The Wine Curmudgeon

Wine review: Cline Cellars Cool Climate Syrah 2010

Years ago, when the Wine Curmudgeon was only a little crank, Cline Cellars made nifty cheap red and white blends called Cotes d'Oakley, a play on the French Cotes du Rhone wines. Sadly, Cotes d'Oakley went the way of too many inexpensive wines, and it's not available today.

And, frankly, Cline wasn't the same winery without it. Its wines went more upscale in price and style, becoming very post-modern -- lots of fruit and lots of alcohol, and closer to $20 than $10. Or, as one comment on CellarTracker, the unofficial wine inventory software of the blog, said of the winery's 2009 syrah: "I may be wrong, but it is getting worse. Medicinal, industrial, uninspired effort."

Which is why I was intrigued when I recently received several samples from Cline, including the cool climate syrah ($18, sample). Cool climate is a wine term that implies a less alcoholic, less fruity wine, since grapes grown in a cooler region aren't supposed to get as ripe. (Whether this is true or not, given modern winemaking techniques, is a post for another day). In other words, this wasn't supposed to be a post-modern California wine.

And it isn't. Though the cool climate is not inexpensive, it is very well done. There is lots of dark fruit (plum?) and black pepper, and it's missing the sweetish, over the top fruit common to most Australian and California shirazes (syrah and shiraz being the same grape). And it's just 13 1/2 percent alcohol, which is about one point less than most shiraz-style wines.

The cool climate is not quite up to the level of the Randall Grahm syrah, which pioneered this more traditional style, but given the previously noted indifference with which so much syrah at this price is made, it's certainly worth drinking. Pair this with lighter red meat or smoked or roasted chicken.

Wine prices in 2012, one more time (but no more, I promise)

Will we need a bag of money to buy wine in 2012?

Who knew what fun we'd have after my trio of posts about the direction for wine prices in 2012? Since then, the cyber-ether -- as well as the traditional media -- has been hipping and hopping about what will happen to prices. Even Time magazine got into the act (for what that's worth), with a story that took price-mongering to new heights: "Panic! Wine Prices Due to Rise."

This story closely followed a report by Silicon Valley Bank detailing what their experts see as a possibly severe supply-driven shortage for California grapes. Or, to translate for the non-expert, there won't be enough grapes for all of California's wineries, so grape prices will go up, which will force wine prices up as well.

This report, given the bank's reputation in the wine business, was the source for any variety of blog posts and stories warning, like Time, that we would soon no longer be able to afford to buy wine. More, after the jump:

Wine of the week: Pine Ridge Chenin Blanc-Viognier 2011

In a perfect world, Americans would drink dry chenin blanc the way we drink Coke and Pepsi. Until then, we'll have to settle for the Pine Ridge ($10, purchased). Which, actually, is not a bad thing at all.

This wine has long been one of the Wine Curmudgeon's favorites, dating to the time I tasted it with some of Pine Ridge's more famous and expensive reds. No one has to guess which wine I liked best, do they?

This year's version of the Pine Ridge is about three-quarters chenin, and tastes drier than previous vintages, some of which tended toward sweet. In fact, the 2011 has a pleasing edge that I haven't tasted before -- perhaps the handiwork of winemaker Michael Beaulac, who made some very zippy white wines when he was at St. Supery. Look for more grapefruit up front than in years' past, but with a very soft and delightful finish that shows off the viognier's apricot.

Chill this, and drink it by itself as the temperatures get warmer. Or pair it with spicy food, fresh summer salads, and even delicate fish. Highly recommended, and a candidate for the 2013 $10 Hall of Fame.

 

Winebits 227: Booze ads, wine scandal, wine prices

• FTC will investigate alcohol ads: The rise of social media has had an unintended consequence -- exposing underage consumers to wine, beer and spirits ads that they might not have seen before. After all, how many 12-year-olds read the Wine Spectator? Hence the news that the Federal Trade Commission is requiring the major alcoholic beverage advertisers to detail their use of digital marketing and data collection practices. Adweek reports that in 2008, these companies spent just 2 percent of their marketing buget on new media, but that regulators expect that that figure has increased significantly over the past several years. In fact, says the story, the biggest booze producers have found social media to be quite effective at reaching younger consumers, and telling the difference between young and too young in the cyber-ether is quite difficult.

• Did top critic take cash? That's what a Montreal newspaper, La Presse, is reporting. The French-language newspaper says former Wine Spectator critic James Suckling was paid C$24,000 (about US$24,200) by the Quebec liquor authority, which runs the province's wine stores, and the hint is that it was for favorable reviews. This is the latest in a series of pay for play scandals among the Winestream Media that included Robert Parker's Wine Advocate. The Wine Curmudgeon is shocked, shocked, to learn that gambling is going on.

• Decanter readers don't want cheap wine: Decanter, the English wine magazine, has been accused of "unashamed elitism" in a letter from a reader. So it ran a poll asking if it should review cheaper wines. The answer? Not really. Only 27 percent of respondents said the magazine should review more wines costing less than £10 (about US$16), while the rest said either the current policy was OK or that maybe wines for less than £15 (about $US24) would be acceptable. This is yet another example of why there will always be an England.