Anderson Valley Fire Update

The sun wasn't orange today at 7 am, which was the first sign I had that things may be improving on the weather/fire front in Mendocino County and the Anderson Valley. When I took my walk, the sky was blue and the purple marine layer was sitting out on the horizon.

Yesterday I talked to people from several Anderson Valley wineries, including Londer and Handley. They said that so far everybody is ok in and around their immediate area. The tasting rooms are open, and though the air is likely to be smokey through Thursday the situation in the Anderson Valley is improving. Boonville, at the southeastern edge of the valley close to Highway 101 is a bit congested with firetrucks and there was a road closure last night related to fighting the Mountain View Road fire, but that situation has eased as of noon today.

At present the Mendocino fires are 38% contained, and the number of fires burning currently is down to 123. A red flag warning for the county, which was posted for fear there would be more dry lightning strikes, was recently lifted. The 100% containment of the large Walker fire in Lake County has freed up firefighters for Mendocino County. That extra manpower, combined with the colder temperatures and higher humidity, is making the difference.

If you are traveling to any vineyards in the area over the next few days, it's best to call ahead and make sure that all is ok before heading out. Fingers crossed that the situation will continue to improve over the next few days. Thanks to everybody for their messages, and their good wishes.

Cannonau: Proving "Rustic Wine" Isn't a Bad Thing

I'm wrapping up my month of Sardinian wines today with a wine that exemplifies the wine description "rustic."

What is a rustic wine? It's a topic of debate, and some people use it as a put-down to describe wines they find simple, unsophisticated, and lacking in the fruitiness that might make a wine "quaffable" (that's a subject for another day). Like my esteemed colleague Tyler Colman of Dr. Vino, however, I think it's a good thing. In a post made way back in February 2007, he entered into a spirited discussion with some readers about the definition of a rustic wine. Dr. Vino described rustic wines as "off-the-beaten-path varieties or regions that maybe have some quirks or rough edges but also have a certain undeniable charm, particularly in the face of a pasteurized, homogenized wine in an “international” style."

This definition certainly fits the Sardinian red wine that I tried. I was made from Cannonau grapes--which is what Grenache is called on the island of Sardinia. Turns out there is a bit of controversy these days about the origins of Cannonau. We used to say the Spanish brought it to Sardinia, but now experts wonder if it isn't indigenous to Sardinia ,and the Spanish took it back with them after they invaded the island in the 13th century. Whatever you call it, Cannonau from Sardinia has retained the idiosyncratic rusticity that can make you feel that you are drinking wine from a different age. Craig Camp had a Cannonau a few weeks ago, and likened it to an old-fashioned Chateauneuf du Pape from the Rhone.

The 2003 Santa Maria La Palma Le Bombarde was one of those wines that reminded you that rusticity is something that you happen upon all too infrequently these days when drinking wine. ($18, Bion Divino) Upon first sip, it smalled and tasted like iron--overwhelmingly so--with some gamey notes that made me think I had made a serious mistake with this wine. I left it alone in the glass for 15 or so, then sipped it and the iron tang had gone, replaced by flavors of meat and leather. Another 15 minutes and the meat and leather had melded with a strong, cherry liqueur flavor. In the end it was very much like an older Chateauneuf du Pape, with all the rusticity and funkiness left in and none of its opulence of plushness. This wine had great varietal typicity, but it may not appeal to New World Grenache fans. Good QPR for a wine that has oodles of character, but may cost more than you want to spend on a wine with lots of rough edges.

Like most rustic wines, the Cannonau was much better with food than without. Our favorite pairing was with a BLT and some sweet potato fries. The sandwiches were made on some toasted sourdough made by our friends at the Twofish Baking Company, and the sourdough tang was perfect with the any remaining iron notes. The smokey bacon was terrific with the meat and leather tastes, and the tomato and the cherry flavors sparked off each other without clashing.

Listening to Lynne Rossetto Kasper's The Splendid Table podcast for June 21, I discovered a new reason to love this rustic wine: Dan Buettner discovered that is has 3 times the antioxidants of any other grape on earth. It's one reason why Sardinians (who love their Cannonau) are one of the five groups highlighted in his book Blue Zones, which studied communities with exceptionally long-lived members to learn about life habits that could contribute to health and wellness.

Sardinian Cannonau will be one of the reds that stands out from my Italian regional tour. Like one of the centenarian Sardinian sheep-herders interviewed in Dan Buettner's book, it proves that rusticity is not such a bad thing, after all.

The Wine Lover's Break Room--for Techies Only

Ever wonder where wine bloggers go when they aren't blogging? Many of them work for a living (!), but since they are creatures who live partially online, they often take their coffee breaks in a virtual break room on Twitter, the micro-blogging platform that lets you chat to friends in 140 characters or less. (image from animationrollercoaster)

Increasingly, however, Twitter has been a problem. You show up in the break room and you can't get on because the servers are overloaded, you can't check messages because the servers are overloaded, you can't snoop on old conversations because the servers are overloaded. You get the picture.

Frustrated with the slowdowns, stoppages, and inflexibility of Twitter, Catavino (with some help from Twisted Oak's El Jefe) started an exodus to another micro-blogging platform called Pownce. This service lets you upload videos, texts, pictures, and messages. Problem is, fewer people are on Pownce, and even though it works consistently, it's slower.

I was bored and fidgety yesterday, and found two tools for micro-bloggers that you may want to check out if you are into this world of techie procrastination. The first is Summize. This site pops up with a simple search window, and you can enter the username of any of your friends, or your own username, to take a look at past conversations and posts on Twitter. You can even create a feed in your reader for a particular search term like "@YOURUSERNAME" which will update your feed whenever someone replies to you on Twitter.

The second is HelloTxt. This is a micro-blogging platform that enables you to post an update once to multiple services (such as Twitter, Pownce, and Facebook, among many others). You can also monitor your friends' updates to Twitter and Facebook. They are working on Pownce but it isn't fully functional yet so you will still have to go over to Pownce and follow conversations and replies if you are active there.

If you spend inordinate amounts of your time online like we do, and feel like hanging out in the "break room" with a lot of wine bloggers, head over to twitter, Pownce, or wherever you like to hang out online and search for us. We're easy to find! Just search on our blog name, our blogging handle (like drdebs), or even an email. Send a friend request, and you'll be in for a wild ride (especially on Fridays when we all seem to go collectively and individually bonkers). Wine recommendations, recipe tips, baby updates, networking, ideas for collaboration, whining, weather updates--everything that happens in your break room at work happens in these virtual rooms, too. You can even complain about your real job, if you feel like it.

Vendredi du Vin #15: champagne (mais pas de Champagne)

Bonjour et bienvenue. Aujourd'hui, je suis en train d'écrire très mauvais français pour participer à Vendredis du Vin #15, la réponse française à Wine Blogging Wednesday.

Le thème du mois est Nul n’est champagne en son pays, et il nous a été demandé à déguster un vin mousseux hors de France. Pour moi, le choix est évident: Je voudrais boire un vin de Californie, en particulier de la proximité Anderson Valley.

J'ai bu une bouteille de NV Roederer Estate Brut, un vin que les Américains buveur décrivent souvent comme le plus «français» d'origine nationale vin mousseux. Le vin est pâle avec beaucoup de mousse et de petites bulles. Arômes de brioche et de citron. Saveurs de pommes, pain grillé, et de noix. Il s'agit en général un excellent vin pour le prix, le vin coûte environ 20 $.

Merci à Remy pour l'organisation de l'événement, de Nicolas Ritoux pour accueillir ce thème du mois, et à toutes les personnes parlant français partout dans le monde pour leur patience avec mes pauvres tentatives de communiquer en français.

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To all English-speaking GWU$20 readers: I made a feeble effort to participate today in Vendredis du Vin, the Francophone virtual tasting event organized by Remy Charest of the blog The Wine Case. The theme for the month was to drink a sparkling wine that wasn't from Champagne.

For my submission I drank a sparkler that is often described as the most "French" domestic NV sparkler: the NV Roederer Estate Brut. As always, this was an excellent wine for the price, and can be found in most markets for around $20. It was pale straw in color, with abundant frothy mousse and a fine bead or bubble. There were aromas of rich brioche and lemon, and flavors of apples, toast, and nuts. Excellent QPR.

Vendredis du Vin is a great event, and if you have even a smattering of bad French like me, you should give it a try and check out their website. You can get there by clicking on the logo at the top of the page.

See you soon--and I'll be writing in English again, I promise.

Warning: These Wines May Change Your Mind About Pinot Grigio

When Pinot Grigios are good they are very good--but when they are bad, they are horrible.

Overproduced Italian Pinot Grigio flooded into the US market some years back, and much of it was thin and tart. If you chilled it to near freezing and served it on a hot day in place of lemonade no one made much fuss, and soon people who didn't like Chardonnay could find Pinot Grigio on restaurant and bar menus and started ordering it by the glass. More overproduced Pinot Grigio came pouring in to meet the new demand. At cocktail parties, women were offered Pinot Grigio as soon as they entered the door, as if our genetic makeup demanded we receive a glass of the stuff a day or we'd shrivel up and die. Today, the poor grape has joined Merlot and Chardonnay as Varieties Most Likely to Be Dissed in polite wine society. Had Miles of Sideways been a woman, the most famous wine line in movie history may well have been "I am NOT drinking any f&#*ing Pinot Grigio!"

Pinot Grigio--or Pinot Gris as it is called in places outside Italy--is a grape that is capable of making a wide stylistic range of wines. In Alsace, the grape produces wines that have body, intense floral and honeyed notes, and citrus. In Italy, the grape makes wines that are light bodied and acidic, often with a touch of spritziness. Here in the US, Pinot Grigios/Pinot Gris range from the full and melony to the bright and citrusy. And I'm here to tell you that these wines can be excellent.

I've got a pair of very good QPR Pinot Grigios to recommend that should warm the heart and quench the thirst of even skeptical wine lovers who have avoided this grape for the past 10 years.

The first is the very good QPR 2007 Altanuta Pinot Grigio. I received this as a sample, but you should be able to find it near you for between $9 and $15. What I liked most about this wine was that it was well-made and wasn't trying to be something else. As a result, what you got was a tasty, straightforward Pinot Grigio at a very attractive price point. Light aromas of lemon, flowers, and stone accompanied the characteristically pale straw color of this Italian wine. The flavors were citrusy and smooth, with no bitterness or tartness. This was a great summer wine, with a refreshing, light body--and it tastes like an Italian Pinot Grigio should taste with a light, but not watery, freshness. It is a natural partner for shrimp or clams--we had it with linguine alla vongole and the clean citrus flavors were lovely with the briny clams and the sharp garlic, providing a contrast of flavors and textures.

The second is the 2006 Esca Pinot Grigio from the Russian River Valley ($17.99, WineQ). This was one intense wine, with aromas of lemon oil, lemon peel, and a mineral nuance that I simply couldn't place. One of my fellow bloggers, MonkuWino at One Wine Per Week, described this wine as "steely" and that corresponded to what I was smelling in my glass. The flavors are fresh and zesty, full of lemons that turned slightly bitter on the finish. I enjoyed this very good QPR wine immensely, in large part because of those in-your-face lemon oil aromas, and it is one of the better domestic Pinot Grigios I've had. We had it with a pasta dish that was sauced with chicken, spinach, mushrooms, a bit of cream, and orange zest and this really brought out the intense, concentrated aromas and flavors of the wine.

Whether you prefer your Pinot Grigios light and refreshing or steely and intense, there are good choices out there in the market that don't cost a fortune and are a far cry from the anemic wines being poured by the glass in some restaurants. Give one a try and remind yourself that Pinot Grigio--like Merlot--isn't all bad.