Knudsen: from farmer to producer

When you think of winemaking pioneers in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, a handful of names come to mind: David Lett, Dick Erath and Dick Ponzi, all of whom were growing grapes and making wine by the early 1980s. However, a name that escapes more memories is Cal Knudsen, a Weyerhaeuser executivbe who became Oregon’s largest vineyard owner in 1975 when he expanded his 30-acre block in Dundee Hills to 60 acres.

Knudsen never made wine solely under his name, but he partnered with Dick Erath to form Knudsen-Erath Winery. When that partnership ended in 1987, he sold his wines to Argyle for its well-respected sparkling wine program.

Knudsen died in 2009 and his four children — none involved in the wine business — decided to continue the family legacy and launched Knudsen Vineyards in 2012, first with a pinot noir and then with a chardonnay. Because they had established lives and businesses well outside the wine world, the family turned to its long-time partner — Argyle — to help.

Page Knudsen Cowles, managing partner

I recently had dinner with Page Knudsen Cowles, managing partner of Knudsen Vineyards, who said it was important to the family to keep their father’s legacy going for future generations. Knudsen continues to sell grapes to Argyle and buys back about 500 tons for its own wine. Argyle’s winemaker Nate Klosterman is making the wine.

The Knudsens couldn’t have made a better business decision. They can ease into the unfamiliar business of making wine with professionals at the helm. The two pinot noirs and one chardonnay I tasted were well made — good balance and pure expression of the Dundee Hills fruit character.

I really like the 2016 burgundian-like chardonnay because it had just a kiss of oak and an austere but intense profile. The estate pinot noir blended into the Willamette pack at $55; the reserve showed more distinction at $70 but the wines tasted like a product still being developed. Given the quality of the vineyards, I would like to see Knudsen make a single-vineyard pinot noir.

Argle makes a pinot noir made entirely from Knudsen grapes. Most consumers won’t know that, but I wonder if winemaker Klosterman is making the same pinot noir for both labels — or something different for Argyle.

These wines are on the right track, but clearly the Knudsen’s have an uphill climb in a competitive market. The wines are distributed in only a handful of states (including my state of Florida) and the burden has fallen to Page to hand-sell the wines city to city. She lives in Minnesota.

She agrees that a tasting room will make her job much easier, especially if that can drive direct-to-consumer sales. Oregon has seen tremendous growth in this sector.

By the way, Ste. Michelle Estates bought out Erath several years ago, but Dick Erath was allowed to live in his original home. That lease runs out this year and Knudsen doesn’t plan to renew it. That sounds like a good location for a tasting room!

How about a glass of Tide?

The tide seems to be turning. Tide, the producers of laundry detergent, abandoned those cute little pods when 8 people died after ingesting them — they looked too much like candy and in some cases sane people were dared into eating them. Now, Tide has developed an eco-friendly box with a handy spout that looks too much like boxed wine.

Social media comments wonder if people won’t mistake the laundry detergent for their box of Franzia.

Really?

First, you’ve got a bigger problem if your kids are confusing boxed wine with laundry detergent. Second, I don’t see how anyone with half a brain could confuse this box with wine. It’s orange and the label is a jug of Tide. If that doesn’t set you straight, the first pour of this thick, colored liquid should tell you it isn’t wine in your glass.

You just can’t fix stupid.

With blends, only red seems to work

I recently did a wine tasting for a small group of eager wine enthusiasts. The subject was blends — a segment of the wine industry that is growing so fast it’s just behind chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon. In fact, of the wines introduced in the last year, 40 percent of them were blends.

Strangely to me at least is that no one is making a decent white blend. The two I offered to the tasters — Kitchen Sink and Apothic White — were awful. Nearly everyone — including me — dumped them. There seemed to be no consideration given to what each grape variety contributed to the wine. Awkward and overly acidic come to mind.

On the other hand, the three red blends I poured were equally delicious. Each blended different grapes — one was a California blend of mostly zinfandel and syrah; one was a South African blend of Bordeaux grape varieties; the other was a Washington state blend of 14 grapes. Each showed how well-paired grapes can produced a delicious wine with broad flavors.

I’ll be writing a column about red blends in the near future. For now, there are the three wines everyone liked:

• No Curfew Red Wine 2016 ($15). This is a very delicious and balanced blend of zinfandel, syrah, petite sirah, cabernet sauvignon and petit verdot. Raspberry notes enveloped in a round mouthfeel with oak-infused vanilla and chocolate flavors. This is an invention of Amici, a producer known for its great values. 

• Beyond Ordinary Cabernet Blend 2016 ($15).  We didn’t expect much from this South African blend, but we’re we ever surprised. This blend uses all five Bordeaux grape varieties and offers French appeal with black currant and dark fruit flavors, soft tannins and hints of pepper and leather. 

• Apex Red Blend “The Catalyst” 2016 ($17). There are 14 grape varieties in this complex and well-priced blend from Washington state. Syrah dominates the blend, though, and provides effuse red berry flavors. Nice dose of fine tannins gives it body for a foil to grilled steaks. 

Bellacosa: finally a true wine to enjoy

I’m so tired of false wines. By that I mean those sappy popsicles that are loaded with sweet fruit and blended with no consideration for what makes sense. Oh, wait, there is a wine called Liquid Popsicle. And there are wines called Kitchen Sink to denote that everything but is a part of the blend, and Conundrum because the variety of grapes make it impossible to define.

Daniel Cohn

But then comes along Bellacosa, a cabernet sauvignon that is appreciably honest.. The wine is balanced and the best $25 cabernet sauvignon on the market today. I am not exaggerating.

The genius behind this three-year-old brand is Dan Cohn, the son of Bruce Cohn whose cabernet sauvignons — B.R. Cohn — were legendary. When Bruce sold the business in 2015, Dan launched Bellacosa with the matra that his wine “had to look like a $100 bottle, it had to brink like a $50 bottle and it had to sell at $25.”

He traveled state to state for 308 days a year while married with child, staying in cheap hotels and putting his wines in the mouths of restaurant beverage managers, retailers and consumers — shoe-leather marketing. When I met up with him for breakfast, he pounded down two espressos — he would have four more before lunch. He is the Energizer Bunny of the wine world.

“I try to keep it under 20 espressos a day,” he quipped.

His first vintage of 25,000 cases sold out in 10 months. Wine Business named him one of the top 10 Wine Brands of 2016. Critics are raving about his wines.

Each restaurant he visits, he challenge doubters to blind taste his $25 Bellacosa alongside the best cabs on their wine lists. In fine restaurants, that can include Hall, Frank Family Vineyards and other prestigious brands that sell for considerably more. He calls this the “Bellacosa Bet” and if he wins the restaurant agrees to pour his wine by the glass. He hasn’t lost yet.

He makes only cabernet sauvignon from California’s north coast vineyards because that’s the grape variety he managed while working for his father. Last year he formed a joint venture with Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits.

What I found so refreshing in Bellacosa is that it didn’t follow the herd of most start-ups that are parlaying the consumer’s coco-cola palate for instant success from cheap blends loaded with sugar and plastered with some catchy name.

You’re a fool if you don’t try this wine.

Phinney sells another one

Wine genius David Phinney seems to have a pretty good deal going. He invents a label, makes it a marketing phenom, then sells it for a princely sum to a wine conglomerate.

Phinney’s most recent deal was to sell his Locations series to E&J Gallo. It was only a few years ago that Phinney was inspired to blend wines across regions and label them after the country’s designation. Resembling a bumper sticker, “F” was for France, “E” for Spain, “AZ” for Arizona, etc. There was no regard for boundaries in deciding which varieties to use in his blends. However quixotic, the wines were tasty — and reasonably priced at $20 a bottle. It was a formula that abandoned traditions that would be Phinney’s ticket to success.

The sales price was not disclosed.

Phinney already had a friendly business relationship with Gallo, having sold his Orin Swift wines to them just two years ago. Constellation now has the Prisoner brand.

Phinney was able to launch new labels without owning any vineyards or winemaking facilities. Think about that. He sells a label. Presumably, he stays aboard and makes the wine, but I suspect it is in name only.

Phinney’s latest wine is 8 Years in the Desert made under the Orin Swift label. It is a zinfandel blend that sells for $45 a bottle.

Wine drinkers are a happy lot

According to a study by TABS, 66 percent of adults in the U.S. consume beverage alcohol and among them 45 percent buy wine at least three times a year

The profile of those who enjoy wine is not surprising: 55 percent earn more than $125,000 and most popular are those aged 21-29 and 30-39, and probably hail from the Northeast.

Bonterra has its prestige

Bonterra has been recognized as a pioneer in organic farming, so much so that it has added "Organic" to to its name. One reason, it seems to me, is that it wants to distinguish its well-known organic wines from a relatively new series of prestigious cuvees. "Bonterra" is noticeably absent from the label.

Meant to emphasize the biodiversity in the vineyards, these wines have purity of fruit, richness, body and drinkability.

I loved 2013 The Butler ($50), a blend of 80 percent syrah, 8 percent mourvedre, 6 percent grenache and 6 percent zinfandel. Generous aromas and flavors with rich mouthfeel and length.

The other wines in this series includes the 2014 The McNab ($50), a blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot and old vine petit sirah, and the 2015 The Roost, a Burgundian-style chardonnay. 

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Gaja scores again with a blend

I remember meeting Angelo Gaja in Washington, D.C., more than 20 years ago. At the time he was just starting to gain notoriety for blending grape varieties and introducing Piedmont to controversial winemaking techniques. He declassified his wines and risked it all.

He was widely criticized by fellow winemakers, but eventually won out. He reduced the use of oak and added malolactic fermentation. His wines today sell for a lot of money -- his famous barbarescos can cost more than $300.

Although 78 years old today, he insists he hasn't retired even though his two daughters are operating the family business.

I was delighted to recently find Gaja Sito Moresco Langhe ($50), a red blend that includes nebbolio, merlot and cabernet sauvignon. Unlike his barolos and barbarescos, this blend is ore approachable -- a niche the family must have wanted to accommodate fans who don't want to wait decades for their Gaja wines to mature.

Sito Moresco is named after a family who farmed this 25-acre estate in Barbaresco before it was purchased by Gaja Winery.

This is a delicious wine that continues the family's tradition of blending Bordeaux grape varieties with indigenous grapes.

Phinney at it again

David Phinney, the wine genius that gave us The Prisoner, has launched a wine project in Roussillon. Called Department 66 -- the region is in France's department 66 -- the wines are very good. 

The Fragile rose is OK, but I thought "D66" -- a blend of grenache, carignan, syrah -- is outstanding. It is loaded with fine tannins to suggest aging ability and garrigue character.  Department 66's "Others" wine adds mourvedre to the blend and is equally delicious and ageworthy.

Phinney seems prone to impulse. He was in Italy when first struck with the wine bug. He was standing at an airport when he created his "Legacy" series after being inspired by  a bumper decal. He fell in love with the natural beauty of the Roussillon region that he launched Department 66 and made Maury a second home.

I'm not complaining. D66 sells for $38 a bottle; Others goes for $25.  Fair prices for what you get.

Feeling blue? Here's a wine for you

Those damn French are at it again. A blue wine is selling like quiche in southern France. Sacre bleu!

"Vindigo," a chardonnay made in Spain, is selling out at hotels in the French town of Sete. It is marketed by Rene Le Bail just in time for the vacation season along the Cote d'Azur. He likens the wine to the blue waters of the French Riviera and insists he will limit distribution to small on-premise locations.

The first 2,000-bottle order was sold in days. He's ordered 35,000 more bottles.

The turquoise color comes from a naturally occurring pigment, called anthocanin that's derived from filtering the white wine through grape skins. Frankly, it must look more like Windex.

Debunking those wine rules

I was reading a recipe the other day that called for a Far Niente chardonnay and I imagined chefs scurrying around town in a fruitless search for the wine.  How silly. There is more than one chardonnay that would do well with a recipe.

And that got me to thinking of rules. Guidelines in the wine world are appreciated, but rules are not because they are so absolute. Take, for example, white wine with fish and red wine with meat. Good guideline, but I can come up with many exceptions. Tuna and salmon do better with red wines.

And then there is the rule that cheap wines on restaurant wine lists are terrible. I had a Boutari wine from Greece the other night for $34 and it was great, despite being the cheapest white wine on the list. With markups as high as 400 percent, you can't afford to order the most expensive wine.

What about the rule of serving white wine in narrow, tapered glasses? I've recently discovered that a full-body chardonnay tastes better when poured in a wide mouth glass generally reserved for red wines. A complex chardonnay needs to breathe before you pick up its subtleties.

I can go on and on about rules.. But I won't.

Old mourvedre shows the power of the grape

I'm a sucker for deals on old wines. They are often discounted because a store is eager to unload them. However, they come with risk. If they were in excellent condition, they wouldn't be discounted, right?

While touring Domaine Tempier in Bandol, I noticed a half-dozen wines from La Laidiere, a neighboring property Domaine Tempier had recently acquired. Red blends (mourvedre, grenache and cinsault) dating back to the 1991 vintage were selling for under 30 euros apiece.  I'm sure Tempier got them with the deal and was eager to sell them because they were someone else's wine.

Veronique Peyraud, one of the sisters running Domaine Tempier, recommended to me the 1993 because it had the highest concentration of mourvedre -- 80 percent. For about $30, how could I resist?

It was a fabulous wine -- the fruit was a little tired, but the structure was holding up. It showed the longevity of wines made mostly from mourvedre.

Veronique was right to point me to a mourvedre-dominated wine. I enjoyed Domaine Tempier's 2014 red blend -- about 60 percent mourvedre -- the following night. It was a beautiful, tannic monster with dense, complex dark berry fruit. Clearly, it could age 20 years.

Mourvedre, called monastrell in neighboring Spain, is a foundation grape to blends made in southern France. Although it often has off-putting aromas, mourvedre provides the hammer to a blend. Grenache and cinsault soften the wine and their floral elements offset the rotten egg notes that often accompany mourvedre.

Tempier's mourvedre now has me in search of similar wines from the Bandol area.

Domaine Tempier's exquiste wines

While on a cruise of the Med, my wife and I had the pleasure of stopping by Domaine Tempier while our ship was moored off Bandol, France. Bandol is arguably the epi-center of the world’s best rose. It is here where rose is often the primary wine made for vacationing Europeans who love to sit in their sidewalk cafes in August.

I have long admired Tempier’s roses – not cheap but more complex and drier than cheap copycats from the U.S. and Spain that are mere after-thoughts in large portfolios. Tempier didn’t disappoint me during my brief visit with Veronique Peyraud, one of several children involved in the operation owned by their parents since 1936. The property was in the family before then, but winemaking was interrupted by phylloxera in the 1940s. Still, some gnarled vines managed to survive and are more than 100 years old.

As good as the roses are, I was more surprised by the Domaine Tempier white blend of clairette, ugni blanc, bourboulenc and marsanne. You get the feeling this exquisite, dry wine will age gracefully for decades.

The estate’s flagship may be its Cuvee Classique, a red blend of mourvedre (75 percent), grenache, cinsault and carignan. It is incredibly dense and complex with dark fruit flavors and a rustic style with gritty tannins.

Domaine Tempier’s success is due largely to its southern facing vineyards, its soil and maritime winds, but also its particular winemaking standards. It does not fine or filter its wines. It is made from organically grown grapes and natural yeasts are used for fermentation. Its red wines are aged in large oak casks.

Local food, local wine

I never miss an opportunity to taste a local wine. Here in Italy, where my wife and I are on a long cruise, there are local wines galore. Historically, wines were consumed locally as well as being grown locally. That they complemented local food dishes is not a coincidence.  Albarino on Spain's north coast match the local seafood while Burgundy's elegant pinot noirs marry well with Dijon's rabbit stews or rich cassoulets. Generations have enjoyed Alsace's pinot blancs and rieslings with the region's famous daubes. Go there and you'll see why.

While I was in Italy's Porto Venere, just outside Cinque Terra, I found a wine and purchased one of the region's famous blends of vermentino, bosco and arbolla.  Acidic, fresh and pure it was delightful. This region doesn't even try to make red wines -- unlike Alsace that uselessly struggles with its pedestrian pinot noir. 

Finding wines asea

I'm on a cruise of the Med, so unable to post too often. However, last night I was able to share a brief moment with the ship's wine steward who chooses the wines. The task is quite different than what beverage managers experience on land. 

A port manager holds most of the cards, it seems. He or she tells each ship's wine manager what's available. I suspect much of it is surplus wine. The other day our wine steward was pleased to get a couple of hundred bottles of a Provence rose while docked in Marseilles. It was OK, but that's about it. I have found that wine aboard ships -- the plonk that is served poolside as well as at dinner -- is acceptable at best. This is Seabourn, too, an upscale ship. They were pouring Nicolas Feuillatte, however, so that's pretty decent champagne.

The port authority apparently acts like a distributor to incoming ships. Our wine steward says he can order directly from the producer too. I was told they go through more than 1,300 bottles a week, which doesn't seem that great for a ship of 600 passengers.

I decided to order a wine package which for $450 gets me access to 6 wines from a pretty damn good list. The list includes a Fevre chablis, Chapoutier white chatauneuf du pape and a Condrieu, Hauts Bailley bordeaux, Silver Oak, Banfi brunello di montalcino, Masi amarone, North Star merlot, and a few more gems that average about $70 a bottle. For a restaurant, those are good averages for premium wines.

Premium wines selling better, but not in restaurants

A recent report from the Silicon Valley Bank -- strangely the best guide to wine sales -- shows that consumers are spending more on their wine. 

The bank reported that "premium" wine sales are increasing while those for cheaper wine under $10 is decreasing. These cheaper wines are often composed of bulk wines, box wines, etc.  Wines that cost more aren't necessarily "premium" in my book, but nonetheless wines in the $15-20 and $20-plus have shown sales increases.

More interesting to me in the study was the change in restaurant wines. Consumers are spending less in restaurants, partly because of a shift to more casual restaurants where wine plays a smaller role.  Also, chain restaurants sell mass-produced wines because they can depend on supply. An increasing number of smaller wineries are ignoring the three-tier system and selling their wines directly to consumers.

More so, consumers at all ages are frowning at restaurant mark-ups. It's about time to rebel. Younger drinkers, theorizes Silicon Valley Bank's study, know they can pay less for wine in a store and are having only a glass of wine or beer in restaurants. Seniors on fixed income are opting for a glass of wine while dining out and millennials are favoring at-home meals.

I'm a senior citizen now, but until recently my wife and I have enjoyed sharing a bottle of wine while dining out. We recently switched to a glass of wine, which we know has a higher mark-up than a bottle. The bottled wines we like are often the most expensive and I know the mark-up from experience. A restaurant bill with wine can regularly top $200 and occasionally $300. I can't sustained a dining bill this high twice a week.

We like to dine at home, which is the trend nowadays. I have a good cellar of aged wines to tap into. But even those seniors who don't have a cellar, it's still significantly cheaper to buy steak and wine and serve them at home. Restaurants are hurting themselves with these high mark-ups.

And this brings me back to my annoyances: restaurants should be less focused on mass producers of common wines marked up 300-400 percent. Instead, they should find the small producers who will appeal to the curious consumer and whose prices are more moderate. They are out there -- I taste these wines every week. 

Sure, these producers may not be able to replenish inventory but why not have a list of daily specials? When they run out, list something else. I've seen this done in restaurants with great success. Those restaurant owners who aren't lazy and who are willing to spend some time on their wine lists will reap the rewards.

Game of Wine

I don't know what's more addictive: wine or Game of Thrones. But, now you can have both.

Vintage Wine Estates has more wine choices of Games of Throne wine, created in cooperation with the award-winning HBO drama. Wine is featured in many scenes.

The wines includes chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon, red blend and the new pinot noir. The corks are imprinted with either the House Tyrell or House Martell sigil.

These wines are available at www.gamesofthroneswines.com

Is the wholesaler in jeopardy?

More and more people are getting their wines directly from producers and that's a trend that should concern wholesalers and retailers who are losing their cuts. 

According to Gomberg, Fredrikson Associates, a wine industry data collection firm, direct-to-consumer sales accounted for 10 percent of the wine retail market in 2017. Volume increased 158 percent over the previous year.  The trend is obvious.

Most of the DtC business is from wineries with limited production and who have a hard time getting attention from distributors who don't want to mess with them. According to Forbes, 80 percent of total domestic wineries produce no more than 5,000 annual cases each.

I was recently talking to Ryan Harris, president of Domaine Serene in the Williamette Valley, about this issue. He said 80 percent of Domaine Serene's revenue is from direct-to-consumer sales and that represents about 50 percent of their volume. Those numbers stunned me because I don't consider Domaine Serene to be small.

It is the same conclusion I've heard from other producers who focus on expensive, high-end wines. Wholesalers focus on large producers -- Constellation, Treasury Wine Estates, Gallo and Kendall-Jackson, for instance -- who can keep the pipeline filled. Expensive wines with small productions can't get the attention of wholesalers focused primarily on quantity and numbers.

Harris' two numbers show the attraction of stronger marketing in DtC sales: you can make more money if you eliminate the middlemen.

Domaine Serene has a strong wine club. West Coast producers have amped up their wine clubs and hospitality centers that attract tourists to their facilities. That, coupled with more liberal laws regarding the shipment of alcoholic beverages, and you have a movement. However, it's not necessary positive for consumers.

DtC sales mean consumers have greater access to hard-to-find wines sold exclusively at wineries. However, they don't come cheap. I recently ordered some Lorenza rose from the winery, thinking it was hard to find in my local market. Later, I discovered Total Wine was selling it for $3 less a bottle and there was no shipping charges.

Location, location, Locations

David Phinney, the genius behind The Prisoner, continues with his new Locations' series of wines. 

A couple of years ago, Phinney had the idea that he could do so much more with his wine if there weren't any boundaries to the vineyards. In other words, why not blend a Rhone grenache with a Languedoc grenache and call it "F" for France?  Thus was born Locations, a portfolio of wines that now include Spain, Italy, Texas, Washington, New York and more. The labels for each of them mimic a bumper sticker: a single letter in an oval circle.

The recent releases I tasted are enjoyable, although without characteristics that would help locate them. In other words, their generic flavors didn't tell me they were French or Californian. However, Phinney seems to take care in selecting complementing grape varieties. "E5" (Spain) is a common blend of garnacha, tempranillo, monastrell and carinena. "NZ" (New Zealand) is entirely sauvignon blanc (what else is there to blend in New Zealand?).  "W" is a combination of syrah, merlot and petit sirah grapes. "E5" was my favorite.

The best news is that these tasty wines are sold for $20. 

Mount Etna erupting with unique wine

I can't imagine owning vineyards on the slopes of Mount Etna, Sicily's still active volcano. First, I'd be looking over my shoulder a lot. Second, the volcanic rock from molten lava would seem inpenetrable.

But it hasn't been inpenetrable for centuries. In fact, some of the vines in the Etna region are more than 100 years old. Growers simply break up the rock and let the vines reach through the heavy nutrients in the fertile soil in their search for water.

Etna, a DOC since 1968, is a trendy growing region today as Italian winemakers have been buying up property in the last several decades. Expect to hear more about wines from the Etna region.

Giovanni Valenti

One producer new to the region is Giovanni Valenti, a well-established businessman who launched a second career in wine. Valenti grew up in Catania, Sicily and always dreamed of making wine with his father on his home island. They bought a nearly abandoned vineyard in 2009 and a dilapidated distillery to make the wine. Since then they have bought several more vineyards to amass a collection of nearly 100 acres.

I met with Valenti recently to taste his wines.  The grape varieties are hardly well known: the top red variety is nerello mascalese and the top white grape is carricante. Catine Valenti wines are named after writers, operas and other products of Italian fine art history.

The red 2013 Poesia ($50) was medium body and is compared to something between a nebbiolo and a pinot noir from Burgundy. It was light colored and had the texture of a slightly aged Marsanay, Valenti said they aged very well. 

I wasn't as impressed with the red wines as I was with the 2017 Enrico IV ($28) made from carricante grapes. It had intense aromas and a rich texture that reminded me of a premier cru burgundy. I bought several bottles. 

What I love about the wines from the Etna region is that they are unique. And, when you're tasting chardonnay or sauvignon blanc most of your life, unique is good.