The Wine Curmudgeon

Wine of the week: The Stump Jump 2009

Yet another Australian wine featured on the blog? Hey, the Wine Curmudgeon calls them as he sees them, and if it means changing his mind and admitting that he doesn't know everything that he thinks he knows, that's what makes him the Wine Curmudgeon.

Or, to quote a wine drinker named danielbleier on CellarTracker (the blog's unofficial wine inventory software): "This is what I am looking for in a $10 wine."

The Stump Jump ($12, sample), is a blend of red Rhone varietals that includes grenache, and it is all of that. Since it's Australian, there is lots and lots of red fruit (black cherry?) and it's not shy about the fruit, either. But the wine is far from one dimensional, with a bit of a middle and even a finish and some tannins -- things most cheap Aussie wines don't bother with since they're only concerned with making the fruit explode in your mouth. And did I mention that the alcohol is only 14 percent, which is practically nothing for an Australian wine?

One caveat: The Stump Jump, despite its relative subtlety, does need hearty, stick to your ribs food. It is still Australian, and trying to drink this by itself would be an adventure in wine tasting. I drank it with with roasted pork country-style ribs, a fine fit, and it would have paired equally as well if I had smoked the ribs.

Winebits 218: Bonny Doon, Skinnygirl, wine tastings

• Whither the family-owned winery? Bonny Doon's Randall Grahm takes to his award-winning blog to ponder the future of the family winery, and more specifically his winery. Those of us who care about these things should be especially concerned when Grahm writes that his bank is not pleased with Bonny Doon's finances. The post is quite long, but worth reading -- not only for the insight it offers into the modern wine business (something Grahm touched on when we had lunch last fall), but for the usual Grahm wit (as a kid, he sold first-aid kits door to door) and footnotes. Yes, he puts footnotes in blog posts. And there are people who think the Wine Curmudgeon is odd.

• Bring on the Skinnygirl wine: Beam Estates, which owns a bunch of wine brands but is better known for spirits, is going to launch Skinnygirl, a line of reduced calorie wine similar to its Skinnygirl cocktails. The story in the Wine Spectator reports that the brand is aiming for 100 calories for a 5-ounce glass, which is about 25 less than it would normally have. Maybe they'll take the flavor out. The Wine Curmudgeon, oddly enough, has a passing knowledge of Skinnygirl cocktails. I was trying to convince a Dallas retailer to sponsor a local wine event last year, and he said what his chain really wanted was something like the Skinnygirl, former reality show star Bethenny Frankel, to make an appearance at one of his stores. Could we do something like that?

• Georgia legislature, always on the job: Georgia legislators have decided that wine tastings at retailers that sell spirits -- as opposed to retailers that just sell wine -- is not a good thing. The story, from Georgia Public Broadcasting, notes that package stores would face horrendous insurance problems if allowed to do wine tastings. Which, of course, does not seem to be a problem in other states that allow wine tastings in package stores, including that well-known bastion of sensible liquor laws and erudite legislators, Texas (where I live). Still, as excuses go, it is quite original and almost as good as the one that the beer business gives when it lobbies to restrict Internet wine sales: Teenagers will buy wine online and lie about their age!

Update: Wine prices in 2012

Remember January's post about wine prices in 2012 (the one with the crummy graphic)? That's the post that said wine prices may finally be firming after four years of declines, and that consumers may not be able to find as many bargains later this year and the beginning of next.

Well, it may be time to reconsider that. More, after the jump:

Mini-reviews 33: Grgich, Leese-Fitch, Edna Valley, Colby Red

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:

•  Grgich Hills Fumé Blanc 2010 ($30, sample): This is about as good as California sauvignon blanc gets, with lemon grass and some sort of green apple fruit, a kind of subtle tropical middle (lychee?) and a long, clean finish. Still a little young, and would benefit from six more months in the bottle.

• Leese-Fitch Pinor Noir 2010 ($13, sample): This is a very fruity (berries?), modern-style California pinot noir from The Other Guys that has more in common with Beaujolais than traditional pinot. As long as that's OK, it's more than acceptable wine and a decent value.

• Edna Valley Chardonnay 2009 ($15, sample): Nice value with good fruit (apricot?) and freshness, though too oaky for me. Though, to be fair, not as oaky some old-school chardonnays.

• Colby Red 2010 ($12, sample): California red blend with normal enough tannins and acid but what seems to be an almost cherry lollipop sweetness in the middle. It throws the wine off kilter, though people who like that sort of thing probably won't think anything of it.

The Dallas Morning News and TexSom Wine Competition 2012

This year's competiton, the 28th annual, was held Sunday and Monday. The biggest news, at least from where I was judging, was that the quality of the California wine did not hold up to the quality of the U.S. wine that wasn't from California. Hard to believe, but the other three judges on my panel agreed -- the regional wine we tasted was mostly better than the California wine, and we tasted wine from parts of California, like merlots from Napa and cabernet sauvignons from Alexander Valley, that should have been full of gold medals.

But it wasn't. And it wasn't because of the Wine Curmudgeon and his idiosyncratic palate. The others on the panel -- Texas winemaker Kim McPherson and wine writers Marguerite Thomas and Laurie Daniel -- very often felt the same way. We tasted a lot of California wine that wasn't varietally correct, poorly made or both. Or, as I asked out loud more than once, how can a winemaker screw up wine made with grapes from California, which produces the best grapes in the world?

We did about 100 wines from the rest of the U.S. and about 100 from California, all tasted blind. The standouts included a chambourcin, which probably came from the East Coast; what was likely a $10 sauvignon blanc from California and which got a gold; one of those Alexander Valley cabernets, which did get a gold because it tasted like it was supposed to taste; the best flight of regional merlots I've ever judged, which is saying something; and an orange muscat dessert wine, which McPherson took one sip of and pronounced spot on -- also a gold.

Why the difference in quality? I'm guessing, though entries were up 500 or so from last year to 3,300, that many California wineries that do better quality wines still don't want to spend the money to enter. The recession took a toll on wine competition entries; they were one of the first things that wineries cut back on when they were looking for ways to reduce expenses, and the competitions haven't fully recovered. My sense is that the increase in entries came mainly from grocery store producers, and there is a lot of grocery store wine these days that counts on label or cute name, not quality, to attract consumers.

The results will be out in about a month, and I'll follow up this post when that happens. And a tip o' the Curmudgeon's fedora to Carolyn Westberry, Dave Oatman, and Sara Nichols, our table crew -- the people who brought the wines out, cleared the empty glasses and handled the paperwork. They were excellent and true professionals; anyone who puts up with me sipping and spitting for two days deserves all the recognition they can get.

Wine of the week: Villa Farnia di Farnese Trebbiano d'Abruzzo 2010

This wine cost nine bucks. How do the Italians do it? Their economy is in shambles and the euro is killing the dollar. If this was French wine, it would cost $15 or $18. The Wine Curmudgeon is not complaining, of course. I'm just continually and pleasantly surprised by the quality and value so many Italian wines offer.

The Farnese (purchased) was exactly what I was hoping for when I bought it. There is soft white fruit in the middle (an English critic described it as "gently fragrant," which is why Engish wine writing is so much fun), low alcohol (12 percent), not a lot of acid, and a kind of stony finish. In this, it's a wonderful antidote to all the mass-produced, turpentine-like pinot grigio that we're told we're supposed to like and that everyone seems to be making these days. Right, Drew B.?

Pair this not only with seafood, but spicy food. That's what I did (chicken tamales with green sauce), and it worked wonderfully. And, for those of you keeping track of grape varieties, there is apparently a difference between the trebbiano grape and the grape that is called trebbiano in the Abruzzo region of Italy. The former is more or less ugni blanc, one of the Wine Curmudgeon's old pals, while the latter is something called bombino bianco. Maybe I can get the Italian Wine Guy to explain the difference.

Winebits 217: Organic wine, wine snobs, regional wine

• Crummy organic wine? One reason why organic wine has never taken off, in the way of other organic products, is that the consumer doesn't see a difference in quality. And that, says a top natural-leaning winemaker, is holding back the business. Monty Waldin spoke disparagingly about “Parker 100-point” wines, calling them “not real wines," and admitted that not all organic wines on the market are high quality: “There’s a lot of boring, crap, industrialised organic wines on the market, and if the industry’s going to implode, it’s because of that.” The article, in Britain's Drinks Business magazine, doesn't pull any punches -- very refreshing in a trade magazine.

• Franzia on wine snobs: Fred Franzia, the man behind Two-buck Chuck, celebrated the brand's 10th anniversary with some of his famous invective: "We have won the battle with snobs and other elites who didn’t believe we could provide excellent wines at an inexpensive price. This changed the wine culture in the U.S. ..." The interview, on the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat's website, also notes Franzia's claim that Two-buck Chuck increased the size of the U.S. wine market by five percent. That may or may not be true, but it's certainly a Franzia-like statement. That would mean Two-buck Chuck added $1.5 billion to the $30 billion U.S. market, which seems like a lot of $2 wine.

• Regional wine and restaurant wine lists: The Springfield, Ill., Journal-Register looks at why regional wines don't do well in restaurants and discovers that consumers -- shockingly -- have made up their minds before they taste the wines. "We get a bad rap from people who think Illinois only sells sweet wines," says Bradley Beam of the Illinois Grape Growers and Vintners Association. "That may have been true 10 years ago, but the wines of 10 years ago are not the wines made today." This is a well done story, and one that media outlets in other regional states should do more often.