The Cask Room's Wine Musings

Now Serving 500 Wines by-the-glass!

noreply@blogger.com (The Cask Room, Mike Kallay) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 22:06:00 +0000

I had to respond to a critical review of our wine bar last week mentioning that we didn't have a "great selection" of wines by-the-glass.

This is essentially what I wrote, but I thought it worthwhile to talk about on my blog for education's sake...

Any establishment that has more than 20 bottles of wine by-the-glass is playing games to be able to make money on those wines and to get them into your glass. The only problem is, they don't care about "when" those wines hit your glass. Only, that they eventually will. And, many of them, or most, if we're being honest, don't give a shit about "how" those wines show once they hit your glass. Heck, one of my competitors once served me a glass of Pinot on a Tuesday that was opened on Thursday. When I asked the owner -- not a server -- to smell the wine, he couldn't tell that the wine was oxidized beyond enjoyment.

Many of these places will very gently put the cork in the bottle, with about 2/3 of the cork still outside the bottle, and simply leave them on the counter over night(s) until they sell. Some may stick those bottles in the refrigerator, bringing them out every day in hopes of selling them (warm/cold/warm/cold). Some still have paid tens of thousands of dollars for machines that continuously pump inert gas into the bottles to ward off oxygen, enemy #1 of wine. They're trying to steal another day of use at your expense.

It doesn't even have to be a place with 20+ wines on the menu. It could be your favorite corner bar with six wines on the menu to satisfy the occasional customer who doesn't want a car bomb or a pint of Blue Moon. There's a place in East Village that I love, but I'd never order wine there -- they keep all of it in a commercial fridge at 38 degrees!

In any case, if you're not going to sell the wines the day you open them, and they're truly not going to hold up until day #2 (which the vast majority won't), then these establishments are either selling you wine that is already "gone" or they are selling you wines which are not showing the way the winemaker or Mother Nature intended for you to taste them.

In the case of the latter, think about it. The wine is aged in barrel/bottle (likely) in a controlled fashion until ready for release. The enclosure type (cork, screw cap, etc.) has a pretty predictable role in the aging of the wine. Once you open a wine, it begins its pretty quick degradation into oxidized grape juice. You can slow that down by keeping oxygen, light, and heat away from it, but at this point, it becomes something different than what the winemaker wanted to show you. Those wine bars popping up with machines are showing you these types of wines: wines with a bit of softening from initial open, then you not only are not getting the freshest just-out-of-the-bottle flavors (because oxygen has softened the flavors between the time the enclosure is opened and the time the inert gas starts pumping into the sealed bottle), but you are getting an almost "mummified" version of that wine with no predictable aging, but rather, kind of a state of suspended youth, in a place somewhere between "fresh" and "dead."

I believe that having a glass or bottle of wine is a journey that you take. It's an implicit contract of sorts, between you & Mother Nature. When you start to prolong the life of a bottle of wine, you start to see different things, most likely not intended, than you would if you simply open a bottle, have four glasses, and then recycle the bottle. Remember that Stephen King novel called Pet Cemetery? If you don't, the theme was that if your pet (or friend) dies, take them to this special cemetery & they'll come back to life, only slightly different. In the novel, they become homicidal. I'm not saying these wines will try to kill you, but why take the chance? ;)

That is why we don't have more than 15 wines on our list at any time. 75% of the wines we sell would not last to Day #2, and so those wines go home with the owners, employees, or they go down the drain at night's end. The other 25% that do last to Day #2 may in fact be better with some oxygen, and we'll tell you in detail why that is. Heck, we'll even pour you a new bottle versus Day #2's bottle so you can see for yourself.

As I said to our reviewer referencing us not having a "great selection" of wines: I'd rather showcase 15 wines that show as well as they possibly could, than to sell 50 wines living on borrowed time: flat & soft, and without all that Mother Nature has put into those grapes. I believe we owe it to the folks who work their butts off working the land, gently processing the fruit, and then waiting for those wines to mature to the point that they're ready to be shared with the rest of the world.

You can decide for yourself. Swing by tomorrow night (Thursday, Feb. 3rd.) & I'll pour you, for free, a Napa Cab that was opened immediately versus one a few days old kept on gas, and one kept in a fridge. You tell me what experience you'd rather have.

/mike

The Complete NBC Executive's Guide to Port Wine

noreply@blogger.com (The Cask Room, Mike Kallay) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 21:36:00 +0000

Well, I couldn't say "idiot" or "dummy," could I? Let's just leave it at that. Yes, this is a wine blog, but I'm going to pull out my trusty soapbox to weigh in on the Conan vs. Leno battle. Let's just say this has been an entertaining couple of weeks for monologues on all of the shows. I am a Conan guy, but I always thought it was a strange thing to pull Leno off in his ratings prime and shoehorn in the wonderfully lowbrow humor of Conan. Actually, the only thing I liked about giving Conan the Tonight Show was that maybe I could get up to Universal easier than way back East to see the show live. Looks like I won't have the chance. I think Leno didn't orchestrate this. It was the NBC executives. The loser here is Conan, who looks to have truly wanted to honor the Tonight Show legacy. But, we'll see him on Fox or some other network soon. I hope he didn't sign away his right to call the NBC executives out for perpetuity for being such knuckleheads. Well, let's get on with this entry all about your favorite fortified wine from northern Portugal.

As I write this, the rain is streaming down in San Diego -- and a perfect excuse to bust into the 20 year Tawny sitting on the shelf.

What's the difference between Ruby & Tawny, Vintage, LBV, Colheita, and dated Single Quinta Vintage Port? Well, fresh off our tasting/education with Taylor Fladgate last week, I thought that I'll spell out the process in a very concise format so that even a moron could understand it and use it to impress their friends & family!

What is Port wine? Easy. Port wine is a fortified wine from the Douro region of Portugal that has been "shipped" through the city of Porto or Oporto, depending on your language.

What does fortified mean? Well, Port wine begins just like any regular wine. The grapes are grown, harvested, pressed, and allowed to "macerate" with the skins (unless it's a white port) for just a few days. The wine begins its initial fermentation, only to be stopped quite abruptly by the additional of a distilled spirit, which most of the time is a brandy. When you add something with the high level of alcohol like a brandy, the first thing to happen is that the yeast doing its work on fermenting the sugars to alcohol are instantly killed. Most ports are allowed to ferment to about 5% alcohol before the 40% brandy is added. What you're left with is a wine with high alcohol (~20%) and a good amount of residual sugar (r/s, if you want to sound cool).

Why the hell would you want this? Who thought this up? Very simply, it was the English. During their long war with France, England looked to their seaport allies for many things, including wine. Unfortunately, the wine didn't have great closures and would spoil before making it to England. Thus, the idea of "upping" the alcohol to protect the wine on its voyage. A happy accident -- much like Champagne.

Alright, now that I understand Port wines, what are the differences between the different styles? At this point, nothing. All port wine is finished in the same way. Much of the pressing of the grapes are done by foot. This is because much of the Douro was without electricity until 1979. The juice gets a little taste of fermentation, then it gets punched in the face with the addition of brandy. Where then does it go? Wood vats called "pipes." All port wine stays in these wood vats until the second spring after harvest. It is at this point that each individual port house makes the decision to...

Declare a Vintage!

That's the goal with all of your port. Declaring a vintage means putting the year of harvest on the label, waiting for the scores from Parker & Speculator, and then jacking up the price to get the most from your juice.

But, the better houses only declare a few vintages per decade, and even when they do, they pick only the best juice, sometimes a fraction of their entire harvest.

If they declare a vintage, the wine goes into bottles for aging & eventual sale.

What happens to all of the juice not included with the vintage, or all of the juice in a non-vintage year? Well, one or more of the following happens:

1. Wine is bottled and offered for sale. This is called Ruby Port. Hey, isn't that the same as vintage port? Yup, except that the date can't be put on the label. It's non-vintage vintage port. This is usually the least expensive port.
2. Wine is bottled & held back for a few more years (4 to 6 total years) and sold with a date on it. This is Late Bottle Vintage, or LBV for short. The idea here is to offer a non-vintage expression of one vintage with proper minimum age on it to enjoy on release. These wines sell for a fraction of a normal vintage year with the benefit of being ready to drink.
3. Wine is bottled, labeled with a vintage, but not from a vintage year. This is Single Quinta Vintage Port. The house wants to showcase their best wine from the single estate and designate it with a vintage year. These wines typically sell at a steep discount to vintage years, but can be the 2nd most expensive of the ports.
4. Wine is put in small barrels for some time. If the wine from one year's harvest gets mixed with one or more other harvest years, this is what is known as "Tawny" port. The age on a bottle of Tawny represents the "average age" of wines in the mix. A 10 year tawny would have an average age of 10 years, and a 40 year would equal an average age of 40 years. We tried a 40 year tawny at the Taylor tasting that had its oldest harvest year as 1909!!! Tawny ports usually have a brownish tint and are much lighter in fruit and much more pronounced in nutty, butterscotch, and marzipan flavors.
5. The last port, and one of my favorites (other than the first 4 favorites) is kind of a cross between #2 and #4. Colheita ports are those from non-vintage years that spend the first few years with all of the wine, but when a vintage doesn't get declared, the wines go into barrel -- for a long time! The amount of time is determined by the customer. The wine doesn't get bottled until a customer orders it. Don't think of the customer as an individual, but more likely an importer of wine from another country. They'll bottle it, put the date of the harvest year (not a vintage), and ship it. These wines to me are the best example of one harvest, along with barrel aging, making it a cross between ruby, tawny, and vintage, all in one!

Are we clear on all of this, or did I just confuse the hell out of you?

Oh, one more thing. I posted a question on Twitter about the difference between Ruby & Tawny port -- in one word. Nobody got it right. This is right from Robert Bower, 7th generation of the Fladgate family. The difference is: Air. Ruby's are bottle aged, Tawny's are barrel aged. The slats in the barrel allow oxygen in to accelerate the "aging" of the ruby ports. This softening would roughly equal in a very short time the aging you'd see in a bottle over a very long time.

So, there you go. All port starts out the same. All ports start out as Ruby ports. The path after the first two years is where things get different.

And, this entry is done, the rain in East Village, at least, is looking biblical in its rate of speed, and my glass of wine is empty. I think it's time to steal another pour ;)

/mike

Recession Proof Wines

noreply@blogger.com (The Cask Room, Mike Kallay) — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:30:00 +0000

While the politicians and policy makers figure out how to fix the economy, it should already be quite apparent to everyone that times are a bit tighter than normal. Of course you don't want to stop drinking your favorite wines, beers, and cocktails, but you'll need to be a bit more shrewd in order to help offset the rising costs all around you.

One of my favorite adages about wine is from Napoleon: "In victory, you deserve Champagne, in defeat, you need it." Therefore, with the spirit of that saying, you either need wine more now than ever, or you deserve it. Or both. Let's talk about some of the best values out there right now.

Everyone has their favorite producers, but I like to empower my friends & guests to start thinking in terms of "region" & "varietal." That is, once you know for example that you like Pinot Noir from Santa Barbara, but not so much from Santa Monica, you'll begin to unlock the treasure trove of wineries waiting for you to discover.

I am defining a wine value as a wine that retails in the $8 - $15 range.

I'll say right now that if you're looking for value from California, you are going to be sorely underwhelmed. Land prices, insurance prices, distribution margins, and a host of other factors conspire to keep the wines from our state at a pretty high baseline price. I would say that for most of what is coming from a defined AVA in the state, not from a more generic appellation such as Central Coast or California, those wines are priced north of $20 -- not the value that we are looking for. There are some anomalies: Paso Robles puts out some nice blends in the $15 range. Same with Amador & Lodi up near the Sierras. Lots of Italian heritage means plenty of Zinfandel, Barbera, and Sangiovese. Actually, anytime you follow the Italians as they made their way around the globe, you will almost always find some great wines with some great values.

Probably the best place in the world for value right now is Argentina. I'm sure you all know that Malbec is the adopted red grape of Argentina, but have you ventured out to taste the incredible Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, or Charbono from there? How about the incredibly aromatic and refreshing Torrontes? You'll easily find incredible wines in this price point. And lest you think that this is some johnny-come-lately wine region, you should realize that they've been making fine wine down there for far longer than we have here in America.

Chile also offers an incredible bang-for-the-buck, with the star varietals being Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, and Carmenere. Chilean wines have a distinct "funkiness" to them (for lack of a better word) -- almost a weed or wet earth nose. Some people love this funkiness. I would just decant the wine a bit and enjoy the incredible fruit & structure left behind. And, if we're talking "funkiness," I'd be remiss to not mention South African wines. Chenin Blanc is what they do best, but the Shiraz and other reds are incredible values if you can find them. And decant them -- to take off that funkiness. Pinotage is the premier grape down there, but I find it to be almost always awful.

Moving more to the old world, Spain and the south of France are still pumping out incredible values that defy the Euro/Dollar conversion. Tempranillo is found in almost all regions in Spain, and you really can't go wrong with it. From the meaty & dried fruit versions in Rioja, to the huge lipsmacking bombs coming out of La Mancha & Ribera del Duero. Wine values from France, you say? Sure! Once you get outside the Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, and Alsace regions, many incredible values show themselves. The Languedoc region in the south of France is the world's largest growing region (700,000 acres). They produce everything from Chardonnay to Syrah there, and the nice thing for American consumers is that the wines typically are labelled by varietal so you know what you are getting -- no Little Orphan Annie decoder ring needed. These wines are frequently sub $10, so take the time to explore what is available. One of my "go to" wines before I was in the business was a simple Cotes du Rhone. While the press really loves the wines of Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Hermitage, and other notable sub-appellations of the Rhone, very similar aromas & flavors can be had for under $10 from the more generic Cotes du Rhone appellation. This region is where Grenache & Syrah marry into something so wonderfully flavorful and sublime, but with enough character to stand up to most food dishes.

In fact, if you're looking for a magical dinner under $20 for you & your sweetheart, swing by BevMo or Trader Joes for a CDR, and use the rest of the money to buy mussels & french bread. Steam the mussels over some of the wine with some shallot & garlic, and use the bread to enjoy the remainder of the broth. You'll be transported to a French cafe without the hassles of passports & Euro conversions.

Of course, there's plenty of other great stuff out there from the likes of Australia and Italy, but we'll talk more about those next month.

You can absolutely find & enjoy some incredible wines without letting your wine budget go the way of the gas budget. Cheers!

There's a Mad Scientist loose in the cellar!

noreply@blogger.com (The Cask Room, Mike Kallay) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:09:00 +0000

In my blog last month, I talked at length about the 100 point system used to rate wines and its impact on the wine industry. If you recall, the point system essentially puts a numerical score that is absolute and static on a product that is constantly changing from minute to minute. It's also representative on one person's sole subjective opinion. It's dumbing down the appreciation of wine for the attention deficit connoisseur. Most of all, the point system has indirectly created a monster: wines being created to attain a score, not to be the expression of the grape or the vineyard from which the grapes came.

Wines with a score of 90 points or greater can sell for hundreds of dollars a case more than wines with scores less than that. It is in the best interest of wineries trying to move product to have that magical score -- because it's instant credibility and creates a vortex of demand. But, how do you get a 90 point score?

Enter Enologix, a Sonoma-based firm whose client list includes a virtual who's who of the wine industry. Founder Leo McCloskey used his doctorate in chemical ecology from UC Santa Cruz to identify about 84 chemical compounds, 32 in reds and 52 in whites, that account for the majority of aromas and flavors in wine. Knowing how these compounds interact with each other, and knowing what kind of resulting wines come from those interactions, McCloskey started to feed a database with the recipes for different wines. Once this data was compared to the scores from Robert Parker, you could easily chart the type of wine that scored highly with Parker, and unlock the quantities of those chemical compounds that comprise high scoring wines. Voila! He's reverse-engineered winemaking!

Enologix runs a very secretive shop -- bordering on Dr. Evilish paranoia. Clients sign a NDA for the privilege and presumably very costly process of working with McCloskey's firm.

The process begins in the vineyard. While most wineries use hydrometers to measure brix (sugar levels) to time harvest, Enologix customers deliver grapes once a week to the lab where the grapes are pressed into a quick "laboratory wine" which is then analyzed with a liquid-liquid chromatograph connected to a spectrometer to measure those 84 chemical compounds. The lab reports back to the winery letting them know when to pick.

Once the juice is pressed and in the barrel, Enologix continually monitors the fermenting juice, measuring those key compounds, and recommending changes to the winemaker to get the wine to match those magical profiles.

McCloskey defends his work as being a 21st century solution to centuries old farming methodologies; however, he is cognizant some may wave a finger at him and call him a heretic.

The irony in all of this is that Robert Parker thinks great wines are made in the vineyard. They are expressions of the place where they grow. Expressions of the terroir. He believes in using natural yeasts for fermentation. He believes in not fining and not filtering the wines -- those processes rob the wine of its character -- its soul. Yet, winemakers the globe over are violating all of these centuries old tenets of winemaking in order to get a better score from Parker.

They are making wines in the lab because they have to.

Ignore the scores and discover the mystery of wine for yourself. You'll be amazed, delighted, disappointed, and horrified. But, what a wonderful journey it will be!

Vineyard Place rates 89-92 points

noreply@blogger.com (The Cask Room, Mike Kallay) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:13:00 +0000

Wine ratings. Are they good for the us, or are they taking the fun & discovery out of wine drinking? Yes to the latter.

You have seen them: Wine Spectator gave this wine an 88, Robert Parker gave that wine a 93, Wine Enthusiast gave another 92 points, Stephen Tanzer rates one at 84, and Wilfred Wong gives everything 88+ points (he does work for BevMo -- of course they want you to buy everything -- why would they let him rate lower than that?).

So what? What does the rating really tell you? It's a snapshot of what the wine critic thought of the wine, in a familiar 100 point scale. That's it. It doesn't mean that you'll like the wine. Unless you know that your palate is exactly the same as one of the critics (very unlikely), the score should mean as much to you as your unused stock options for pets.com

Let's back up and talk a bit of history. Wine critics have been around for centuries -- writing guides, newsletters, and hosting classes. But it wasn't until the 20th century that any kind of "grade" was given to a particular wine. Those grades took the form of stars (one to four, usually), or more commonly a 20 point rating system.

It wasn't until Robert Parker burst onto the scene in 1982 that wine writing would be forever changed. Robert had correctly identified a fundamental problem with wine writers: they were so tangled with the industry that you couldn't trust their reviews. They were accepting dinners, and trips to wine country, and free bottles so often that you had to question their objectiveness.

Parker started his "Wine Advocate" newsletter with the explicit intent of becoming the Ralph Nader of the wine world. He would not accept any of these gifts, and he would pay his own way through the wines he tasted. His reviews, often occupying pages for each of his reviews, became the gold standard for wine reviews. Along the way, he added the 100 point scale, meant solely to use as a quick comparison to like wines. And in doing so he forever changed the way people buy wine.

Having done a lot of research on Parker, I know that he never intended for the score to be the focus. We are kind of an ADD nation -- looking for the quick answer or the bottom line, rushing to the next shiny object to focus our attention. Parker still writes his ultra lengthy reviews for The Wine Advocate, and is a very successful author as well: He penned the definitive guides to Bordeaux, Burgundy, and the Rhone. But most people likely have never read any of that. They just know that Parker gave this wine a 92, so it must be worth buying.

His 100 point system became so popular and so powerful that prices started to move up or down instantly after review. The other players in the wine writing world had to co-opt it. Now, everyone has a 100 point system. The only difference is that Parker still writes exhaustively about the wines he tastes, while the others throw a Zagat-type paragraph with 3 or 4 adjectives to accompany their score. Sadly, the score has become the focus.

This column is too short to go into all the reasons why the scoring system is bad, but suffice to say that scores can't be compared to one another; that is, a 90 point Cabernet is not the same as a 90 point Chenin Blanc (the first a good score for a Cab, the latter a great score for a Chenin). And, a Parker 90 is not the same as a Wine Spectator 90. Certain grape varietals never achieve the classic scores of 95+. You won't see a Pinot Grigio there or a Zinfandel. Why? If someone makes a perfect example of a Zin, shouldn't it warrant a score of close to 100? Only the premier grapes or regions get to play in that exclusive sandbox. Which begs the question, "if certain varietals have a handicap, how useful is a global scoring system for comparison?"

Everything is relative. Relative to the person tasting & his/her palate, relative to expertise, relative to the implicit benchmark used to grade against. Everything is subjective. There is no piece of paper you dip into a wine that gives you a reading of the score. Even the scoring system has changed. Parker used to give points for color, for balance, for bouquet, etc., adding all the parts to get the final score. Now, he magically pulls the number out of the air and with the stroke of his pen (or mouse) he makes or breaks a wine.

I'll go into more detail about scoring and show you all some interesting data behind it next month that will make you question motives and usefulness. I humbly suggest you ignore the score when looking at these publications and focus on the tasting notes. That's where you will start to realize whether or not a particular wine might be a good match for your palate. Better yet, temper all of that and explore some new wines yourself. The more you drink, the more you'll know your palate. You'll know whether you like or despise Pinot from Oregon, and whether anyone can make a great Cabernet in Paso Robles. Once you start to unlock those skills, you'll never need the score crutch again.

Robert Mondavi was the Patriarch of American Wine

noreply@blogger.com (The Cask Room, Mike Kallay) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 18:21:00 +0000

Robert Mondavi passed away last month just shy of his 95th birthday. Surely every wine drinker knows of the man & his eponymous winery, but I'm guessing that not everyone understands the tremendous impact he had on the world of wine. Not just American wine, which he single-handedly drove from bulk jug wines to some of the best wines in the world, but also the global wine business.

Robert had always been an advocate for the fullest expression of the grape. He understood the importance of terroir, and the place wine had in the homes and restaurants of Europe -- it was inextricably linked to food, art, religion, history, and family. This idea put him at odds while running Mondavi-owned Charles Krug winery, a winery his father Cesare had purchased before his death. His brother Peter was purely a businessman -- not interested in Robert's ideas for making truly fine wines. The friction was so great that the family ousted Robert from Krug and forever changed his relationship with his brother and mother. Robert sued for being fired and removed from the board and he won. It took ten years and caused irreparable damage with his family, but this was the single biggest event in Napa Valley since prohibition.

Robert's next step was to start his own winery, modeled after the great chateaus he visited in Europe. It was the first new winery bonded and built in Napa Valley since prohibition. It's a grand structure located directly on Highway 29. It was built with the intention of holding tastings and educating visitors. These concepts were brand new to the valley. Let me repeat that -- wine tasting at the winery was a concept introduced by Robert Mondavi. Limo bus drivers the state over should bow their heads in a moment of silence.

Robert was truly a visionary in the valley. He sought out the best land to plant his vines. For example, he correctly recognized and bought most of the vineyard known as To Kalon to plant to Cabernet Sauvignon. "To Kalon" means "highest quality" in Greek. This fruit would become the benchmark for great Bordeaux-style wines in the valley and would later drive producers to emulate this style.

Robert brought European techniques to the American wine industry. Cold soak fermentations for cleanliness & crispness, open top fermentation for gentleness, and the use of oak barrels in aging. These requisite techniques in today's wineries owe their lineage to Robert Mondavi. All of them have a specific role in the delicate dance of turning grapes into wine, and they were systematically ignored before Robert's dedication to them.

Perhaps Robert's greatest achievement was the role of ambassador for American wine. He wasn't content to simply make the best wines ever to carry a California heritage, he took it upon himself to fly around the country and the world to hold tastings and educate restaurant owners and staff about California wine. You simply didn't see California wine on restaurant lists in our own country until Robert, on his own dime, made the effort to change that.

Maybe the greatest compliment of his dedication to fine wines came from the unlikely partnership with the Rothschild family of Chateau Lafite Rothschild in Bordeaux for the creation of Opus Wine Winery in Napa. Other than the famed Paris Tasting of 1976 where some California wines bested the French in blind tastings, this partnership was the most visible and concrete example that California was on the same playing field with France in terms of truly fine wines. Not to mention the family's partnership with the Frescobaldi family of Tuscany, a 700 year producer of fine Italian wines. Mondavi's hand was touching wines all over the world. He held property in Argentina, Mexico, and the Languedoc region of France. To truly know how respected he was, even in the Old World, Mondavi was awarded France's Legion of Honor in 2005 -- the highest decoration in France.

Practically every great winemaker in the valley worked at Mondavi at some point -- Mike Grgich & Paul Hobbs immediately come to mind. Mondavi set the style for the valley -- opulent fruit, but made with grace & structure. It's slightly ironic that some of the most iconic and hard-to-get wines today come from Mondavi's old property: Screaming Eagle, Schrader, Hobbs, and Harlan come to mind.

And in that last comment lies the great tragedy of Robert's life: the loss of his winery and vineyards to Constellation Brands in 2004 for $1.04 billion dollars. The winery still operates with his name, and in the structures he had designed, in the shadow of the vines he had planted, but the current releases from the winery are not the same wines. It's more than tragic once you know the way in which the winery was lost: Robert was an extremely philanthropic fellow. Following the listing of the winery on the Nasdaq, Robert used the escalating stock price as currency to fund his extravagant donations: The Cantor Art Center at his alma mater Stanford, a $35 million dollar donation to UC Davis for the construction of The Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science, the restoration of the Napa Valley Opera House, the creation of The American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts in Napa (COPIA), and many other projects. When the stock price started to tank (largely because of brand dilution with lower priced wines), any reasonable business man would have renegotiated those donations. Robert was never a good businessman. He was always a man of character, passion, and drive. He begrudgingly agreed to sell his stock in order to meet the promised money to these projects.

Perhaps the last great compliment for his wines came last year when Wine Spectator listed the family's last offering, a 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon, as one of the top 10 wines of the year.

We sadly mourn the death of this iconic figure. The patriarch of American Wine. Every glass of wine you enjoy, no matter if from Napa or Tuscany, was somehow touched by the standards and traditions that Robert Mondavi brought to the table. We will be holding a tasting at The Cask Room on June 18th of the family wines of Robert Mondavi. We'll be taking a portion of the proceeds to gift to his Copia center for wine education. I can't think of a better way to celebrate this man than to drink his wine and donate money to the project that he was most passionate about.

Wines are going green!

noreply@blogger.com (The Cask Room, Mike Kallay) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 18:20:00 +0000

It's Spring, and everything is turning green. I guess that's why it's the perfect time to have a reminder of protecting Mother Earth. We have just passed the official Earth Day, and seemingly every day we see somebody reminding us to recycle and "go green." The wine industry has increasingly been following this trend, not simply to save the planet, but to make better wine.

You may have seen the terms "organic" or "biodynamic" on a bottle of wine or in some literature, so I thought that I would take this timely opportunity to explain what those terms mean, so that you can confidently "go green" with your wine purchases.

I'm sure that it's no surprise that agriculture today uses a multitude of pesticides, fungicides, and other chemical-cides to help control and guarantee the health of the crops. But, it wasn't always this way. If you've ever picked up a Farmer's Almanac then you might know that it's chock full of moon phases, tidal information, and other information vital to agriculture. This publication has been produced since 1792 -- but, somewhere along the path we lost our way and have tried to use science and technology to control Mother Earth.

Organic wines are very simply wines that contain grapes grown conforming to the National Organic Program guidelines. These guidelines prohibit the use of all of the aforementioned 'cides, plus outline what may or may not be done in the winery. That is, little or no manipulation of wines by reverse osmosis, excessive filtration, or flavor additives (such as oak chips). Many organic winemakers also prefer wild yeasts for fermentation. There is one tricky situation to watch for: "wine made with organic grapes." These wines started out with organic grapes, but the winery did something in the processing to lose the "certified organic" status. This something is most often the addition of sulfites. Now, sulfites occur naturally in wine, so no wine is sulfite-free. But, most winemakers add sulfites during vinification to enhance this natural preservative. So, if you are sensitive to sulfites, certified organic wines may be something worth searching.

Biodynamics is like organics on steroids. Rather, it's not simply the absence of chemicals, it's a complete change in the way the grower works with the land. All of those things that were naturally occurring and later suppressed are reintroduced to the land. Earth worms, bees, bugs, natural washes, cover plants, birds, bats, chickens, goats, etc. are all welcomed back to the particular ecosystem that was in place before someone decided to drop in some Pinot Noir. Other key elements of biodynamics are the burying of a cow's horn full of manure in the Fall and the use of crushed quartz in the field. Animals help to control the plant growth and the insect population, plus in the case of chickens, their manure helps to fertilize the crops, and their eggs are used for fining the wines as well as feeding the workers breakfast.

Biodynamics has been credited to Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner. He introduced this holistic and self-sustaining method of farming during a series of lectures in 1929.

Quite frankly, I thought of Biodynamics as organic hippie farmers until yesterday. It always struck me as odd to bury a cow horn with manure. I had been led to believe that this was ritualistic -- not necessarily related to anything useful in the farming process.

So yesterday I met with Katrina Fetzer who is in charge of marketing her dad's wines under the "Ceago" label. Her dad is Jim Fetzer, formerly of the ubiquitous Fetzer Wines which he sold in 1992. Ceago has been from the beginning about biodynamics. In fact, they were the first U.S. winery to be certified biodynamic. She gave me a crash course in biodynamics, most importantly correcting my misconceptions about the aforementioned strange rituals.

"The burying of the female cow horn has a very specific purpose: to produce the best compost possible. Tests have shown that the horn is a better host to microorganisms than plastic, glass, or other containers. We pull the horn out in the spring and take the mixture and add it to hot water. The mixture is spun for an hour in each direction, creating a vortex and multiplying the microorganisms. Then, we spray the fields with the best humus mixture we could hope for" she told me. "We do the same with crushed quartz. It is buried in the Spring and follows the same process as the compost. Then we spray it on the land in the wet season to help protect against fungus and to aid in photosynthesis."

The resulting wines made at Ceago are about as clean as you can get. I think the difference shows: The wines have texture. It's certainly refreshing to know what did and did not go into those wines.

Why not go green this month and seek out some organic/biodynamic wines. There are quite a few from Europe, and an increasing number from right here in California. Other than the fantastic efforts from Ceago, I would recommend Robert Sinskey of Napa, and Benziger of Sonoma. Let's help fix the planet one glass at a time...

To Cork or Not to Cork?

noreply@blogger.com (The Cask Room, Mike Kallay) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 18:19:00 +0000

There's a huge problem in the world of wine and it doesn't rhyme with Shoe Luck Truck. Up to 10% of the bottles released by any given winery contain a compound that spoils the wine. It's called trichloroanisole, or TCA for short. You may have heard of it by its informal name "cork taint" or "corked" as in, "man, this '85 Petrus is corked! Bummer!"

How do you tell if a wine is "corked?" Smell it. If there's a musty/mildew-like aroma then the wine you were about to enjoy has been tainted with TCA. Sometimes the wine smells like wet dog, wet cardboard, or moldy newspaper. Unless a shaggy dog made the wine in a rainstorm, chances are you're going to be mad.

The production of TCA in wine is complex, but I'll use my mad science skills (ha!) to boil it down for you: airborne fungus around corks mixes with chlorine meant to sterilize it and creates TCA.

If you encounter such a wine you should take it back to where you bought it and the retailer almost assuredly will replace it and send it back up the distribution chain to the winery. If they don't, find a new place to buy wine. You won't want to drink it because all you will smell & taste is that musty wood. This is really what you are testing for when presented with the small pour of a new bottle at a restaurant. You obviously don't want to accept a tainted bottle of wine. Especially not at restaurant prices.

The notion that any industry allows a 10 percent failure rate strikes me as slightly insane. Kind of like casting Eddie Murphy in anything anymore. Enter the Screwcap.

We all know the Screwcap. Perhaps you first met it with a bottle of Boone's Farm Sangria in college, or heaven forbid, a bottle of NightTrain Apple Wine from Circle K. With that kind of history, it's no wonder that the Screwcap is fighting an uphill battle as an alternative to natural cork.

But, I'm here to tell you that the Screwcap may be the best thing to happen to a bottle of wine since Robert Mondavi entered the business.

Screwcaps avoid the problem altogether. Screwcaps also help to ward off oxidation which is the 2nd leading killer of a bottle of wine after your's truly.

I can hear all of you asking "why aren't all wines released in screwcaps then?" The short answer is the stigma. Plus, you can't exactly use that fancy corkscrew anymore. But, times are changing. The more people understand the problems with cork the more they'll seek out wines in screwcaps. Then, the more the industry will understand that the stigma is disappearing and be willing to change their practices.

There is another reason that some winemakers avoid the screwcap -- especially French winemakers: a small amount of oxygen enters through natural cork and helps to age the wine, or so it is believed. The argument against screwcaps for them is that the seal is too perfect and the aging process will be stifled. This is just a suspicion because it will take years to see how wines in screwcaps age. But, there's some alternatives on the horizon just for them. New types of liners used in the seal can allow a controllable amount of oxygen into the bottle to help soften the wine over time. Maybe this will finally win them over.

You can help the cause by not furrowing your brow when you hear that fun crackle of the metal closure. You can further help the cause by seeking out bottles in this better type of closure. Plus, you'll have a way to save that unfinished bottle for another day. I don't have that problem, but I hear that some people may.

Where the Sun Shines Through the Mist

noreply@blogger.com (The Cask Room, Mike Kallay) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 18:18:00 +0000

San Diego is lucky to have a premier winegrowing region right in its backyard. Mention Temecula to someone and memories of warm afternoons spent sipping a chilled Chardonnay or a decadent Dolcetto come to mind, but few people likely know the history of the region and the special attributes that make it such a unique place to grow grapes. In fact, the Luiseno Indians had a word for what makes this place special: Temecula -- "Where the Sun Shines Through the Mist."

The mist is the primary reason that grapes do so well in this region. What does mist have to do with ripening grapes? Well, ideally grapes do best when the days are very warm and the nights are cool -- and that's exactly what conditions prevail in this southern corner of Riverside County. Temecula sits on a 1,400 foot plateau with direct sun & very warm days. Fortunately, cool & moist ocean air drifts in through the Rainbow and Deluz Gaps of the Coastal Range in the afternoon, cooling the grapes. You see, warm or hot days alone are not going to necessarily make the best grapes. Otherwise, Phoenix would have a burgeoning wine industry. You need some cool temperatures at night to slow down the ripening of the grapes and lock in some of that mouthwatering acidity.

It was precisely these conditions that brought Mission Padres east from Capistrano to plant the original vineyards in 1820. It would be another 150 years until vines for commercial wines were first planted. Vincenzo Cilurzo, an ABC-TV Emmy Award winning Lighting Director, and his wife Audrey purchased a 100 acre parcel with thoughts of retiring and making some wine. A weather study he saw indicated the region had the same climate as the mid-Napa area. So, in 1968 the Cilurzos planted the first commercial vineyard in Temecula: 40 acres of premium Petite Sirah and Chenin Blanc. Ely Callaway of Callaway Golf fame came in a year later and began his eponymous winery.

It wasn't until 1984 that the area was officially recognized as its own American Viticultural Area -- something very special and important to consumers, as grapes from specific areas tend to have their own unique charms. Prior to this designation, wines from the region were classified as more generic South Coast wines. Officially, the region encompasses 33,000 acres, but only 1,300 are currently planted to vines.

Recent history in Temecula shows that the region has been facing some enemies -- shrinking the acres planted by as much as 45% over the last ten years. The first enemy was Pierce’s Disease. Leaves on vines with Pierce's disease will turn yellow/brown and eventually drop off the vine. Shoots will also die. Then, after 1 to 5 years, the vine itself will die. This vine killer is carried by the glassy-winged sharpshooter which has migrated from the South Eastern U.S. Tragically, the bug helped destroy over 1,000 of the 2,300 acres of vineyards in the late 1990s. Fortunately, steps have been taken to isolate and combat this devastating pest.

The other enemy has been urban sprawl. The Inland Empire region is one of the fastest growing housing regions in the country. Thankfully, the Temecula Agricultural Conservancy, a non profit public benefit corporation, was formed with the primary mission of preserving vineyards and open space suitable for vineyards. The agency works with the County Supervisors as they implement new zoning ordinances by holding open space, vineyards and/or conservation easements, ensuring that the land remains in vineyards in perpetuity.

The good news is that new rootstock has been planted and is better matched to the strengths of the land. There is too much opportunity cost now to growing the wrong grapes, so the twenty-plus wineries that call Temecula home have started to focus on the grapes that flourish in Mediterranean climates similar to Temecula: Syrah, Barbera, Sangiovese, Dolcetto, Viognier, and many more. Moreover, several of the wineries are purchasing grapes from other areas in California to vinify in Temecula. Callaway, for example, is buying some fruit from Napa and Santa Barbara to bolster its portfolio.

Of course, the best thing about Temecula is that it's so convenient to visit and sample the wonderful wines. We are very lucky to have such a beautiful and diverse collection of vineyards so close to San Diego. The best way to learn about Temecula wines is to try them all! Look through the mist to find some new favorites!

Kids & Wine Cellars

noreply@blogger.com (The Cask Room, Mike Kallay) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 18:16:00 +0000

It's amazing the way something that happens in your life triggers thoughts about something seemingly unrelated. This just happened to me after the birth of our first child, Ella Grace, last week. I should be thinking about the years of love & hard work ahead of us -- and I am -- but I also am strangely thinking about cellaring wine. Before you judge me as the uber-lush I sometimes appear to be -- let me explain...

The English have long had a strong relationship with French wine. And to love French wine means that instant gratification is usually not associated with that love. You need to hold most French wines for years until they become slightly drinkable let alone expertly aged.

Because of this delayed gratification, it became custom for English parents to stash away extra bottles of the juice every year of life for their children. That way -- each child will inherit a perfectly aged cellar of fine wines once they reach adulthood -- and the process will be repeated with their children once they become parents.

What a wonderfully romantic & practical ritual! Why don't we Westerners follow this custom? Are we selfish? Or, is it that we want instant gratification and therefore spend our wine time mostly with New World wines? Yes, it's emphatically the latter.

We love the full fruit of California, Australia, and South American wines. Who needs or wants to wait seven, eight, or more years until a wine becomes drinkable? Not us. But guess what? Some of those same wines become even better with age! They begin their life in the bottle fresh & full of fruit flavor -- unlike many of their Old World counterparts -- but they experience softening of some of the rough edges and the flavors steep in the bottle over the years yielding something possibly even more wonderful. Think about the way a soup needs time for the flavors to meld together to make something even better.

My point is that even if you buy entirely New World wines, you might just want to buy an extra bottle or two of what you like to stash away for a future date. Now, the trick obviously is that not all wines improve with age. Holding a Paso Robles Zinfandel for 10 years might yield something much like balsamic vinegar. But, stashing a big old Merlot from Alexander Valley might just blow your mind in 15 years.

How do you know which wines will age and which won't? Well, there is no absolute answer. You'll need to use resources such as Wine Spectator, Wine Advocate, and the many great community sites like CellarTracker.com to figure it out. One of my favorite things to do is to buy two or three bottles of each wine that I want to try. I'll bust one open immediately and enjoy it -- noting the density of flavors and the structure to help determine how long it will age and what it might taste like in the future. This is obviously a skill learned over time, but you'll have a blast getting there! Then, stash the rest of that wine and keep track of it using CellarTracker. The community there will all contribute information about what the wine was like when opened, letting you watch & react to changes in the wine that you want to see.

I am going to buy as much of the great 2005 Bordeaux vintage that I can get my hands on, because that wine will be sublime in the twenty or so years before my daughter gets ready to drink it. And, I'll continue to save wines for her every wonderful year until that day that I can open a bottle and toast it with Stephanie & Ella. I challenge you to help me adopt that wonderful tradition. You'll not only provide your kids with a perfectly aged cellar, but you'll also be able to enjoy some expertly aged wines, and become a wine expert in the process.

Chocolate & Wine: Not always a good match

noreply@blogger.com (The Cask Room, Mike Kallay) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:58:00 +0000

Valentines Day is right around the corner and there is usually a large amount of chocolate exchanged in the name of love.

Wine and Chocolate seem like such a natural couple. Like Bogey & Bacall, Tracy & Hepburn, and Marge & Homer, we naturally assume that wine and chocolate are perfect matches. But, this couple is more like Al & Peggy Bundy -- they mostly don't match, but when conditions are right, there is a warming sense of chemistry. That is to say that because of the chemistry of chocolate and the chemistry of wine there are going to be some qualities of each that clash, mute, or become more pronounced. The trick to matching wine & chocolate is to find those couples that enhance the great qualities of each without showing the bad. Isn't that the trick with us, too?

I can easily say that most of my customers and friends drink red wine. Red wine usually contains a fair to heavy amount of tannin. Tannins are astringent, bitter plant polyphenols that either bind and precipitate or shrink proteins. Tannins come from the skins of the grapes as well as the barrels in which wines age. They are a desirable component in wine because of their antioxidant nature. That is, the tannins help to protect the wine from spoiling due to its interaction with oxygen. Tannins also play an important role in the mouthfeel of a wine. They provide that drying sensation on the insides of your cheeks and gums. Technically, that drying feeling is a result of the tannins in the wine attaching to saliva proteins in your mouth.

Tannins are not really found in white wines because the skins do not macerate (or soak) with the juice at all. Red wine becomes red in color and bold in flavor because of the maceration with the skins. The tannins are a chemical component of making red wine.

Guess what? Chocolate also contains tannin.

I'm going to make this really easy: If the wine you are drinking is making your mouth dry, and the food you are eating is making your mouth dry, then what is the overall sensation during this experience? Your mouth is really dry! Put another way, what's the best way to counter a dry wine? Match it with something that's refreshing, or in the case of tannin, match it with something with a lot of protein which will lighten the load your saliva plays in the tannin exchange. That's why big dry reds like Cabernet Sauvignon match so very perfectly with a big old steak.

There's another way to get some refreshment from the drying effects of tannin in chocolate: Pick a red wine with a higher level of acid. The acid will promote saliva creation and will match and overpower the amount of tannin in your mouth. Italian wines are extremely high in acid (think Sangiovese from Tuscany).

Alright Mr. Science, then what are the best matches for wine & chocolate?

The universal match is Champagne. The high acid and effervescence will be a refreshing counter to the dry chocolate. The bubbles will also keep your palate clean -- leaving you to truly experience the layers of flavor in the chocolate. Port wines are also great matches for chocolate. The flavors of dried fruit, caramel, and fig, coupled with the syrupy mouthfeel make for a great interaction with chocolate. These are your best bets to match with plain chocolate.

If you're trying to match chocolate to a specific wine, try to find a truffle or infused chocolate that matches flavors in both. Those ubiquitous chocolate covered cherries would match very well with everything from a Sonoma Pinot Noir to a Napa Merlot. How about a truffle filled with passion fruit? Why not try a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. How about chocolate infused with ancho chile? Fire up a big old glass of Malbec from Argentina.

Matching wine with food is really all about the pleasant commonalities of flavors or interesting contrasts. It's just the same with wine & chocolate.

You can find some great matches. You'll also encounter some bad combinations. Now, you have a little background that can help you. As always, the only way to know is to try it and see if the result is what you hoped for. If not, keep trying! There's plenty of chocolate in the sea!

New Year's Resolutions & Wine

noreply@blogger.com (The Cask Room, Mike Kallay) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:57:00 +0000

New Year's Resolutions

Here we go again. It's a new year and much like Punxsutawney Phi -- the groundhog who predicts a long winter or early spring by his shadow -- we collectively measure the hedonism of the holidays and prior year by the shadow our figure casts on the windows we pass.

Hardcore diets and new memberships to the local gym ensue, as well as an all-or-nothing severing of ties to our friends at Mondavi & Penfolds.

This shouldn't be the case. There are plenty of reasons to keep a moderate amount of wine in your new relationship with food & beverage.

Sure, wine has some calories (about 100 for a five ounce pour). But, did you know that wine serves as a digestive aid? Or that wine may help prevent food poisoning by killing harmful bacteria (according to a 2003 study by the American Journal of Gastroenterology).

Those are some of the immediate effects of pairing wine with your food. But, there are some fantastic long term effects associated with moderate wine consumption.

Scientists have long known that a moderate intake of alcohol, and red wine in particular, is associated with a lowered risk of heart disease and other benefits.

Resveratrol is a chemical compound found in the skin of grapes and in red wine and is conjectured to be a partial explanation for the French paradox, the puzzling fact that people in France enjoy a high-fat diet yet suffer less heart disease than Americans.

There's also promising results from studying women who drink wine regularly. Carotid arteries, which carry oxygenated blood up through the neck to the brain, benefit from the alcohol in wine. When plaque builds up in the carotid vessels, it acts as a kink in the fuel line, and the lack of oxygen to the brain can lead to a stroke, causing symptoms such as blurred vision and slurred speech. According to a study in Stroke and Neuroepidemiology, moderate wine consumption can lead to improved cognitive performance by helping to keep the carotids clear, just as other studies have found that red wine helps keep the arteries around the heart clean.

Sold? If so, let's talk about what to drink. Maybe it's time for a resolution to break the "comfort zone" you use in wine.

Stuck on Chardonnay? Try a beautiful Viognier (pronounced "VEE-ohn-yay") from Paso Robles like the stellar 2005 Calcareous Viognier ($20). Viognier is a French grape that originates in the Rhone Valley. It's responsible for some of the most exciting (and expensive) wines in France, but the global market penetration of this varietal is still tiny. Values abound in New World plantings of this grape. Viognier is an incredibly aromatic wine -- usually with scents of fresh flowers, orange blossoms, and a crisp minerality. Its feel in the mouth is very similar to Chardonnay -- creamy pear & honey, with a biting citrus component. It pairs extremely well with food. And best of all -- it's not Chardonnay! You'll have something new in your wine toolbox the next time you entertain friends!

You don't need to cut out wine to begin a healthy new you in 2008. Just like anything in life, moderation is the key. Enjoy the New Year!

Wine Snobs & Winos

noreply@blogger.com (The Cask Room, Mike Kallay) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:54:00 +0000

My name is Mike. I am a Wino.

Webster's defines "wino" as someone addicted to wine. It also has the word "derelict" in there somewhere, but I'll take poetic license with my definition. To paraphrase JT, I'm bringin' wino back!

I think the difference between a wino and a wine snob comes down to intent. Both are crazed aficionados of the juice, but one would just assume drink & enjoy the stuff without the requisite pretentious jargon and ritual. The snob will measure him or herself with how many cult Cabernets they've consumed, or which obscure sub appellation in the Old World they can throw on the table. The wino will smile knowingly (is he questioning my fanhood?). The wino knows that it's the sucker who buys into only what the magazines and critics of the world have to say. Because there are far more interesting stories and bottles between the lines. Isn't it more fun & rewarding to rate your own wines?

Wine is such a beautiful thing. It's natural, after-all. Grapes left to die on the vine will become fermented with the natural yeasts that develop on the berries. Yet, there is some belief out there that holds certain winemakers in such reverence truly due to artists and thinkers. Yikes! That almost sounded a bit snobby. Therein lies the difficult line one has to walk in the wine world. You want to appreciate it, and debate about it, but in the end, it's all about how the wine smells -- how it tastes -- and how it feels in your mouth. And everyone can do that. Nobody is born with some kind of bionic palate. Nor is anyone born with a full understanding of the growth classification system in Burgundy or Bordeaux. But, it doesn't matter. Those facts are out there to study if that's your thing, but you certainly don't need to bore yourself with it to understand and appreciate wine.

To be a true lover of wine, all you have to do is drink. The more often you drink, and the more you vary what you drink, the more you'll understand your palate and whether you'll likely adore a new wine or not before even drinking it. And, if you keep some kind of journal after your wine adventures then you'll quickly zero in on what makes your soul feel warm & fuzzy!

That's the kind of power and liberation that I want for all wine lovers. When you truly understand that it's the grape varietal and where it's grown that matters, you'll unlock all of the power to rarely be disappointed with wine.

We Americans are at a supreme disadvantage to this theme. We are bred by Madison Avenue to think of everything as a brand. Coke is a brand. Apple is a brand. Robert Mondavi is not a brand. The brands do everything in their power to make the same product over and over again, identically, in order to promote allegiance by the consumer. Not discounting chemistry, but virtually no winery can consistently put out the same product. Mother Nature changes every minute. Decisions made by the growers as to when to pick change every year. Even when the wine hits the bottle -- it starts its long journey of change, eventually turning into a wonderfully awful vinegar. Winemaker Randy Pitts of Harvest Moon says "great wines are made in the vineyard." Andrew Murray describes his role as winemaker as "...a lifeguard watching the grapes go bad."

When I hear someone say "I love Joseph Phelps Insignia" I think to myself "...this wine lover had a great experience with one or more bottles of Insignia. What she really loves is a Bordeaux-style blend of Napa grapes." That's not to discount the experience, but rather expand the options. Guess how many bonded wineries there are in Napa? 510. Guess how many of those make a blend like Insignia? I don't know. But I'm betting it's a bunch! The point is, Insignia is an expression of a blend of grapes that very much is the calling card of Napa. If you think Insignia is the only worthwhile wine, then you're easy to please and not very adventurous. Because I'd rather take the $200 that one bottle goes for and try eight different wines from the region. You'll likely find a better wine. And, just because one Insignia gets called the Wine of the Year by a magazine does not mean that forever thereafter that wine deserves the praise and price it currently has. Mother Nature dictates the quality of the harvest. And, the sun doesn't shine only on one side of the villa. Everyone in that region growing the right grapes for that region should share in the bounty of a great harvest, whether they charge $20 or $1,200.

Once you let that notion sink in you'll be liberated from the shackles of expensive wines and innocuous experiences. You'll be a knowledgeable wino. A very dangerous thing!

Exciting New Technology for Wine Drinkers!

noreply@blogger.com (The Cask Room, Mike Kallay) — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 18:07:00 +0000

Our Sonoma Wine Discovery Trip

noreply@blogger.com (The Cask Room, Mike Kallay) — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 19:35:00 +0000

Steph & I just returned from a nice long weekend trip to Sonoma -- or more precisely, we just returned from a trip to the Russian River appellation of Sonoma County. Try as we might to break over to Alexander Valley, Dry Creek Valley, or Carneros, we just couldn't seem to detour from the stellar wineries along West Side Road. The goal of the trip was to find some new small wineries to feature here at the bar. Specifically, those with great wines, great stories, and no distribution.

We had a skeleton itinerary -- some favors to cash in -- some popular ex-Cask Room vintners to visit in person, but we primarily had a very open schedule. A funny thing happened along the way to those few appointments: we'd meet some people at the winery and get "insider" recommendations for other wineries to visit -- and cancel some of the "favors." It wasn't so innocent. I was poking around for information from the moment we made our first stop at Hook & Ladder off Olivet Lane.

This winery is owned & operated by Cecil & Christine DeLoach. They started DeLoach winery and sold it a few years ago. I've tasted some of their wines down here in San Diego, but we figured we'd start the day with some good Zin. I asked one of the local tour operators in the room where we should go next -- knowing my predilection for small family producers. He said "Harvest Moon." When I asked where it was he said "about 200 yards up the road." He said that we were in luck because the winemaker Randy was onsite that day.

Off we went to Harvest Moon. This turned out to be the first find of the trip. A tiny producer of primarily Zin, Randy & Anthony were very happy to have us come in and talk about carrying their wine. We'll definitely be bringing in a few different varietals from them. The production is tiny -- less than a few hundred cases of each of their wines. They don't have a distributor, so when we asked about logistics, they offered up that they frequently come to San Diego & they'd simply load it in the pickup and drive it down by themselves. How cool! One of my favorite moments of this visit was constantly hearing Randy correct people that he wasn't a winemaker -- he was a winegrower (in fact, that's what it says on his business card). This was also the first in a long line of comments from people about their love/hate relationship with the Wine Spectators and Robert Parkers of the world. Seems that ratings are fleeting and provide more harm than good for the industry, per many winemakers & wineGROWER's opinions.

It was now time for us to meet our first appointment. We have featured Pellegrini Family Wines a few different times over the last 6 months. It started with the Olivet Lane Pinot Noir, then we had a 25 case love affair with Cloverdale Ranch Cabernet. A short dance with the Carignane from their Mendocino Vineyards was in the middle somewhere. This visit was a hands-on behind-the-scenes kind of trip. We met with Cellar Master Bill and proceeded to tour their modest but state-of-the-art facility in the heart of Russian River:

Bill took us through the famous Pinot Noir vineyards where they sell most of the grapes to Merry Edwards -- one of the foremost producers of California Pinot, and a frequent 95+ point rating from the big critics. Pellegrini knows how good its juice is -- they just feel more comfortable in that $20-$30 price range (not the $70+ range for Merry Edward's wines for the same juice). Here's Steph & Bill standing next to some newly acquired Zinfandel vines from the DeLoach sale:

and, the famous pre-Phylloxera Martini-clone Pinot Noir plantings:

We proceeded back into the cask room (hey, that sounds familiar!) and were able to enjoy barrel samples of their 2005 Merlot and 2005 Cabernet (both fantastic, and dare I say better than the stellar '04!). I know that we try to not repeat with our menu selections, but I might just have to bring back the Cloverdale Cab next year when the 2005 is on the market. You see, even though the wine is going into bottle this weekend, Pellegrini will hold the bottles back in the 59 degree barrel room until next January or so. Not everybody will keep wine in the barrel for 18 months, and then keep it off the market for another 8 months while flavors steep in the bottle. After tasting the samples, Steph found a bag of new corks on the way out of the barrel room:

We spent a good 2 /12 hours with Bill at Pellegrini and gained even more love for the family & the winery than what we already had. Thanks, Bill!

We drove through the Russian River Valley and made our way to Healdsburg -- our camp for the trip. This turn-of-the-century town is replete with old Victorians and a quaint city square, framed by unique restaurants, remote winery tasting rooms, and retail operations. The drive into Healdsburg from the south takes you over the Russian River itself -- which winds pretty much east to west as it finally deposits into the Pacific Ocean:

The next morning we met with Matt Weese, Cellar Master for Mauritson Wines. I had tasted one of their Zin's down here in San Diego and was enthusiastic enough that I thought a visit to see their vineyards and the rest of their lineup was in order. Clay Mauritson grew up one of four brothers in a farming family. The family has sold all of their Dry Creek grapes to other vintners for most of their existence. That is, until Clay, a former Oregon Duck football player, convinced his parents to let him make some wine. It was a wise decision, because his first Zin scored 93 points from Wine Enthusiast. But, I'm getting ahead of myself. We'll tell the full story when we bring in the killer Rockpile Zins. Here's a picture of Matt Weese using a "wine thief" to let us taste the unreleased Bordeaux blend. It was incredible and it will definitely find a place on the menu here when it's released.

Matt was a great tour guide -- explaining to us how they built a great crush facility and decided to contract it out to help pay for its construction. It was then that we saw the tiny Thumbprint Cellars bottling their 2004 Cabernet. 200 cases, all bottled by the winemaker & 4 of his closest friends, along with a laptop & desk speakers blasting some iTunes, and some food from Costco. This really puts things into perspective: 200 cases isn't that much. Here's winemaker Scott Lindstrom-Dake (pouring) leading the bottling (or is he leading the sampling)?

On the way out of Mauritson we heard from Matt that one of the cute gals (Nicole) running the tasting room is the daughter of John Bacigalupi -- one of the preeminent growers & pioneers of Pinot Noir in the Russian River Valley. We didn't get to visit them on the trip, but rest assured -- a connection was made and we'll likely be scoring some of their killer Pinot for pouring here at The Cask Room!

We then left for the beautiful drive down to Garry Farrell. Gary is one of the pioneering winemakers in Russian River. He spent his formative years at Davis Bynum crafting Pinots that America had never seen before. He worked with the Rochiolis in getting some of the oldest and best clones of Pinot available in the country. This was an educational visit, and it didn't dissapoint. Danny Rodriguez led us on a great tour of the state-of-the-art gravity flow winery. It was the first time we saw the pneumatic punch-down mechanisms for the open top fermenters. Danny did a great job in explaining some of the milestones that Gary had made -- he really was one of the reasons that California finally got recognized for producing Pinot on par with the best of Burgundy, France. We particularly fell in love with the Rochioli/Allen Vineyard Pinot Noir from Gary Farrell. A bit too pricey for us here at the bar, but a worthy candidate for your collection nonetheless.

We left the beautiful hilltop estate of Gary Farrell and lamented the loss of the day. Are you serious? Only two wineries in one day (technically three -- as we did stop at Mossocco first)? We had planned to hit five! Well, the good news was that we had great recommendations so the day wasn't lost. We were pointed to Moshin for Pinot and it delivered when we ordered it with dinner. We were referred to Russian Hill and didn't get the chance to taste it, but we met the owners and have a sample coming down to San Diego.

We made our way back to Healdsburg and scored a feast of a dinner at Barn Diva. We kept ordering food as we saw more & more interesting dishes pass us enroute to other diners. The deep fried goat cheese was amazing -- in a Del Mar Fair kinda way!

The next morning we awoke to an 11 a.m. tasting/tour at J Winery. We've carried the J Sparkling before, and I honestly forgot how good & how different it is. We met Genny Wright-Haley who did an amazing job with our private tour and food & wine pairing. I didn't know they aged the sparkling wine for 4 years in the bottle before the final riddling. Nobody else does that! What does this longer age do for it? More bubbles! And the best kind -- tiny! Here's a picture of their automated riddling system:

Riddling is the process of turning the bottles a quarter turn to get the sediment (dead yeasts) to settle in the top. Check out these bottles and all the gunk in the old school riddling rack:

It turns out that J makes some incredible single vineyard Pinot Noir that doesn't see distribution. The Nicole's vineyard was quite wonderful. Too bad we can't get it for the bar! You can join their wine club for it, though! We'll have the vintage sparkling in here as soon as it's released!

We left J and has some time to kill before our next appointment. I saw Foppiano nearby which makes one of my favorite larger production Petite Sirahs. We were just about in the lot when I saw the street sign for Limerick Lane. Score! We ran out of time the day before to hit the tiny Limerick Lane Winery which I had received a tip to visit based on their Zin reputation and their Syrah. Well, we did get the chance to visit and had some quality time with Richard Oberlin & winemaker Ross Battersby. They were happy to hear about our quest for some great small production wines and these did not dissapoint. The Zins were sublime, but it was the Syrah that most impressed me. We had a short tour of the facility, including a peek at the wine bottle pool behind the barrel room:

A quick stop for lunch at Oakville Grocery, and then we met up with one of the owners of Longboard Vineyards, Robert Watkins. Robert and his two partners had all helped take J Winery from a small producer to the leader that they are. In fact, winemaker Oded Shakked was the winemaker at J -- having crafted most of what is currently on the market. They started out making the Longboard wines part-time at the J facility until it became too big to do that. They all split from J and went head first into the wave of making their part-time venture a full-time one.

We tasted some great Syrah's -- their wonderful Russian River syrah will find its way down here at some point.

We said goodbye to Robert & Oded and made our way down to Paul Hobbs Winery. Paul is one of the "it" winemakers now. Everything he touches seemingly turns to gold (or red, actually). His winery is private and is a ways off the nearest street. It's set up kind of like a Dr. Evil lair. Very futuristic house/winery, with all of the latest gadgets for making wine (including gravity-flow design & the pneumatic punch down mechanism). We met Bill Wiebalk, their sales & marketing guy, who let us taste some of the current offerings as well as barrel samples of the '05 Cabernets from the Beckstoffer Vineyard in Napa & Hyde Vineyard in Carneros. Truly wonderful stuff, but nothing we'd be able to bring in here ($200+ a bottle). Here's me getting a barrel sample of the 2005 Beckstoffer Cab:

We finished our evening & trip with a relaxing bottle of sparkling rose from France outside the Farmhouse Inn & Restaurant. As we reflected on our trip, I was amazed at the diversity but pretty overwhelming quality of the wines from Russian River. The Pinot Noir's were outstanding, the Zins ranged from average to great, the Cab's from Russian River were pretty damned good too -- surprisingly, as the area is known for that cooling ocean fog in the evening/morning. The trip was a great success. It yielded us a good handful of new wines from tiny producers to bring in here. And, you won't be seeing them anywhere down here because they're simply not distributed.

/Mike

Conan O'Brien Visits Napa

noreply@blogger.com (The Cask Room, Mike Kallay) — Thu, 10 May 2007 21:57:00 +0000

I don't know how many of you are Conan fans, but I came across these two bits online after missing the shows on my Tivo (I only keep the latest two episodes). Anyway, it's a hilarious field trip to the Napa Valley where Conan brings his own glassware and sense of humor to the normally stuffy Napa Valley.

There are two bits for the Napa trip on this page:
NBC's Conan Site

Enjoy!

/mike

One.org & American Idol

noreply@blogger.com (The Cask Room, Mike Kallay) — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 19:40:00 +0000

So this isn't really about wine, it's more about poverty & our responsibility to help those in need. I don't know how many of you all caught the special American Idol Gives Back show last night, but it was pretty incredible. I was celebrating with my friend Tony last night at his bachelor party and easily dropped a couple of hundred bucks on drinks, food, and fun. It really hit me hard today to watch the show and see just how bad things are in Africa as well as parts of the United States -- and to know how good we have it. I feel incredibly compelled to do something more about it. We give money to some charities throughout the year, but it really unfortunately takes some graphic window into that other world to motivate me (and I'm guessing most) into action. I don't mean to pontificate on something that I've been very lax about, but I think every little discussion or mention will go miles on the road to saving people's lives.

I matched the money I spent last night on fun & frivolity to the American Idol Gives Back drive. I also volunteered with www.one.org which is spearheading efforts to make a real difference through education and open dialogue. Their philosophy is that if America would spend just 1% of its budget in a years time we could virtually wipe out poverty, hunger, and many of the medical issues affecting these same people.

Back to wine now -- I think what we'll do this Sunday night (4/29/07) and every last Sunday in the month going forward is to give back through wine. We'll donate 50% of our proceeds on those nights to fight poverty, help educate, and provide medical help. I know this might seem like a very small thing, but for our growing business it's a pretty big deal. I like the fact that it's directly proportional to what you all do. I challenge those of you who have the time and feel this on your heart to come by on Sunday and learn a little more about the problems and what we all can do collectively to help eradicate them.

I feel very blessed to have a great family, good friends, and a very wonderful business that I'm passionate about; but I also feel that life just gets too hectic and we don't necessarily do the very important things. I am as guilty as anyone. And I want to change that.

I'd recommend checking out www.one.org and challenging yourself to get involved. See you soon...

/mike

Wines & Costco

noreply@blogger.com (The Cask Room, Mike Kallay) — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 17:37:00 +0000

Here's a head's up to all of you loyal Cask Room friends. The wonderful 2002 Jocelyn Cabernet Sauvignon we carried in January of last year is available at Costco (at least the Mission Valley store -- sorry, Tony!). It's only $24.97 -- which is a killer price, considering my wholesale on it last year was $20/bottle! Why is this significant? Starting with the '03 vintage, the winery is contracting with a different grape source. The stellar '02 (90 pts. Wine Spectator) was a blend of a few different vineyards from the valley, but the '03 and the '04 are now sourced from the Stagecoach Vineyard near Atlas Peak. I've tasted all three, and while the styles are similar, it's the '02 that remains the really "special" wine. The '02 has been out of the distribution network -- so, the only place to get it is those retailers who already had it -- hence, Costco. I'm guessing the distributor sold the remainder of his allocation directly to Costco. At any rate, those of you who were sad when we took it off the list, here's your chance to grab a few more bottles!

Welcome to our new blog!

noreply@blogger.com (The Cask Room, Mike Kallay) — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 01:41:00 +0000

Well, it was bound to happen. I have far too much random facts and information in my head, so it's time to share that with you all. I thought that having a blog would be a nice way to share some information about wines I try, rumors I hear, and links to get you all excited and educated about wine. So, for the inaugural post, I am going to share one of my favorite websites with you. It's called Cellar Tracker, and it's an exhaustive & free tool to keep track of your wine collection. There's some great community based tasting notes, scores, drinking windows for knowing when to crack that special bottle you're saving, plus an awesome array of reports to see exactly how much wine you actually consume ('ya lush!). Plus, did I mention it was FREE?

Here's another one of my favorite free wine tools: The Wine Spectator "Name that Wine" game. Try to correctly identify the wine, region, and vintage simply from a tasting note. It's a fun way to test yourself on traditional traits of different wines.

I just organized a Wine Tasting Event with Levendi Estate Wines -- they're an awesome tiny producer of Napa Chardonnay and Cabernet. It will happen on Wednesday, May 2nd, from 7 - 9 p.m. We'll be tasting one Chardonnay, and four different Cab's coming from different places in the county. Tricia Record is a good friend of The Cask Room -- she supplied us with many of the wines we opened with last year. Remember the fantastic Jocelyn Cab? Or, the amazing Leal Carnaval? They were courtesy of Tricia at her previous company. But, she's moving onward and upward, taking the responsiblility for Southern California for this one small producer. She'll be hosting the event, so this will be a unique opportunity to taste & learn all about this stellar boutique winery. Plus, she's got some kind of degree from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in Vineyard Science, so she might even be able to educate us all on the finer details of growing grapes.

Well, that's it. I'm off tonight (thanks, Chris), so I need to figure out what I'm going to cook for dinner. I'm in a Pinot Noir mood, so that likely means chicken on the grill.

Catch you later!

/mike