The Wine Curmudgeon

Screwcaps -- again -- on Internet radio

I made my third appearance on Olivia Wilder’s New Art of Living program Sunday. I’m the third guest, about 70 minutes in. We chatted about wine for warm weather, how to tell if a wine is sweet, and couldn't avoid screwcaps again. I'm also told the audience was at an all-time high. Click on the The New Art of Living link below to listen.

Technorati Tags: Internet radio,Wine Curmudgeon,Olivia Wilder

Winebits 86: Korbel family feud, Canada wine fraud, Midwest wine appellation

• Korbel father, daughter in lawsuit: This story is equal parts sad and unbelievable. Korbel Champagne Cellars’ owner Gary Heck is suing his daughter, Richie Ann Samii, for defamation. Heck says she is the Internet postings that damaged the winery’s reputation. Samii, meanwhile, denies making the comments -- although she admits they came from her Internet account. And it gets even stranger, involving a potential free speech precedent, sexual assault, and pet zebras. The Santa Rosa Press Democrat has the details.

• Winery account stole millions: A judge will decide next month whether to send the former manager of financial planning for a Niagara winery to jail for stealing C$7.4 million (about US$6.5 million). Christine Papakyriakou stole the money from Andres Wines over an 11-year period, citing alcoholism and a gambling addiction in her defense.

• Feds OK new appellation: The federal Alcohol Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, which regulates wine in the U.S., has approved the country’s 316th appellation. The Upper Mississippi River Valley Viticultural Area covers parts of four states -- southeastern Minnesota, southwest Wisconsin, northwest Illinois and northeast Iowa. One question, though: What difference does this make? The Wine Curmudgeon is as big a supporter of regional wine as there is, but I’m not sure how parts of four states can be defined by terroir.

Technorati Tags: Korbel,free speech,Andres Wines,appellations,Upper Mississippi River Valley Viticultural Area

It's not a New Yorker cartoon, but it will do

The cartoon is from On the Wine Trail in Italy, using a Creative Commons license.

Technorati Tags: cartoons,wine business,wine trends

Wine, the recession, and the Wine Curmudgeon Sample Index

The wine business is in trouble by any number of measurements, but the one that strikes me the most is the Wine Curmudgeon Sample Index.

This summer, I have received more samples than ever before, including samples from wineries that would not have noticed my existence in the past. I have received so many samples, in fact, that I’ve actually declined offers of many more. That’s the first time in my 20-some odd years of writing about wine that I’ve had to do that.

How weird has it been?

• I got four bottles from a major Napa winery, including its $100 and $80 cabernet sauvignons. The catch, of course, is that I almost never write about those kinds of wines, and there was no real reason to send them to me.

• A couple of weeks ago, a leading California sparkling wine producer sent me samples of the same wine it had sent me in the fall.

• Double samples – that is, two bottles of the same wine in the same shipment – are rampant. One of the biggest producers in the world sent me a case of wine, two bottles each of six wines.

Why this is happening and what it means after the jump:

Whoops

Some of you may have seen a post on Sunday with a very bad picture of me and some type about testing blog editors. It wasn’t supposed to get posted, but did (not quite sure how). Feel free to ignore it, laugh at the picture, or hit delete.

More Wine Curmudgeon and Internet radio

Olivia Wilder has asked me back for The New Art of Living on Sunday. I should be on around 8:50 p.m. central time (though the show has been running late).

And Olivia’s effort was the second most popular program on the network a couple of weeks ago. I was on that one, so the question becomes: Would it have been first without me?

Technorati Tags: Internet radio,The New Art of Living,Olivia Wilder

Wine terms: Hybrid and native grapes

The wine grape world is divided into three main categories – vitis vinifera, or European-style wine grapes like cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay; native grapes like concord and catawba; and hybrid grapes like chambourcin, and seyval blanc.

Why don’t you hear more about native and hybrid grapes? Because most wine made in the world is made with vinifera. It’s the easiest to grow in most of the important wine regions, easiest to make wine with, and mostly makes the best wine.

But this doesn’t mean that hybrids and native grapes (the ultimate list is here) aren’t legitimate wine grapes. More, after the jump: