Hmm. Grenades in Bangkok or Natural Wine in Paris?

It is with a heavy heart that I have canceled my upcoming trip to Thailand. Visions of fresh spicy seafood and gentle waves have been smashed by closed airports and grenades.
I have spent the last few days scrambling to rebook airline tickets and cancel hotel reservations.

Ahhh, so where to go? As much as I love the people, culture and food of many Asian countries, after the recent events in Mumbai and Bangkok, I am regretfully letting go of any Asian travel plans for the moment.

So it's off to Paris where I will explore all these smoking hot natural wine bars!
Hopefully a short exploration of the Loire if time and budget permit.

So I started celebrating my new holiday plans last night with a beautiful biodynamic wine from the Loire, just to get in the spirit of things to come.

Jo Landron Amphibolite Nature Muscadet 2007
Natural yeasts, hand harvested, rested on the lees, organic grapes.
Immensely refreshing light wine, bright acids with lemon verbena flavors, some leesy richness with a beeswax character
$12!!!


Please email me all your Paris faves, especially if wine or food related.

Silver Lake Wine Rocks!

Silver Lake Wine is that groovy little wine and spirits shop that everyone wishes was around the corner from their house.

Knowledgeable and unpretentious staff guide you through your choices. Their bi-weekly wine tastings are more like laid back (albeit crowded)house parties.
They recently expanded their store to include a selection of eclectic, artisanal spirits to compliment their boutique wine offerings.

George Cossette, who is shown on the video above, is one of the owners of Silver Lake Wine, along with April Langford and Randy Clement ( who writes their addictive email newsletter, sounds like an oxymoron but trust me on this).

Laura Catena, a very modern woman

I was lucky enough to spend some time with Laura Catena from Luca Wines today.
Her Luca Malbec 2007 was part of the Spectators Top 100 list this year (#87) .
This is a picture of Laura, with her son Luca ( the namesake of her award winning wine) today at lunch near Japantown in San Francisco.

Just thinking about Laura's hectic schedule makes me tired: emergency room doctor, boutique winery owner, mother and wife,Vice President for her father's huge winery empire (the famous Nicolas Catena). And she does it all with a disarming grace, wit and charm.
Her dedication and enthusiasm about Argentine wines is contagious. Laura's insider tip is to keep your eyes peeled for high quality Torrontes and Cabernet Sauvignon out of her home country. Of course, Argentine Malbec has quickly and deservedly become the other red wine of note this past year or so.

Luca Malbec is available in most states at $38 retail. It is a big beautiful example of Argentine Malbec. Delicious bitter chocolate and dark berry flavors are proceeded by lovely floral, spicy aromas.

Organic, schmorganic..what's it all mean?

Interesting article in the SF Chronicle last Friday.

We are reaching the tipping point soon regarding consumer interest in organic, and to a much lesser extent, biodynamic grapegrowing.
The above article does a pretty good job at breaking down the basics between 'sustainable' , organic and biodynamic practices , as they relate to grapegrowing and winemaking.

Wow, we will have our work cut out for us since most consumers still say they feel confused and undereducated about wine in general. Now we are bringing in all this rigamorale about chemical free grape growing and no added sulfites.

If you only get one thing from this blog post, let it be this: sustainable does not mean grapes are chemical free. Only organically or biodynamically grown grapes are free of chemical based pesticides, fungicides, etc.
I am not discounting wineries that are making admirable changes that will have wonderful environmental effects for all of us.

But savvy consumers are starting to ask, if they are buying organic milk and salad leaves, why keep drinking wines made from chemically sprayed grapes?

I had a beauty of an example this week.
Domaine Fery Bourgogne Aligote 2006
$16
Aligote is another white grape grown in Burgundy. This one had a light yellow color with great clarity. Liquid sunshine in a bottle with pear aromas and bright citrus flavors.
Imported by the famous Kermit Lynch and yes, made with organic grapes.

Who drinks wine?

I have been following the press about wine drinkers being primarily Obama voters with interest.
First we heard that the primary wine producing states supported Obama overwhelmingly.
Then Dr. Vino further emphasized the point by showing that the states with the highest levels of wine consumption were also Obama supporters.
This was a great distinction.
What I am wondering is whether the wine marketers and producers are paying attention?
Most companies are constantly trying to better understand their core consumers and how to reach them.
Lets look at who voted for Obama.
We know more women voted for him than men. And also that this was the largest turnout of young adult voters in recent history. And we know that these people all wanted change from the status quo.
We also know that Obama engaged this audience with respect and intelligence and social media tools.
Knock, knock. Is the wine industry listening?

Bubbly you can bathe in

This is Greg St. Clair from K&L Wines in Hollywood. Greg is one of my go to guys for up to date, passionate discourse on Italian wines. Greg visits Italy several times every year and gets a chance to eat, drink and laugh with some of his favorite winemakers.

He is a treasure trove of information and always points me in the right direction.
Especially this past year when I have often emailed him with requests for Italian wines made from organic or biodynamic grapes.

This is what Greg has to say about Silvano Follador Prosecco:
"Last April in Italy I met with the very young bother-and-sister team of Silvano and Alberta Follador. We liked each other immediately. In today’s world of fast-paced business it was very refreshing to see that producers were more interested in who was going to take care of their wines rather than how much we were going to buy. I walked away hoping that they made wine that was at the very least good. A month later we tasted the samples and YOWSA! Dumfounded by the quality, humbly I asked for the price list knowing the quality and the stunning package would demand some outrageous price. The prices matched their personalities, however, humble and honest. Winner of Two Glasses in the 2005 Gambero Rosso (under the winery's previous name--changed in March 2005--Il Cardo)"

The family is practicing Biodynamic grape farming but have not received their certification as of yet.I have bought and enjoyed this Prosecco many times since Greg first recommended it to me.
Silvano Follador Prosecco Valdobbiadene Brut $14.99
Delicious and dry with crisp green apple flavors.

I continue to hope that Americans will break free of the misconception that sparkling or bubbly wines are only for holidays and celebrations.
Here is a winner priced for everyday enjoyment. Break open a bottle tonight with roast chicken.

Word on the Street

I continue to be fascinated with what consumers have to say about wine.
Last night I had a chance to hang out with some friends, both new and old.
We were eating, drinking, laughing and talking politics.
These are all wine lovers, mostly in their thirties or forties.

This what I heard:
I love wine but it still feels like an elitist club.
I do not feel confident about my wine knowledge.
How long should I keep this bottle before drinking it?
I am really interested in finding out more about organic wines.
(tellingly, out of the ten wine bottles open in the kitchen, two of these were made from organic grapes)


Everyone in this group buys wine regularly, both on and off line.
(Sounds like Wine Spies lost a few customers last night, after one of the guests shared that the SoCal Wine Spies operative had a heated exchange with her recently, concerning his belief that gay Americans do not deserve the same marriage rights as heterosexual Americans).



What I am hearing over the past year is consistent.
1.Wine lovers feel a knowledge vacuum. How are we addressing this as an industry?
Are we using the online medium to its fullest extent to interact with wine lovers?
2.Consumers interest in chemical free grapes will not go away, indeed it is growing.

You snooze, you lose.

To tell the truth

Wow. Wine sure has been getting a hatchet job from some of the European journalists of late. What a turnaround. Americans used to be the puritans who spoke disdainfully of the vino but now we are set to become the largest consumers of wine in the world.
Meanwhile in France they are battling to be able to advertise wine and facing declining consumption rates.
The American Millenial generation has embraced wine at a younger age than any other Generation (skipping all those ugly years of cheap shots at the bar hopefully).
Meanwhile, that same generation in France has slowed their wine consumption compared to their parents.
Check out this article for latest attack against wine.

But while I believe that the specific article above was based on shoddy thinking, this doesn't mean that all wine is always as pure and wholesome as one would wish.
I find myself in Randall Graham's camp when it comes to listing wine ingredients on wine labels.

“Randall [Graham, owner of Bonny Doon] feels that it’s important to openly share with consumers any additions made to the wine, and by extension to make other winemakers responsible for [acknowledging] their own additions and interventions,” explained Alison Davies, marketing associate at Bonny Doon. “We hope for a number of results: by stating all the ingredients, this could lead the industry in the direction of full disclosure and encourage winemakers to be more hands-off and less interventionist.”

I don't think all wines should be made in any one style. I thrive on diversity, in my life as well as with my wine consumption. But nevertheless, it would be helpful for consumers to better understand whats in that bottle of wine.

Now this label won't be helpful if there actually were excessive levels of heavy metals and/or pesticide residues ( an assertion from another article earlier this year) in your wine. But I think it is safe to say that those are relatively rare occurrences.