Category Archives: Geek Notes

Wine Geek Notes 3/3/18 — Rose Cider, Parker Points and Washington Wine History.

Amber LeBeau in Geek Notes, Robert Parker, Shopping for Wine, Washington wine, Wine critics, Wine Knowledge

Published on March 3, 2018

This is what I’ve been reading today in the world of wine and beverages.

Interesting Tweets and Weblinks

The Year of Rosé Cider Is Upon Us by Mike Pomranz (@pomranz) for Food & Wine magazine (@foodandwine). This made its way to my dash via #WiningHourChat (@WiningHourChat).

Good to see a legit article from Food & Wine after the BS they published from their “Champagne Master/Wine Prophet”. The picture of the red fleshed Amour Rouge species of apple is gorgeous and makes my mouth water. But where the article really shines is in shedding light on all the many different ways that cider producers can add color to their ciders–hibiscus and rose petals, maceration with red wine grape skins, etc. Very interesting and worth a read to stay a step ahead of what will undoubtedly be one of the top beverage trends of the summer.

Do Parker points matter any more? from @jamiegoode

The blog post (from one of my favorite wine writers/tool) is worth a read but so are the comments in reply to Jamie’s tweet which includes insight from The Wine Cellar Insider (@JeffLeve), Master of Wine Elizabeth Gabay (@LizGabayMW) and several others.

I think my view is summed up well in the reply made by MW student and Waitrose category manager Anne Jones (@AnneEJones). Points matter to the wine drinkers who want them to matter while other drinkers could care less. Different strokes for different folks.

Every time I see this debate I yawn. Points mean prizes. And prizes matter to some consumers, in some situations. But not to all consumers, or all situations. There is no ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer to ‘do points matter?’ as I think is obvious by the circuitous nature of the debate!

— Anne Jones (@AnneEJones) March 3, 2018

March is Taste Washington Wine Month

All this month I will be focusing on Washington wines with my 60 Second Reviews. While researching for my reviews of the 2014 Scarborough Stand Alone Cabernet Sauvignon and 2015 Browne Family Vineyards Site Series Cabernet Sauvignon, I came across two links that caught my eye.

Associated Vintners — Washington’s Academic Winemakers (April 2016) by Peter Blecha for the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture.

Red Willow Vineyard where David Lake and his team at Columbia helped Mike Sauer and his crew at Red Willow plant the Syrah that would become one of the first commercial bottlings of the variety in Washington.

Tremendous essay on the history of Associated Vintners (AV). So much history was made by this winery (now known as Columbia Winery) including having the first vintage dated varietal wines, first Pinot gris, first commercial Syrah with Red Willow and first Washington Master of Wine with David Lake. I learned several things from this article including the interesting connection between William B. Bridgman (of Harrison Hill fame) and AV.

Regular readers may remember from my Wine Clubs Done Right post that Columbia Winery holds a special place in my heart as one of the first Washington wines to make me go “WOW!” and the first wine club I ever joined. It was also were my mentor, Peter Bos, served as cellarmaster to David Lake and much of what I learned about winemaking was about how things were done “back in the day” at Columbia. Seeing the changes in style of Columbia was one of my first big disappointments in the wine industry. Still, this engaging and well written piece about such an important part of Washington wine history was a joy to read.

Another Seattle winery served legal papers over naming issue (May 2015) by Lindsey Cohen of KOMO News.

This is not as much about the joy of the Washington wine industry as a “WTF are you serious?” piece about the realities of the wine world. I came across this while researching the Scarborough article where I learned that Travis Scarborough got hit with a cease and desist letter from former 49ers exec Carmen Policy’s Casa Piena vineyards because the name of one of his wine club tiers (Full House) was similar to the English translation of Casa Piena.

As if that wasn’t outrageous enough, Cohen interviews another small local Washington producer, Bartholomew Winery, that had similar issues because a wine named after one of the owner’s sons, Jaxon, was apparently too close to Jackson Family Estates (of Kendall-Jackson fame). Good grief! The sad truth of the matter is aptly summed up by Scarborough in the article–“They’ve already won…because when they send that out they know I can’t fight back.”

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Wine Geek Notes 3/1/18 — Brexit Wine, Stouffer Cocktails and Sexist Marketing

Amber LeBeau in Geek Notes, Wine marketing

Published on March 1, 2018

Here is what I’m reading today in the world of wine and alcohol.

Interesting Tweets and Links

Brexit And Wine: How Political Change In The European Union Impacts The Wine Industry from Vinfolio’s blog (@Vinfolio)
Very fascinating look at how the economics of Brexit (with its influence on the pound sterling) caused a mad buying spree in the UK and the potential trickle down impact that it had on fine wine pricing.

Portman Group Joins Calls To Stamp Out Sexist Drinks Marketing by Lauren Eads (@Lauren__Eads) at The Drinks Business (@teamdb) which made its way to my dashboard via Latest Wine News (@LatestWineNews)
While not as big of an issue in the wine world as it is in beer and spirits, in light of the #MeToo Movement, this is something worth keeping an eye on. From another angle in the article, I’m concerned about over reach from the UK government in their “immoderate consumption” guidelines.

Stouffer’s Lost Cocktails Empire by Wayne Curtis (@waynecurtis) at the Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) which made its way to my dashboard via MacCocktail (@MacCocktail)
This was a “WTF” link for me as I had no clue that the frozen dinner Stouffers of today was such a big player in cocktail culture in the 1950s. Incredibly interesting read that I guarantee you will learn something from!

Other Rabbit Holes I Need to Explore

Today I discovered that one of my favorite rosé wine, Château de Fabrègues from the Costières-de-Nîmes, is apparently made by the large Les Grands Chais de France who make the supermarket wine JP Chenet and are a huge player in France. Looks like I need to do more research on them.

The roles of consultants in wine is always controversial. The Drinks Business has a nice slide show that I want to find more material on.

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Wine Geek Notes 2/28/18 — Interesting Tweets & Burg Vintages

Amber LeBeau in Burgundy, Geek Notes, Wine Knowledge

Published on February 28, 2018

Here’s what I’ve been reading today in the world of wine.

Odds & Ends from Twitter

Some interesting weblinks from Twitter that are worth the read.

Smelling Terroir: A New Study Suggests People Can Smell the Difference Between Wines Solely Based on Terroir (but can we, really?) from the Academic Wino (@TheAcademicWino)
Very cool read about a 2016 study that showed that both experts and non-experts were able to smell the difference between wines grown in two different terroirs. Becca looks a little more in-depth at the study to question if it’s really the terroir differences they are smelling or something else.

new maps & saturday afternoon in the meursault sunshine from Bill Nanson (@billnanson) at the Burgundy Report with the tweet coming across my dash via @RealWineGuru
I’m a bit of a map geek (as evidence by my geek out over this Clos Vougeout map) so I absolutely squealed at the discovery of these incredibly detailed Beaujolais cru maps. Also some lovely pictures of Meursault that had me daydreaming about sipping on a Les Charmes.

So you want to be a wine judge by Master of Wine Sarah Jane Evans (@SJEvansMW) courtesy of @WSETglobal
As noted in yesterday’s Wine Geek Notes, I’ve been doing a lot of research on Wine Competitions and this article from Sarah Jane Evans added another perspective. One of the questions that I’ve been debating in my head is “Who benefits from Wine Competitions–the winery or the consumer?” which Evans answers rather bluntly “Remember that ultimately you are doing the judging for the winemaker and brandowner.”

Plant more Chenin!!!! The author screams into the void.

Wine of the Week: Lang & Reed, 2016 Napa Valley Chenin Blanc from Peg Melnik (@pegmelnik) at The Press Democrat with the tweet coming across my dash via @jncorcoran1
The subheader is what hooked me: “What happened to chenin blanc in California?” I have a soft spot for Chenin and have bemoaned the lack of interest of it in Washington State so I was similarly disheartened to read the staggering stat of how 3000 acres of Chenin blanc in Napa in 1980 has shrank down to just 14 acres today.

Burg’in Around

For my 60 Second Review of the 2013 Domaine Coquard Loison Fleurot Chambolle-Musigny I did some background research on the estate and 2013 vintage that had me stumbling across a few nifty links.

Pearl of Burgundy YouTube Channel
Features well produced short 2-4 minute videos from several Burgundian producers. While the Domaine Coquard Loison Fleurot vid is what initially caught me, I also enjoyed the videos from Domaine Henri Gouges, Domaine Lamarche and Domaine Grivot. By this point I was hitting the subscribe button for the channel.

2013 burgundy – the fairy-tale vintage? from Master of Wine Jancis Robinson (@JancisRobinson)
Always some of my favorite vintage write-ups. Great summary at the bottom of the article about the big issues facing 2013 but I also like how she explores the potential similarities (and differences) between 2013 and 1996 that also segue into comparing 2012 to 1998/1988.

The 2013 Red Burgundies: Fascinating and Challenging (Paywall) by Stephen Tanzer (@StephenTanzer1) on Vinous.
Tanzer takes a slightly more pessimistic outlook on 2013 and goes into more details about the challenges that the Côte de Beaune, in particular, had.

A Vintage Viewpoint…(2013, 2012, 2011…) from Bill Nanson at the Burgundy Report.
A nice little one page summary of the 2013 vintage in comparison to the 2012 and 2011 vintages.

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Geek Notes — Killer Clos Vougeot Map

Amber LeBeau in Burgundy, Geek Notes, Wine Knowledge

Published on January 9, 2018

Burgundy geeks!

For full map go to http://thevinofiles.typepad.com/the_vino_files/files/clos_de_vougeot.jpg

Just a tiny segment of the map showing most of “Cuvée du Pape” area around the Chateau du Clos de Vougeot

You have to check out this high quality (and downloadable) map of the Grand Cru Clos Vougeot over at The Vino Files.

I literally squealed when I came across this map while watching this interesting and well put together Youtube video essay on Clos de Vougeot by Antonio Ferrel.

While usually one of the most affordable and accessible Grand Crus, Clos Vougeot is saddled with the reputation of being highly variable due to its vast size (125 acres) and multiple bottlings being produced by 80+ growers. The tried and true advice to buy Burgundy based on producer, rather than necessarily terroir, is always the best approach. The video I linked to above by Antonio Ferrel names some top Clos Vougeot producers.

But what’s exciting about this map is that we can apply some historical context behind the terroir that the great producers of Clos Vougeot have. No one knew this land better than the Cistercian monks who planted and farmed the vineyard for almost 700 years. Carefully observing the vines and the wine produced from them, they subdivided the large Clos into essentially 3 bands or climats.

As Decanter noted in a 2011 article about the Grand Cru:

The top of the Clos (bordering the grand cru Grand-Echézeaux) is the best land – pebbly, oolitic limestone. The exceptional terroir was identified by the monks, who used it for their top wine: the Cuvée du Papes. Halfway down the slope, the soil is a mix of limestone and clay; the monks used this for their mid-level Cuvée du Roi. Further down still, the soil becomes more alluvial and drains less well – the plots left for the monks’ basic Cuvée des Moines.

One of the entrances to the walled Grand Cru of Clos Vougeot

This top Cuvée du Pape area includes the vineyards surrounding Château du Clos de Vougeot in what is essentially the top right hand corner of the map linked above.

Here we find such famous names as the Gros family, Meo-Camuzet and Hudelot-Noëllat. Seeing the favorable location of their terroir on the map makes it is no wonder why these producers regularly produce some of the most highly regarded examples of Clos Vougeot.

Studying the map, you find more recognizable names even in the less heralded Cuvée des Moines band of climats going downslope towards the RN74 auto-route. Seeing such esteemed names like Domaine Jacques Prieur, Domaine Jean Grivot and Louis Jadot reiterates the truism that great producers will still make quality wine even with less favorable terroir.

So have fun geeking out and exploring the terroir of the Clos Vougeot Grand Cru!

Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that The Vino File site is still active (and the tip jar link on the site seems to have been removed). However, I still want to tip my hat to them for providing this fantastic resource for Burgundy wine lovers.