The Wine Curmudgeon

Winebits 167: Grape prices, Robert Parker, corks

• Grape crush third highest ever: California crushed 3.7 million tons of grapes in 2010 -- the third-largest crush to date, reports WineBusinessNews.com. The good news for consumers? California grape prices fell by almost seven percent, and so wine prices should continue to be "consumer-friendly" for the next couple of years. Otherwise, the figures are quite contradictory, and trying to make sense of them is not easy. Some of the numbers show that the price for Napa grapes declined by more than seven percent, which would be a crisis of epic proportions. On the other hand, says the magazine, looking at another set of figures, maybe they increased one-half of once percent.

• Changes in the Robert Parker empire: Jon Bonne at the San Francisco Chronicle details key changes in the way Robert Parker -- the most important person in the wine business -- will review wines. The story is very long, and a lot of it is very inside baseball, but there are a couple of things worth noting. Parker is going to review fewer California wines, which Bonne called "stunning news," and the critic who will take over California probably won't be all that different from Parker. "Those awaiting the demise of big, hedonistic cult wines are probably out of luck," wrote Bonne.

• Corks to shoes: Our friends in the cork business, who keep insisting that you're not one of the cool kids unless you drink wine that has a cork closure, have enlisted the Grammy Awards to spread their message. Wines sealed with cork will be served at a fundraiser honoring Barbra Streisand and at the official Grammy celebration. Plus, the corks will be recycled to make shoes. Which raises an important question: When did the Grammy awards become cool again?

Is U.S. wine too bland?

That's the conclusion of Dan Berger, the pre-eminent wine critic and author. U.S. producers, particularly in California and particularly with red wine, are dumbing down the way their wine tastes. "Will you find varietal character in most wines? No, not any more," he wrote in his weekly newspaper column. Instead, "The result, over the past 20 years or so, has been a lot blander wine than I have ever seen, not to mention more alcoholic and less likely to go with food."

This is the same conclusion the Wine Curmudgeon reached when putting together the 2011 Hall of Fame. Too many wines, particularly if they were from California and particularly if they were red, were flabby and dull. So I called Berger (tasting, right), told him what I had found, and asked him what was going on.

"The joke used to be, among people who didn't like red wine, is that they didn't like red wine because it all tasted the same," says Berger. "Now, it's not a joke. They're right."

After the jump, why this is happening and what consumers can do about it:

Valentine's Day Wine 2011

Ordinarily, the Wine Curmudgeon does not participate in the festivities surrounding The Holiday that Must not be Named. But this year, given the rough winter that so many of us are having, I figured, why not? Plus, it gives me a chance to write about champagne and sparkling wine, which was the blog's New Year's resolution. (If you really don't want to do bubbly, this Chalk Hill is quite nice.)

Bubbly fits Valentine’s Day like a red paper heart (and yes, you can even drink it with chocolate). The sparkling wine glossary explains all, and the 2009 New Year's post explained the difference between the world's various sparkling wines.

So if you’re wondering where to go with Valentine’s Day wine, here are three sparkling suggestions:

• Freixenet Cordon Rosado Brut ($11, sample). Spanish bubbly is called cava, and this one is more fruity (some citrus) than similarly-priced cavas. Plus, it's pink, so you're getting with the holiday theme.

• Simonnet-Febvre Cremant Brut ($20, purchased). Bubbly from the Chablis region of France, which means the grapes approach champagne quality at less than half the price.

• Pol Roger White Foil Brut ($45, sample). The real stuff, with champagne’s classic green apple flavor and great bubbles that stream to the top of the glass.

Expensive wine 23: Chalk Hill Cabernet Sauvignon 2005

The Wine Curmudgeon's feelings about expensive California cabernet sauvignon are well known: Over-oaked, over-extracted, over-ripe and over-priced.

And then I tasted the Chalk Hill ($50, sample) and marvelled again at what talented winemakers can do with quality grapes. It's certainly Sonoma County wine, with black fruit and moderate (for Sonoma, anyway) 14.5 percent alcohol.

But there was an angularity to it that was quite appealing, some edges and rough spots that one normally doesn't find in these kinds of lush, ripe wines. I wouldn't go so far as to say it was an herbal character, which is a mark of red Bordeaux. But even the impression of herbal is more than one gets in most wines of this style.

Very nicely done, and even a value as these things go. It would make a fine gift for The Holiday that Must not be Named, or as the center piece for a classic red wine dinner.

Wine of the week: Cave de Lugny Macon-Villages 2009

The French may have many faults as a wine-producing nation, be it genuflecting in Robert Parker's direction or refusing to acknowledge the 21st century. But they still make the world's best chardonnay -- even grocery store chardonnay.

The Cave de Lugny ($11, purchased) is just such a wine. It's almost unoaked, with some green apple and citrus at the front. If the mineral finish is a bit thin, it's not unpleasant like so many California grocery store chardonnays, which reek of fake oak and other winemaker manipulation. I stumbled across this while looking for something to have on hand in case Icepocalypse: The Sequel kept me from wine shopping, and snapped it up. Cave de Lugny has a fine reputation as a grocery-store Burgundy producer (I especially like the Les Charmes, though it's not $11 any more), and one could do a lot worse than this wine. Which, sadly, I have.

Drink this chilled on its own, with leftovers if you're cleaning out the refrigerator after the power goes out, or for Chinese takeout. Assuming you can get to the restaurant for takeout in between the winter storms.

Winebits 166: State budgets, global warming, screwcaps

• Sunday booze as budget panacea: Since 2002, 14 states and numerous municipalities have repealed their blue laws banning Sunday alcohol sales in efforts to spur revenue growth for their governments. Now, 36 states allow such sales, and a host more want to end Sunday bans in an attempt to raise cash without raising taxes. The biggest hurdle the states have to clear? From liquor store owners, who like their legally mandated day off. The irony to all this is that adding an extra day of liquor sales doesn't usually increase tax revenue in the long term. There's a short term bump, but most people drink the same amount of wine, beer and liquor regardless of when it's sold, so the only thing that changes are buying habits. If I drink a bottle of wine a week, I'll buy it on Sunday instead of Saturday.

• Wine and global warming: Spain's Pancho Campo, the country's pre-eminent wine expert, says people who still doubting the existence of climate change are outdated, and points to changes to grape growing as one reason why. Campo says climate change could result in a change in grape quality, and that average temperatures in some wine growing regions have increased so much that grapes grown in particularly hot countries are too alcoholic, ripen oddly, and produce wines that lack aromatic complexity. During my trip to Spain last month, global warming was discussed several times, and winemakers and vineyard managers say they've seen significant changes to their grapes over the past 20 years.

• Jancis Robinson on screwcap quality: "While traditionalists may still be reluctant to embrace them, there is now plenty of scientific evidence that indicates money spent on wine sealed with anything but a screwcap is a game of risk" -- or so says one of the most influential wine critics in the world. Which, frankly, I'm going to believe more than another news release or video from the cork producers. This article, from Robinson's Web site, is as good an overview of the history of screwcaps that I've seen.

Super Bowl 7, Wine Curmudgeon 0

So much for the theory that wine drinkers are a bunch of effete, intellectual snobs. More people visited the blog on Christmas Day than visited it Super Bowl Sunday yesterday. The other day recently that was as visitor-less? New Year's Day, which also has its share of football games.

Which tells this cranky ex-sportswriter that wine drinkers are just as rough and ready as beer drinkers. Imagine watching a football game instead of reading a wine blog. That's something that the marketers should keep in mind the next time they try to sell mommy wine.