Dave McIntyre's WineLine

Local Wine Bandwagon Gains Steam With Obama's Help

Virginia wine was featured last night at President Obama's first State Dinner. The president, his guest of honor, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and invited members of D.C.'s elite washed down pumpkin pie tart and pear tatin with Thibaut-Janisson blanc de chardonnay, from the Monticello district near Charlottesville.

Thibaut-Janisson is an up-and-coming specialist in fine sparkling wine. Winemaker Claude Thibaut is convinced that Virginia has the climate and terroir to produce excellent bubbly – and evidently the president agrees.

“Here's more evidence Virginia can produce top-notch fizz,” I wrote about this wine last year in my Thanksgiving recommendations in the Post. “Elegant and stylish, with palate-refreshing acidity and subtle fruit that emerges about an hour after opening.”

Other wines served at the dinner included the 2008 Modus Operandi Sauvignon Blanc from Napa Valley; the 2006 Brooks Winery Riesling “Ara” Vineyard from Oregon's Willamette Valley; and the 2007 Beckman Vineyards Grenache from California's Santa Ynez Valley. The dinner's menu is available on the White House Web site here.

I've always been a big fan of Brooks. The winery farms biodynamically and produces excellent Riesling - the Ara is its best - and Pinot Noir. I had the opportunity to visit the winery last summer during the International Pinot Noir Celebration, and enjoyed the 2006 Ara then. But if you want to taste what the White House guests enjoyed tonight, you'd better hurry - the winery has only a few cases left.

This caps a banner week for Regional Wine. Last week, I wrote in the Post that “the growth of local wineries throughout the country is transforming the American wine industry.” Yesterday, my buddy Jeff Siegel, aka “The Wine Curmudgeon,” offered more proof of the changing face of American wine. Jeff noted that Eric Asimov in The New York Times included a New York wine – Shinn Estate Merlot – in his Thanksgiving recommendations, while Boston Globe wine columnist Stephen Meuse praised Massachusetts Cabernet Franc, even if he didn’t include a specific recommendation for one.

“What's with these big deal wine writers suddenly hopping on the DrinkLocalWine.com bandwagon?” Jeff asked. Not that we're complaining!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Please comment here on what wines you'll be enjoying for the feast.

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!

Regional Wine Week - half way point

If you haven't yet checked out REGIONAL WINE WEEK on DrinkLocalWine.com, you should. We've got harvest updates on the Finger Lakes and Niagara from Lenn Thompson's New York Cork Report, plus a post from Paul Vigna on how the bad economy has some prime Pennsylvania vineyard land languishing on the market. Rémy Charest has reported on the current scandale in Canadian wine - a legal loophole that allows wine from elsewhere to be labeled "cellared in Canada". Brian Kirby is scouting out some exciting developments in Maryland. And Richard Leahy writes about wines produced from goofball grapes that will surprise you with their quality.

Remember - Think Globally, Drink Locally. And support Regional Wine Week by visiting DrinkLocalWine.com!

The Vintner and the Herbalist

"White wine with fish, red wine with meat" - remember how that used to define wine and food pairing? It's still fairly safe, if unadventurous. Wine lovers will often tell you to match wine not with the meat, but with the sauce, or the seasoning. These flavors, after all, are often the accent that determines how food speaks to our palates. 

In this video, I speak to Mary Watson DeLauder, a noted sommelier who is revered (for the lack of a better word) in the Virginia wine industry for her support of the Old Dominion's wines, about how different herbs affect the flavor of wine. We're at Corcoran Vineyards in Loudoun County, with winemaker Lori Corcoran. Listen as Mary identifies the "magic" herb that complements nearly every wine, and as she and I deal with flying hair. And just for titillation, Mary even cusses! Hey, it's the Internet! We can say anything!

Regional Wine Week Starts Tomorrow! (Oct. 11, that is … )

Regional Wine Week starts tomorrow, Sunday, October 11, and we’ve got an exciting lineup of bloggers and writers who will be writing about their local wines and wineries they’ve experienced on their travels around this great land. Remember, wine is now made in all 50 states – not just the West Coast! You might not know that if you rely only on the major wine publications, so let’s light up the blogosphere with reports on “wine from around here.”

So where will you be able to find these scintillating and fascinating reports, you ask? They will be linked at DrinkLocalWine.com, the Web site “Wine Curmudgeon” Jeff Siegel and I created last year for the first Regional Wine Week. Bookmark it and return throughout the week (and afterwards!) to see what new articles have been posted. Then you can discover some of the underground wine writers who are chronicling your local wine scene. If you're a Washington Post reader, you'll find my feature on Loudoun County, Virginia, wines in Wednesday's Food section.

Jeff and I will also try to remember to update our Twitter feeds #dlw09 and alert our Facebook friends and fans of DrinkLocalWine.com of new postings throughout the week.

Just as a tease, I will report on my recent visit to a winery that makes this singular boast on its welcome sign:

Can you guess? Leave a comment if you think you know. Then check in here and at DrinkLocalWine.com to find out.

Regional Wine Week Coming, Oct. 11-17

Calling all wine bloggers! The second annual Regional Wine Week will be October 11 through 17. This is the week we encourage all wine bloggers, newspaper columnists, radio or TV talking heads, to feature “wine from around here – wherever here happens to be.”

Regional Wine Week was created last year by Jeff Siegel (The Wine Curmudgeon) and myself to highlight the impressive growth in quality of wine that is not made in the usual places (such as California, Oregon and Washington State.) This year we are hoping to get 50 or more bloggers to participate, and we will link to their posts on DrinkLocalWine.com. By leveraging Facebook and Twitter, who knows how many people we’ll be able to reach!

So if you blog about wine and would like to participate, please let us know. If you know someone who blogs about wine, please forward this post as an invitation for them to participate.

This is an exciting time for local wine – the Eat Local movement is beginning to realize that Drink Local is a logical part of any reasonable campaign for local agriculture.

Bruce Here's in Charge of the Sheep Dip

When I posted yesterday’s defense of my wine pricing on The Washington Post Food section’s blog, several commenters rallied to my defense. Their support is much appreciated. But I couldn’t leave one comment, from someone called “sheepherder,” on the Internet without a challenge. Not so much because sheepherder would like to herd me into oblivion, but because the criticism leveled is so wrong and ill-informed that I could not leave it alone.

Here’s is sheepherder’s lament:

Mr Mcintyre should be shown the door at the WP. He reviews are wrose than his predecessors and don't hold a candle to Ben's.

If the WP keeps him he needs to concentrate more on VA and MD wines and throw in East Coast wines for good measure. At least one column a month should concentrate on local wines only. You have more than enough material for 3 local wine columns a month and tastings. With all hoopola over eating local the Food section of the WP needs to get with it and concentrate on local wines along with local produce, local cheese and local meat especially locally raised lamb! And lets not forget the stock dogs that work local livestock. Nothing beats watching a a good herding dog moving 500+ sheep and lambs on beautiful spring morning with fog just lifting.

Posted by: sheepherder | May 28, 2009 7:26 AM | Report abuse

(Sheepherder was referring in his nostalgia to Ben Giliberti, who wrote the Post wine column for 20 years and rarely, if ever, wrote about local wines. I believe this is the first published comment I’ve seen since I took over the column last October wishing for the old days. Some sort of milestone, I guess.)

And here is my reply, posted on Sunday, as soon as I saw the comment:

Oh, Sheepherder, wake up and smell the sheep dip. I've written more about local wines in my eight months with the Post than anyone ever has, including Ben (who doesn't like local wines, by the way). Remember my recent column on Virginia Viognier? My column about local wines in October (and my creation - with a friend - of the DrinkLocalWine.com Web site and "Regional Wine Week")? Or that I recommended Virginia wines for Thanksgiving, including them along with wines from elsewhere because they are good enough not to be treated as novelty items anymore? I reported on Jim Law's shift to lighter bottles at Linden, and I included Virginia in my recent column on US Sauvignon Blanc. Did you see Mary Jordan's fine piece about Virginia wines wowing the British vinoscenti at the recent London International Wine Fair? It was published merely ONE DAY before you posted your comment. Who do you think alerted her that Virginia wineries were coming to London?

You have seen plenty of coverage of local wines and the local wine scene in my columns - and you will continue to, if you pay attention.

Thanks for reading - and thanks to everyone else for the kind words and support. I appreciate all feedback, including negative (as long as it's justified, which sheepherder's complaint is not.)

Cheers,
Dave Mc

Posted by: DaveMcIntyre | May 31, 2009 12:43 PM | Report abuse

And here are the columns I’ve written for The Washington Post since I took over the wine column last October 1 that either feature or mention local or regional wines:

October 8: Local Vintner’s Grow Respect

October 15: Some Rules Are Made to Be Broken (I have to fix this link – a Virginia wine was featured in a column on unusual blends.)

November 19: The Annual Puzzle of What to Pour (Virginia wines included in Thanksgiving wine recommendations.)

December 24: When it Pays to Be a Lightweight (Linden Vineyards featured in discussion of wineries switching to lighter bottles.)

January 7: How to Put Riesling Fears to Rest (New York and Canadian Riesling featured.)

April 1: A Grape Virginia Vintners Can Love

May 13: Sauvignon Blanc’s American Makeover (Virginia Sauvignon Blancs touted.)

And one extra:

May 27: Virginia Makes Wines? Yes, and London Likes Them (By Post London Correspondent Mary Jordan. Unfortunately, I was unable to go to London for the International Wine Fair, but I did alert Mary to the idea of a fun story that would resonate back home, and she did a terrific job. I hope she got to taste the wines!)

Of Cow Horns and the Cosmos

Biodynamics is a small but rapidly growing style of winemaking. Basically put, biodynamics is “Extreme Organics,” going way beyond avoidance of chemical fertlizers, pesticides and herbicides to include some rather esoteric practices. The wackiest of these is probably the only thing many people hear about biodynamics – burying cow horns full of manure throughout the vineyard at the autumnal equinox.

Equal parts agriculture, philosophy and mysticism, biodynamics somehow stops short of requiring the winemaker to dance naked among the vines at midnight under a full moon.

Shortly after I posted a link to today’s Washington Post column on biodynamic viticulture on Facebook, I received a message from David Page and Barbara Shinn (right), the husband-and-wife team behind Shinn Estate Vineyards on Long Island. I met them a few years back while researching an article on New York wines for the San Francisco Chronicle.

“We just dripped this year’s first compost tea brew through the irrigation system,” they wrote. “Turning millions of beneficial organisms into billions. Nothing about doing these kind of applications seems mystical to us, just good feet-on-the-ground modern use of old farming practices that too many good farmers abandoned for chemicals with names no one can understand, and only addictive results.”

I can’t say biodynamic wines taste better than other wines, but in many cases, they do taste different – more lively and vibrant. They often defy our expectations of what a wine should taste like, which is precisely the point Nicolas Joly, the mad professor of biodynamie, makes when he rails against “appellation l’Oréal.”

Conventional wisdom says biodynamic farming won’t work here on the East Coast. I don’t know how rigorous David and Barbara are in this regard, whether they are “as biodynamic as possible,” “practicing biodynamic,” or working on a Demeter certification. But I do know they make some terrific wines, and their message gave me a hankering for a glass of their Merlot or Sauvignon Blanc.

The moon is waning. Do  you know where your vines are?

Warning! A Threat to Regional Wine!

Disturbing news came in my e-mail today, courtesy of an article in the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat & Chronicle. New York Gov. Patterson, trying to cope with the economic downturn and a rising state budget deficit, is proposing to eliminate funding for the New York Wine and Grape Foundation. The state executive branch currently provides $1 million per year to the foundation, an amount matched by industry. The legislature contributes $1.8 million.

Jim Tresize, the foundation's director, told the paper that the proposed cuts could mean the end of the foundation's promotional efforts on behalf of the state's wine industry.

Trezise said if the proposal becomes law, the foundation would have to shut down its efforts to push juice, wines and wine trails — industries he said have a $3.4 billion impact.

Wine lovers around the country should be alarmed at this. Why?

As Jeff Siegel, aka "The Wine Curmudgeon" and my co-conspirator in creating DrinkLocalWine.com, wrote to me: "If they get cut – and they’re one of the most important – everyone will get cut."

State governments around the country are facing severe budget crises and will have to make painful cuts in services and support to various industries. That is an unfortunate fact of life. Gov. Patterson is also proposing to increase New York's excise tax on wine from 18.9 cents per gallon to 51 cents. That's a matter of maybe, oh, a quarter per bottle of wine? If even that? No biggie, there.

But cutting the foundation budget could have a lasting negative impact. Tresize, whom I've met several times over the years, is probably the most forceful advocate of regional wine in the United States. Sure, his job is to promote New York wines. But in doing so he has brought attention to the rise of regional wine throughout the country. He serves as a judge at wine competitions from coast to coast and is a tireless promoter of Wine America, the national winery trade association. His foundation helps sponsor viticulture reseach at Cornell University - one of the nation's leading viticultural programs - which benefits wineries all over.

The foundation also sponsors an annual Governor's Cup competition to crown New York's best wine. I had the pleasure of judging once a few years ago when one of the regular judges canceled at the last minute. I was impressed not only by the quality of the wines but by the professional and efficient way Tresize managed the competition. I've begged him to invite me back, but the regular judges don't give up their seats easily - the wines are that good, and the event is that fun.

I've written several articles about New York wines over the years, most notably for The San Francisco Chronicle just after the 2005 Supreme Court decision prompted the state to allow direct shipping to consumers. I don't know how much wine New York sold as a result, but the article would not have been possible without Tresize's help in getting word out to wineries that I needed samples and interviews.

New York wines are finally creeping onto shelves in the D.C. area. Not a whole lot of impact yet, but I suspect they owe a great deal of their presence to Jim Tresize.

Jeff Siegel is right. If New York ends its support for its wine industry as a result of the financial crisis, other states may follow its example. Virginia's wine industry would not be as successful as it is today if it did not have state support. Richmond cut off that support a few years ago and closed the state office that was analogous to the N.Y. foundation, only to restore it on a more modest scale later. I haven't had time yet to research how other states may or may not support their wine industries. But whatever support they give - that means product improvement, market expansion, jobs, revenues, and tax income for the state.

I don't know what we wine lovers can do to stop this, given the economic circumstances. And most comments posted on the Democrat & Chronicle article were in favor of severing state funding for the foundation.

But we can at least call attention to the threat this poses to the growth of regional wine - in New York and elsewhere.

And we can contact Gov. Patterson to voice our support - from across the country - for the New York Wine & Grape Foundation.

Eat Local? Drink Local!

Regional Wine Week has been a resounding success so far, with hundreds of readers visiting DrinkLocalWine.com to discover   the wonderful variety of wines being produced today in the United States and Canada.

Tonight, my column inThe Washington Post highlighted this effort, along with some emerging trends in Virginia and Maryland wine. Virginia is developing its own wonderful expression of Chardonnay, and Jim Law's Linden Vineyards is a prime example. Petit Verdot is gaining favor as a potential rival to Cabernet Franc as the Old Dominion's premier red grape. Michael Shaps produces the state's best. And surprise! Virginia may be on the verge of a breakthrough in producing sparkling wines of great character. Kluge Estate is in the vanguard, especially with its lovely 2004 Rosé.

In Maryland, Black Ankle Vineyards is rewriting the book, winning acclaim and medals with its debut wines even before the winery opened for business (just this last week!). Elk Run continues to impress with a delightful, floral Gewürztraminer, while Boordy Vineyards, an historically important winery for its promotion of French-American hybrid grape varieties, produces a sprightly Vidal.

Remember - Wine Country isn't just California anymore!