The Wine Curmudgeon

Tuesday winebits 71: Beard awards, re-closing wine bottles, wine exchange rates

• Beard wine nominees: The Beards are best known for food – think of it as the Academy Awards for chefs – but it also rewards wine. The list is here. The categories include outstanding restaurant wine service and outstanding wine and spirits professional. And, a personal note: John T. Edge, the impresario of the Southern Foodways Alliance, will be inducted into Who’s Who of Food & Beverage in America at the awards event. John T. knows his business, and has done yeoman work to preserve and protect what’s important about honest food in the U.S.

• Re-closing wine bottles: Want to know what works best after you’ve opened it, but haven’t finished the wine? How about none them? Or at least after two or three days, when most of the them don’t make of a difference.

• Wine and exchange rates: This article, by Matt Kramer in Portland’s Oregonian newspapers, is one of the best short explanations about how exchange rates and the strength of the U.S. dollar affect wine prices. And the review isn’t bad, either.

Technorati Tags: Beard awards,John T. Edge,Southern Foodways Alliance,wine closures,exchange rates

The Dregs Report: California secedes from U.S. -- becomes its own wine country

W.R. Tish, as regular visitors here know, is a terrific wine writer – Wine for All -- and a very funny man. Hence, The Dregs Report, a takeoff on the very popular Internet site where the facts never get in the way of a good story.

My contribution is on the left sidebar. And if anyone is wondering if the story is true, or why I wrote it (or why Tish came up with the idea), look at the calendar and note what day comes in the middle of this week.

Technorati Tags: Dregs Report,W.R. Tish

Winecast 5: Patty Held and regional wine

Patty Held was working in regional wine long before most people noticed that wine existed outside of California and Europe. Her work as a winemaker (she graduated from Cal State-Fresno’s wine program when very few women even enrolled) and as a marketer has helped Missouri become one of the country’s top regional producers.

We talked about why regional wine doesn’t get any respect (and what can be done to change that), the norton grape and the fine wine it makes, and specific ways that wineries and regions can work on improving their reputation. She even explains why so many regional wineries make so much sweet wine. To stream or download the podcast, click here. It’s about 10 minutes and 9 megabyes. The quality is more or less professional, save for an odd Elvis-style reverb.

Technorati Tags: wine podcasts,Patty Held,regional wine,Missouri wine

Wine writing, and what's wrong with it

Wine writing in the United States is too serious, too self-absorbed, and too parochial. In the past six weeks, I have seen so many examples of these flaws that I feel compelled to say something. Too many of us want to be famous, and the only way we can do that is to write in winespeak about topics that only appeal to other wine writers who want to be famous.

I don’t write this lightly, and not just because I’m now fair game for every blogger in the universe. I write this because wine writing will never advance the cause of wine in the U.S. unless we understand that most of the stuff that we write about is of little interest to most Americans – including those who drink wine. A friend of mine (who will remain nameless for her protection) is a top-notch food writer who also does some wine. She doesn’t much care for writing about wine. How, she has asked me many times, can anyone read this stuff?

After the jump, what’s going on and how we can fix it:

Fat Bastard and Texas

Or, don’t believe everything you read on the Internet.

Several visitors have arrived here recently looking for information about Fat Bastard wines, which several websites say can’t be sold in Texas. Which is hooey. We may have some odd and annoying liquor laws in Texas, but they have nothing to do with Fat Bastard. Now, if you want to talk about our wet-dry and private club laws, we could have a lengthy discussion.

“I see Fat Bastard in my grocery store all the time,” says Carolyn Beck, who is a spokesman for the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, which regulates wine sales in the state. “As far as I know, it’s never been banned.”

The confusion, apparently, stems from the TABC’s label review process, which used to be more extensive than it is today. Today, if the federal agency that regulates wine labels says a label is OK, then it’s OK in Texas. Which Fat Bastard is.

Technorati Tags: wine labels,Texas liquor laws,Fat Bastard

San Diego International wine competition highlights

A few thoughts after tasting 250 wines in two days as one of the 36 judges:

• Regional wine scored big. The best of show white wine was Dr. Konstantin Frank’s semi-dry riesling and the dessert wine winner was from Wolffler Estate Vineyards, both from New York state. Both were stunning wines (and, as ice wines go, the Wolffler wasn’t ridiculously expensive at $37). Missouri did well, including a gold medal for St. James’ very interesting strawberry wine. I was also impressed with Texas’ efforts. Llano Estacado won a gold (its riesling dessert wine) and silver (its Viviano Italian-style blend) and Stone House in the Hill Country won a silver for its norton.

• And yes, I was surprised by the success of regional wine. Call me a reverse snob, but I didn’t expect a competition with mostly California judges to see the merits of regional wine. Shows how much I know.

• Biggest surprise?  The best champagne/sparkling wine was Pink from Australia’s Yellowglen. The $12 bubbly beat several much more expensive and better known wines, demonstrating the advantages of blind tasting. I actually voted for another wine in the sweepstakes balloting. I didn’t think the Pink was fruity enough.

• High alcohol hasn’t left us yet. Many of the gold-medal red wines were higher than 14.5 percent, and quite a few were higher than 15 percent. I think this is one area that shows  the influence of California judges, and especially winemakers as judges. They aren’t bothered by high alcohol the way many of the rest of us are.

• Complete results are here. Thanks to Robert Whitely for asking me to judge and to Richard Carey of Vitis Research and Kimberly Charles of Charles Communications, who were the other two judges at my table.

Technorati Tags: wine judging,wine competitions,San Diego International,Robert Whitley,regional wine,wine awards

Cheap wine does not cost $20

Note to Meredith Erickson at the New York Times: $20 wine is not cheap. It is past mid-priced and on its way to expensive.

I mention this because Erickson has put together a case of what she calls cheap wine, courtesy of the great Kermit Lynch. This is no criticism of Lynch, who is one of the world’s great importers of French wine and could probably find value in $100 wine.

But Erickson does not say value. She says cheap, as in “the only quantifier being cheap, but not cheap tasting.” So why is only one of the wines in this case is less than $15? In fact, one of them is $20, one is $19, and two are $18. For the cost of those four wines, $74, I could have put together an entire case of wine that is actually cheap. Actually, you can do it. Just look at the $10 Hall of Fame.

I’m getting exceedingly worn out from reading this kind of wine writing. I may have to do something about it. Be sure to read the blog on Friday.

Technorati Tags: cheap wine,$10 wine,Kermit Lynch