Color Me Syrah

I don't know what it is about Syrah, but when I drink it I see colors.

Syrah blends from France and Shiraz from Australia make me see red. Cool-climate Syrahs make me see blue. And sometimes, I find a Syrah that makes me want to put on the Rolling Stones' Paint It Black.

The 2005 Kendric Syrah falls into the final category. I received this bottle as a sample from WineQ, but you can put it in your own Q and enjoy it for just $17.99. At this price, the wine certainly qualifies as an excellent QPR option if you like your Syrahs bold and showy, but moody and complex as well. Sound like any musicians you know?

The wine was true garnet in color, like my grandmother's garnet ring, and it turned a bit purplish towards the rims. (My grandmother was a flapper--she would have loved the Stones). When I pulled the cork and poured the first glass, I was bowled over by spicy aromas and a bit of plum and cherry fruit. As the wine opened up you could also smell black tar. The flavors reminded me of macerated plums that had been sitting on a warm countertop all day, and there were also spicy flavors of allspice, clove, and nutmeg. The spices turned more herbal and lively as the wine rolled over your tongue, and I thought I tasted sage and eucalyptus. The long, silky aftertaste picks up a stony note and wraps around and picks up the tarry smell that you get on first sniff. The overall impression of this wine is black rather than blue or red, and its richness and acidity are in perfect balance. We had it with a delicious vegetable chili and garlic rice, and the wine neither overwhelmed nor was overwhelmed by the strong flavors of the dish. Instead the sweet fruit and the spices matched the tomatoes, vegetables, and chili flavors note by note.

One thing to know about this wine: it's sold without a foil capsule, so don't be alarmed when your wine shows up with a visible cork. Once upon a time they bottled wine with a lead capsule to protect the cork from rats and insects. This is happily not necessary today, and Kendric owner and winemaker Stewart Johnson writes on his webpage: PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT ALL MY 2005 WINES, AND ALL FUTURE VINTAGES, ARE BOTTLED WITHOUT A FOIL CAPSULE WHICH I REGARD AS POINTLESS, WASTEFUL AND ANNOYING. Since I wrote about sustainability yesterday, I will point out that your decision to drink Kendric Syrah not only makes sound fiscal sense, it will also save one foil capsule from ending up in the trash, or using up precious energy being recycled.

Leave your foil-cutter in the drawer, put on Mick and the boys, and order yourself some Kendric Syrah. The winery is sold out, but as far as I know WineQ still has some in stock.

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A Glimpse Into the Future of Wine at Taste3

Wondering what the future of wine might look like?

I recently applied for and received a fellowship to attend Taste3, the annual meeting at Copia sponsored by Robert Mondavi Winery that celebrates food, wine, and the arts. This year's conference was bittersweet for many in attendance, since it was the first conference to take place after the passing of Robert Mondavi just a few months ago. I listened to presentations by people who are shaping the future of wine right now, and wanted to share my reaction to their presentations while they were still fresh in my mind. I'm sure I'll be returning to many of these topics in greater depth in upcoming months. (photo of Barry Schuler and audience members after his presentation in the Copia Auditorium at Taste3)

I've categorized the wine message of Taste3 into four themes: tradition, sustainability, science, and activism. Not surprisingly, these were also the take-home points for the food and art portions of the program as well.

Tradition: There is a real interest in preserving traditional ways of growing and producing food and wine, which is not surprising. It's also something I applaud wholeheartedly -- I am a historian, after all, and I hate it when the past is forgotten. I am profoundly grateful for people like Serge Hochar of Château Musar (pictured to the right) who play a key role in preserving and maintaining wine traditions that might otherwise, through neglect and ignorance, fall by the wayside and be forgotten. Drinking old vintages of Château Musar from 1970 and 1975, and listening to Mr. Hochar talking about emptying a bottle of wine while bombs fell all around his house in Lebanon just a few years ago brings home the lengths to which people will sometimes go to preserve what they value and love. Hochar views his wine as a miracle, and the direct descendant of Biblical miracles, which is why he was not at all surprised the next morning when he went out of his house and saw that it was one of the few that wasn't damaged by the fighting--the wine had miraculously saved him.

Science: What is surprising to me is that wine traditions are so often seen as antithetical to science. This viewpoint is framed by a false nostalgia for a viticultural past that never was. Winemakers, grape growers, and merchants have always been profoundly interested in "science" (or what constituted it at the time). By setting up a "winner takes all" situation where we must choose between science and tradition, I wonder if we are dooming ourselves to even more trouble.To really move forward we are going to have to sort out the vexed relationship between tradition and science--not just when it comes to wine, but food as well. I found myself with a strange case of intellectual whiplash after being both attracted and repulsed by Barry Schuler's discussion of wine and genomics. (image from PinotBlog.com) Schuler was one of the people who told us that the internet would change our lives and he was right. Now he's telling us that mapping Pinot Noir's genome is going to change our lives, too. He's got a good track record in the predictions department, but I wonder if these changes will be for the better. He likened the mapping of the genome to the monolith moment in 2001: A Space Odyssey, and suggested that mastering the blueprints of living organisms was the next step in humanoid evolution. Schuler argued that no one wanted to produce what he called "Frankenoir," but that we can and will be able to improve vinifera stock, make them more disease resistant, design varieties for higher yields, expand their climate windows, and modify them to produce better flavors and aromas. Hmm. If that's not Frankenoir, I'd like to know what would qualify. His most provocative statement came near the end, when he stated his belief that mapping grape genomes will enable us to scientifically isolate and characterize "terroir" which he feels is lying there in grape gene adaptations, just waiting to be sequenced.

Sustainability: Barry Schuler introduced the issue of climate change and grape growing in his talk about the Pinot Noir genome, and that conversation continued in presentations by UC Davis professor Roger Boulton and Southern Oregon University professor Greg Jones. In a nutshell, climate change foregrounds the problem of sustainability in grape growing and wine making. Growing grapes and making wine, as Jones reminded the audience, are intimately connected to climate and are influenced by climate variability. As this map made with Jones's data shows, with temperatures continuing to rise throughout the world, grapes such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Sangiovese, and Zinfandel will continue to be grown because they like warmer temperatures. (map from newscientist.com) Riesling and Cabernet Franc (both of which have thrive in a wide variety of climate ranges) may grow in popularity as once beloved grapes fall out of cultivation (this was my conclusion, not his). But wineries are going to have to think about how to sustain their production at a time when climate and water are raising difficult issues. Boulton's presentation on sustainable wineries pointed out the huge amounts of water wineries use in tasks you and I aren't even thinking about like washing equipment. He also highlighted the enormous carbon footprint left by making glass wine bottles. When we think "sustainable" we may think using organic growing methods but we had better start factoring glass and water into the equation as well. The time for packaging alternatives, systematic water reclamation, and the use of alternative energy sources in wine production is NOW.

Activism: Which brings us to you, and me, and the choices we make (or refuse to make) when choosing wine to put on our tables. After seeing artist Chris Jordan's provocative and inspiring work that puts our single, individual decision to take a paper bag at the grocery store or a plastic cup on an airplane and multiplies into a more global perspective, I came to the realization that none of us has to do a giant thing to make a difference. When it comes to preserving tradition, or figuring out where we stand on science, or promoting sustainability, all we have to do is a small thing. We just have to do it consistently. Some of us will find that our one little decision will go on to change hundreds of lives. This is what Bruce Gutlove discovered when he left Napa to consult for a few days at the Coco Farm and Winery in Japan, which was started in the late 1960s to give mentally challenged youth and adults a chance to work on a collaborative project and lead productive lives at a time when their only alternative was a state-run institution with bars on the window. Gutlove departed from Napa in 1989. He's still in Japan, he's still at Coco Farm, and he's still working with his students to make wine now served at official state functions in the building pictured above. The importance of individual decisions was driven home by Benjamin Wallace, known to most people as the author of The Billionaire's Vinegar and the GQ story where he tracked down "the very best" in everything including cars, toilets, and wine. Both of those stories, in his retelling of them at Taste3, served as cautionary tales for what happens when we mindlessly assume that the most expensive thing on the shelf is actually worth it, and that we must have it to prove our own importance. Bottom line: it's usually not worth it. If you're spending $30K per night on a hotel room, perhaps you could find something more productive to do with that money such as donating it to Coco Farm and Winery?

I left Taste3 fired up and inspired to learn more about how people in the past had grappled with sustainability issues, make a difference in the growing crisis of climate change through small changes in my daily wine life, and address (rather than avoid) my fears about genetically modified grapes. And I left with a renewed commitment not to waste money needlessly on things that don't really matter when there is so much wrong with the world that really does matter. The future belongs to us and to our children. And everything we do and don't do now shapes that future--and that includes the wine we buy and drink. That was the take-home message of Taste3.

New Math Cava: 1 + 1 = 3

I normally like wines where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Here, the name says it all. The NV U Mes U Fan Tres (1 + 1 =3) Cava Brut combines good taste and good value in a sparkling wine that is perfect for sticking in a tub of ice and pouring during brunch or at your next picnic or barbecue.

The NV 1 + 1 = 3 Cava Brut was good QPR. ($13.99, on special at Weimax; you should be able to find it near you for between $11 and $20) The wine had a very tiny bubble or bead, which made it very lively in the glass and in your mouth. There were so many small bubbles the overall impression was intensely fizzy, but the bubbles were not at all harsh or raspy. There were slight aromas of lemon pith and almond, and these aromas grew and developed in the flavors which were also dominated by citrus. I noticed the taste of lemon, but also grapefruit peel. There was a nutty aftertaste, as well. This wine hints at great complexity, but the flavors and aromas never develop to their full potential. However, this example of a Cava was very, very dry so if you sometimes find Spanish sparklers too fruity, you will probably really enjoy this wine.

Cava is one of the world's most versatile wines, and it's great with more than just brunch and picnics. We had it with a fast Indian curry that used shrimp and coconut milk. The recipe uses lime, which picked up the citrus notes in the wine and the bubbles and acidity was refreshing with the herbs used in the recipe. The Cava also handled the coconut milk well, and kept the food's flavors lively. At this point in the summer you may be looking for a break from the grill and I'd highly recommend this meal for a quick after-work supper that won't have you standing over a hot stove and is perfect for carrying out to the deck--with a bottle of chilled Cava--and eating al fresco.

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Wine Finders and Keepers: Adegga

A number of new wine finder and cellar management programs have been unveiled that help consumers find wines that they might like, assist them in locating retailers who stock the wine, and then keep track of the wine you have and what you thought of it when you tasted it. I'll be reviewing some of these sites in the upcoming weeks. If you have suggestions for sites I should take a look at, please let me know in the comments below. (image by Mike "Dakinewavamo" Kline)

Maybe you have a relatively small stash of wine and are thinking of keeping track of it. Maybe you have been keeping tasting notes on slips of paper and you would like to have a more permanent record. Maybe you like reading wine blogs like Catavino and you'd like a way to link up your favorite blogs with the wines that you buy. If any of these possible scenarios describe you, then you might want to check out Adegga.

Adegga is self-described as a "Social Wine Discovery" site. The goal is to help you find wine you might like based on what others are drinking, rating, and writing about. The discovery process revolves around "watchlists" of people, wine producers, wines, wine shops, and blogs that you enjoy. Once you've put a person, place, or thing on your watchlist, your homepage automatically notifies you about new purchases, posts, and offers related to your wine interests. The site is colorful and intuitive, with a smart use of graphics to help you navigate. Nearly everything you click on brings up a new screen with new features, and its very easy to figure out the basics of how to work the site. If you click on the screenshot here, for example, you will get a sense of the many different kinds of information--blog posts, ratings, and more--that come up for each wine.

Adegga is a free site, and signing up for it only takes a few minutes. At the present time, the majority of data entered into Adegga is related to Spanish and Portuguese wine, so if you typically drink American wines you may find yourself entering a lot of information. Fewer than 100 wines on the site are from the US but every time someone else joins the site and starts entering their information the database will grow and develop. And it only takes about 2 minutes to enter wine information with a combination of typing and pull-down menus. (this is a good activity to do in front of summer reruns)

As with any of the online cellar/wine finder tools, there are small glitches and things that you wish worked a different way. Because I'm a variety hound, for instance, I wish I didn't have to go to a second screen and enter grapes for a wine after entering all the other information. Right now it's not possible for me to link a wine that I want to buy with a store in my area that might carry it, which would be nice. And sometimes the autofill function can trip you up and enter a wine name that you never intended. But these are pretty minor tics in an otherwise smooth program, and I've found Adegga quite responsive when I've made a mistake entering a wine and need something fixed.

There are sites out there with more data and with more users, but this site is the one that has the most integrated approach to the question of "how do I find the name of a good wine that I might like?" The Adegga team (André Ribeirinho, André Cid, Emidio Santos, and Bruno Pedro) should be congratulated for thinking how all the pieces of the social media puzzle might fit together in the service of locating a good bottle. Perhaps their success is related to the fact that they are active participants in this brave new world, and keep a blog as well as a presence on Twitter. If you are twittering like mad, have a Facebook account, and enjoy text messaging I think you'll like Adegga, so head over there and check out the site's features. There's no "one site fits all" cellar management program on the internet. You need to figure out what's important to you. Once you do, you will be able to find a program that fits you to a tee--and it just might be Adegga.

A Round of Applause for Dan Berger

Do you know the name Dan Berger? If you are an ordinary wine drinker, you should memorize it. In a world full of inflated scores and hype, he is always impressively level-headed about wine. Whether its writing for Appellation America, the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat, his own Vintage Experiences, or covering California wine for Tom Stevenson's annual Wine Report, Dan can be relied upon to notice wines less traveled, less expensive, and less manipulated. I knew I approved of his taste in wine when he said Navarro Vineyards Edelzwicker--one of the great wine bargains at around $12--was one of the most exciting wines made in California. (photo of Dan Berger from Vintage Experiences)

His most recent article in the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat had me applauding, because in it he voiced something in print that I have long suspected in private: that where a wine comes from, the grape it's made with, and the price they're charging for it influences those blasted "objective" scores. Making wine in Temecula? Good luck getting a score above 85 from the mags. Making wine from Chasselas or Colombard? It's south of 86 for you, too. He mentioned two specific domestic wines that I've had made with each grape (the Berthoud Chasselas Dore and the McNab Ridge Colombard) that are excellent and I would concur with that assessment. Even better? Even in my expensive coastal grocery store where everything comes by covered wagon up and down CA-1 they're less than $15. But if your wine is inexpensive like these bottles it's even worse--that can't be any good, people conclude, or they'd sell it for more.

Go read Dan's article and keep your eye out for his writing. He's out there pitching for good, everyday wine that doesn't cost a fortune and is high quality and interesting. And in this time of economic downturns, market panics, and penny-pinching it's nice to have someone quietly pointing out that you don't have to mortgage your house to drink great wine.