Despite the kazillion posts of tastings these days, it's not something I get to do nearly as often as I like. Sure, I do a lot of in-store tastings where I pour a couple of my wines to innocent by-standers, but a full-on tasting with some sort of reason to it is somewhat rare. It's for that reason that I get so! stoked! when one comes along.

Betty's, one of my favorite restaurants in Buffalo, is looking to expand their wine program. I spoke with Carroll, the owner, a few weeks ago about a staff training to go through their entire list and explain the differences between grapes and styles and what foods to pair them with. This was a pretty monumental task; everything they have is by-the-glass, and they have about 20 or so wines to get through. This may not sound like a lot, but since the staff was bent on not spitting, you can see the potential for mayhem. Anyway, I was over there last night and the chef prepared nibbles to go with the tasting. Predictably, the room got exponentially louder as we made our way through, but hopefully it was a good exercise to taste them all side-by-side, if for no other reason than to taste how awesome Sauvignon Blanc and goat cheese are together.

Oh, and I got a free t-shirt. I'm easily bought.

The magistrate of Siena, an appointed judicial authority, has questioned the controls exercised by the consortium of Brunello di Montalcino, which governs the stipulations of how the wine is made in both the vineyard^? and the cellar^?.
 
Authorities are scanning thousands of documents, including winemaker^? notes, harvest and bottling records, Consorzio^? registrations and DOCG^? stamps.
 
If the slightest discrepancy is found, even if subject to interpretation and explanation, the existing stocks of the 2003 vintage^? Brunello, the year in question, will be sequestered from distribution, the company said in a statement.
 
Stocks already on store shelves and restaurant cellars will not be affected.
 
"The situation has quickly become political and threatens the commerce of innumerable small businesses and the pleasure of millions of consumers around the world,? Marc^? Goodrich, chief operating officer of Banfi Vintners, a US importer of the wines, said.
 
?The promise of Brunello to the consumer remains valid and unquestioned, but has been caught in crossfire between warring factions in what amounts to a political disgrace.?
 
Goodrich claims the majority of Brunello producers are likely to come under scrutiny. This could lead to the sale^? of the 2003 vintage suspended, potentially for several months if not longer.
 
?We will not know what really happened until all the political dust settles and the authorities retreat,? he said. "But in the meantime, they have put at risk the commercial, social and governmental reputation of all Italy.?

» Full Story (via wine.co.za)

... good thing we've already received our '03 shipment. *phew* Let's hope they sort this out by the time we need to reorder.

Tags: melgab, wine, controversy, brunello, italian, south-africa, South Africa

In 2006, while I was teaching Spanish bankers how to chat up a beautiful woman in English (hey, how else do you get students interested in learning a second language?), Ryan was slaving away at the computer, inventing new and creative ways to involve wine lovers from around the world in Spanish and Portuguese wine. After many creative attempts, he stumbled upon a zany idea he called, the 2+1 Iberian Wine Survey. Sent to a handful of bloggers and wine geeks, the survey asked them to answer 2 questions about Iberian wine, and in return, they could ask 1 of us.

However, at the time, we weren’t entirely confident the idea would work. Having only been in the wine blogging scene a year, we didn’t know if our readers would be interested in hearing about a wine blogger’s selection of Spanish wine in Canada, or whether a blogger based in the UK enjoyed the unique and diverse wines coming out of Portugal. It was a crap shoot, but indeed, it worked! Why we didn’t continue the idea? I don’t have a clue, but we are now!

We’re bringing back the 2+1 Iberian Wine Survey, and over the next few weeks, you’ll be hearing not only what other bloggers are experiencing with Iberian wine, but also some of the pressing questions they’ve had about Spanish and Portuguese wine mulling around in their heads. Let’s cross our fingers that we can make up a convincing answer

In addition, we’d like to include everyday folk who are simply interested in wine, like you! So if you’re simply a wine lover, or an uber geek interested in chiming in your ideas on our blog, let us know so that we can get a survey out to you asap. All the collected surveys will be posted on Catavino beginning on June 1st.

And to get you in the mood, I’ve included a series of questions asked of Catavino way back in 2006 when we were all still green to wine blogging!

Steve DeLong of the Delong Wine Chart
“Spain is always considered both an old and new world country. Where are the traditions being maintained? Rioja really throws me off because it seems to be all over the place stylistically.” Check out how Spain is coping with its traditional ways while adapting to the modern age.

Dave Worthington of Tinto y Blanco
“The promotion of Spanish wine seems to be left up to a few small importers in Australia, why is there not a “Brand Spain” marketing campaign?” Find our how ICEX has missed the mark on promoting Spain wine

Andrew Barrow of Spitton
“Is sherry destined to go the way of Marsala and be relegated to cooking use only?” We sure don’t think so!

Erin and Michelle of Grape Juice
“We?re very curious about Basque wines. Are the wines as unique as the language and culture, and if so, what sets them apart from the typical Spanish wines we?re likely to encounter? Do you yourself enjoy them? Are there any that you would recommend us trying for an introduction? I realize that?s actually about four questions, but we?re very nosy people, so I hope that?s okay.” Txakolis are typically misunderstood and under appreciated.

Roy Hersh from For the Love of Port
“What is the real difference between the Pedro Ximenez grape from Jerez and Malaga?” Although the differences are slight between the production of PX in Jerez and Malaga, there is a distinct separation

Tim Elliot of Winecast
“I’m reading quite a bit about how good Portuguese red wines are and would like to explore this region for one of my podcasts. What 3 wines, $25 USD or less, would you choose for a tasting that would give me an idea of the quality of these wines?” Here are our suggestions!

Cheers,

Gabriella

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When I read Inertia Beverage’s announcement of a change of CEO it was not only interesting but actually a very wise move by the current CEO and a friend of mine Paul Mabray.  I don’t want to get into a long post on my business philosophy but I thought I should post a short commentary as I saw some conversation breaking out that made it seem as if this was a negative thing.

I know many times press releases put alot of spin on a bad situation to make it seem like a good one.  I know because part of my role in various marketing jobs had been to do just that and I always put out the story before someone makes a "scoop" and spins it negatively first.  Thats just good PR.

But I view Paul’s announcement differently.  I’ve been in High-Tech since the 1980’s even before I was in college (when I was working for a software retail company).  But more importantly, my view is shaped by something my mentor, Don McKinney, imparted on me when I first moved to Silicon Valley.  Basically, if you want your company to really succeed you first have to recognize that the company will require different CEOs and RARELY does the same person have the personality to be all of these.

1. the "$0 to $10M" CEO - this CEO thrives on the startup situation.  Risk taker, entrepreneurial, big-game hunter, and business developer (as well as visionary and marketeer), this CEO is usually one for the founders.  The key here is to have a sales person in this role and drive the initial products to be customer-oriented with a saavy product team.  This CEO recognizes that getting A+ players on the team is more important then having the right structure or hierarchy.
2. the "$10M to $100M" CEO - This CEO can take those first few BIG customers and nourish them such that they can be cash cows for the company.  At the same time he/she starts to pull in trusted sales and business development folks as well as marketing folks to compliment development and empowers them to do their job.  What can happen to a company that may cause it to fail is if CEO #1 thinks he/she is CEO #2 but isn’t really and has trouble either getting help to create new business, create a polished brand, or both because he/she still thinks he/she has all the best ideas and no one else can do it for them.  Its the beginning of scaling the company.
3. the "$100M to $1B" CEO - This CEO recognizes that the company is going to go BIG TIME and needs processes that allow the organization to scale.  Oh the dreaded "P" word, but its true.  At this point, customer care is still job #1, but setting up the structure to scale operations is becoming more and more important and this CEO needs to allow that to go to a professional A+ COO type.  Again, failure can happen here when a CEO doesn’t appreciate what an operationally oriented person’s value is (i.e. can make the organization scale in ways the CEO never dreamed up).  This CEO also has to be able to attract the investment levels that typically the founding CEO doesn’t have access to.  This is usually when you see a CEO finally step aside but it can be too late.
4. the "$1B to $10B" CEO - Now your talking about the professional CEO that you see at the top of Cisco, GE, and companies like that.  Charismatic and oozing leadership that can rival Bill Clinton in his prime.  This CEO still focuses on his top customers but there usually are so many that the top 10 are likely the only he/she gets to visit.  This CEO could be very very smart but is really removed from day-to-day so is fed development information and status from a staff of A+ lieutenants but likely has a big company filled almost 50% with B players (inevitable at this size).  The hope is that CEO #3 created solid enough processes that the company will thrive and compensate for some incompetence that has inevitably creeped into the the ranks of the company.

Thats the idea in a nutshell.  You can move the revenue bands up and down a little but this is generally true.  I had this wisdom passed on to me in the early 1990s and I’ve seen it proven out time and time again.  What I see in the Inertia announcement is a smart man that wants to see his company do great things.  But I say "smart man" because from my conversations with him, he intuitively sensed he wasn’t CEO #2 or #3, checked his ego at the door, and did the right thing.  He’s still working in there directing strategy and given his history in the wine business thats probably a good move.

The employees of Inertia should be excited.  As a Silicon Valley veteran, I can tell you more often then not that a move like this initiated by the CEO prevented this from happening later in your lives when the Board of Directors forces this decision (and they always do) because the CEO isn’t scaling the company for the big time.

Cheers!

Little kids go through a phase where they need to put everything in their mouth. I wonder what it says about me that I'm pretty much stuck there? I really enjoy trying out new wines and sakes, especially those that are well off the beaten path.

So when Beau Timkin, the owner of True Sake in San Francisco handed me this bottle and said "check this out" I couldn't resist. After all, it was the sake equivalent of....well.....(if you'll excuse what may be a somewhat obscure (to you) Japanese animation reference) Howl's Moving Castle.

This sake is:

1. Nigori - an unfiltered sake

2. Junmai Daiginjo -- the highest grade of sake, where the rice kernels have been polished to less than 55% of their original volume.

3. Nama sake -- unpastuerized, designed to be drunk very soon after production, much like Beaujolais

4. Sparkling -- yes, that's right. Sparkling sake. Not entirely common.

Can you understand my fascination? Even if you've never seen the phantasmagorical animation movie referenced above perhaps you can understand what a strange beast this sake would be.

Many people who enjoy sake even occasionally are familiar with the cloudy nigori sakes, as they are somewhat trendy and likely to be offered in most sushi restaurants that aspire to have anything more than just the standard hot sake on the menu. Nigori sakes are cloudy because minute rice particles (think flour particles) that are normally filtered out of the sake are left in. These bits of starch both make the sake milky white, as well as add a slight sweetness to the liquid because they contain sugars.

Most nigori sakes are considered to be somewhat rustic, harkening back to the beginnings of sake when, in fact, all sake was nigori sake, since no one bothered to (or had the technology to) filter it in the early days of sake brewing. Consequently nigori sakes do not tend to be premium sakes, which is to say that they are most often made from rice that has not been polished to the level required for premium sake.

So to see a Junmai Daiginjo nigori sake is quite unusual, both because it means that the brewer has gone to quite an expense to deliberately produce such a sake, and that the brewer is confident that such a sake merits such treatment, as the rice sediments that are left in nigori sake tend, on the whole, to mask some of the more delicate flavors and aromas that a junmai daiginjo sake has been made to possess.

Nama sake or namazake is the sake world's equivalent of Beaujolais Nouveau, or perhaps more accurately, fresh raw milk, which is unfortunately illegal in the US. Unpastuerized by heat, namazake has a different character that is cherished by die-hard sake fans as more rustic and "authentic" than commercial releases that go through the pasteurization and stabilization process.

And sparkling sake? Well, what can I say. Sparkling sake is just a oddball phenomenon. It has been made here and there by various producers over the last decade, but not with any regularity, nor with any real commercial strategy. It is perhaps best characterized as one big experiment.

If there is any brewery that isn't afraid of experimenting, it's the Tsuki no Katsura brewery in the Fushimi district of Kyoto in western Japan. One of the oldest and most regal of breweries in the area, it is single-handedly responsible for the fact that nigori sake even exists today as a commercial product.

As I mentioned, originally all sake was effectively nigori, as it went unfiltered. But sometime before the 19th century, many makers began to press their sake through mesh bags to filter out the sediment. When the "rules" for how to make sake were written in the 1800's and it became regulated by the government, filtering (or more accurately, pressing, as there is most often a final filtration after pressing) became part of the required regimen, and nigori sake effectively became illegal. One of the primary reasons for this was that the filtering process was when the government levied its taxes on sake makers. For perhaps understandable reasons, the government wasn't too keen on the idea of skipping that step for aesthetic reasons.

But nigori sake wasn't forgotten, and after decades of tireless lobbying, Tsuki no Katsura managed to convince the government to allow them to make nigori sake. How did they manage to get around at least two hundred years of precedent for pressing sake through a filter to remove solids? Well, in the end they didn't. They were still forced to filter their sake, but they convinced the government to let them use a filter that had holes in it about the size of golf balls. Apparently it took a couple of years of changing their production process so the government ministry that oversees sake brewing would approve, but eventually they did, paving the way for all modern nigori sake.

Today, Tsuki no Katsura is one of the largest producers of nigori sake in Japan, and is apparently breaking new ground by moving into the sparkling sake world as well. They also produce a range of standard sakes which are rumored to be decent as well.

Full disclosure: I received this sake as a press sample.

Tasting Notes:
Cloudy white to the point of being chunky, with a medium-strong effervescence, this sake has a yeasty nose with scents of bubblegum and malted milk. In the mouth it has a thick presence on the palate and about as much carbonation as some soft drinks. The flavors are cool and rainy, with a distinct flavor of wet paper, a light floral element, and a finish that is beer like with hints of yeast. I'm not sure if my sense of the beer-like flavor was influenced by the carbonation or not. Overall this is not a sake that does a lot for me, but it was a fascinating drinking experience and one worth trying just on principle, especially for those who are interested in sake.

Food Pairing:
Nigori sakes normally reward pairings with slightly more substantial foods than their lighter, more delicate filtered brethren. I'm not confident about it, but I might try pairing this sake with tonkatsu, the traditional breaded and fried Japanese pork cutlet.

Overall Score: 8/8.5

How Much?: $20 for 300ml bottle

This sake is not available for sale on the internet. You can give Beau a call if you're interested: 415.355.9555

George and Elsa Vare love the white wine blends of Italy and have devoted Vare Vineyards to the pursuit of making this style of wine in Napa Valley. They are not new to the wine business having co-founded Luna Vineyards and this experience shows in the bottle. I first tasted Vare wines at the recent Wine 2.0 event at Crushpad in San Francisco and was excited to try their very limited production Bianco Riserva 2005 as part of the Wine Spy for a Day program. The Wine Spies are also offering free ground shipping on 4 bottles or more for all Winecast readers by entering promotional code “WINECASTLUVSME”.

A blend of 40% Ribolla Gialla, 25% Pinot Grigio, 22% Tocai Friulano, 10% Sauvignon Blanc and 3% Chardonnay grown in Napa Valley, Vare Bianco Riserva 2005 is unique in several ways. First, this is the only winery with plantings of Ribolla Gialla in the US, a variety from Italy’s Friuli Venezia Giulia region where it’s blended with Tocai Friulano. The wine spends an extra few months in once used French Oak barrels than it’s sibling Bianco which produces a more complex wine both aromatically and in it’s flavor profile. An finally, this is one of the few wines packaged in 500 ml bottles as requested by Thomas Keller’s French Laundry restaurant. This results in one of the best Cal-Ital white blends I’ve tasted to date.

Vare Vineyards, Bianco Riserva 2005 ($45/500ml/sample) - The straw color is a result of barrel fermentation and aging but the aromas are not overpowered by the influence of wood. This wine has a very pleasing bouquet of citrus, tropical fruit, walnut and a hint of clove. Complex but refreshing grapefruit and pineapple fruit flavors finishing with nice acidity and a creamy, lees element. An excellent food wine and would make a great starter to an Italian meal but with only 20 cases produced, you better act now.

14.5% ABV
Synthetic cork closure
Score: 90
[rating:4/5]

Buy this wine at Wine Spies for $35 today only!

And don’t forget to enter discount code “WINECASTLUVSME” when you check out for free ground shipping on orders of 4 bottles or more.

Thanks to Agent Red for recruiting me and Agent White for selecting such a nice wine to taste. Look for other wine bloggers to be Wine Spies for a Day in coming days.

Just in time for Christmas, Sainsburys and Secret Sommelier have teamed up to produce a case of 12 Bordeaux with an accompanying podcast by Christopher Burr MW and Ewan Lacey.

Bordeaux, I think, can be the region most in need of explanation to the uninitiated, as its charms occasionally need to be coaxed out. In this world of immediacy, these wines lag behind in the crowd-pleasing stakes, especially when you venture down from the top drawer. But given a lead from someone knowledgeable, I think - unlike some wines which initially please but become repetitive and dull - they can become friends for life.

It would make a great present for someone and is a useful tool for a group of friends who don't go to a wine club but want to have fun with it at home.

Good for Sainsburys to seize the initiative and find quite an innovative approach to wine tasting. But why is the podcast an audio recording not a dvd? I haven't heard it yet but I would have thought there was quite a lot of opportunity for visuals here.

To make it even more appealing, they have included a prize draw to win a trip for two to the Bordeaux Wine School. That would be quite a fun trip, I imagine.

The case can be bought at www.sainsburys.co.uk/wine or buy the wines individually in-store. Many of these wines I have not tasted myself but I do know the "Taste the Difference" ones are very decent examples.

I have been drinking quite a lot of 1996 Penfolds 407 recently and maybe that colours my impression of this win