Dave McIntyre's WineLine

Park Hyatt in D.C. adds a local winery to its locavore event

After I posted here and on The Washington Post's All You Can Eat blog castigating the Park Hyatt for not including any local wineries in its June Masters of Food & Wine Event celebrating local agriculture, the hotel promptly added one.

The day after my post, representatives of the hotel approached Boxwood Winery in Middleburg, Va., and asked them to participate. The winery immediately accepted, said Rachel Martin, Boxwood's executive director.

The Park Hyatt D.C.'s Blue Duck Tavern is a terrific restaurant, and Chef Brian McBride does a great job featuring local ingredients. Local wines are underrepresented on the list, however, and they were left out of the initial lineup for the June. 

The lineup for the event includes some top-name West Coast wineries, including Brewer-Clifton, Melville, Caymus, and Duckhorn. But for an event celebrating local agriculture, it seemed fitting that at least one local winery should be involved.

DrinkLocalWine.com 2010 and locavore hypocrisy

This week, the Park Hyatt Hotel chain announced that it would bring its annual Masters of Food and Wine event to Washington this June 17-20. Chef Extraordinaire Brian McBride of Blue Duck Tavern in the Park Hyatt in the West End will welcome chefs, sommeliers and winemakers from around the country for a weekend of food and wine that will “focus on the commitment to local farmers and to supporting sustainable agriculture,” according to a company press release. They will visit the Dupont Circle FRESHFARM Market and Virginia's “esteemed” Chapel Hill Farm in Berryville, which raises an heirloom variety of veal called Randall Lineback.

Will they be visiting any local wineries? No.

Will any local wineries be participating in the event? No.

Who is the wine headliner? Dan Duckhorn, of Napa Valley's Duckhorn Vineyards. An eminent name and hard to fault, especially given the obvious cute tie-in to Blue Duck Tavern. But hardly local.

This is a restaurant so committed to local farming that it wants you to know the name of the rancher who slaughtered the lamb you are about to eat. But its commitment to local wine consists of a few good but desultory selections buried in the list at markups (3x retail) guaranteed to render them mere window dressing.

The Park Hyatt is not alone in this hypocrisy. Alice Waters, the doyenne of the “eat local” movement, has organized a series of dinners in DC the last two years to preach the eat-local gospel. Each time, she has served only California and Italian wines.

The locavore movement in DC-area restaurants ignores important advances in local viticulture that should make us locapours as well. This conundrum was a major topic at last weekend's DrinkLocalWine.com 2010 Conference at Lansdowne Resort in Leesburg. The conference, which I helped organize along with Jeff Siegel, a Dallas-based wine writer who blogs as The Wine Curmudgeon, focused on how local wineries can get their message out without relying on the “winestream media” of the major wine mags, as well as how to convince locavores to become locapours.

On that latter point, Todd Kliman, wine and food editor of Washingtonian magazine (and a friend and former editor of mine), argued eloquently that local wineries should not focus on the Holy Grail of wine lists – those at the top-tier restaurants such as Citronelle or CityZen. Such restaurants are designed to impress international and expense-account clients, and so will naturally focus on top-end wines with international fame and high point scores. Local wines will find little room to infiltrate their wine lists.

Interestingly, Kliman derided area restaurants for touting their Randall Lineback veal while ignoring local wines. One restaurant he praised for featuring local wines was Baltimore's Woodberry Kitchen, whose chef, Spike Gjerde, will be participating in the Park Hyatt event. Such restaurants in the middle tier are better target for local wineries, Kliman argued, because they are innovative and often dedicated to the local farm movement to a greater degree than high-end restaurants.

(Kliman is the author of The Wild Vine, a history of the Norton grape to be published May 4 by Clarkson Potter. One of the more endearing parts of the conference was when Bruno and Jane Bauer, two Norton fans from South Carolina, revealed that they had trekked up here in their RV just to meet Kliman, having obtained an advance copy of the book on eBay. “Every winelover should read this book,” Bruno Bauer said.)

As for how to get around the winestream media and its focus on Bordeaux and Napa Valley, the answer was social media. Jen Breaux Blosser, of Loudoun County's Breaux Vineyards, described how she uses Facebook and Twitter to forge relationships with customers and advertise special sales. During February's snow storms, when no one could get to the winery, she offered blizzard discounts – order now, pickup after the melt – and managed to make money even without people coming to the winery. Jim Corcoran, of nearby Corcoran Vineyards, told me that Internet coupons have significantly increased traffic to Corcoran's tasting rooms.

The highlight of the DrinkLocalWine.com 2010 Conference was the Twitter Taste-Off, in which nearly 30 wineries from Virginia and Maryland poured two wines each for about 100 participants, including wine bloggers and writers from across the country.(See my video at the bottom of this post to get your own taste.) Tasters were able to Tweet live, and you can still follow them on #DLW10 and #DLW10VA. Statistics of how many tweets were tweeted by how many twits to how many followers are not yet available – apparently the contractors enjoyed the wine too much. But a secret ballot revealed the crowd favorites to be the Breaux Vineyards 2002 Merlot Reserve for Best Red and Media Favorite; the Chrysalis Vineyards 2008 Albarino for Best White; and the Michael Shaps 2008 Viognier for Peoples' Choice.

Richard Leahy, East Coast editor of Vineyard & Winery Management magazine, commented that the victory for the Breaux 2002 Merlot Reserve demonstrated how well Virginia red wines can age, especially considering the strong competition from so many reds of the excellent 2007 vintage. I was thrilled at the consistently high quality of the wines from both Virginia and Maryland.

Local sommeliers should take note. Your customers have.

You can read other participants’ accounts of the conference at DrinkLocalWine.com.

DrinkLocalWine.com 2010 - THIS SUNDAY!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There’s still time to register for this Sunday’s DrinkLocalWine.com 2010 conference and Twitter Taste-Off in Leesburg, Va. This conference – for bloggers, Tweeters and wine lovers of all kinds – will highlight issues facing local wineries in the Mid-Atlantic, plus the chance to taste wines from about 25 of the best wineries in Virginia and Maryland.

 

The conference is modeled after the one held last August in Dallas, which of course featured Texas wines. The Twitter Taste-Off is a real treat and not at all as silly as it sounds. There will be free WiFi onsite so anyone with a smartphone or a laptop or – gasp! even an iPad! – can instantly tweet each wine review. All the tweets will be displayed on a big screen at the event and of course will become part of the Library of Congress’ Twitter archive! It’s a great chance to taste these wines and meet some winemakers, and of course it’s a great opportunity for the wineries to generate some Twitter buzz on the Internet.

 

If you can’t join us, you can still follow the fun at http://twitter.com/drinklocalwine and the hashtags #DLW10 and #DLW10VA.

 

Registration is $65 in advance, $75 at the door, and includes three panel sessions discussing Virginia and Maryland wine, social media and the wine industry, and why locavores aren’t locapours. You also get lunch and the afternoon Twitter Taste-Off. A full conference agenda, plus a list of participating wineries and attending media members and the all important registration link, are available at DrinkLocalWine.com.

Wines from Where?

Wines are now made in all 50 states - but would you know that by looking at a typical wine list or store shelf?

Andrew Stover, the hyper-energetic millenial generation sommelier at two hip Washington D.C. restuarants, is trying to change that perception. Working with a D.C.-area distributor, Stover is bringing high-quality and high-value wines from aorund the US to the DC-area market. These include Arizona Stronghold from Cochise County, Arizona, and Sawtooth Vineyards from the Snake River Valley in Idaho.

Let go your prejudices. I did - I'd never heard of Maynard James Keenan, the rock star behind Arizona Strongholds. I didn't let that stop me from appreciating these delightful wines.

You can read more about it in my wine column in The Washington Post.

Two Voices of Pinot Noir

I suffered cognitive dissonance a few weeks ago over pinot noir. I lunched on Monday with Richard Sanford at his Alma Rosa Winery in Santa Barbara County over beef stew and his 2006 and 2007 La Encantada Vineyard pinot. He had just driven me around the Santa Rita Hills in the Santa Ynez Valley, an appellation he pioneered by planting Sanford & Benedict vineyard in the 1970s and creating Sanford winery in 1980. He explained how the hills running east-to-west – unique in California, where most run parallel to the Pacific – channel the ocean breezes and fog into the valley and moderate the temperatures. Despite being just a two hour drive from Los Angeles, the Santa Rita Hills region counts as a “cool-climate” for winegrowing. Ideal for pinot noir, in other words. Such geography is easy to read about, but seeing is believing.

The Alma Rosa La Encantada 2007 Pinot Noir ($45) is rich and spicy, and tightly focused in a way that draws you closer with every sip. I gave it three stars (“exceptional”) when I profiled Sanford in the Post last August. It has what I love about California pinot noir – delightful floral aromas, good acidity and balance, and a lingering, silky finish. And it does not have what I hate about California pinot noir – excessive alcohol that leaves a burn across the palate, or a cloying, brown sugar taste. The 2006 was even better; Sanford described its aroma as “a day-old rose, just at the height of its power and on the edge of decline.” I couldn't disagree.

 

Richard Sanford of Alma Rosa Winery from Dave McIntyre on Vimeo.

Two days later, back in snowy Washington, D.C., I had lunch with Becky Wasserman, her husband, Russell Hone, and two of the many Burgundy producers she represents. Wasserman, an American who lives in Burgundy, is an influential broker and exporter of fine French wines, primarily from Burgundy. She was here as part of a U.S. tour celebrating her 30 years in business. She is as petite as Sanford is tall, but they seem to share a similar aesthetic – a preference for wines grown organically and manipulated as little as possible in the winery in order to achieve the purest expression of the fruit. Only Wasserman's pinots speak French, while Sanford's speak 'Murrican.

And that's where the dissonance came in. After five days in Santa Barbara County, sampling dozens wines in various styles, my initial taste of Burgundy was a shock. It was a Domaine Alain Burguet 2006 Gevrey-Chambertin “Clos la Justice” ($70), and at first sip it seemed unpleasantly astringent. Where's the fruit? I wondered. But my palate was attuned to California pinot noir; after a few sips, the fruit emerged, then the Burgundian earth and finesse that characterizes the French expression of pinot noir.

As we tasted the Domaine Michel Lafarge Volnay 2006 ($55), with its subtle, silky texture – for lack of a better word (pinot noir at its best is all about texture) – I thought of my lunch two days earlier with Sanford. Back in the 1960s, when he was looking to use his geology degree after a stint in Vietnam, it was a bottle of Volnay given by a friend that inspired him to plant grapes. He told me he does not remember the producer, but he recalls the flavors, the texture, and the inspiration it gave.

Is the Alma Rosa La Encantada the equal of the Domaine Lafarge Volnay? Yes – and here's why I say that. The Alma Rosa is not and can never be a Volnay. But it is a beautiful expression of the Santa Rita Hills and of California pinot noir, just as the Lafarge is a beautiful expression of Volnay. Burgundy will always have an advantage in that no one dislikes a good Burgundy, while Burgundy fans will discount California for not having the right soils or climate to make a Burgundy. Sanford has every reason to be proud of his pinot. And if, as he savors his wine and thinks of that day-old rose on the cusp between glory and decay, his memory wanders back to that long-ago bottle of Volnay, who can blame him?

Vino Volo: The Only Way to Fly

Waiting for a flight out of Dulles International Airport the other day, I was pleased to see my gate was in Terminal C. That meant I could pass the time at Vino Volo, the best thing to happen to airport food since …. well, ever.

Vino Volo, which has outlets at 10 airports around the country, is a stylish wine bar concept with (at Dulles at least) a modest but fresh and interesting menu and a modest but interesting wine selection. You can buy a glass or a flight of tastes, and even a bottle to take on the plane (you’re through security already!).

While waiting for my flight, I enjoyed a flight of three wines from Miller Wine Works in Napa Valley. Three big red wines, which in their small tastes were delicious and paired well with braised pork tacos. All the tensions of preparing for a trip and getting to the airport and through to the gate evaporated with each sip.

Another laudable point about Vino Volo – each of its stores carries some local wine. So the Vino Volo in San Antonio has some Texas wine on its list, and the Dulles outpost has some from Virginia. For curious and thirsty traveler.

Vino Volo at Washington Dulles International Airport is located near gate C3.

Loredan Gasparini Prosecco, $12

This is the first in a series of posts throughout December on sparkling wines that offer great value for their price.

Loredan Gasparini offers this textbook Prosecco, with delightful apple flavors, surprising depth and refreshing acidity. It picks up an intriguing spice note with Sichuan peppercorns, making me think Prosecco might be a worthwhile partner to Asian cuisines. Chinese restaurants should at least give it a try. Made from organic grapes.

Imported by Dionysus Imports, Lorton, Virginia.

Red or White for Thanksgiving? BOTH!

Or as I always say, "Open one of everything!"

But here's my take on the food/wine pairing conundrum for this Thanksgiving, in Sunday's Washington Post special Food section, with wine recommendations paired to featured recipes. Note the commenter who didn't pay attention to what I was writing, and please enter comments of your own on what you like to drink for Thanksgiving.

Enjoy the tryptophan, everyone!

Cheers,

Dave

Iconic American Wines

This week, The Washington Post's Food section is looking at the iconic American meal - Thanksgiving - from the perspective of iconic American chefs. So I thought it would be fun to discuss iconic American wines. This proved to be more difficult than I expected, for any such list is necessarily subjective and eminently debatable. So I invite you to read what I came up with and suggest your own here in the comments.

Chardonnay from Bien Nacido? Napa Valley Cabernet? I've tried to capture "iconic" wines that have made American wine what it is today, and wines that are shaping its future. Please let me know what you think.

Enjoy!

America's Southernmost Winery

It was cold and rainy on the August day when I visited Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park, as the remnants of a tropical storm lashed the eastern side of the Big Island. I caught a glimpse of the Kilauea crater and the steam plume rising from the Halema’uma’u vent before a thick fog and lashing rains descended and obliterated any hope I had of stunning vistas or photographs to take home.

So I decided to visit a winery.

A mile or so off the main road that leads to the park, Volcano Winery is tucked into a blue-collar rural suburb.  (A suburb of a volcano, to be sure.) “America’s Southernmost Winery,” the sign at the gate boasts, and another placard at the end of the driveway points to “Wine-O Parking.” My kind of people.

The winery, opened in 1993, gets quite a bit of tourist traffic, judging from the tee-shirts, hoodies, and other wine-related tchotchkes on sale. And there are several wines to taste, unfortunately presented in little plastic thimbles that make it impossible to smell the wine. (Could that be intentional, I wondered? Larger glasses with the winery logo were for sale.)

They do grow grapes here – a few rows of Symphony vines stood outside the store, the slowly ripening grapes heavily netted against predators such as birds and curious tourists. The winery planted some vinifera varieties, including pinot noir and syrah, a few years ago, but they haven’t yet borne a crop. More on that later.

“You’ve probably heard this before, but these are better than I expected,” I said to the two women who poured me samples and told me about the wines. (Distressingly, I find six weeks later that I did not record their names.) That’s a common reaction, they said, though most people say the wines “are not as bad” as expected.

The wines included two “estate” wines made from Symphony grown on the Big Island. The 2008 dry Symphony is quite pleasant and flowery, but not oily and over-the-top like Symphony can be. The 2008 Mele, picked later, is slightly off-dry but not at all cloying. It would make an excellent aperitif or partner for cheese. Both cost $16.

From there the wines got really interesting. Volcano imports grape concentrate from California to make its Volcano Red ($17), a non-vintage labeled blend of several grapes spiced with jaboticaba berries grown on the island. I struggle to describe the wine, as it doesn’t fit a ready frame of reference, but it’s quite tasty, with the berries adding a woodsy, spicy note. I’d serve it slightly chilled as a fun warm-weather red.

The Volcano Blush ($16.50) blends Sauvignon Blanc, Palomino and Colombard (again, from California) with the jaboticaba berry. It’s exotic, peppery and a tad sweet, like a power fruit drink with a kick.

Hawaiian Guava Wine ($16.50) is just what its name suggests – those same three white grapes with yellow guavas grown on the island. The winery uses the entire guava – skin, fruit and seeds – pureed and fermented on its own before blending with the wine. It is oddly delicious, starting sweet but finishing dry and nutty. (All that from a thimbleful! Well, okay, maybe two or three thimblefuls.) I brought a bottle home to pair with our annual Chinese Thanksgiving feast. (Don’t ask.)

Macadamia Nut Honey Wine ($17) is similar to meade, but not syrupy. It tastes like a macadamia praline that hasn’t hardened yet.

The winery’s Web site now lists an Infusion Tea wine, but that wasn’t available when I visited. Too bad, I’ll bet it’s pretty good.

Here’s my 4-1-1: If you are visiting Hawai’i and its Big Island, plan some time to detour from the national park to Volcano Winery. It’s worth the visit, and not far out of your way.

Hawai’i, you might imagine, presents unique winemaking challenges. The winery originally planted 14 acres of Symphony vines, but only seven acres are still bearing. And that pinot noir? They had hopes of gathering a harvest this year, but in March, just as the vines were flowering, the trade winds from the East stopped, and the steam from the Halema’uma’u Vent on Kilauea, normally blown off to sea, settled instead over the mountain and Volcano Winery’s vineyards. The heat burned the flowers off the vines.

Now that’s terroir.

This is the second annual Regional Wine Week, with bloggers and writers reporting on local wines – you can find their reports and blog posts at DrinkLocalWine.com, and on Tweeter at #dlw09.