The Eternal Question

Not really eternal, of course, it's just that the question has been around for as long as we've been in the business.  And the question is - How long should I hold on to this bottle?   And for the sake of narrowing things down, let's say we're talking about California Cabernet Sauvignon.

Fifty years ago Hugh Johnson in his Encyclopedia of Wine would have said only three percent of French wines would improve with age.  That is all.  No others.  Now in the modern, more sophisticated wine culture of today, we have recently read that maybe one percent of the great wines of the world, regardless of national origins, will actually improve with age.

But what about that bottle of Cal Cab we just bought?  We want to hold it until we think it will show its best.  Well, it's complicated.  Most cabernets are intended to be consumed within five years.  That is, most California wines feature the popular forward-fruit style with soft tannins and low acidity and therein lies the rub. 

Tannins are astringent compounds that come from grapes skins, pips, twigs and contact with the oak barrels the wine is aged in.  These compounds soften with time and new flavors develop from them.  Citric acid is a natural preservative and a higher acid wine aids the aging process.  The California climate is warmer than Europe and most other fine wine regions so grapes ripen faster leaving lower levels of acids than elsewhere.  Aging isn't needed for most of these easy drinking wines.

So how long should I hold this wine I just bought?  The prevailing wisdom is no more than ten years.  If it's a great cab from an acclaimed producer and made in the old world style, up to twenty years.  And that's if the wine is laying down in a dark, temperature-controlled, humidity-regulated, vibration-free environment.

Januik

Recently I had the pleasure of speaking with one of the great figures in the contemporary wine business.  Throughout the 1990's Mike Januik was the winemaker at Chateau Ste. Michelle, the largest winery of Washington State.  That decade was the high point of that company's existence.  Was it a coincidence that Januik was there at their peak?  I don't think so.  If the truth be known, Mike Januik put CSM on the map.

So what exactly did he do?  Januik created the great single-vineyard reserve reds that probably put Washington State on the map for those of us who thought California invented enology.  Januik, a Washington native, had been in the wine business for the better part of a decade before CSM so he knew where to go for superior fruit.

And where is that?  From the same places where Januik sources from now; Horse Heaven Hills, Royal Slope and the greatest Washington AVA (American Viticultural Area), Red Mountain.  Januik also sources from Stillwater Creek Vineyard. a part of the Novelty Hill estate.  In 2000 upon leaving CSM, Januik entered into an agreement with Tom Alberg and Judi Beck to make the wines at their new Novelty Hill winery.  It's at that same location he would start making his own eponymous Januik labeled wines, a project he had started a year earlier.  

This year Januik celebrates his fortieth harvest.  When he started there were twenty-four wineries in Washington.  Now there are two hundred.  As of 2011 a third winemaking operation has been added to the Novelty Hill/Januik operation.  Mike's son Andrew now makes his Andrew Januik wines there also.

As we said above, Mike Januik is a giant in the Washington wine business.  We now have two of his cabernets in the store, the Novelty Hill and the Januik label.  If you like great cabernet, try these!

Torbreck & Barossa Valley

The quality of Torbreck Vintners wines has never been in question.  Robert Parker calls them a "Top 100" winery.  If the travesty that is Yellowtail hadn't driven down the Australian wine business, Torbreck may have become a household name by now.  Maybe even like Beaucastel, their model in the southern Rhone Valley of France.  Torbreck really is that good.

Torbreck was established in 1994 but you could say it started more than a hundred fifty years earlier when many of its cornerstone Rhone varietals were first planted in the Barossa Valley.  With the oldest vineyards in Australia, Barossa is known for rich powerful structured reds with lengthy flavors.  Wines of this quality age gracefully.  The wines' velvety tannins are courtesy of Barossa's Mediterranean climate of a hot dry growing season stressing the vines before the diurnal temperature shift to coolness at night compensates for the heat.  This temperature shift is ideal for maintaining acidity in the grapes to prevent flabbiness in wine flavors.   

Torbreck markets two dozen different wines.  Most are reds; all are Rhone varietals.  The reds include Shiraz (of course), Grenache, Mataro, Counoise and Carignan.  The whites include Viognier, Marsanne, Roussanne and Semillon.  Like in the Rhone Valley, most Torbreck wines are blends.

Torbreck boasts of "estate winemaking" which is not the same as estate bottling, meaning everything is done on the property.  With long term management arrangements at high quality vineyards, what they call custodial care, they can secure the fruit that they need for their many premium wines.  In other words, they know what they're doing.

Runrig is Torbreck's flagship wine.  It's a Shiraz/Viognier blend likened to their northern Rhone model and yes, it commands a lofty price.  The two in the store right now are more grounded price-wise.  The Cuvee Juveniles is a Grenache, Mataro, Carignan, Counoise, Shiraz blend.  The Woodcutter's Semillon is an oak aged robust Madeira clone Semillon first planted in Barossa 160 years ago.  

If Rhone red blends or the white Semillon grape are new to you, here's your opportunity.  They're well worth a try.

Orange Wine

Orange wine is a very popular term for white wine that is made in the fashion of a red wine.  In the Asian Caucasus region where they've been doing this for 5,000 years they call it amber wine.  Other terms include skin-contact or skin-fermented wine or using larger terminology, non-interventionist winemaking, which gets more to the point - This is the furthest thing from the common filtered-clear white wines on store shelves.  Possibly as a reaction to that norm, David Harvey coined the term orange wine in 2004.

With skins and seeds included in the grape maceration and fermentation (sometimes up to a year!), the wine acquires pigment, phenols and tannins; giving it a robust, perhaps honeyed nose and a complex, lacquered nutty flavor.  This kind of a big white wine would show well with curried Asian cuisine or cabbage or any meats/fishes with a similarly high phenolic character.

Orange wines are made everywhere today.  In Friuli-Venezie-Guilia, Italy and Slovenia they have been doing it for hundreds of years applying the name Ramato to their Pinot Grigio version.  

Aside from our interest in the essential wine character and food affinities, health consciousness may be driving the orange wine fever.  Much like red wine, the skins and seeds in the production of orange wine are believed to slow mental decline and the risk of heart disease.  During maceration, anti-oxident chemical compounds like kaempferol, quercetin, catechin and resveratrol leach into the wine and neutralize unstable molecules (free radicals) that cause cellular damage.

Now here's some good news for all of us.  While there have been no specific studies of health benefits from orange wine consumption, it is believed any wine consumption in moderation improves longevity.  Wine drinkers have a lower risk of metabolic syndrome, the group of conditions that raise the risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and cancers of the bowel, colon and prostate.

Frey

Frey Vineyards was established in 1980, about the same time as we got into this business.  They claim to be the first organic and biodynamic California winery.  Girard has been organic since the 1950's so they must be referring to the biodynamic part.    Between their wine label and website, they cite ten claims that serve to validate their bonafides.

#1.  USDA Organic Certification.  This is the biggie.  It involves stringent advance planning, implementation and regular inspections.  It's serious stuff.

#2.  California Certified Organic Farmers.  CCOF certification preceded USDA (1973) and today works within the USDA to certify farmers.  The CCOF foundation educates the public about organic values.

#3.  Demeter Certification.  This is also huge.  Demeter is biodynamics and also involves regular inspections.  With Demeter, the property is an ecosystem where nothing is added from the outside. 

#4.  No Sulfites Added.  Again, huge.  No pesticides, herbicides, fungicides or chemical additives.

#5.  Vegan.  Fining is the filtering process wines undergo before bottling.  It typically involves the use of eggs or casein protein from fish.  This kind of fining is not done at Frey.   

#6.  Non-GMO.  This concerns yeasts that may be genetically modified. There are no laws concerning GMOs but since Frey is Demeter-certified all yeasts are local.

#7.  Gluten-free.  This goes to the current popularity of flavor additives in wine which may have a small percentage of gluten.  Frey wines are unadulterated. 

#8.  1% for the Planet.  This international certification goes to business owners who pledge a percent of their profits to environmental causes.

#9.  Regenerative.  This catchword applies to agricultural land management.  There are no legal standards for the use of this term.

#10  FSC Certification.  This applies to the wine label paper which must come from managed forests where de-forestation will not be accepted. 

Frey sells organics.  That's their schtick.  The most important attribute listed above is their Demeter Certification.  If you have that, much of the rest is not necessary. 

Bolgheri

This post is a long overdue exercise in remedial education for those of us who thought we were so smart.  With just a little research we learned just how wrong we were about the wine appellation Bolgheri and it's place in greater Tuscany.  It's not just a cut above standard issue Tuscan Sangiovese.  Bolgheri is home to Sassacaia, which on at least three occasions in the last fifty years has shown better than the best Bordeaux has to offer.  The Bolgheri wine appellation, replete with its Bordeaux varietal vineyards, is, in fact, Italy's answer to Bordeaux.

Bolgheri is an Italian DOC (denominazione di controllata) in Maremma along the northern Tuscan coast just south of Livorno.  Like everywhere else in Italy, viticulture and wine making there has an exceedingly long history.  The traditional ways were adjusted two to three hundred years ago when the Bordeaux varietals (Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot) were first introduced.  Still, today the popular sentiment and Italian Wine Law dictate that wine is to be made in the traditional fashion.  Viticulture and oenological procedures are to be appropriate and consistent with longstanding local customs.

The Bolgheri DOC allows for two quality levels, Bolgheri and Bolgheri Superiore and the autonomous stand alone Sassacaia appellation.  Basic Bolgheri appellation red wine may contain up to 50% Sangiovese or Syrah or it may be 100% Cabernet, Merlot or Cabernet Franc or any combination of those grapes not to exceed the Sangiovese/Syrah limits.  Any Bolgheri wine must conform in color, bouquet and taste to traditional standards.  It should be red-garnet in color with a heady bouquet and dry and balanced on the palate.  The Superiore version must be aged two years and must impress with elegance and structure.

Sassacaia is the product of Tenuta San Guido in western Bolgheri.  They are the wine appellation.  They make three wines: Sassacaia (85%,Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Cabernet Franc) and Guidalberto and Le Difese, two Bordeaux Blends that include Sangiovese in the blends.  

South Africa

It hasn't all been smooth sailing but South Africa seems to have finally arrived.  The turning point in their journey was in the early 1990's when apartheid ended and the government got out of the wine industry.  Up to that point the government-sponsored KWV cooperative had run things and they did a good job.  They actually built the South African wine industry, albeit with brandy as the base product.  Ten years after the big change, the sales percentages would be reversed with dinner wines becoming the order of the day.

The South African Wine law was enacted in 1973 but revised in the early nineties to allow for an expanding wine industry.  At the same time the newer technologies that were dominating the industry elsewhere were brought to South Africa along with some of the world's best winemakers as the country prepared for a boon.  But it didn't happen right away.  South Africa has always been isolated from the well known wine markets and each of those markets had the homecooking of its own wine industry to compete with.

There is an unfortunate sacrifice inherent in trying to satisfy an international market.  You have to make what people from other cultures want.  The most popular South African red and white wine grapes of the twentieth century were Cinsault and Chenin Blanc.  They grew well so they were popular with industry insiders but more importantly, the critics acclaimed their quality.  Cinsault, a Cotes du Rhone blender, largely went into brandy so it had to be sacrificed.  Chenin Blanc, while still the most widely planted grape in the country, is but a fraction of the juggernaut it once was.

Also sacrificed was Pinotage, the signature red wine grape of the country.  It proved to be too hard of a sell to the western world.  The Pinotage that has survived in more recent shipments here is a superior pinot-ish red dinner wine that is much more to our tastes than earlier efforts.  

The industry expansion that was begun in the 1990's includes new wine appellations to the east of the historic center in the Western Cape.  Those newer vineyards have a long way to go before they can compete in quality with the Cape.  The learning curve can be lengthy.  In the meantime Western Cape reds and whites are finally selling like they should.  Our Klein Constantia (est.1685!) Sauvignon Blanc and red blend sell quite well here and by the way, South African Sauvignon Blanc and Chenin Blanc are acclaimed by many of us to be second only to France in quality.