits deserve that tax. Was there ever a black and white photograph of a child toting a six-pack and a bottle of Johnny Walker under his arm? Non, monsieur!

Senator Daudigny, taxing wine in France is like taxing being French! It’s un-French to even consider it! Moreover, why would you want people to drink less wine? The wine industry is struggling because French people are not drinking enough of the stuff. If you really want a radical reform, try uncorking a take-your-wine-to-work day. Or Hug a Vigneron day. Or how about a subsidy for French wine? It’s already so expensive that people in Hong Kong are bidding bottles to stratospheric levels! Or subsidize hipster wines from the Jura or the Loire to jumpstart exports to Williamsburg and San Francisco.

Don’t make the winegrowers stage protests outside your office with pitchforks and corkscrews!

Robert Parker included some tasting notes on Bourbon in the most recent Wine Advocate. Over at the blog Scotch & Ice Cream, the author didn’t take too kindly to the fact that Parker put “his loafer-clad foot in our turf and has deigned to tell the masses what bourbon everyone should be drinking.”

I’ll leave you to discover the gems of the post yourself. But here’s one: “Apparently the wine world regards scarcity as a measure of quality.” Okay, and a spoiler: “The know-it-all wine critic has decided he is the arbiter of taste and quality on the American whisky scene while seemingly managing to not do even the most basic bit of research and self-education on the subject.”

FWIW: Scotch & Ice Cream thinks the Pappy Van Winkle 20 beats the snot out of the Pappy 23.