The Wine Curmudgeon

Wine of the week: Feudo Arancio Grillo 2009

Wine snobs can be so dull. I found the Feudo stuffed in a corner at a Dallas retailer (a tip o' the Wine Curmudgeon's fedora to the Italian Wine Guy for pointing it out), and did a little research on CellarTracker -- the official wine inventory software of the Wine Curmudgeon -- before I drank it. The comments made the Feudo sound like bottled water that had been left in the sun.

"A tad boring." "A summer sipper." "Quite simple."

Sigh. They'll never figure this stuff out, will they? The Feudo ($8, purchased) is not only a $10 Hall of Fame quality wine, but another example of how far and how fast Sicily has come in terms of wine quality. It's a dry white wine that is clean and fresh, and even a bit rich, with some sort of licorice-flavored peach fruit. The grape -- the grillo -- used to be used mostly to make marsala, a dessert wine, but increasingly shows up in table wines like this. Does this wine taste like white Burgundy? Nope. But it's not supposed to, is it?

Highly recommended, and it will pair well with grilled chicken, almost any sort of grilled or boiled seafood, and summer salads.

$10 wine, cheap wine, inexpensive wine, Italian wine, Sicilian wine, white wine, grillo, wine reviews, wine of the week

Winebits 141: Tuscany trip, Argentina, millenials

• Travel to Tuscany: The Wine Curmudgeon does not usually plug wine trips, but this one is an exception. It is being led by Portland's Paul Gerald, who is not only a dog-sitter extraordinare, but a top-notch tour guide. The 12-day hiking trip is affordable as these things go, and hits some intriguing and not as well known high spots. Dates are April 27-May 11, 2011. Paul has even posted a video to YouTube.

• Argentine imports pass Chile? There's a great little tussle going on between Chile and Argentina over which country sends more wine to the U.S. Traditionally, this has been Chile, but an Argentine study says that country has passed Chile -- which the Chileans, of course, find humorous. Sniffs one Chilean official, noting that the difference can be traced to in upsurge in malbec sales: "Malbec is a fad." I wonder if something in his comment was lost in translation.

• The Millenial wine palate: Tom Johnson at Louisville Juice has already weighed in on this (he offers a nifty aside to Homer Simpson's favorite band in the process), and questioning whether this is much ado about nothing. But what's worth noting from the story, as confusing as it is, is that while more younger people -- the wine industry's beloved Millenials -- are drinking wine, most of those who tell them what to drink are a bunch of old farts. This is actually something that the industry, which is placing its hopes for continued riches in the Millenials, is going to have to come to grips with. The system of wine advice from on high, which it has nurtured and protected for more than a generation and which the Baby Boomers have adored, is going to be a lot less relevant after all of us die.

Italy, wine trips, Argentine wine, Chilean wine, millenials and wine

Gruet, Texas and the deal that fell through

First, Gruet was in the Texas wine business. Then, it wasn’t. And don’t worry if those two sentences are confusing, because Gruet’s 16-day foray into the Lone Star state has left quite a few people confused.

The simple explanation is that Laurent Gruet, who runs the critically- and popularly- acclaimed New Mexico sparkling wine house, bought Texas’ bankrupt Cap*Rock Winery for $6.5 million at auction on July 12. Then, some two weeks later, Gruet said he didn’t have the money and withdrew his bid. And yes, the state’s collective wine jaw dropped when that happened.

The less simple explanation? There isn’t one. No one knows what Gruet was thinking when he spent money he didn’t have. He isn’t talking about it, and that includes my attempts to reach him by phone last week. More, after the jump: