The Wine Curmudgeon

Tuesday tidbits 48: David Lett, DrinkLocalWine.com, wine speculation

• David Lett dies: Lett, the father of the Oregon wine business, died last week at the age of 69. He was always a treat to interview, and the fact that he did for Oregon what Robert Mondavi did for California never seemed to impress him very much. Equally as important, he was always trying to figure out how to make his wine better.

• Regional wine week: We had a great time with DrinkLocalWine.com, and had some terrific visitor numbers. They surprised us, actually. My colleague in regional wine, Dave McIntyre, and I will probably keep the site going, adding several features over the next couple of months. We’re always welcome to suggestions, as well. You can leave them in the comments here.

• Wine speculators taking hit: The global credit meltdown  may have put a damper on wine speculation. Private collectors, forced to raise cash, are trying to sell $10 million worth of wine to Vinfolio, a San Francisco-based company that buys and sells wine online. Normally the company has about $6 million offered to it. Among the rare vintages for sale are a 2003 Margaux and a 1990 Romanee-Conti.

Technorati Tags: David Lett,regional wine week,DrinkLocalWine.com,Vinfolio,wine speculation,credit crunch

State Fair of Texas wine

Yes, Elsie the Cow walks through the wine garden at 6 p.m. every day. And yes, you can hear the roosters crowing next door in the poultry building. And yes, trying to talk about wine to a bunch of college football fans, many of whom have been drinking beer since 8 in the morning, is not the easiest job in the world.

But you know what? I love speaking at the State Fair of Texas.

Jacques Pepin loves cheap wine

Yes, it’s true – Pepin, one of the great chefs of the last 50 years, the man who has cooked for presidents and kings, drinks cheap wine.

“I rarely spend more than $10 on a bottle of wine,” Pepin told me on Thursday during a visit to Dallas, where he was promoting his new book, More Fast Food My Way.

He said he looks for bargains from countries like Spain and France, and finds much California wine too expensive. At this point, as regular visitors to this site can well imagine, the Wine Curmudgeon was beside himself.

Texas, French wines in a blind tasting

The Wine Curmudgeon likes blind tastings a lot, and it’s not because I always get them right. It’s because they are a humbling, necessary experience, something to remind me that I don’t know nearly enough about wine.

Which brings us to last week’s Texas-Beaujolais blind tasting, where I correctly identified three of the six wines. And I was happy to do that well.

Wine of the week: Sunset Winery Moon Glow Merlot 2004

Bruce and Birgit Anderson run Sunset Winery out of what is more or less a house in suburban Fort Worth, so the idea that their 2004 Moon Glow Merlot can win an award seems kind of fantastic. Burleson is not exactly Napa.

Nevertheless, the wine tells the story. The Moon Glow (about $20, available from the winery) won a bronze medal at the prestigious Dallas Morning News competition earlier this year. It’s a warm, rich wine that is isn’t as big or as jammy as most California merlots. Plus, it doesn’t have any of the excess acid that characterizes so many poorly-made Texas merlots and cabernet sauvignons. Pair it with red meat dishes, and especially lamb.

I’m not necessarily sold on merlot as a grape that needs to be grown in Texas. But the Andersons and grower Neal Newsom, who supplied the grapes, show what is possible.

Technorati Tags: Sunset Winery,Texas wine,merlot

Tuesday tidbits 47: Dan Aykroyd wine, wine subdivisions, Indian wine

• Dan Aykroyd is a funny man: But what did he do to deserve his own wine? He is a celebrity, which is enough these days. Aykroyd, working with DeLoach Vineyards, will have his own chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon later this year. The wines will retail for $17.99 to $19.95. In 2007, the comedian launched his line of Canadian wines. There’s a joke in there somewhere, but the Wine Curmudgeon, out of respect for Aykroyd’s work with John Belushi, will skip it.

• A wine-themed subdivision: Who needs a golf course? A Texas Hill Country community is built around a vineyard and a wine bar. It’s called The Vineyard at Florence, and it’s certainly unique. My question? Who is going to tend to the vineyard, and what are they going to do with the grapes? One of the grapes that they’ve planted is norton, which requires a fair bit of work in the vineyard.

• Indian wine group in France: The Asian sub-continent is supposed to be one of the next great wine-growing and wine-consuming regions, which probably explains why an Indian trade group was in Bordeaux this month to study French techniques. I wonder: Did they get to attend a seven-course, 13-wine banquet?

Technorati Tags: Dan Aykroyd,Indian wine,wine and real estate

Three Texas wines

The Texas wines I picked for regional wine week and DrinkLocalWine.com have one thing in common (besides quality). They’re excellent examples of wines that are well done in Texas, and that aren’t made with the same grapes that everyone else uses everywhere else in the world.

That’s a key to regional wine – if chardonnay doesn’t grow well where you are, then don’t grow chardonnay. The wine world – growers, wine makers, retailers, restaurants and wine writers – is obsessed with cabernet sauvignon, merlot and chardonnay. Everything is measured by those three varietals, and almost always found lacking.