The two worlds of Barolo

A friend of mine recently shared with me a bottle of 2007 Domenico Clerico Barolo Pajana, a remarkable wine that was quite approachable in spite of barolo’s reputation. When we began to discuss the “Barolo Wars,” a documentary but also a conflict between traditionalist and progressive winemakers, he insisted on pouring the 2007 Azelia Barolo Bricco Fiasco to demonstrate the difference.

Traditional barolos undergo a short maceration — 15 to 30 days — and then are put into neutral oak barrels for several years before release. The newer style, introduced in the mid-1980s, shortened the maceration time to about 10 days and then aged the wine in French oak. The traditional wines were tannic monsters because they were exposed to the skins for a longer period of time — as long as 3 weeks! Skins are the primary source of tannin and these barolos were monsters that required another decade of cellaring. The newer process sped up the drinkability factor with less skin exposure and French oak. These wines could be enjoyed within a few years of aging and were even enjoyable on release.

Traditionalists argued these modern wines didn’t represent the history of the region or the wine and tasted more of oak. But the progressives said the public liked them more. Eventually, the dust settled and now you can find both styles in the market. It behooves the consumer to understand which style they are buying because these can be very expensive wines.

Both of the wines I tasted were extraordinary. The Azelia was aged 24 months in a mix of oak — Slavonian, French and Austrian. Maceration was 55 days. The Wine Advocate gave it 95 points. The Domenico Clerico Pajana was macerated for half the time and aged 16 months in barrique. Domenico Clerico, who recently died, was called one of the progressive “Barolo Boys.”

Delicious, but will they last?

A very good friend shared with me a bottle of 1970 Inglenook Cabernet Sauvignon. The experience in tasting an old Napa Valley cabernet this old was remarkable for a number of reasons. First, it was the year of my and my wife’s anniversary. That the bottle and us survived 51 years is noteworthy!

Second, Inglenook was a leader in its time. Its reputation fell apart with a lot of ownership changes that began in 1964, particularly when Heublein came aboard and turned the label in a grocery store brand. There followed RJR Nabisco, Grand Metropolitan and then Constellation. By 1994 Inglenook was pretty much destroyed. Finally Francis Ford Coppola, who purchased a part of the property in 1975, bought back the Inglenook name in 2011. Initially the estate was known as Niebaum-Coppola and later as Rubicon Estate. His new releases under the Inglenook label — although pricey — at least quality back to the name.

But can Napa Valley wines made today survived 51 years? The 1970 was still alive and kicking — tired and fading but still in the game.

Having tasted a lot of $100-plus Napa Valley cabernet sauvignons in the last month, I really question whether 50 years of age will do them any good. They may be delicious but many of them are not balanced.

Caveat emptor: store ratings

A friend of mine recently wrote that he is distrustful of ratings given to wines sold at Costco because he thought them to be generously inflated. He should be, but it applies to more than just this one store.

Stores commonly use what the industry calls “shelf talkers.” They are promotional tags that provide a high score for the wine. Often these shelf talkers are provided by the producer. The obvious intent is to sell more wine to overwhelmed consumers who are looking for some guidance on what to buy.

First, look closely at the rating. Who rated the wine? If it’s a respectable publication like the Wine Advocate or the Wine Spectator, the rating has credibility. We’ve seen some shelf talkers with unattributed scores — or scores from previous vintage . Buyer beware.

Second, a critic’s palate may not match yours. A good critic will score a wine according to how it represents the region. Does a pinot noir, for instance, typify the Willamette Valley, its soils and the style that you expect from there. But on top of this foundation is the judge’s prejudice for, say, a tannic and complex cabernet sauvignon or an oaky chardonnay.

Third, consumers gravitate exclusively to wines rated no less than 90 points. Anything less struggles for sales even though most of the wines are excellent and may even be more appealing to the palates of occasional wine drinkers.

We like to test a salesperson to see if our palates match up. We’ve been recommended wines we intensely dislike and then be more skeptical on our next visit. When recommended a wine, we ask a series of questions: How do you describe it’s style? Does it show well now or should we wait a couple of years to open it? Is it food friendly? Can you taste the oak? If they can’t answer these questions, they really don’t know the wine.

The bottom line is that you’re the best judge.

Forget about milk with your cookies: how about wine?

As if the wine industry doesn’t have enough gimmicks to get people to drink more wine, along comes Barefoot Wine to team up with Nabisco to make a sweet wine that tastes like Oreo thin mints. I know, why would anyone mess with a perfect cookie, right?

Barefoot Oreo Thins Red Blend is said to taste a lot like Oreo thin mints. It’s only available through the Barefoot website, but don’t bother looking — it’s all gone. Apparently, there are a lot of Oreo Thin Mint fans out there. The package of wine and cookies sold for $25.

The match made in heaven got me to think about other combinations. Surely, a wine could me made to taste like Cheetoes. What about cornflakes? You could substitute wine for milk to get your day started.

Your wine has more alcohol than you think

The other day I was enjoying a glass of Chalk Hill Estate Red, a rather pricey bottle that was loaded with tannin. What became obvious by the second glass was that it was also loaded with alcohol. I couldn’t drink a third glass if I wanted to safely navigate my way to bed.

While I could still focus, I looked at the label to see my hunch was right. The Chalk Hill had 15.5 percent alcohol. Knowing that the producer is legally allowed a one percent error, I suspect the Chalk Hill had more than 16 percent alcohol. That’s a far cry from the 12.5 percent alcohol I regularly saw when I first started to write about wine in the mid 1980s.

What happened? Lots.

First, California producers turned to a blowsier style — based on critic ratings and growing popularity — that hyped the fruit, lowered the Ph levels and raised the alcohol. Second, growers left the grapes on the vines longer to achieve phenolic ripeness but also higher sugar levels. More sugar converts to more alcohol. Third, sun is maximized in many vineyards in warm regions. Sixteen percent alcohol is common in zinfandel produced in interior regions like Lodi.

The trend is born out by the Department of Agriculture, which performs an annual grape crush that reveals the sugar content as measured by Brix. Since 1997 the inspection never fell below 24 degrees Brix, which is a sugar equivalent to about 14.3 percent alcohol. In 2013, the figure hit a record — 26.3 degrees Brix, or about 15.6 percent alcohol.

Alcohol is one ingredient to a full-body wine and that’s what producers want to achieve. Alas, alcohol is also an ingredient to trouble. Share a bottle of Chalk Hill Estate Red at a restaurant and you may be driving home drunk.

Buyer beware.

Napa's poor image abroad

I was talking to Daniel Daou of DAOU Family Wines the other day and he echoed the opinion of many wine collectors who believe Napa Valley’s red wines don’t have a lot of respect abroad.

“Asians and Europeans don’t like California wines – that’s a fact,” Daniel said, “because California wines don’t cut through the acidity of food. Jammy wines don’t do that.”

Daou scoured the country in search of the calcereous soil that is found in Bordeaux. The only place in California where he found it was the Adelaide district of western Paso Robles. There he launched DAOU with his brother. He even named the mountain after the family name.

Alas, Daou struck a nerve. The wines I typically see from California are too extracted, high in alcohol and short of acidity. They are fruit bombs better served as dessert Daou’s Soul of the Lion, named after his father, is balanced. A Bordeaux-style blend, it stood out in a flight of California wines — mostly from Napa Valley — that I recently tasted blind with a couple of fellow oenophiles. With many of these wines well over $100 a bottle, it is more reasonable to enjoy a cru bourgeois from Bordeaux for a fraction of the price.

Napa’s extracted style began in the mid 1980s when wine critic Robert Parker was awarding this type of wine with high scores. If you taste any wines from, say, Chateau Montelena or Beaulieu Vineyards from earlier vintages, you will find more balanced and long-lived wines — wines that fared well in a blind tasting with the best of Bordeaux in the famous 2006 Judgement of Paris wine competition.

We’ve tasted some cabernet sauvignons back to the 1970s. I suspect the same wines made in the last two decades won’t have the staying power. On the other hand, I recently tasted a 1975 Mouton Rothschild and a 1975 Chateau Trotanoy that were showing quite well even though neither vintage was very good in Bordeaux. It proves that a good producer can make a decent wine in even a poor vintage.

You better buy your holiday bubbles now

If you plan to host a party this holiday season or have something to celebrate, you should buy your favorite champagne now.

Champagne officials are predicting a worldwide shortage of French bubbles toward the end of the year. Part of the reason is that demand for champagne, particularly in the United Kingdom, has bounced back with gusto. Tariffs placed on champagne by former President Trump depressed sales in the United States, which meant more of the product being sold in the UK. But U.S. sales picked up in the spring as consumers were re-emerging from the pandemic. Now, the U.S. in back to stocking up at a time when producers were reducing production in anticipation of a long-term slow down. Yields in 2020 were intentionally lowered by the Committee Champagne.

The shortage will benefit prosecco producers and even sparkling wine producers from the West Coast which face no product shortage.

I suspect that consumers are tired of the pandemic, no matter what its risk, and will find reasons to celebrate this Christmas season. Those with the ability to pay higher prices will indulge in prestigious champagne no matter what the cost. — if they can find it.

Looking ahead: the 2021 Bordeaux vintage

Bordeaux producers aren’t looking forward to the release of the 2021 wines. Widespread frost in the spring killed a lot of buds. The French government has forecasted the harvest to be among the smallest in the last 50 years. Comparisons are being drawn to the 1977 vintage, which was about the time I started buying French wines. The deals were great then and many producers managed to produce decent, albeit not great, wines. I remember the 1977 Chateau Beychevelle, for instance.

The 1961 harvest got off to a similar start and turned out to be one of the more remarkable wines of the century. Yield was low in the vineyards but the grapes were intense and the few wines made were long-lived. How the 2021 vintage fares remains to be seen. Just add wine to the woes of the year.

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Justifying the cost of a good bottle of wine

It doesn’t take much effort for me to justify buying a wine that cost, say, more than $50. Here’s my logic.

When my wife and I go out to dinner — maybe 4 times a month — we go to a nice restaurant and spend at least $50 on a bottle of wine that would cost half as much at a local wine store. The wine usually isn’t worth it because the restaurateur is more focused on far more expensive bottles that complement his food. If I spend more on wine, my tab is often more than $200 for the night.

If I’m willing to forgo the restaurant experience, prepare my own food and clean up the dishes, I can spend the same $50 on a better bottle of wine bought at a local wine store. I buy my own steaks, grill them nicely and end up the night with a tab that is significantly less.

This logic may not make sense for some people who are willing to buy a glass of wine for $15 and enjoy a night on the town. But for me, the wine is as important as the food. And, the dining experience isn’t the same if I’m sacrificing quality for cost.

In recent weeks I’ve come across some great wines at $60-70 a bottle and wince when I find the guts to buy them. But, as I age and find less reason to save, I enjoy my wine more — even more than a night out with ridiculous prices that are even harder to justify. You don’t need to buy a case of a very nice wine. A bottle is a good experience into a world you may have been avoiding far too long.

The value of blind tastings

As often as I embarrass myself in a blind tasting, it is essential to measuring a wine without prejudice. How many times have you — or someone in your circle — chosen a favorite based on cost or region? A $100 cabernet sauvignon must be better than one that sells for $25, right? Burgundy pinot noirs must be better than one from California, right?

The other day among friends we submitted ourselves to four sparkling wines: one from Champagne, one from Oregon, one from South Africa and one from England. All I asked is for the knowledgeable tasters to tell me which one they liked the best. The champagne was very good, but it was the Nyetimber from England that was judged the favorite. And, many thought it was champagne.

It was the result I was hoping for. I recently wrote a magazine article on the growing success of the English sparkling wine industry. I was blown away by the quality of these wines and their similarities to champagne. British winemakers are using the same grapes grown in similar soil and using the same traditional winemaking process. Temperatures in the southern region, thanks to climate warming, are as perfect as those in Champagne. In fact, as temperatures rise in Champagne, England has a better future. More than 70 percent of the wine that comes from these vineyards is sparkling.

Would anyone have judged the English wine superior had they seen the label? I doubt it. In fact, restaurateurs who carry Nyetimber in my town say it takes some convincing. But when the adventurous diners try it, they are universally delighted.

Subsequent to the sparkling wine tasting, we blind tasted four reds and asked to guess on their grape variety or region. I was convinced the first one was a blend from the Rhone Valley and the second was from Rioja. The third I couldn’t guess and the last I thought to be another Rhone.

All of them were from the Paso Robles region of the Central Coast. They were stunning, expensive wines Three were from the 2014 vintage, the fourth was a 2010.

The Booker Vineyard The Ripper was grenache, so I at least had the grape variety right. The second was a grenache/syrah blend from Law Estate — hardly close to Rioja. The third was the 2010 L’Aventure Cote a Cote, a blend of mostly syrah and mourvedre. The last wine — the 2014 Saxum Broken Stones — was a blend of grenache, syrah and mourvedre. All were stunning wines but I liked the Law Estate the best and close behind was the legendary Saxum.

As I said, blind tastings are humbling experiences when you stick your neck out. But they taught me a lot.

Bad news from Bordeaux

Hang on to your Bordeaux. The Telegraph in the United Kingdom recently reported that a fungal disease is expected to reduce this year's crop by as much as 70 percent. 

Fungal disease is caused by heavy rains in the spring. Once it appears on the grapes, there is little that can be done. There is a spray of copper sulfate and slaked lime to prevent fungal disease, but growers have been loathed to use it because of their commitment to organic farming. Even those who have used it as a preventative say it isn't foolproof.

It sounds as if no one has been spared -- and merlot growers are affected the worst.

This is hardly the news Bordeaux wants. Last year's production was cut 40 percent because of severe frost. It was the worst harvest since 1945. 

With harvest more than a month off, it remains to be seen how badly this disease will impact this  year's production.

DTC sales slowing

With the pandemic in check and people returning to their routines, direct-to-consumer sales have slowed.

According to data tracked by Nielsen, off-premise sales fell dramatically in April. They are still higher than 2019 numbers, but clearly consumers are back buying wine in their favorite retail stores and in restaurants.

Surprisingly, wines selling for more than $20 continue to do very well. The average bottle price of April shipments increased $7 to nearly $40. Shipments of $50-plus wines are seeing double-digit growth.

Insurance denied in Napa

According to the Napa Register, more than 100 Napa wineries have been told by their property insurers that their policies will not be renewed. Apparently, the rash of recent fires make them too high of a risk. With dry season on them, these wineries are facing an incredible risk.

Iconic wineries closing

I often shed a tear when I hear of the closing of an iconic winery. I shed a few tears when I read of the recent closing of Clos du Bois and Sebastiani, both of which I fondly recall in their heydays.

A lot of wine flowed under the bridge since Frank Woods founded Clos du Bois in 1974. The brand was purchased by Constellation and the model went from making great pinot noir and chardonnay to generic supermarket wines at bargain prices. Constellation sold the brand to Gallo who just announced it would close its Geyserville property and make Clos do Bois elsewhere — along with a bunch of other brands.

Sebastiani’s trail is even more depressing. Founded in 1944 by August Sebastiani, it landed in the hands of grandchildren. Sam left in the mid 1980s to make fine wine in a family dispute. Don, a former California legislator, stayed to make mostly inexpensive plonk that never achieved the status the brand once held in Sonoma County. Foley Family bought the historic winery in downtown Sonoma and the brand in 2008. It embarked on a plan to improve the quality of Sebastiani’s wine. Now, it has decided to close that facility and make the wines at one of its other properties. Without a tasting room and without the employees who have been laid off, the brand loses appeal and their identities.

I’m sure these steps will reduce expenses for Gallo and Foley, but I’d be shocked if the wines will ever return to the quality they enjoyed long ago. After all, they have stockholders to answer to. Both Sebastiani and Clos du Bois are popular wines found in grocery stores or in bargain baskets for less than $12. That’s a far cry from those great Sebastiani Cherry Block cabernet sauvignons I remember so well despite their lofty prices.

Spaced out with Petrus

Now, here’s something you’ll want to buy.

Christie’s will hold a private sale of the bottle of 2000 Petrus that spent 14 months aboard the International Space Station. Proceeds will go to funding future space missions.

Sadly, there’s only one bottle. It will be packaged in a unique trunk made by Parisian Maison d’Arts Les Ateliers Victory. The trunk will include a decanter, glasses and a corkscrew made from a meteorite.

The 2000 Petrus, valued at about $7,000, was one of a dozen wines sent into space on November 2, 2019. One of the goals of the mission was to see h ow plants adapt to the stress of space conditions. According to the Christie’s release, “Recreating an Earth-like environment with near-zero gravity…offers a unique research framework to better understand the evolution of key components of wine, including yeast, bacteria and polyphenols.”

The space-aged wines were analyzed on March 1. Said the release, “The initial results found the bottles positively endured all the constraints of preparation, travel, and storage. Remarkable differences in the color, aromas and taste components were noted, and the wines sampled were commended for their compexity and considered to be great wines.”

In other words, the wines were the same on Earth as they were in space.

Wouldn’t it be interesting if the person who buys the Petrus finds out it is corked?

Just can it

I was going through a lot of alcoholic beverages in the can — not on the toilet, silly! — and trying to understand the drift from bottles to aluminum. Since I’m not a millennial, there probably is no hope I will understand the pleasure of wrapping my lips around a can.

At first, the alternative to a bottle was a 3-liter box that seem to satisfy a party host. Then came the cans. Once a container for cheap wine, the can was slowly adopted by major producers who felt they were missing the younger crowd. I don’t think we’ll ever see Chateau Lafite-Rothschild in a can, mostly because millennials aren’t buying it. Decoy, on the other hand, is putting some decent wine in a can and they are part of the elite Duckhorn portfolio.

I did, however, cross over to hard seltzers after my millennial nephew came to my house looking for White Claw. . Also called spiked seltzer, these canned drinks add alcohol from fermented sugar cane or malted barley to flavored sparkling water. Consumers like them because they don’t have the same high carbs as beer, although the alcohol content (calories) is about the same.  They come in a rainbow of exotic flavors to keep you interested, but we find them to be a lot of bubbles but not much flavor. It reminded us of Bartles & Jaymes, those canned concoctions that rocked the market in the mid 1980s. When the feds raised excise taxes on alcohol, Gallo dropped the alcohol in Bartles & Jaymes and consumers lost interest. But, they are back on the market with fermented grape juice.

But they have tons of competition. Even Budweiser and Corona are making hard seltzers because they are seeing millennials moving from craft beers to seltzers.

I’ll be writing more about this in a future column. Tonight, though, my lips will be a GLASS of wine from a GLASS bottle.

World wine consumption drops

Based on personal consumption, many of us assumed we drank more wine during the pandemic. Not so.

The International Organization of Wine and Wine reported recently that global consumption of wine was done 3 percent in 2020. That’s better than the 10 percent drop it anticipated, but still down from previous years.

The COVID-19 pandemic shut down the hospitality industry and thus on-site wine sales. Although large retailers and e-commerce showed increases, they weren’t enough to offset the loss in on-site sales. Adding to these woes were the tariffs initiated by the U.S. and China.

Hardest hit was the sparkling wine category. Except for prosecco, sparkling wine experience the worse declines. Bag-in-the-box wines, however, soared. What does that say? Some people were drinking more wine, but not better wine.

At least the U.S. kept up its end of the trade. Now the world’s largest wine-consuming country, it is on track to keep up with previous years’ consumption levels. Way too go, folks.

Tasting wine virtually

Leave it to Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, to come up with making wine “tasting” a virtual reality experience.

It seems unreal to me.

Bezos recently introduced Davos Elite Portfolio of Fine Wines. It’s first release, a cabernet sauvignon from the elite To Kalon Vineyard, is entirely virtual. Participants get an empty bottle with virtual reality goggles that have enhanced aromatherapy technology.

The experience is hosted by a sommelier who offers help in what the user should be tasting.

You have to be kidding, right? I get that this could be instructional, can’t be overconsumed and can be enjoyed by minors and alcoholics, but is anything more than a gimmick for real wine drinkers? I can’t imagined being satisfied without actually tasting the wine.

The “wine” retails for $75 a bottle — not including the $400 goggles. Now, I’m liking the idea even less.

Help from the heavens

Mankind will forever try any gimmick to change the weather. Remember those planes that tried to seed the clouds to break up hurricanes? They didn’t work.

Now come the French who are confident that helium balloons loaded with hygroscopic salts will turn hail into rain. The experiment was approved by 90 percent of winemakers in St. Emilion. Thirty-seven launchers will be used.

Hails was especially damaging in St. Emilion and the Entre-Deux-Mers region in 2020.

More grape varieties approved in Bordeaux

Four new red and two white wine grape varietals can be grown in Bordeaux as a result of formal approval by the Institut National de l’Origine et de la Qualite, a part of France’s Ministry of Agriculture.

The decision comes after years of research by scientists and growers who were focused on supplementing Bordeaux’s varieties to address the impact of climate change. Arinarnoa, castets, marselan and touriga nacional — a Portuguese varietal — are said to adapt well to stress from temperature increases.

The two new white varietals are alvarinho and liloria.

Bordeaux producers are loathe to change tradition, but the climate changes have forced their hand. With these grapes being first planted this year, it’s hard to predict who will use them and how they will change the flavor profile of these prestigious wines, but I can’t wait to try them.