Wine Revolutionaries Call America Home

By David White

One of the hottest winemakers in France is Jerome Bressy, the proprietor of Domaine Gourt de Mautens the Southern Rhone village of Rasteau.

Over the past decade, he’s developed quite a reputation. American wine critic Robert Parker has called his winery “sensational,” and France’s two leading wine commentators, Michel Bettane and Thierry Desseauve, have said Bressy deserves recognition as one of the Rhone’s great winemakers. This past year, Bettane and Desseauve honored Bressy for producing both the “Best White” and the “Best Rosé” in the Southern Rhone.

But next year, thanks to a recent decision by French regulators, Bressy may find it difficult to market his wines.

The reason? In France, strict laws dictate winegrowing and winemaking — and Bressy violated the rules. Even though the basis for many of these rules make sense, Bressy’s tale helps explain why adventurous winemakers feel more welcome in America.

French wine laws trace back to 1935. At the time, globalization threatened the dominance of French wines, so lawmakers created a system to guarantee both quality and geographic typicity. Some laws codified tradition — like what grapes could be grown where — and others detailed total minutiae, like vine density.

Because of these laws, consumers know what to expect from French wine. Red Burgundy is Pinot Noir; white Burgundy is Chardonnay; Sancerre is Sauvignon Blanc; and so on.

Jerome Bressy’s “offense” is hardly offensive.

A student of history, Bressy has spent the last few years reintroducing traditional grapes to his vineyard. So today, about 23 percent of Bressy’s estate is planted with obscure grapes like Vaccarese, Counoise, Muscardin, which are interspersed with the more common Grenache, Mourvedre, and Syrah. By French law, these minor varieties can only comprise only 15 percent of a red wine labeled from Rasteau.

So to label his wines as the market expects, Bressy has no choice but to rip up some of his vines or alter his blend. This despite the fact that his bottlings are historically accurate — and that France’s wine laws were designed, in part, to codify tradition.

At worst, Bressy seems guilty of “creative eccentricity.” That’s how VinConnect, a U.S. company that enables consumers to order wines directly from Gourt de Mautens, has described the winemaker. But he’s hardly a revolutionary — Bressy’s transgression is rooted in respect for his vineyard and its history.

It’s no wonder why wine writer Alder Yarrow once criticized French regulators for being “ignorant, stubborn, and backwards.”

Needless to say, true revolutionaries find it difficult to make wine in France. They turn to the new world, where experimentation and innovation is embraced.

Consider Syrah. Today, some of California’s most exciting Syrah comes from incredibly cool climates historically associated with Pinot Noir. Producers like Wind Gap and Arnot-Roberts, both based in Sonoma County, craft stunning Syrah from vineyards where grapes struggle to ripen.

If a winemaker in France wanted to experiment with Syrah in the cool climate of Burgundy, it’d be nearly impossible to sell his wines, as it’d be illegal to note where the grapes originated.

In the United States, winemakers aren’t limited by such strict laws. Indeed, the teams at Wind Gap and Arnot-Roberts are constantly on the lookout for esoteric grapes with potential in California’s vast and varied climate. Arnot-Roberts, for example, crafts a delicious rosé from Touriga Nacional, a Portuguese variety. Wind Gap makes a highly regarded white using Trousseau Gris, a variety that’s even rare in its ancestral home of eastern France.

Elsewhere in Sonoma, 31-year-old Morgan Twain-Peterson of Bedrock Wine Company is making distinctly American wines that would make Jerome Bressy smile. Twain-Peterson is best known for using some of California’s oldest vines to make traditional California field blends.

In Napa Valley, a group of renegade winemakers is eschewing Cabernet Sauvignon in favor of intensely floral, crisp whites inspired by the wines of northeastern Italy. One label worth finding is Massican, whose owner, Dan Petroski, studied winemaking in Sicily. Another is Arbe Garbe, owned by an Italian named Enrico Bertoz who moved to California in 1998.

Across the United States, examples like these abound. The wine world benefits tremendously from these vintners — those who innovate new wines and preserve something special. In many ways, America is home to more winemakers like Jerome Bressy than France. That’s worth celebrating.

David White, a wine writer, is the founder and editor of Terroirist.com. His columns are housed at Wines.com, the fastest growing wine portal on the Internet.

“Think Robert Parker Doesn’t Deserve To Be In The Vintners Hall of Fame? Wrong, Jack!”

Written by Joe Roberts CSW, 2012 Wine Blog Award Finalist
Find him on Twitter @1winedude

The Culinary Institute of America recently announced its 2013 list of inductees for the Vintners Hall of Fame. Each year, a list of potential inductees is proposed and then voted on by a group of representatives within the wine media, who seek to induct “the men and women who have been responsible for the growth and world-wide prestige of the California wine industry.”

The 2013 list includes three fairly non-controversial names – farmworking pioneer Cesar Chavez, vintner Meredith “Merry” Edwards, and wine writer Frank Schoonmaker – along with one much more controversial name, one that will be stealing the spotlight, and will probably make the inductees and/or their families feel a bit like that dark-haired guy in the Dukes of Hazard (what was his name, again?): critic Robert M. Parker, Jr. <!– more –>

At this point in the world of wine, Parker is controversial no matter what the context, even despite the fact that he’s been pulling back on his wine review duties in The Wine Advocate and seems to be progressively handing over the reigns of the magazine to heir apparent staffer Antonio Galloni. It takes only a passing glance into one of his latest forays into the public eye to understand why; in a recent interview with Sommelier Journal, Parker dropped the gloves and used the Natural Wine movement as a punching bag.

And don’t get wine geeks started on the merits and pitfalls of rating wines with the 100 point system that was popularized by Parker – that one might get you into an actual fistfight depending on who you’re talking to…

Even if you loathe the 100 point scale, RMP deserves a place in the Vintners Hall of Fame as sure as anyone else who has their bust and names emblazoned in bronze in the Culinary Institute of America’s Barrel Room in St. Helena. Here are two reasons why.

Wine quality worldwide is higher than it’s ever been, due in no small part to the influence of Robert Parker.

There are a ton of good, affordable, clean, well-made wines available to consumers right now, and not just from California, either. Parker played a significant part in making that happen. How? He put wine producers to task. He ignored pedigree, history, and price, and decided to talk about exactly what was in the bottle – good or bad.

And people who rail against RMP and his 100 point rating scale now tend to forget that a ton of bad wine used to be made. Once he gained traction with retailers, distributors and collectors, Parker put those producers to task, and word was out on the street of the wine world: crappy wines were going to get called out.

The flip-side of this is that wines started to get made simply to please Parker’s palate, and that might have been partially responsible for a lot of the sameness and lack of character seen in a lot of wines at moderate price points these days. But blaming Parker for that is sort of like blaming George Lucas for all of the crappy, effects-laden sci-fi films that have been released since Star Wars. It’s not really his fault, people, and the good in this case far outweighs the bad (boring wine is going to get made anyway – at least now it has a minimum quality standard!).

Parker set the wine critic work ethic standard.

Did anyone work harder than Parker did when launching The Wine Advocate? It’s doubtful – in his heyday, the man’s stamina for packing in the stops and the amount of wines tasted at each when touring California (and other regions) is now legendary (for more detail on that, check out the excellent book The Emperor of Wine). That work ethic is now also deeply imbued within The Wine Advocate staffers, and is the standard against which all other wine critic work (and critical work in other fields, for that matter) is to be judged.

So don’t miss the forest for the trees, people – Parker earned that CIA bronze bas relief with blood, sweat, and a lot of swirling and spitting.

The Quandary of Zinfandel

It’s been my experience that people who’s parents are hardcore into one thing, tend to shy away from it drastically. If your mom is a hippy, you’re a Marine. If your dad’s a banker, you’re an abstract artist. My parents drink exclusively Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay. Needless to say, once I broke out of my cocoon I started drinking funky stuff. Viogniers and Albarinos filled my chalice and I scoured the internet for Spatburgunders and Tannat.

On this odyssey, one of my favorite finds has been Zinfandel. Gasp! Someone hears that and they write you off. If you’re a connoisseur, you’re not allowed to like Zinfandel. Zinfandel is for heathens who only drink that ‘white Zin’ garbage.

Zinfandel has such a Jekyll and Hyde quality to it, though. I can’t deny that it can be really bad; but I gotta say, the wine can be really profound. I’ve had two bottles of the same wine (Orin Swift’s Prisoner) from 2008 and 2007, the 2008 was awesome, the ’07 was swill. But couldn’t you make that argument for Merlot or Chardonnay? For all the Petrus and Le Montrachet out there, 25 wines who have kinship with Beringer White Merlot and Yellow Tail exist.

To be fair, I’ve tasted some really bad Zins and they get a little, shall we say, ‘creative’ with their labels sometimes. The bad ones get overly fruity and unbalanced, creamy (reminiscent of a blueberry creamsicle, in a bad way), and, in my humble opinion, nearly undrinkable. But when they’re good, they’re really good. They tend to have a high alcohol content, but hide it pretty well. Good ones get tart cherry, dried strawberry, and cranberry flavors in them that blend with the balanced acids perfectly.

For me, a good Zin is really hard to beat, especially because they don’t normally ask for too much skrilla. If you ever get a chance, you’re feeling a little frisky, and you don’t mind getting judged a little (like you’re doing to me right now…) load up on some Zinfandel, I think you’ll like it.

Coming next week: possibly more UrbanDictionary references (look up you own name; always a good time), mourning for the failure of my cool movie giveaway thingy, taste-testing a boutique Spanish Vermouth…wha?




Until next time, live life well

Zatara

What do You Write About When You Have Nothing to Write About?

I was kind of thinking that my post for this week would just be that title and a blank page. Pretty clever no? But then I realized that was way too nihilistic. So…what to do, what to do… Should I snobbishly review some wine? Take a firm stance on something silly? Outline the various method’s I’ve tried to use to get the Winne-the-Pooh theme song out of my head? And while the latter sounds very appealing, I’ve been saving an idea for a rainy day. Which, ironically enough, it is today.

When I was working in Bordeaux, I had the privilege to help run a stand at VinExpo. VinExpo is the largest convention for people in the wine trade. It’s a really wild experience. In typical Bordeaux tradition, the boss has a party at the end of VinExpo.

I, by sheer luck, was able tag along to a dinner that I thought only happened in The Great Gatsby or ‘Eyes Wide Shut’. (Yes I know that the link isn’t from Eyes Wide Shut. But how awesomely hilarious is that picture? I cannot stop laughing.) Me, some stupid American whose only talents are a pretty face and a working knowledge of French stumbled into this nonsense. But how?

We arrived to Michel (the Chef) and Kinette’s (the Sommelier) house and were immediately showed to an alcove in their tiny, eccentric, and stunning garden and handed glasses of 1996 Dom Perignon (93 pts). A classic Dom Perignon, toasty, nutty, and an essence of blooming honeysuckle. Our first set of hors d’oeuvres were oysters from Arcachon (a little beach town in South-West France) in a jelly made from their own brine. The flavor of those bad-boys with the Dom Perignon was hauntingly good. I still can almost taste it today. That was followed by 1996 Dom Ruinart Rose (96 pts) and shrimp spring rolls. The Dom Ruinart has undertones of tart cherry and strawberry. It’s an amazing and complex wine. The spring rolls were with raw, sushi grade Tiger Prawns and homemade wasabi. You’d've thought that the spice of the wasabi would kill the delicate champagne, but it certainly did not.

When we finished the champagne and the catching up, we were herded into Michel’s kitchen slash dining room. A cool concept with very minimalist decor and the coolest Persian rug. That rug really tied the room together. We found wine in our glasses and food on our plates. The food was terrine de foie gras with a vermouth sauteed oyster on top. The wine was 1989 Chateau l’Angelus (96 pts). The Angelus had flavors of candied olives, coffee, mushrooms, and cinnamon. It says something of the night that this amazing wine ended up as an afterthought. Angelus tends to be a little over priced, if you ask me, but that doesn’t diminish the fact that the wine is awesome. If you get the change to try one in an ‘on’ vintage, you will not be disappointed.

The wines from there, though, went super nova. We drunk side-by-side 1959 Lafitte Rothschild (99 pts) and 1959 Haut Brion (95 pts). I’ve written about the Lafitte before, I just can’t say enough about the wine. Old Haut Brions have a distinct taste. There’s a certain rustiness and age that you can just taste. This wine was starting to fade, however. There just wasn’t a ton of fruit, which really kept the wine from being mind-blowing.

Slipped in underneath these wines was the next dish, a cappuccino of cepes and truffles. Essentially it was a soup made with Porcini mushrooms with truffle foam on top. It was exquisite. Only in France do you have the culture, the tolerance, and the talent to get something like this. The rest of the food was braised oxtail, the best duck breast I’ve ever had (cinnamon rubbed!), baked Pont l’Eveque cheese, and fresh white peaches with a verveine sauce.

We paired all of those with another side-by-side of 1947 Cheval Blanc (100 pts) and 1947 La Mission Haut Brion (96 pts). The La Mission’s flavors were subtle and complex. The finish was lengthy but not overly dramatic. The Cheval Blanc, on the other hand, was a religious experience. It explodes with blueberries and licorice. You can smell the wine from 6 inches away from the glass. The wine has an intense sweetness that I’ve never tasted or experienced in any other medium. The finish of the wine lasted a good minute plus.

I share this story, not to boast, gloat, make myself feel better, but mainly because nothing else has really ‘inspired’ me this week. But also, to profess officially and truly my love for food and wine, if you hadn’t guessed already.

Coming next week: Notes for two cult Napa Cabs, continued searching on my part to see if Discovery Channel’s ‘Life’ has a version that isn’t narrated by a hyena…what’s that? Oh it’s Oprah narrating? Still an absolute debacle. Remember to guess the movie quote in the comments for a free bottle of wine.

 Until next time, live life well

Zatara

An Overflow of Good Converts to Bad – William Shakespeare

To be or not to be? That was the question. Whether ’twas nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of a screaming hangover or to take arms against a scene of utter chaos in my hotel room, and by opposing end them. To die, to sleep it off….

Let’s rewind. After spending Friday in St. Helena with one of my oldest, best friends in the world, and then having to see her leave after less than 24 hours together left me in a sour mood Saturday morning. Though it wasn’t too bad, I was going into San Francisco to pick up my cousin. He and I never fail to do it up right, and I figured any blue feelings I had would become unadulterated glee shortly.

My building excitement waned as I hit traffic around Berkeley. Normally a 2 and a half maybe 3 hour round trip turned into a 6 hour one. Frustration, stress, and self-loathing from being too nice to tell him to get a cab built up inside me. As we finally made it back into St. Helena, we decided to take a break. While carelessly playing bocce, drinking a blend of Harlan Estate and Screaming Eagle from 2000, and listening to a mix consisting mainly of Journey and Ke$ha, we were intruded upon by people wearing blazers and bow-ties. Lame. I suppose we had to get ready for dinner anyway.

After debating the individual merits of wearing a sweater vest, a sport coat, or a sweater vest in conjunction with a sport coat, we headed to the hotel bar. Arriving in the wake of some celebrities, we settled in at the bar and started with a couple glasses of Ruinart Blanc de Blancs Champagne. Dom Ruinart is arguably the oldest house in Champagne, and their vintage Rose is my favorite champagne in the world. Yes, I know Dom Perignon is thought to be the oldest Champagne house; but while Dom Perignon the person made wine starting in 1670, and he indeed did revolutionize Champagne making, it was never actually a Champagne house until Moet & Chandon produced the first vintage of ‘Dom Perignon’ in 1921. Gosset was founded in 1584, but as a still red wine producer. I realize all of this is pedantic, but that’s why I said arguably. Either way, good cocktail factoids.

The sommelier then recommended us Failla Viogner. Awesome wine; floral, a little sweet, very light. Perfect with cheese or by itself. Failla is a teeny  producer owned by the winemaker from Turley. If you get a chance, try both Failla and Turley, but definitely try to get your hands on Failla if you can.

 We then went to dinner and had the tasting menu. A lot of organ meats. The wine a was a little shaky there, if I’m honest. They didn’t have the white I wanted and the sommelier talked me out of the red I wanted. We settled on 2004 Chateau Rayas Chateauneuf du Pape Blanc and Orin Swift’s Prisoner 2007. The Rayas was the suprise hit of the evening, and the Prisoner was awful. The Rayas had great spice: white pepper, cayenne, and cocoa beans. The Orin Swift tasted like a dreamsicle. In a bad way. From there it gets a little fuzzy.

Now we arrive at the opening soliloquy. The curtain rises with me waking in our smaller-than-average queen size bed to find my bed-mate and little spoon with his glasses on. Of course, he wasn’t wearing them the day before. Further inspection down the rabbit hole revealed many befuddling things about the scene, as well as strange and alien images from the previous night of debauchery. The fireplace had ash in it. A brilliant plan on our part to light a fire the night before, no doubt. We find an ice bucket next to the fire place about half filled with water, because as we all know, a deadly blaze can easily be subdued with a glass’-worth of water.

As my cousin awoke, we, a crack team of forensic scientists, began to piece things together. He remembers some women from Utah celebrating a 40th birthday party (they still and will forever hate Jordan for this). I remember some guy who looked like Agent Smith from the Matrix walking in with a crew of cartoon characters of Napa socialites. We continue our scouring of the room; among some of the strange goings on include: 3 cigars (for, as far as we know, only two people), half a decanter full of wine but no wine glasses, 2 hangers that don’t match the ones the hotel provided for us, a brandy snifter with whiskey in it. Missing a shard out of the side. The shard nowhere to be found.

The coups-de-grace of the whole ordeal was, of course, a tasting I had to attend that morning at 10:30. While the wine was great, the combined effort of keeping my eyes open and not throwing up on the delightful woman who was seeing me on a Sunday really spoiled it for me.

As many of us can attest, an overflow of good does indeed convert to bad. And while the bad is debilitating and slightly embarrassing, I know, for one, those are some of my favorite and funniest memories. In my opinion we should all try make a couple more like that. In the end, while some of the night is still a little fuzzy, what would we really have remembered it if we had just went to bed? I don’t think there’s anything worse than being ordinary.

Oh, by the way, here’s a list of the wines we had and a brief score (of course, please take them with a grain of salt):

2000 Napa Valley Reserve: 96
Ruinart Blanc de Blanc: 90
2007 Failla Viogner: 93
Roderer Brut: 89
2002 Chateau Rayas Chateauneuf du Pape Blanc: 93
2007 Orin Swift, The Prisoner: 87
2007 Kongsgaard Chardonnay: 94
2000 Leoville Barton: 96

Coming Next Week: My budding infatuation with Savannah Cats (look it up), embedding random and powerful quotes from great movies in my posts (can you find this week’s? Leave a comment with your guess on the quote and the movie it’s from. Free bottle for the first to get the hidden quote. Get ready), me dealing with the backlash of my family chastising me for my sinful career path. 

 Until next time, live life well,

Zatara

Follow me on twitter!! @zatara_eads

Looking for something just right?

Mother’s day is just around the corner. If you’re like me, your head will pop up off the pillow this Sunday with ‘Oh no’ going through your brain. I understand, procrastination is awesome; she’s a dark mistress who tempts you with free time and then knees you in the groin.

I have a solution. I just got a chance to try this new wine called ‘Tough Day Chardonnay’ by Mira Luna. O.K. so it doesn’t have a fancy French sounding name (even though I think it’s pretty clever) but the wine is seriously good, and when you factor in the value it’s definitely a must try. I mean, it won silver at the 2010 World Wine Championships; that’s no small feat.

Luckily enough, some people know that we love to wait until the last minute, so they try to help us out. Check out this link. It’s $17.99 a bottle, and through Wednesday they’ll give you free ground shipping if you buy three.

If you like good wine with great value and you like your wife, sister, and/or Mom being happy with you, if only for a brief moment, seriously think about this. If you prefer to be loathed and shunned by all women in your family, take your chances. (But I’d still try the wine anyway!)

Until next time live life well,

Zatara