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U.S. hypocrisy on full display in threat to block Brunello imports

By Uncorked | Tuesday, May 13, 2008, 06:40 AM

The U.S. has threatened to block imports of all Brunello di Montalcino starting June 9 unless each shipment is accompanied by laboratory analysis certifying that the wine is “pure Sangiovese,” according to Decanter.com.

The U.S. is Brunello’s biggest market, importing 25% of total Brunello production, so the threat in a letter from the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau has Brunello producers scrambling to arrange for lab tests to keep the Brunello pipeline flowing.

The Decanter story notes that, “Since Brunello must by law be 100% Sangiovese, adding other grapes would be a violation of a strict labelling convention between the U.S. and the EU that stipulates that what is on the label must guarantee what is in the bottle.”

I’m all for taking steps to ensure wine purity, but this smacks of selective enforcement, if not downright hypocrisy. Sounds like some government bureaucrat got frustrated that his office’s initial letters and threats were ignored, so he chose to rattle the saber a bit.

My question: How strictly are government authorities enforcing all of the other wine “purity” rules right here at home — the regulations regarding the mixing of wines from different appellations, and even from different vintages?

My thoughts go back to a conversation I had with David Phillips, co-owner of Michael David, the Lodi, California winery that I wrote about yesterday. With a twinkle in his eye, Phillips told me how, during harvest, the semi trucks would line up along the main highway between Lodi and Napa, be loaded to the brim with bargain-priced Lodi grapes, and head 90 miles to the west. Napa wineries are allowed to blend a percentage of grapes from outside the region (what is it, 15 percent? 25 percent? Or have they tightened up on that?) and still claim the “Napa” appellation, and Lodi was more than happy to oblige.

Now, I wonder how many “bargain” Napa producers pay razor-sharp attention to ensure they don’t exceed that allowable proportion of outside grapes? And I wonder how robustly our government monitors and enforces those rules?

What do you suppose might happen if some government agency demanded a freeze on sales and a laboratory analysis of every bottle that carried the Napa and Sonoma appellation on its label to ensure “purity?” How long do you think THAT bureaucrat would keep his job?

Consumers will be watching the Italian prosecutor’s probe into Brunello and in the end, I suspect the marketplace will decide this brouhaha more than courts and bureaucrats will.

Until then, the U.S. would do well to avoid engaging in saber-rattling and selective enforcement.

Mark Fisher

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Where Lust and Rapture meet: the Michael David Winery

By Uncorked | Monday, May 12, 2008, 06:29 AM

David Phillips polishes off a slice of pie at his family’s market and restaurant at the Michael David Winery

LODI, Calif. — The Michael David Winery takes their winemaking seriously. The names of their wines — not so much.

The winery — one of the trailblazers in the quest for higher quality in California’s next up-and-coming wine region of Lodi — produces a broad array of wines with whimsical names such as Seven Deadly Zins (which naturally led to its companion wine, Seven Heavenly Chards), along with the Earthquake line of “ground-shaking reds” and luxury bottlings named “Lust” (zinfandel) and “Rapture” (cabernet sauvignon).

It all comes from the twisted and talented minds of David and Michael Phillips (why yes, they DID go to Catholic grade school, how did you guess?) and their families, the fifth- and sixth-generation farmers here in the fertile flatlands of Lodi, 90 miles east of San Francosco.

The brothers’ ancestors started planting wine grapes in the late 1800s to diversify the family farm, and by Prohibition, were loading railroad boxcars with grapes headed to Ohio and New Jersey for purely, um, sacramental reasons. Folks back east ate a lot of grapes — and churches held many communions — back then.

Through the 1970s and early ’80s, the Phillips family did what virtually all of their neighbors in Lodi did: grew lots and lots of grapes and sold them to the local cooperative, which in turn sold to giant producers such as E&J Gallo and Sutter Home. In 1984, though, the family, with Mike Phillips as winemaker, started bottling and selling a portion of their crop at $3.99 or $4.99 a bottle.

Growth and accolades followed, as the Michael David Winery helped lead a quality resurgence in Lodi. Winemakers and vineyard managers in the region discovered they could take advantage of the region’s climate — a break in the mountains to the west funnels in ocean air that cools the vines nearly every afternoon — and its winemaking heritage: the region boasts some of California’s oldest grapevines, including acres of zin vines that are over a century old. (The Phillips brothers themselves own some 135-year-old Cinsault vines whose juice goes into the “Incognito Red, a Rhone-style blend.)

The Phillips and their neighbors started pruning their vines more aggressively, limiting irrigation to stress the vines, reducing crop loads and taking other steps to enhance quality. The resulting wines boast lush fruit, very mild tannins, wonderful concentration and, more often than not, very attractive quality-to-price ratios.

Today, the Michael David winery is a bustling place. It produces 250,000 cases of wine per year under its own label and farms 500 acres of grapevines, while also growing other fruits as well as vegetables and herbs. It also operates a fruit and vegetable market and restaurant, with a menu that takes full advantage of the fresh produce. My wife, in fact, ate what she described as “the best piece of pie I’ve ever had” — an apricot pie still warm from the oven — at the Michael David restaurant. And let’s just say my wife does not praise pie lightly.

Thus proving that at Michael David, rapture isn’t limited to just the wines.

(Photos by Mark Fisher)

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One state resolves wine direct-shipping issue — could Ohio be next?

By Uncorked | Friday, May 9, 2008, 06:19 AM

One prominent Midwestern state has found a way to resolve its wine direct-shipping issues, and the resolution appears as if it will please wine consumers who are on the receiving end of some of those direct-from-the-winery shipments, according to this Wines & Vines story entitled “Illinois Opens to Direct Shipping.”

The new Illinois law also allows small wine producers to bypass wine wholesalers and distribute their wines directly to retailers — something that to my understanding, would NOT be legal in Ohio under current laws (correct me if I’m wrong). What impact would it have in Ohio if we were to embrace such a law?

Illinois lawmakers didn’t embrace free-market openness entirely: The Illinois law also appears to prohibit out-of-state wine retailers from shipping directly to Illinois consumers through the Internet.

The Ohio General Assembly is contemplating changes in the Buckeye state’s wine laws. Anybody know the latest on these efforts? And what do you think of the Illinois law?

Mark Fisher

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A wine-drenched weekend in May

By Uncorked | Friday, May 9, 2008, 06:11 AM

Your best and brightest wine tastings and events listing, courtesy of a Dayton-based wine listserv, is your with but a click of your mouse …. Can life get any better?

Continue reading "A wine-drenched weekend in May"...

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California’s next up-and-coming wine region

By Uncorked | Thursday, May 8, 2008, 06:57 AM

One of the ancient vines that are a common sight in the vineyards of Lodi.

I have finally blown the dust and the mold (was that botrytis?) off of the notes from my trip to California a month ago and wrote a wine column that will run in Friday’s Dayton Daily News. But once again, you Uncorked readers are SO special that you get a sneak-peek. I hope to write in greater detail about Lodi and its wineries and wines here on Uncorked in the coming days, but in the meantime ….

LODI, Calif. — A handful of California wine-producing regions — Santa “Sideways” Barbara and Paso Robles come to mind — have taken their turn in the “new,” “hot” or “up-and-coming” spotlight in recent years, striving to join the ranks of the Napa and Sonoma heavyweights.

But watch out. There’s a new kid in town — a surprising contender that no one thought could ever rub shoulders with the big boys. Suddenly, the underdog has blossomed and is ready to rumble.

Say hello to Lodi. Yes, Lodi.

For decades, this was the bulk-wine capital of California, where flat terrain and fertile soil nurtured vast acreage of vineyards to produce mammoth yields of grapes whose juice went into jug wines and other mass-produced brands. The Lodi region’s annual yield of 600,000 tons comprises nearly one-fifth of the entire state’s wine production — more than Napa and Sonoma combined. The focus was definitely on quantity, though the quality was by no means shabby. Just a bit diluted, perhaps.

Through the 1980s and 1990s, though, some winemakers and grape-growers started looking toward other wine regions that were enhancing the quality (not to mention prestige and — ahem — prices) of their wines and figured, “Why not us?” They started irrigating less, pruning more, dropping fruit during the growing season to concentrate flavors, and taking other steps to boost quality.

And it worked.

You can taste the results in widely available wines such as Seven Deadly Zins, 6th Sense Syrah, Incognito and Earthquake wines from the Michael David Winery, the region’s highest-profile quality leader. You can also taste it in the wines of several emerging stars such as Macchia, makers of several zinfandels from various parts of Lodi and the Sierra Foothills and of Italian varietals suh as nebbiolo, sangiovese and barbera; Borra Vineyards, which produces stunning Rhone blends it calls simply Red Fusion and White Fusion; and Jessie’s Grove, makers of a fine white Rhone blend and an inexpensive ($12.99) zin it playfully calls “Earth Zin & Fire.”

The best place to sample Lodi’s quality renaissance is at the source. The region is easy to get to — it’s 90 miles east of San Francisco. The tasting rooms are uncrowded, and most don’t charge for samples. Unlike Santa Barbara and Paso Robles, the wineries are fairly close together, and in between visits, you’ll drive by some of the most beautiful, gnarled old vines (some well over a century old) that you’ll find anywhere.

There are, however, a few signs of growing pains: a handful of wineries have let success go to their heads and are mimicking their colleagues in other California wine-producing regions by releasing highly extracted, over-oaked reserve wines at prices heretofore unheard of in Lodi.

Let’s hope that virus doesn’t spread.

Lodi’s best wines exhibit the region’s signature attributes of lush, forward fruit with comparatively low tannins. The wines seem perfectly in tune with what today’s new generation of wine consumers is looking for. And the quality-price ratio is very, very attractive.

Score another victory for the underdog.

— For more about Lodi and its wineries, check out www.lodiwine.com.

(Photo by Mark Fisher)

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Brain vs. tastebuds: the REAL wine smackdown

By Uncorked | Wednesday, May 7, 2008, 09:02 AM

No reason whatsoever for you to read any fancy schmancy prose I might come up with — at least, not on this day, when the freshest wine post on the internet is so compelling. It’s entitled Wine’s Pleasures: Are They All in Your Head?, and it’s written by New York Times wine guy Eric Asimov, he of The Pour wine-blogging fame (there’s a link to Eric’s blog now on the right-hand side of Uncorked, under “Other wine blogs”).

The piece explores the nuances — and there are many — of the recent studies that suggest many wine drinkers prefer less expensive wines when tasting blind, and that the perception of a wine’s taste can depend on what we’re told about the wine’s price. It’s fascinating stuff, and none of the issues are black-and-white.

Take a look at Eric’s piece and let us know where you stand.

Mark Fisher

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My turn in the fermentation barrel

By Uncorked | Tuesday, May 6, 2008, 06:37 PM

As one Uncorked commenter noticed and pointed out yesterday, Tom Wark, author of Fermentation who has done more than any other human being to further the cause of wine blogging in America, scraped the bottom of the wine barrel yesterday and threw a spotlight on Uncorked.

Careful — the picture may blind you.

Tom has a bit of fun with the interview questions, and I, well, yes, I MIGHT have had a little fun back …

Mark Fisher

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