The Wine Curmudgeon

Winebits 133: How much do you drink, ultimate wine cellar, lighter bottles

• Do you know how much you drink? The BBC notes that British health officials, concerned that patients are not able to accurately tell their doctors how much they drink, want doctors to ask more often Says one official: ""Many people are not aware that their drinking carries a health risk, and it's only when [doctors] ask about it and link it to a medical condition, that they cut down." This is yet another example of why there will always be an England.

• Yes, but can it survive a nuclear attack?  How does a wine vault -- 3,200 square feet and 30 feet below ground with 40,000 bottles of wine -- sound? That's the setup for a Belgian-born Swiss named Filip Opdebeeck, who sells wine to some of the world's wealthiest wine collectors. The New York Times story quotes someone who is identified as a wine economist. I know what a wine curmudgeon is; I'm not quite sure what a wine economist is.

• Taking glass out of wine bottles: My pal Dave McIntyre at the Washington Post reports that the world's largest producer of wine bottles will begin making bottles that will weigh up to 27 percent less than typical bottles. The idea is to reduce the weight, which will reduce the energy used to produce the bottle and cut the energy needed to ship it to market. Some wine bottles weigh as much as four pounds. The new bottles will weigh less than 12 ounces.

drinking, alcohol consumption, wine vault, wine bottles, carbon footprint

Lone Star International Wine Competition

The Lone Star competition is the first event ever that the Wine Curmudgeon judged, which is why I'm always so glad to return each year. It runs today and tomorrow, with a huge Twitter Taste-off featuring the medal-winning wines on Tuesday. Yes, I'm going to Twitter -- @wine_curmudgeon.

The competition is run by the Texas Wine and Grape Growers Association, and features Texas and regional wines. But since it's international, it includes wine from California and other foreign countries. I'll have a full report later this week.

Lone Star International Wine Competition, wine competitions, wine judging

Why I don't like wine corks -- still

We can write all we want about how the quality of corks has improved, and the cork business can run campaigns and talk about how much effort they've made to improve the quality of corks.

But that doesn't alter one unalterable fact: Cork is not the best wine closure. I was reminded of that Saturday night, when I opened a bottle of white Burgundy (chardonnay from the Burgundy region of France) and was overwhelmed with the smell of a damp basement. The wine, a Hubert Lamy Saint-Aubin La Princée 2006, was corked, and I had to dump it.

My irritation -- no, it was more than that -- was not because the wine was particularly expensive or because I had paid for it or even because it was one of my favorites. It was, for white Burgundy, moderately priced at $22, and I had never had a Lamy before. I just like white Burgundy, this was in the store, and I had bought it.

What happened, and what it means, after the jump:

Winecast 15: Anna Katharine Mansfield, Cornell University

One of the most exciting things going on in regional wine is the research and development of new grape species, and especially the work being done with cold hardy grapes. Vitis vinifera, the European wine grape species that includes chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon, doesn't like cold weather.

Hence the effort to propagate cold hardy grapes that can be made into quality wine. Anna Katharine Mansfield, a Cornell University enologist, has been a key researcher in the development of several of these grapes. One of them is frontenac, which produces a fruity red wine that has been successfully grown in regions as far north as Minnesota.

In the podcast, we talk about developing new grape varieties, how and why it's done, and why it's so important. This is not my best recording -- we were in a large building where we judged the International Eastern Wine Competition. There were a lot of echoes, and you'll need to keep the sound turned up. The podcast is 7.4 megabytes and lasts about 8 minutes. You can download or stream it here.

regional wine, podcasts, grape varieties, Anna Katharine Mansfield

Book review: Todd Kliman's The Wild Vine

The Wild Vine is an important book, and not just because author Todd Kliman is writing about regional wine and the norton grape, two of my favorites. It's an important book because Kliman offers some much-needed insight into the history of American wine. It's a perspective that says, "Look, pay attention. Long before Robert Parker and scores and California, there was a U.S. wine industry. And if a few things had happened differently. ..."

Disclaimers first: I know Kliman, and consider him a friend. But that in no way changes my opinion of the quality of the work. After the jump, a few thoughts about The Wild Vine:

Wine of the week: Benziger Family Sauvignon Blanc 2009

One of the best cheap wines of all-time was Benziger's fume blanc, which appeared in the $10 Hall of Fame in its early years. But the wine hasn't been around the Dallas area much lately, and a Benziger spokeswoman said it wasn't being distributed nationally any more.

Fortunately, though, we have the Benziger sauvignon blanc ($15, sample). It does everything the fume did (fume is just another way of saying sauvignon blanc), and if it costs $5 more, the wine is mostly worth it. Look for a little lemon on the nose, a big burst of tropical fruit in the middle, and a pleasant mineral finish. This is very well made wine by people who respect winemaking. And, not only does it come with a screwcap, but it is produced using sustainable farming methods (the Farming for Flavors program). The Benzigers, in fact, are among the California pioneers in green winemaking.

Drink this chilled, and sip it on its own this summer. It's already close to 100 in Dallas, and the wine was a welcome relief last night. Or pair it with grilled chicken, boiled seafood or almost anything with garlic and parsley.

wine reviews, wine of the week, sauvignon blanc, Benziger

Winebits 132: Wine consumption, French wine, Bordeaux wine

• Most of us still don't drink wine: The latest figures show that only about a third of the U.S. adult population drinks wine regularly, defined as at least once a month. That compares to the 70 per cent (or more) of adults who drink wine regularly in northern Europe. The survey, conducted by the Wine Intelligence consultancy, found that even Canadians drink more wine than we do --about 60 percent drink one at least once a month. Call this the Long Winter effect. Though, to be serious, this is an especially interesting since wine is more expensive in Canada than it is in the U.S.

• Do the French still make the best wine? Apparently so, says the Wine Intelligence consultancy (which was very busy at last month's London Wine Fair). They polled wine drinkers in the United Kingdom, U.S. and Switzerland, and a majority in all three countries said France was the highest-regarded country for fine wine. I'm not surprised to see that result in the European countries, but it is a bit of a shock to hear Americans say that. The other fine wine countries for U.S. drinkers? Italy and California, and then Spain and "other USA."

• Bordeaux buying tips: My pal Robert Whitley has demystified the Bordeaux buying process, no easy feat. It's his first column for the Reuters wire service, and it's worth reading: "It may come as a surprise to those who don't live and die by the (famous wine critic Robert) Parker scores that vintages of the century are rather common in Bordeaux, where the most collectible and thus the most expensive wines in the world are produced. Since the harvest of 2000, we've had three. I kid you not."

wine consumption, French wine, fine wine, Bordeaux