The Wine Curmudgeon

Update: The Cristalino lawsuit

What do you call Cristalino, the Spanish sparkling wine, after a federal court judge says that you can't call it Cristalino?

What happens if you run a picture of the old Cristalino bottle, like the one on the left, after a federal court judge says you shouldn't?

Who would have thought that the Wine Curmudgeon needed an attorney to write about $10 wine? But that appears to be the case these days.

Regular visitors will remember that, last August, the company that owns Cristal (and which will never be mentioned on the blog) won a judgement in U.S. federal court in Minneapolis. Cristal's owner said there was evidence that consumers could be confused between the two brands, even though Cristal sells for hundreds of dollars and Cristalino doesn't, and they are rarely on sale in the same location. A federal court judge agreed, and ordered Cristalino to redesign and re-label its bottle, with a disclaimer that says Cristalino isn't affiliated with Cristal or The Company That Will Not be Named.

More, after the jump.

Dallas' Celebration restaurant and half-price wine

Dallas' Celebration restaurant makes an honest effort with its wine list, including Texas wines. This is impressive, not only because its home-style Texas menu doesn't lend itself to wine, but because so few of its customers seem to drink wine. Or at least so few of them seem to drink wine when I eat there.

But what's really impressive is Celebration's half-price wine night on Thursdays. That's when my table is not the only one with a bottle of wine on it, and the waiter said last night that the restaurant's wine sales triple on Thursday. Celebration owner Ed Lowe, as savvy a restaurateur as there is, has learned something that so many others have not: That he can make more money by selling less expensive wine.

Now, if I can only talk Lowe into doing half-price night more often.

Mini-reviews 22: Bota Box, Raymond, Fess Parker, Freemark Abbey

Reviews of wines that don’t need their own post, but are worth noting for one reason or another. Look for it on the final Friday of each month. This month, an all California lineup:

• Bota Box Malbec 2009 ($18 for a 3-liter box, sample): Wine for people who aren't all that fussy about what their wine tastes like. Lots of sweet blackberry fruit without much tannin or acid.

• Raymond Merlot Reserve 2007 ($23, sample): A fair bit of merlot character, which means it's not as fruity as other California merlots at this price and even (dare I say?) a little more subtle. A step up from the $15 merlots that so many people drink.

• Fess Parker Syrah 2007 ($24, sample): Big, huge syrah with traditional bacon fat aroma, lots of rich, black fruit and 14.9 percent alcohol. If you like this style of wine, you'll love this wine.

• Freemark Abbey Viognier 2009 ($27, sample): I didn't think there was any way I would appreciate this, given that it was oaked and had 14.5 percent alcohol. But it was mostly in balance, with apricot fruit and peach pit finish.

Dallas Morning News and Texsom Competition 2011

What's better than judging the 27th annual Dallas Morning News and Texsom Wine Competition? Judging hybirds and native grapes with Doug Frost, MS, MW who (though he hates this description) is the godfather of the regional wine movement in the United States. And the other two members of our panel weren't too shabby, either -- Marguerite Thomas (who I have judged with before, and tells great Julia Child stories) and Sheri Sauter Morano, MW.

We did norton. We did catawba. We did baco noir. We did chambourcin. We did traminette. We did blanc du bois. We did chardonel. And we gave gold medals. The norton was classic, and the vidal was a beautful wine -- rich and full, with a grassy aroma and acid to balance the fullness. In some ways, this was among the best group of hybrids and natives that I've judged over the past several years. They were professionally made, competent, and varietally correct. There were disappointments, certainly, and especially among the blanc du bois, but that's the nature of judging this group of grapes.

We also did Spanish varietals, and awarded golds to two tempranillos and an albarino. A chenin blanc, meanwhile, got a silver, and when I find out what it is (the results won't be released for a month or so), I'm going to buy some. If it's $10, it's Hall of Fame worthy.

Also impressive this year: The qualifications of the judges, which made the Wine Curmudgeon feel like a high school student at post-graduate seminar on particle physics. We had a PhD. We had Master Sommeliers. We had Masters of Wine. In all, 23 of the 56 judges had initials after their names, easily the best credentialed group in the six or seven years I've been judging wine competitions.

Wine of the week: Falesco Est! Est! Est!!! 2009

The Wine Curmudgeon does not approve of exclamation marks. If Hemingway didn't need them, no one else does either. Which should give everyone an idea about the quality of this wine, since it has five exclamation points in its name.

The Est ($9, purchased) is a white blend of trebbiano, malvasia and roscetto (yet another obscure Italian grape, something that it seems all interesting Italian wines must have). In less capable hands, that grape combination can produce a wine that is all sweet and fruity. But Falesco, the producer behind Est, is one of the most capable hands in the world, and the Est lives up to Falesco's long-standing tradition of cheap and well-made wine.

Look for a lemon/lime zest sort of flavor, more structure than a $9 wine should have, and some spice on the finish. Drink this chilled on its own, or with anything resembling fish. This wine would make even tuna casserole, made with cream of mushroom soup, taste better. And look for this in the 2012 $10 Hall of Fame, with Falesco's Vitiano wines.

Winebits 167: Patty Bogle, grape prices, Champagne sales

• Patty Bogle dies: Bogle, the matriarch of $10 wine powerhouse Bogle Vineyards, has died. She was 59. Patty Bogle and her late husband, Chris, built Bogle Vineyards from 18 acres of grapes into one of the best inexpensive wine producers in the world. The company ships more than 1.2 million cases of wine annually, and Wine Business Monthly ranked Bogle as the country's 14th-largest winery. She was diagnosed in 2007 with leukemia, which eventually killed her. She will be much missed by those of us who appreciate cheap wine.

• Grape prices below break-even? A followup to last week's item about the 2010 grape harvest and low grape prices: California producers say that although grape prices strengthened in 2010 from 2009, 2010 was not a good year and that many of the region’s growers still face below break-even, especially those with expired contracts or grapes that aren't chardonnay or cabernet sauvignon. One analyst says he doesn't expect to see grape prices rebound until the 2012 harvest. Which means at least another two years of consumer-friendly wine prices.

• Champagne sales still flat: The recession hasn't ended for the champagne business, where sales are still 12 1/2 percent behind their 2007 peak and industry officials says they're still worried about the business and its immediate future. On the other hand, reports the just-drinks.com Web site, some producers may be finagling sales figures to prevent the industry officials from releasing excess inventory to the public, which would depress prices. The Wine Curmudgeon, of course, has a solution for champagne, which is too often overpriced. Stop acting like OPEC and let the market determine what your product is worth.

Wine terms: Terroir

The most controversial term in wine is terroir. A sizeable portion of the wine world -- half, perhaps? -- says it doesn't exist, and that even if it does, it's irrelevant. The rest of us believe truly and deeply in terroir and consider it the key to what makes wine so special. But even we terroirists can't agree on just exactly what terroir is.

That's the reason I've waited 3 1/2 years to write this post. I wanted to make sure I got it exactly right. More, after the jump: