Dave McIntyre's WineLine

DLW2011 is This Weekend!

I haven't been posting much lately because I've been too damn tired. And I was unable to make it to Taste Washington in Seattle, unfortunately. But I am excited that I'll be able to get away this weekend to St. Louis to participate in the DrinkLocalWine.com 2011 Conference on April 2. Gotta get me some of that tasty Missouri wine!

Aside from a few thought-provoking panel discussions, we will have the annual Twitter Taste-Off, which this year will include a special Missouri Blind Tasting Challenge, in which we will challenge you to distinguish Missouri wines from California wines. That's the type of challenge I always think is easy, and then I embarrass myself. But the idea is to showcase the quality of local wine - and local, this weekend, means Missouri.

If you can't make it to St. Louis for the April 2 discussions and tasting or the April 3 winery visits, you can follow the fun on Twitter at #DLWMO.

Cheers!
Dave

 

Agh! Public Speaking - Seattle and St. Louis

In high school, I hated public speaking class. In grad school, I was a lousy teaching assistant. But maybe that's because I didn't have anything worth speaking about. Like wine, for instance.

In the next few weeks I'll be venturing out of my cave for three (yikes!) public speaking engagements. The first two will be March 26 in Seattle at Taste Washington!, an annual event sponsored by the Washington Wine Commission to showcase that state's wonderful wines. I'll be on a panel discussing the terrific Seven Hills Vineyard, giving the consumer/critic's perspective along with a top-notch group of winemakers: Marty Clubb of L'Ecole No 41, Chris Figgins of Figgins Family Wine Estates (including Leonetti Cellars), and Jean-François Pellet of Pepper Bridge Winery, plus Drew Hendricks (Master Sommelier!) of Pappas Brothers restaurants. The panel will be moderated by the Wine Commission's Shayn Bjornholm (another Master Sommelier!). So I may be mostly in listening mode for this one ...

That afternoon I'll join some fellow wine writers for a panel called "What's the Point(s)?" We'll discuss different ways (100 points, stars, etc) of "quantifying the quality" of wine in general and Washington wine in particular. The panel will be moderated by Sean Sullivan, the energetic and talented author of Washington Wine Report, and my fellow speakers will be Sara Schneider of Sunset magazine and Rebecca Murphy of The Dallas Morning News. This will be a raucous, fun discussion.

The next weekend, April 2, is the DrinkLocalWine.com 2011 Conference and Twitter Taste-Off, this year focusing on Missouri wines. (Unofficial conference slogan: "Tweet Me in St. Louis!") I'll be moderating a panel discussion on "Does Locavore = Locapour?" My fellow panelists will be Ann Pollack, of the popular blog St. Louis Eats and Drinks; Glenn Bardgett, wine director of Annie Gunn's Restaurant (and a James Beard Award semi-finalist this year!); Debra Grace, of Grace Manor Restaurant; and Todd Kliman, Washingtonian magazine's food and wine editor and author of the award-winning The Wild Vine, a story of the Norton grape. (And a James Beard Award winner!)

This should be fun! Whether your passion is Columbia Valley Riesling and Syrah, or Missouri Norton and Vidal, I hope to see you! And don't forget to follow Twitter tage #DLWMO.

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.

Number of U.S. Wineries Continues to Grow

The number of wineries in the United States continues to grow, reports Wine Business Monthly. The total at the end of November was 6,223, up 122 over the past year. That equals the 6% growth pace of 2008 and shows some resilience in the wine industry despite the bad economy. To be sure, the “launch” decisions for many of these new wineries were probably made in better times, and the growth was much more modest than the explosive 10% in 2007 and 15% in 2006. But still, we need to drink even in hard times, right?

“We had explosive growth in past years; but if wineries grow 5 percent a year, that’s still pretty good growth,” Bill Nelson, president of the U.S. wine trade association WineAmerica, told WBM. “These are still big numbers. At 5 percent a year, the number of wineries doubles in 15 years.”

While I and other bloggers and writers have trumpeted the rise of “regional wines,” the magazine reported that California continues to have about half of the nation’s wineries, a figure that has remained steady over the past four years. California has 3,047 wineries, followed not so closely by Washington state with 564, Oregon with 453, New York with 229, Virginia with 163, Texas with 157, Pennsylvania with 141, Ohio with 120, Michigan at 104 and North Carolina at 101.

The WBM article did not give last year’s rankings, but Virginia’s growth has been phenomenal in 2009 and I’d wager the Old Dominion overtook the Lone Star state last year. These rankings overall show the vitality of the wine industry in the Eastern United States.

Wine Camp, and Other Ideas

Over Christmas weekend, my family held our annual "Wine Camp." This is an extremely vinonerdy exercise in which we pour several wines blind and say, "Tell me what this is." Over the years, it has taken on an air of one-upsmanship and competition, and it is always a helluva lot of fun.

My main protagonists are Dave Johnson and Ed Oldfield. Dave is my brother-in-law's brother-in-law, a relation twice-removed by marriage; Ed is Dave's close friend. Both are prominent doctors in the Hampton Roads-Norfolk region as well as avid wine collectors. They both are extremely skilled at finding exclusive wines of small production and (usually) high point scores that are not widely available - their network of retailers and winemakers across the country is impressive. One year, Dave wowed us with a $20 Aussie Shiraz that had everyone opening their wallets, while Ed, a devoted Dooniac, stunned with a bottle of 1984 Bonny Doon Vin Gris de Cigare - the inaugural vintage of the original Rhone Ranger wine.

Naturally, I can't compete in this crowd, so I bring outlandish wines that no one will expect. Last Spring, I surprised Dave and Ed with a delicious Dragon's Hollow Chardonnay from China, of all places. (Being a wine writer gives me the advantage of some unusual samples.)

This year's lineup included Isabel Sauvignon Blanc 2002 from New Zealand, still showing well without the stewed asparagus flavors old NZ SB can get. A 2000 Hunter Valley Semillon from Rothbury Wine Scoiety (my offering) was not as fully developed as I would have liked; it had appealing lime flavors and still tasted young, but was not harmonious. (I went back to it 3 hours later and thought it delicious, but by then I had been enjoying about ..... THIS many wines, so who knows?)

Dave then opened a 2006 Poets Leap Carmina Burana Cask Aged Riesling from the Long Shadows project in Washington state's Columbia Valley. I guessed the wine and the winery, but only because its Riesling character was obvious and I knew Dave's fondness for Long Shadows. (It pays to know your adversary!) Ed then opened a Retour Pinot Noir 2007 from Oregon, which matched nicely the Carabella 2005 I had brought.

You get the picture - the evening continued through the 2005 and 1996 Quilceda Creek Cabernets, and a Cab Franc comparison of Horton Vineyards "Tower Series"2007 and a 1985 Channing Road from Napa. Ed showed his Doon colors with a 1986 Old Telegram.

I had a surprise wine in reserve and was despairing that the evening was getting late and I wouldn't be able to present it against so many stellar, older wines. Then Dave brought out a young California Syrah, a Tensley 2008 Colson Canyon - lush and opulent with abundant fruit and high alcohol (over 15%) noticeable but not enough to dominate the wine. I saw my chance and brought out my ringer. It was similar, and yet clearly different in style - more earthy and dense, less obviously fruity than the Tensley. Dave and Ed immediately pegged it as Syrah, young, aged in French oak, and from California. My brother-in-law thought Washington state, figuring the concentration in the wine indicated Columbia Valley.

"You are all right except for one detail," I said, pulling the bag off the bottle. "It's from Maryland." I showed them the Black Ankle Vineyards 2007 Leaf Stone Syrah.

Such games are not what wine is all about, but they are devilishly fun and a great way to experience wine. I suggest some other ways of exploring the grape in my column today in The Washington Post, along with my monthly Recession Buster recommendations.

Bad Mood, Continued

Tasted more American syrahs tonight. I really want to like these wines, but at the very best I find them …. meh. I opened four, then three more. Some nice herbal aromas from a Sonoma entrant, but it was still syrupy. A Santa Barbara County wine clocked in at a surprisingly modest 13% alcohol – it even had aromas! Its body was lighter, more balanced, and there was a hint of … something positive on the palate. Nice, not exciting. And still not particularly interesting.

For dinner, we had this simple braised dish my Taiwanese mother-in-law makes. It’s the cheapest cut of beef – from the back of the leg – and is ribboned with gristle. She braises it for hours in red wine (a reject from my last column, most likely), ginger, soy sauce and star anise. The meat ends up succulent and tender, the gristle very visible but pure gelatin and very easy to eat. It seemed a perfect dish for syrah.

So I went downstairs and found a Salice Salentino, from Cantele, 2003 (Vias Imports). It was delightful – bright spicy fruit, light body, lots of life, unlike those leaden US syrahs.

After dinner we tasted the syrahs again. A few of them were a tad more aromatic, more balanced, having wakened and stretched their limbs. Still, it wasn’t what we were looking for.

So I went to my cellar and pulled out a bottle of Crozes-Hermitage I’d purchased for $18 a few years ago from a trusted retailer.  I think he said. “That’s fantastic, and those are my last two bottles!” It was a 2003, from an importer I know and respect. So I bought them. We opened it with anticipation, expecting it to blow the American pretenders out of the competition.

I poured. I swirled. I sniffed, expecting to smell smoked bacon, earth and leaves, classic aromas of a northern Rhone syrah. The wine smelled …. like low tide. Clams. Sea water. Putrid seaweed. I swirled again, with vigor. Some herbs? A hint of meat? A taste. It was okay, but nothing to swoon over, nothing to spend $18 on either.

I willed that Crozes to be good. But after a few minutes the marine qualities were simply overwhelming. Was this a really crappy wine, or is it just going through its awkward teen years, shedding the adorable baby fat of its youth, but not yet overcoming its acne to reach its full potential as an adult?

And if I’m to be that charitable to the Crozes, what of those American wines? Perhaps I can’t recognize potential? Or are they truly mediocre wines?

Maybe I’ll never know. But these wines have had an unusual effect on me. I want to go to bed early.

Chateau Ste. Michelle Chardonnay 2007 $12

When you’re always looking for the next big thing, the new hip wine, it’s easy to forget your old friends. It’s probably been several years since I’ve tasted Chateau Ste. Michelle’s Chardonnay from the Columbia Valley of Washington state. I typically pass by it in the stores, because it is everywhere and I’m looking for something surprising.

Well, this 2007 release of an old standby surprised me with its balance, depth and quality, and left me chastened with the thought that I should never take familiar labels for granted.

The wine shows appealing herbal aromas – rosemary? sage? – that are somewhat unexpected for a chardonnay, especially an inexpensive one. It’s soft texture in the mouth yields to lemon cream and apple fruit, tinged with  aromatic wood spice.  This wine is a great value.

A Great Value Red from Washington!

Here's a top-notch bargain red from Washington state's Columbia Valley - Hedges Cellars CMS Red 2006, about half Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot for the rest with just a splash of Syrah thrown in for good measure. All the basic elements - fruit, earth and alcohol - are in harmonic convergence to produce a terrific wine for casual or even more serious beef and pork dishes. This offers American fruit and exuberance without American arrogance - in other words, without the over-the-top oak and alcohol our wines have become known for. It's comfortable being an American wine. I'll stop now before I wax all metaphoricky-political.