Eric Asimov has a great piece in today’s Times about all the sensory inputs of wine–and he’s not talking about blackberries, leather, and tar but rather what makes us buy and ultimately enjoy a given wine.

The piece summarizes recent research into wine purchasing decisions, particularly two studies that have made consumers appear to be easily influenced by price. Obviously many other factors go into what makes you buy a wine including what you’ve read about it, the place of origin, the grape, the producer, the importer, and perhaps the bottle design and label (if you’re new to this site, have your say in our worst wine label contest while submissions are still open!).

I’m a huge fan of context for wine enjoyment and thanks to Eric for quoting me in the story with this perspective. Sometimes context can even elevate a humble bottle of wine to make it an all-time favorite. I remember Frank Prial, previously wine critic for the Times, saying that the best bottle of wine he ever had was some crappy wine he drank enthusiastically right after returning from a tour in the Korean War. It wasn’t the wine so much as it was the fact that he was home.

It’s amazing how often learned wine folk cite humble bottles as their faves when the experience was really so much about the mood and the moment. How has context influenced a great wine experience of yours?

Maybe there should be 100 point moments rather than 100 point wines. There’s no price tag on that, after all.

Related: “Wine’s Pleasures: Are They All in Your Head? [NYT]
A reduced-sized crop of the image attributed to Lars Klove that accompanies that piece is reproduced here.

This was the third masterclass I attended at this event.

The five wines were served blind, with the only information provided that they were Shiraz and each was from a different region. Wines were revealed at the end of the tasting.

Wirra Wirra Woodhenge Shiraz 2004
Crimson colour. Perfumed with violets, and rich chocolate and vanilla oak. The palate is bold as well, lots of big, ripe fruit depth. Thought that this may be Barossa but it turned out to be McLaren Vale.
88/100

Tin Shed Shiraz Melting Pot 2004
Inky black colour. Chocolate, cassis, raspberry jam and some prunes. Palate is jammy and very ripe with some spice in the background. Guessed at Heathcote but was way off as it is from the Eden Valley.
85/100

Rymill Shiraz 2002
Deep colour. Nose is dreadful, barnyard, medicinal and raw meats. Palate is a bit better but not by much. Guessed Coonawarra correctly.
78/100

Cheviot Bridge Pyrenees Shiraz 2003
Crimson coloured. Spice, violets, red berries and a hint of oak on the nose. Smooth, well balanced palate. A pleasant, drinkable wine. Figured on cool climate so I thought it may be Yarra Valley, but I was wrong.
87/100

Bimbadgen Shiraz 2005
Burgundy coloured. Nose is fairly subdued, some spice and earth. Palate carries across the spice and earth characters. Medium bodied, decent length, just not very exciting. Correctly picked it as Hunter Valley.
86/100

The release, along with all Penfolds top-end wines, comes as the Australian auction market is experiencing its strongest ever demand for super-premium red wines.

Grange is arguably Australia's most famous wine and is officially listed as a Heritage Icon of South Australia. Grange boasts an unbroken line of vintages from the experimental 1951 and clearly demonstrates the synergy between Shiraz and the soils and climates of South Australia.

Penfolds Grange displays fully-ripe, intensely-flavoured and textured Shiraz grapes in combination with new American oak. The result is a unique Australian style that is now recognised as one of the most consistent of the world's great wines. The Grange style is the original and most powerful expression of Penfolds multi-vineyard, multi-district blending philosophy.

While wine consumption is increasing in the U.S. -- spurred on in part by the wine adoption habits of American Millennials (young adults aged 21 to 31) -- the opposite is happening in France. Since 1980 French wine consumption has decreased by more than 50% from 120 liters per capita to today's rate of 55 liters per capita.

Though in some ways this is positive, it is also rather alarming. Especially since a large portion of the population that is not drinking wine are France's Millennials or young adults in their 20's. Indeed they have moved away from wine to embrace other beverages -- primarily beer and spirits in the alcohol category, and bottled water, sodas, and juices.

The somewhat recent revelation that it is technically illegal for home winemakers in California to hold public tastings and even competitions of their wines is one of those instances where a truly out-dated law of little or no value, previously unnoticed, comes to light and makes folks chuckle, shake their heads and get on with getting rid of it for the sake bringing laws and rules into line with reality and good sense.

The move to change the law licketty split is under way. Family Winemakers of California and State Senator Pat Wiggins have joined forces to introduce SB 607, a law that would allow winemaking competition among amateur winemakers.

It's an easy fix to a pretty stupid law and both FWC and Senator Wiggins should be commended for moving it forward.

Changing stupid laws like this is not always so easy, however, Take for example the CA law that makes it a crime for a an out-of-state retailer to ship wine to a CA resident. This one went into effect in 2005 and was supported by Family Winemakers of California, The California Wine Institute, The California Association of Wine Grapegrowers, Napa Valley Vintners and a number of wineries. The bill was opposed by a number of CA retailers who realized that not only was the law unconstitutional as it discriminated against out-of-state retailers, but that it would encourage other states to lock out CA retailers from shipping to their state residents.

There has been no enthusiasm by California's winery organizations, Free the Grapes, or any politicians to change this other example of a stupid law, though they all are well aware of the law. One wonders if it will be "discovered" in a few decades and quickly reversed by legislation because it no longer has any value, rhyme or reason.

It turns out this law is actually on hold because retailers sued the state of CA and were able to get an agreement from the state not to enforce it until the end of 2008. However, that time is quickly approaching. One hopes that consumers, wine organizations and politicians will feel an equal urgency to fix one more stupid law when it comes to light.

It?s been a very busy week, but after my nice catching up session with Google Reader, here are some treasures worth noting from the RSS pileup:

1) Catavino?s Rioja Report and EWBC 2008: Gabriella and Ryan over at Catavino have made a labor of love?an ambitious sort of compendium that is all things Rioja. From regional gastronomy to what else? Los vinos! You can find maps, profiles of wineries, beautiful photography and even a comprehensive explanation of Rioja labeling practices. I also found their buying guide particularly valuable and look forward to bringing it along on some shopping trips in the near future. This kind of stuff is a privilege to be able to look at when you consider other ?regional reports? published by people with a sense of entitlement to wine travel and $60+ annual subscription fees. Ryan and Gabriella are accountable for their material, actively and genuinely elicit and value readers? opinions, suggestions and evince passion for this stuff, so go ahead and bookmark them.

2) Speaking of La Rioja, check out the page for this summer?s inaugural European Wine Bloggers Conference.

3) Remember Mr. Show?s Worthington Law applied to wine? Looks like the research findings from that CalTech/Stanford study published earlier in the year have been further validated. Working Paper No, 16, published by the American Association of Wine Economists details a new study in which people generally preferred less expensive wines, unless told by researchers of course, that a wine was particularly expensive.

4) If you read Spanish and want to stay up on the latest happenings in the Mendoza wine industry, you may want to bookmark El Blog de Vinos de Argentina. I have been reading their blog for some time now and have found it more and more valuable in terms of getting an inside track on what they?re thinking in Mendoza. As an Argentine, I?ve become a bit tired of receiving my Argentine wine industry news solely from the perspective of English-language consumer magazines. In the Argentine wine-sense, I?m approaching the sort of frustration many over here are feeling with news sources like CNN and FOX?it?s unfortunately limited for my needs. I may not be alone in wanting something like this?I really feel that things would get interesting if insiders from many wine regions only generally covered by shiny-cover magazines began communicating their perspectives directly to readers in a couple of other languages.

5) I would like to issue a preliminary warning before checking out this final note...it is cringe-inducing. I caught this on an Argentine website related to wine news. You'll click on the link and notice the article is written in Spanish, but that won't deter you from making the appropriate inference...Madonna will be contracting some local producer to lovingly craft her own label of Malbec. My comments? Oh hell no. Truthfully though, the nausea actually set in when I read that the label will reportedly be named after "Evita." Whether you are a foreigner and think Evita was a great person or an Argentine who may have the courage to speak up and express a more balanced perspective for the legacy of this famous political figure, one thing's for sure, Madonna could have chosen ANY OTHER variety cultivated in ANY OTHER country. Why us, oh God why us?

This wine is characterized by a yellow-green colour, a fresh citrusy aroma with hints of honey and a complex flowery aftertaste. It’s a semi-dry riesling, dryer than the Slovenian rieslings (such as Laški Riesling for example), but sweeter than those found in Serbia. It is a nice wine to accompany a lighter meal.

This is one of the wines available in Belgrade restaurants in 0.2l bottles, so if you’re a driver among non-wine drinkers (meaning you can’t order a whole bottle of some fine wine) it’s a good chance you’ll be in a position to try it. Do so.

Rating: 6/10
Price: 250 RSD (3.5 euro)

Technorati Tags: Macedonia Wine, Wine, Tikves

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I attended an event the other night hosted by one of our local public radio stations, KAZU, and one of my favorite culinary celebrities – Lynne Rosetto Kasper—at Mary Pagan’s Culinary Center of Monterey. The food was prepared by Mary Pagan’s students and was delicious and well-conceived (as usual), and the folks who attended were a delight. Someone asked me the question of “How do I find Pinots that I like?” Good question.

These days, the field of Pinot Noir can be truly daunting and amazing at the same time [how does one pick one off a store shelf?]. Within only a decade, the Pinot Noir winemaking industry has undergone an incredible change—new folks have entered the industry, new vineyards, clones, rootstocks have been planted on new sites all over the state, new wineries and labels have popped up like Google ads, and [most importantly] a gamut of styles of Pinot Noir has developed. The range of Pinot Noir, as I see it starts on one end with a typically “light” style: light in color and weight. These wines are usually very aromatic with these aromas: cherries, strawberries, rhubarb, roses, spices. These wines will often be described as “elegant”. Then there are the middle weights. These have a darker hue—ruby to garnet and usually display darker fruit character—blackberry, black cherry, plums. These usually display a medium-weight, greater texture and nice finish. These might have a little more extracted tannin. Then there are the heavy weights. Plums, black currants, blueberries are the fruits, and many of these wines might display tobacco, cigar, coffee characters as well. These are “big” wines and are normally heavily-extracted and might have been aged in a high-percentage of new oak as well. Dark, deep , rich are some of the descriptors used.

The ongoing debate regarding Pinot Noir in the wine industry these days is about what style is “true” to Pinot’s nature? How much influence does/should a winemaker have on a wine vs. the effects of the growing conditions and vineyard site? What style of Pinot Noir is appropriate for the marketplace?
The way I see it, live and let live. I don’t personally prefer all styles of Pinot Noir, but there are those who do. There is basically a style of Pinot Noir for almost every wine drinker out there—whether it is the entry level wine consumer, an experienced wine aficionado, someone who normally prefers whites, or a consumer that would usually choose Cabernet and thank goodness for that. The vibrancy of our industry depends upon the varied tastes of our customers because nowadays there’s as many different wines out there as there are clouds in the sky or cowboys in a cattle drive. That’s why it’s so easy to get lassoed by Pinot Noir…..[heck, I’m not only lassoed, I’ve been hog-tied and branded, too….yippee aye yea ]

So, getting back to answering the question—“How do I find a Pinot I like?” Here’s some advice: 1. Try a lot of Pinot Noir. Join a tasting group or create one yourself. These groups allow one to try a wide variety of wines without gutting one’s pocketbook. 2. Talk to the folks at the winery; find out what their philosophy and preferences are. If they match yours, then you just might like the wines. 3. Investigate wine critics. There are the usual suspects in print, but there are also many folks online who are reviewing wine offering more variety of opinions. Look at what they like. If they like similar wines to those you enjoy, it might be worth your while to seek out their recommendations. 4. I’ve said this before, but will say it again: trust your palate. It’s not a good wine unless you like it, and that’s all that counts.

I've often wondered why New Zealand was anointed/anointed itself as the land of Sauvignon Blanc.  To be sure, NZ SB has been quite successful as an import to the US wine market (and certainly names like 'Monkey Bay' don't hurt its mass appeal to the garanimal-wine-loving crowd).  However, I think this success has come at a price.  Kiwi Blanc has overshadowed every other grape variety.  And this is a very sad thing.

Think about it.  When was the last time you sampled a New Zealand Riesling or Gewurztraminer?  These grapes have found a very cozy home on the Islands way down under.  In fact, while I find most New Zealand Sauvi Blanc, easy-to-enjoy, I also find it a tad bit uni-dimensional (see here for a great descriptor of NZ SB).  I have discovered extraordinarily sublime Riesling and intoxicating (in the figurative sense of the word) Gewurz.  Think I'm nuts.  Take this little NZ non-SB challenge:

Huia Gewurztraminer 2006 - A chewy, thick wine, which echos the Alsatian style but with a bit less earth

Villa Maria Riesling 2005 - A remarkable feat of a wine.  This Riesling stews together new world heft with teutonic crispness.

Am I alone in thinking the OenoKiwis might want to diversify their white wine portfolio?