Sort This Out Cellars

• November 2009

  The supposed TJefferson wine and the Koch/Rodenstock lawsuit are famous examples, and it was interesting to hear from David Molyneaux-Berry what his role was in the expose aimed at his commercial competitor (Michael Broadbent), as well as that his current consulting business is... Read moreThe supposed TJefferson wine and the Koch/Rodenstock lawsuit are famous examples, and it was interesting to hear from David Molyneaux-Berry what his role was in the expose aimed at his commercial competitor (Michael Broadbent), as well as that his current consulting business is finding approx. 5% fakes in many famous, large collections of aged, valuable bottles he has inspected. However I'd hazzard a guess that the massively greatest proportion of counterfeits out there are issuing from China ('strange' that Molyneaux-Berry said that Rodenstock is now based in Hong Kong, eh?), and mostly circulating there and in other parts of Asia. The culture/society/government there is so accepting and supportive of clones and ripoffs, regardless of any official political positioning. I was just watching the Vietnam Auto Show, since I still keep in touch with past clients in that industry, and *every* one of the Chinese models I saw looked *exactly* like a MiniCooper, Benz, Nissan or Mazda. We all know about street-level knockoffs of music CDs, DVDs, watches, bags and the like, but every single TV and movie production from Hollywood, the UK and elsewhere is online download/streamable out of China within days (in an Internet industry very closely controlled by Beijing), and unauthorized acquisition of electronic goods, automotive, seagoing, aeronautic, and other technologies, with or without military applications, has been an ongoing priority there for years. So why expect anything different regarding the wine industry, whether wine coolers or the wines themselves? There's quite a lot of cash circulating in that bubbled economy now, with not enough places for it to go, so entrepreneurs of all sorts will quickly look for ways to snag it. And since there are no checks and balances regarding intellectual and related property, of the sort that other industrialized nations have put in place over the past century or two, counterfeiting and various other gray area or just-plain-black scams can only increase.    (hide)

  Forum post in the topic Counterfeit Luxury Wines by dmcker

  
  

• November 2009

  How's it goin', eh? I'm a wannabe wine snob from Toronto, Ontario. I spend a couple-three months a year climbing walls in Yosemite, California, and try my best to get in some time visiting the wineries in Napa Valley. Last winter, I scored a week of timeshare off of mom [gotta... Read moreHow's it goin', eh? I'm a wannabe wine snob from Toronto, Ontario. I spend a couple-three months a year climbing walls in Yosemite, California, and try my best to get in some time visiting the wineries in Napa Valley. Last winter, I scored a week of timeshare off of mom [gotta love it, eh?] and spent a week in South Lake Tahoe skiing at Heavenly. They had a wine bar at the base of the gondola, so you know I ended up there a few times. When it became evident to the wine steward that I knew my stuff, he suggested I try drinking my wine out of an "Eisch breathable glass". Reidel is, of course, the industry leader in stemware, but Eisch is up there, too. I'm like, "Dude. A glass is a glass. Just pour the wine." And he's like, "Seriously. Try this. I'm going to pour the wine into a regular Reidel on one side, and an Eisch glass on the other. Taste the difference." So, three people from novice to advanced wine tasting, three varietals, nine blind tastings. And get this - nine fer nine, the wine tasted better out of the Eisch glass each and every time! Unbelievable! You can't reject the empirical evidence - the taste was absolutely better from the Eisch glass every time. Without doubt. Amazing. Now being the consummate skeptic, and a graduate chemical engineer, of course I had to ask "how". But the Eisch people have kept their formula a secret. The designers first approached Reidel, who rejected them - bad move. So I went back home and googled this stuff. Found a few entries, the first of which usually began with "what a load of crap," but these entries were inevitably followed by, "no, check it out - the glasses really DO work!" Now my theory, as a chemical engineer, was that there is some sort of catalytic reaction going on with the wine in the Eisch glass. A catalyst is something that affects a chemical reaction, but doesn't take part in it. Think about your platinum catalytic converter in your car - what happens is that the atoms separate and "stick" to the platinum, which enhances the combustion reaction. I wondered if this might be what was going on with the Eisch glasses. So I googled "Eisch" and "catalysis" and got a hit on this chemistry prof from a university in New York State by the name of Eisch. Too funny, eh? So I wrote him, turns out he's second cousins with the Eisch guys in Germany. Basically he told me that they wouldn't tell him how it works, but that he reckoned there was some catalytic reaction going on in the glass, that basically caused two things to happen - firstly, the wine was able to breath more quickly, and secondly, it might enhance the settling of the sediments. I'm not sure WHAT is happening, just that it IS happening. I've since done the comparison of the same wine poured into a regular glass, and an Eisch glass, and served it to friends. It's great fun to see their faces light up. We've found the most pronounced difference is in wines that "need a little help". You don't seem to notice so profound a difference with more expensive wines. I'm a cheapskate. I don't believe you have to spend more than ten bucks to get a great bottle of wine, and occasionally I will even spend 15. The "7 Deadly Zins" I am currently drinking is one such wine, in spite of its "appelation Lodi". [Sheesh, can you believe Lodi produces a great zin?] But I forked out the $30+ bucks for the Eisch glass, because it works. Anyone else tried it? If knott, you really have to give it a go. You will be amazed. Cheers, Pete P.S. Here is your Big Wall Tip of the Day - check out Amador County, California barbera! They have the climate and the soil. I had never even heard of the varietal until I tried it. It's up and coming. Mark my words - in five years, you'll be hearing about this stuff.    (hide)

  Forum post in the topic Stemware - Eisch "breathable"... by passthepitonspete

  
  

• November 2009

  Thank you all so much for the suggestions. I will keep my eye out some of them. I think what I've disliked is so many of them this year had sort of a cherry Richola taste which is probably because they were under ripened. I really don't like that herb and fruit in a wine and I prefer... Read moreThank you all so much for the suggestions. I will keep my eye out some of them. I think what I've disliked is so many of them this year had sort of a cherry Richola taste which is probably because they were under ripened. I really don't like that herb and fruit in a wine and I prefer the CF to have those nice leather, cedar, vanilla, tobacco notes--that's what I love about it!    (hide)

  Forum post in the topic Cabernet Franc by WineGeekJen

  
  

• November 2009

  Fullbottle welcome. Somewhere or another there was a thread about the idea of Australians picking up "iconic" grapes for certain areas. I think it's pretty stupid frankly, but not because the people can actually produce everything well in every location. More because the cultural... Read moreFullbottle welcome. Somewhere or another there was a thread about the idea of Australians picking up "iconic" grapes for certain areas. I think it's pretty stupid frankly, but not because the people can actually produce everything well in every location. More because the cultural context under which those European regional identities were established no longer exists and never existed outside of Europe. Those are mostly legacies of feudal systems and not particularly necessary. Think about it - the US completely wiped out its wine industry in the early 1900s and basically started from scratch around the 1960s and 1970s. The Australians put together their 25 year plan in the 1970s and vastly exceeded their expectations. Both did it without artificially imposing Euro-style limitations on themselves. They let the market determine what worked. I'm certain that the Australians are going to come out of their current problems in fine shape. The idea of big, fruity, cheap shiraz has sort of run its course as the engine of growth for Australian wine as other places have come onto the wine scene - e.g. Argentina, Chile, South Africa, and even Spain. So the Australians will re-group and figure out something else. They'll figure out what works. But I sure don't hear any clamor for DOCG-type positioning. Frankly I think the Europeans would be better off if they abandoned those all across the continent and simply treated them as trademarks. Seems to work pretty well with luggage and watches. But start a thread on sparkling shiraz. I'll bet most people haven't had much.    (hide)

  Forum post in the topic Fullbottle by GregT

  
  

• November 2009

  Yoshi - Tempranillo is a grape. Rioja the region. Many producers in Europe identify wine by region instead of by the grape varieties that are in the wine. For example, some regions that start with B are: Bordeaux, Burgundy, Barolo, Bierzo, Beaujolais, Brunello, Barbaresco.... Read moreYoshi - Tempranillo is a grape. Rioja the region. Many producers in Europe identify wine by region instead of by the grape varieties that are in the wine. For example, some regions that start with B are: Bordeaux, Burgundy, Barolo, Bierzo, Beaujolais, Brunello, Barbaresco. Most of those regions also require that to be called by the specific name, the wine be made of certain specific grapes. Why? Because over the centuries, the people who controlled the politics of the area, usually a local nobleman, fixed it so that all the wine had to be made from whatever they grew and everything else was outlawed. Sometimes today you hear people try to justify the restrictions by claiming that the approved grapes were found to be best-suited to the area, but that's of course not true. It's sort of like telling apple producers in an area that they can only grow Golden Delicious apples, not Granny Smith. Maybe Granny Smith didn't even exist when they made the law, so how would they know the apple won't be good in the area? So you can simply say "Rioja", and people will assume that the blend will be mostly Tempranillo, because there is very little white wine produced there. Or you can say "Brunello" and they will assume that it's the local clone of Sangiovese. On the other hand, you would never think that your Rioja has any Sangiovese or that your Brunello has any Tempranillo because those wouldn't be allowed. In the case of Burgundy, you need to specify whether it's red or white. Outside of Europe we don't do that. We generally name the wine by the grapes that are used or by some fantasy name that the producer came up with. For example, he can call his wine "Opus One" or "Grange" and then you just have to find out for yourself what grapes are used. It really shouldn't matter all that much - what really matters is whether the wine is good. Good luck tasting your way thru thousands of wines.    (hide)

  Forum post in the topic "Hi My Name Is" / Favorite Red by GregT

  
  

• November 2009

  DM - yes the thumbs up/down is our start of collecting data so we can go back, analyze the results and refine the pairings going forward. Hadn't thought about allowing users to comment as to why a pairing didnt match - I was just going to dump the data on Greg's lap and assume he... Read moreDM - yes the thumbs up/down is our start of collecting data so we can go back, analyze the results and refine the pairings going forward. Hadn't thought about allowing users to comment as to why a pairing didnt match - I was just going to dump the data on Greg's lap and assume he could figure out the rationale behind each of them. the issue with user comments, is that if we end up with 10,000 it will take a long time to read through and sort them into categories    (hide)

  Forum post in the topic Epicurious.com Recipes... by Philip

  
  

• October 2009

  Ok, sort of tough. Starting with the Pinot makes sense. The Elizabeth Spenser cab is a rather restrained style and the odd man out among the remaining bottles so I would be tempted to slide it in next. I would follow that with the Clarenden Hills, then the Petite Sirah before... Read moreOk, sort of tough. Starting with the Pinot makes sense. The Elizabeth Spenser cab is a rather restrained style and the odd man out among the remaining bottles so I would be tempted to slide it in next. I would follow that with the Clarenden Hills, then the Petite Sirah before moving on to the Turleys. While I would prefer to move from Petite to Charbono, a lot of similarites, this would be the best spot for the Cabernet. The preceeding wines were really not much bigger and will highlight the complexities of this wine. The Charbono, Turleys best wine in my opinion, is going to be more restrained than the zin so serve that first but both are likely to have the highest alcohols of the night. With so many different wines it's a challenge with no correct answer but I basically put the wines in a progression of power, weight, and intensity of fruit. I'm sure you all will enjoy each bottle to it's fullest regardless of the order so have a blast and let us know how it goes!    (hide)

  Forum post in the topic Critique My Serving Sequence by Gregory Dal Piaz

  
  

• October 2009

  My first foray into this sort of discussion group, but my love of the Bucchanalian pleasures in life and the quality of this site have moved me. I am Australian (Sydney), and rate myself as an enthusiastic amateur in winetasting and experience - still learning and enjoying new... Read moreMy first foray into this sort of discussion group, but my love of the Bucchanalian pleasures in life and the quality of this site have moved me. I am Australian (Sydney), and rate myself as an enthusiastic amateur in winetasting and experience - still learning and enjoying new discoveries after 20+ years. My experience is mostly with Oz wine, with some Old World and limited US experience (enjoyed an eye opening US zinfandel tasting about a year ago). I convene a monthly winetasting group and am a member of another. I'm also actively involved in a Sydney-based wine and food society. Lots happening with the Oz wine industry at the moment and I hope that my wine loving international colleagues out there in Snooth can experience some of the unique wine styles we produce here (sparkling shiraz, muscats to die for and aged semillon from the Hunter Valley north of Sydney. I've said enough - more to come.    (hide)

  Forum post in the topic Fullbottle by fullbottle

  
  

• October 2009

  Haha... you are not getting touchy, are you Greg? I did not mean to upset anyone so my apologies... NYC...? thanks for the invite but i is a 'little too far' for me... I am originally from Mexico and I am going for holidays in April to visit my parents but the closest I will be is... Read moreHaha... you are not getting touchy, are you Greg? I did not mean to upset anyone so my apologies... NYC...? thanks for the invite but i is a 'little too far' for me... I am originally from Mexico and I am going for holidays in April to visit my parents but the closest I will be is Los Angeles or San Francisco... still too far mate... As for the Aussie Chicks... Mmmm... still too far for them! :-) You should come to Oz and I can take you around... no problem for where to stay... also, incidentally; I am sure the Hunter Wineries ( 2hrs from here) would like to have someone like you for Top Semillon tastings... I am sure I can sort something out... The ball is back on your side!    (hide)

  Forum post in the topic Price/Score Ratio Formula for... by MarioRobles

  
  

• October 2009

  Banking on Biodynamics:  An Interview with Mike Benziger   By Maggie Fox Wine Buyer, Gary’s Wine & Marketplace  While “green” has all but jumped the shark as a buzz-word, grape-growers and winemakers still have a long road ahead of them when it comes to environmental... Read moreBanking on Biodynamics:  An Interview with Mike Benziger   By Maggie Fox Wine Buyer, Gary’s Wine & Marketplace  While “green” has all but jumped the shark as a buzz-word, grape-growers and winemakers still have a long road ahead of them when it comes to environmental responsibility and holistic winemaking.  At least, that is, in the opinion of die-hards like Mike Benziger.  So is one type of certification the answer?  And what do we need to know about biodynamics as consumers?  I had a talk with Mike Benziger of Benziger Family Winery to sort it all out. Maggie:  Alright, we’ve got a lot of terms to wade through these days: organic, biodynamic, Napa Green, Salmon Safe…  In a nutshell, what kind of “responsible” practices do you use at Benziger? Mike:  First of all, I would say that the whole idea of being responsible in your farming practices, being responsible to the environment and to the people you work with is the big picture.  It’s a philosophy that runs through everything we do, not just the vineyard and the wine, but the energy we use, the products we buy, and the way we pay our employees. As farmers, we’re responsible for a lot of natural resources: watersheds, soil health, local plants and animals.  So we have a choice to either farm in a way that respects those or a way that exploits it.  What we’ve seen is that when you farm in a respectful way, it’s probably the best quality control that you could institute.  Everything you do for the environment around your vineyard has a direct effect on your product.  It’s when the soil biology is healthy that you add the best quality of the place to the wine. Maggie:  So how much is too much for you?  Is there a line you draw when it comes to biodynamic practices or are you all-in? Mike:  All of the properties we own or have long-term leases on are Demeter certified biodynamic.  When you’re Demeter certified, you’re required to be in the whole program.  You’re required to spray the biodynamic preparations and to improve every year.  We take it seriously.  To say you’re biodynamic and not be Demeter certified is illegal.  There are no choices.  You do what you need to do.  What’s really messing it up are the people that say, “I farm biodynamically but I don’t want to be certified.”  They only follow it while the weather is good.  But that’s not really practicing it.  We need to draw the line; it’s really confusing the consumer. Maggie:  I’m sure it’s a lot of work to make the switch.  Do you find that it increases your costs and the necessary amount of manual labor? Mike:  There’s probably a slight increase in labor, but there are other costs that decrease to offset that.  My farming costs are exactly the same as everyone else’s.  There’s definitely a necessary infrastructure in the beginning: a place to compost, places to keep animals, et cetera.  Those costs are upfront and sometimes significant, but they contribute to the overall biodiversity that regulates your system for you, so your costs go down over time.  Generally people say that organic and biodynamic farming costs 10-15% more, and if you figure in the infrastructure that’s probably a safe bet.  But over time, I really think it evens out.  Conventional farming borrows from the future to pay for today.  You take energy and resources from the future to use them now without any plan to pay them back.  With biodynamics, you put more in that bank than you take away every year. Maggie: Since you decided to make the switch to biodynamics, have you ever reverted to conventional farming? Mike:  We’ve been practicing biodynamic on our own property since 1995 and received our first certification in 2000.  We never went back, because natural, self-regulating systems work.   We severed relationships with several growers that couldn’t or wouldn’t make the moves toward sustainability and biodynamics, and we’re hoping to get more and more of them certified as we move forward. Maggie:  Has going the biodynamic route ever failed or frustrated you? Mike:  I think the only frustration we’ve had is that the media always wants to sensationalize biodynamics.  All they ever want to talk about is the cow horns.  They don’t want to talk about what it’s like to concentrate on biodiversity; they don’t want to talk about good bugs and bad bugs.  They just want to talk about whatever seems mysterious.  But the proof is in the uniqueness of the wines.  We’re not trying to be formulaic or consistent or perfect.  We’re trying to make a wine that’s true and authentic to one place and one time.  It has idiosyncrasies that give it personality and character.  Those are the things that make it more interesting. Maggie:  Do you think past production of organic wine, particularly in the 70’s/80’s, and the reputation it had then has affected people’s willingness to try it now? Mike:  I think organic wine production was more philosophy than methodology at that time, so they were committed to the concept without the quality.  The end product wasn’t the goal; it was all about the “journey” of being an organic producer.  The technology wasn’t really there to produce a super high-quality product.  But this is where biodynamics came in and made a change in methodology for producing high quality wine.  That is, of course, provided your definition of quality is being different.  That, combined with modern equipment and good winemaking, allows you to make good wine.  Now all we need is for the consumer to learn to judge and appreciate these products.  It’s kind of like learning to like good dirt-grown tomatoes over bland hothouse tomatoes again.  It’s happening. Maggie:  How do you feel about advertising your certifications on the label? Mike:  My philosophy is that people have to buy the wine because it’s good, but that we also establish customer loyalty through our beliefs and philosophy in growing it.  Their support of our product will help create a better environment.  I can’t guarantee they won’t get a hangover from drinking our wine, but I can guarantee the environment won’t get a hangover from our making it. Maggie:  So what do you say to those who think this is just a passing trend? Mike:  I think (biodynamic wine) is a category that’s going to grow, and those who are taking the time to look into it are really benefitting.  Right now these products may cost a little more money, but I think people will see they’re getting more for their money.  The cost involved is way outweighed by both the quality and the healing abilities these practices have for the environment.  So I’m in on it for good.    (hide)

  From the article Banking on Biodynamics: An Interview with Mike Benziger

  
  

• Dec 22, 2008

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