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At the Decanter event last weekend, it was great to see so many people enjoying fine wine. Such a joy to have so many truly outstanding wines under the same roof laid out for the consumer.
At this particular Encounter Bordeaux epecially had a strong presence and the exhibitors read like a roll-call of the great and the good - though by no means exhaustive it certainly gave a very good schooling in what the fuss is all about. It proves that the UK is not all about Blossom Hill sugar water despite all the depressing statistics.
Not only were there members of the public that you would expect - I had some lovely older gentlemen coming up to me at the Jancis Robinson stand, just to tell me with a conspiratorial wink that they were already "purple pagers" - but lots and lots of young people. The majority in fact. I hope this means that the next generation of wine drinkers/collectors/enthusiasts are trading up as they experience these wines first hand and making relationships with producers that may last a lifetime.
As well as the wines on offer there were also Masterclasses, the two most popular being the Margaux vertical and Jancis. Both of these will be available as podcasts - once the technology has been tamed- on the Decanter website and Jancis will put hers up on www.JancisRobinson.com
As well as all that, authors - Andrew Jefford and John Radford to name just two - were there for book signings and a very nice team from Riedel explaining all the subtle nuances of the various glasses and exactly why you need at least 10 different sets (I wish).
"...one step remained. One step! One little, little step! Upon one such little step in the great staircase of human life how vast a sum of human happiness or misery depends! I thought of myself, then of Pompey, and then of the mysterious and inexplicable destiny which surrounded us... I thought of my many false steps which have been taken and may be taken again."? Poe
Got time for a little navel gazing? 'Cause that?s where I'm going with this one.
25 years of carrying the torch for the Italian team. I feel like someone just pushed me in the ditch.
There are all kinds of wines for different tastes. I understand that. But I cannot tell how many times I have heard this line lately, and not just from Italians: ?We have embraced tradition with innovation.? Or this one: ?We are a traditional winery looking forward into the 21st century.? And this one: ?We are an old style winery utilizing technology to improve what we have learned from the past.? None of these statements makes any sense.
Add to that the looming issue with Italian wines: Who can you trust?
When was the last time I had a Greco or a Fiano that really tasted like one? How many Verona IGT reds lately have I had that tasted more like a wine from the Maremma or Rutherford, than Valpolicella? When was the last time I had a Chianti that reflected the intentions of the land over the man? When did Mother Nature become la goomada? When did nurture become suffocate?
Did those starry-eyed post war kids with hopes and dreams become comfortable as they passed the keys to their Gucci-loafing children?
Well maybe not everyone, but the pendulum has swung out there. Way out. It cannot remain in an extreme position. It cannot be sustained. There is the issue of gravity. And balance.
This whirlwind in Tuscany is finally reaching the shores of America. Already in New York and out West there is rumbling. Pushback. Wayback. The midsection of the US has been rabbit punched for eight grueling years and we need a moment. To pay our bills, to recalibrate. To gather some hope for ourselves.
April was the first month I have witnessed where I?ve seen downward trends in Italian wine sales. Things are slowing down. It?s not a sky-is-falling spiral, but it?s a gut check for anyone who is looking at the numbers.
Let?s talk about wine. I was with a young one who lived in Southern Italy for four years and just returned home to Texas. We were tasting wine and she remarked about a winery in Campania, ?I don?t remember their white wine tasting so buttery and smooth and international.? I hadn?t thought about it, I was too busy plowing on through the year, when out of the mouth of babes came a truth. She was right. Last week, in New York, I was having dinner with an old friend and we were talking about the very same thing. ?Yeah, I talked to one of the owners and asked him how it was going. Do you know what his answer was? Our wines are very popular. Not, our wines are a reflection of our land. But, our wines are appealing.? Oh really?
I have tasted Montepulcianos from Abruzzo recently. Seems like a lot of people want to bring their wines to market. I have a long experience with Montepulciano and remember those brawny, sweaty, nutty, reds that when you tasted it knew it was from the hills above you. Now, many of them taste like they came off an assembly line.
I was in Italy last month, tasting Barolo and Barbaresco. For what seem like hundreds of years now I have tasted Nebbiolo, what a rollercoaster ride! Sometimes the wines are a reflection of where they come from, in that unique way a wine is when it only has one area where it is comfortable growing. And then sometimes it seems like we are dealing with a perfume manufacturing mentality; crank out another flavor, give us something sexy for the camera, can you show us some skin? More toast. More velvet, more color, more money, more stuff. Less substance.
Who can you turn to? What can you trust in?
Salespeople rattle about this wine and that wine like it is the latest laundry detergent or smart phone. What happened to the old gang who loved the camaraderie and the product? Sure there might be an incentive here or there, but what about the thrill of the game, not the urgent flavor of the moment? What about the soil? The vine? The grape?
These wines are now like trophies, everything is a treasure, without the hunt. We want a pretty wife; we get the doctor to make her prettier. We want to be cool, we get a fast car. We want to sell, we quote a score.
What about all those Italians in our veins and our DNA, looking out from generations past, what would they think of this moment?
I think we are at a crossroads and it is a crucial time for the wines of Italy and her relationship to the American market. Where's a good place to start? How about less marketing pesticide ? more plowing in the trenches of the heart.
There have been missteps. I hope for steps out of the darkness towards a future that swings back to authenticity and integrity.
This is a dry, slightly sparkling wine, with a pleasent, rich, complex aroma. A pleasure to sniff and taste, there’s a fruity note and there’s quite an undefined spicy note, definitely requires another bottle of researching . The producer specifies it as a wine “with characteristic Muscat taste and smell carrying combination of spicy tones of incense, cinnamon, basil and fruit tones of pine apple and strawberry”.
Although it does have the muscaty taste it’s a dry wine, but still does go well with desserts such as nutty cakes. Also goes well with lighter meat dishes and on it’s own.
The Ivanovi? winery is a winery with a long tradition, one of those where the younger generation has embraced it’s ancestry recipes and combined it with modern trends. Some of the details are available online. It is located in the ?upa region in southern Serbia.
So, I know this is really only exciting to me because you don't know me, but I had to shout it off somewhere. I got into university! In September I start a degree in Oenology and Viticulture, at Plumpton college. I can't wait!
Also, UK wine fans, LoveThatWine is a great site for looking up wines, prices, styles, reviews etc. Enjoy :)
98 points Parker: 'The 2004 Harlan Estate is probably the most precocious and accessible Harlan Estate that this perfectionist team has made. Already compelling, the wine has notes of roasted coffee, charcoal, blackberry, spring flowers, and some background sweet, toasty notes. Dense, fleshy, exuberant, even flamboyant by the standards of Bill Harlan, this wine exhibits no jaggedness or rough edges, has relatively high tannins, but they melt away on the palate. The wine is sensationally well-endowed, long, and rich ? a tour de force in winemaking. They can do no wrong at Harlan, and it is obvious, even in the most challenging vintages such as 1998, that this estate is a true grand cru/first growth, making wines of irrefutable world-class quality. Of course, none of this comes cheap, as the price is now moving up into the league with Screaming Eagle, but there are no shortage of takers."
PAUMANOK CHENIN BLANC from Long Island got a nice plug by New York Times wine writer Eric Asimov on his wine blog (The Pour). He noted that there aren?t many good American chenin blancs, but Paumanok?s ?stands out as delicious on almost any scale you choose?it has weight and presence without being heavy or big?a combination of lemon, apples and honey, yet was thoroughly dry with a refreshing acidity?.
Randy Hall, in response to our report that American Wine Wholesalers claim they are saving lives by making sure no tainted wine hits the shelves, answered the question I forgot to answer. Namely, How exactly do those amazing wholesalers actually check each and every bottle of wine to make sure it isn't tainted, thereby saving countless lives?
His Answer? X-RAY WINE GOGGLES!!
And he's right. Why it's downright amazing the kind of space age technology that can be developed when you are flush with dough due only to your state-granted monopoly. And now you can have your own, genuine set of WSWA X-RAY WINE SPECS.
People want to have fun when they go out to dinner. Jorge Eduardo Castillo suggests some creative ways to provide his guests an unexpectedly fun experience.
How does one follow up a lunch like the last one? With an appointment to visit an important cellar in the historical center of Alba. Our visit with Ceretto came to an end and we pressed one last espresso into the remaining space we had. Then a few thanks you's and buon lavoro's and a brief walk back to the parked car, to ply the meter with more time. I gave a call to Cesare Benvenuto over at Pio Cesare and begged for directions. ?No problem, walk 100 or so meters down the street from where you are, turn left and it is on the right. Ring the bell and I?ll meet you at the gate.? Huh? No madcap driving through the cobbled streets of Alba to a countryside vineyard? No mud? No stoplights? No getting lost? On time, this time? Was I finally getting the hang of the Langhe?
Young Cesare greeted us warmly at the portal of the Pio Cesare winery. This was a winery that the town of Alba grew up around. How many times had I walked around the town and never knew the winery that slaked around underneath the ancient bricks. All very interesting to realize an historical operation was so cleverly concealed. As if the act of making wine was the most important aspect. Note to Napa: Hide a winery in the middle of St. Helena and make it a seminal one. No tee shirts, no restaurant, no Godfather?s desk. Hmm?
Once inside, we were led past two statues of Italian greyhounds while a little yippy-type dog protected Nona?s garden. Yes there is a matriarch, and her presence gracefully looms over the compound. Cesare remarks that it is only recently that he has moved into his own living space outside the walls. He is starting a family and needs a backyard and room to grow his brood.
Time out: During this recent trip everyone we have met and spent time with has been in their early 30?s. Where are their parents, my contemporaries? Not that I cannot communicate with the younger ones, in fact I often prefer it. But where are they? Have they retired? Are they all on vacation? Do they not feel the urge to stay in the game? Or is that so very American of me, to persevere like an eno-centric Satchel Paige while my colleagues have long gone to the showers? I?m not that old, am I?
In the tasting room, little details of a long life of the winery surface. This is a quaint stop; I would have never thought the Pio Cesare winery to embrace such tradition and to enshrine it along the walls and in the cellars. It?s like finding an old battleship in the depths and then exploring the galleys looking for things left behind.
A tour of the winery. When one goes to places like Rome and sees the excavations of the floor of the ancient city 20-30 feet below the modern city, does anyone else wonder how in that time it was buried below centuries of dust? So it was at this winery, though only a few feet separated the original winery from modern times. Still, two feet is a lot. But Alba has been growing up lately.
Then we run into Rome. About eight feet below we encounter a wall the Romans built over 2,000 years ago.
Turn a corner and here we find a vine planted by Cesare?s great grandfather, in the cellar. Modern day building has formed a roof over what was once an open area, but the vine is established and grows up the dark wall towards the light. These are things one doesn?t often see in a winery, anywhere.
We are walking in a working museum.
In the area where the wine is boxed and prepared to ship, Cesare's uncle Augusto runs by, recognizes me slightly, says hello and proceeds to conquer Russia and Singapore with his wine. So I?m not the only silverback working today. Business is good, the world is flat, seize the opportunity, Augusto.
My young colleague and Cesare hit it off; they have similar trajectories in the wine business and are also in the process of assembling their families. By the time this is written, Cesare should be a proud papa.
After hitting the lowest level of the cellar, where the old wines still rest, we headed back up to taste through the range of wines that are in release. I did my due diligence for the work related business; after all we represent the winery in several states. Those notes are not for these pages, though I will say that the 2004 vintage in Piedmont for Barolo and Barbaresco is stunning. I am breathless when tasting these wines. These are classic wines, in general, and I recommend collectors (young ones) to snag some.
?What are you doing for dinner?? Cesare asks. It is our last night in Italy on this trip, and we have had many, too many, wonderful meals. I am beginning my downward spiral to a state of puny, which persists to this time. ?Please let me take you to a little place in the country that my friends run.? Italians are so graceful. ?No, it is no problem, this is the life we have chosen, please let?s make your last night better by spending some time together.?
We meet at the bottom of the road from where we are staying in Castiglione Falletto and it is a short ride to the restaurant. Il Vignale is located in Roddi, between La Morra and Alba.
It is a restaurant and a country home, with 6 guest rooms starting at ?75.00 for a double. This is a find. And the restaurant and cellar are outstanding. The menu changes with the seasons, but is extremely reasonable. The wine list is just a sampler of what rests in the cellar. Go here, stay here, eat here, make love here.
So after a huge day and a great finish, we headed down to the cellar for a little Barolo Chinato and a farewell to Alba. Cesare and chef Manola along with his partner Rossano led us down through the kitchen into the cellar, where treasures after treasure of red wines from the Langhe, and beyond, slept in peace. A gravel floor and another private cellar (reserved for special wines and foods) were situated beyond where we settled. A little Chinato, a little grappa, a shot of espresso to make the road down passable and that was our night.
As we headed back to Bricco Rocche and our rooms, Cesare led the way so we wouldn?t get lost. We stopped at a road he indicated would get us up to Castiglione Falletto. We then said goodbye and headed up the road a few feet and stopped, waiting for Cesare?s car to disappear. It seemed he had led us to the wrong road (we had gotten lost a few times so we knew when we weren?t on the right road). Then we proceeded to the correct road and raced to tuck ourselves into the comfortable little beds on top of the hill. We were in the right place at the right time.
I did a search on Google Scholar for wine. A lot of articles were returned in the search result. At first glance, I could not figure out why these results had been returned. At closer inspection, the author of the first few articles had the last name of Wine.
RH Wine has written many articles in the field of biology. JJ Wine has authored many papers on Cystic fibrosis. RN Wine writes on topics in the field of toxicology. These are just three of the authors with results dominating my search for wine on Google Scholar.
I changed my search in Google Scholar from wine to red wine. The first scholarly article returned in my search for red wine was ?Inhibition of oxidation of human low-density lipoprotein by phenolic substances in red wine?. This article was published in 1993 in the British edition of Lancet.
An article entitled ?The red wine phenolics trans-resveratrol and quercetin block human platelet aggregation and eicosanoid synthesis: implications for protection against coronary heart disease? was published in Clinica Chimica Acta in 1995. There were five authors cited on this paper.
The American journal of clinical nutrition published ?Consumption of red wine with meals reduces the susceptibility of human plasma and low-density lipoprotein to lipid peroxidation? in 1995. This paper has been cited over two hundred times. The author credited with writing it is B Fuhrman.
There were over sixteen thousand results returned when I did my Google Scholar search for red wine. The article entitled ?Antiplatelet activity of synthetic and natural resveratrol in red wine? is another article that has been cited many times. The International journal of tissue reactions published this article in 1995 and now it has been cited 116 times.
The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry published an article in 1980 entitled ?Wine aroma composition: identification of additional volatile constituents of red wine?. The article has been cited five times. The author, P Schreier, has also written an article entitled ?Flavor composition of wines: a review?.
Compassion and California wine-making skills have combined to create a home for 90 mentally disabled "students" of all ages and to craft some surprisingly good wine. Coco Farm, founded in the 1950s, has been making wine since the 1980s, using mentally-challenged students to tend the vines, harvest the grapes, and perform a range of responsibilities from labeling to scraring crows away from the vines. In 1989, the winery brought in Sonoma wine-maker, Bruce Gutlove and the quality of the wine has been improving. So much, in fact, that Coco Winery's sparkling wine, "Novo," was served at the recent G-7 Summit of world leaders.
Coco Farm and Winery is located about one hour north of Tokyo. Because of its small production-just 150,000 to 180,000 bottles annually-Coco wines are not available in the United States. However, the winery welcomes visitors and has a tasting room and cafe.
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Orogeny Russian River Valley Chardonnay 2004 $22 Rabbi Tuchman says: We were invited to a friends house for lobster on Father’s day. Yeah, it’s a tough gig. Since we tend to drink more red wine, it was my mission to pick up some Chardonnay while I was out shopping for the meal. I tend to struggle [...]
2005 Domaine Louis Boillot et Fils, Gevrey-Chambertin Medium-plus colour with plenty of purple at the rim. High tones of violets over blackberry fruit and faint earth. In the mouth it’s got reasonable concentration but lovely flavours of black cherry jam edged with faint oak toast. Fine balance and a subtly penetrating length. [...]
2006 Muga Roija Blanco $12.99 Wine label said: Nothing much… it’s barrel fermented and imported by Jorge Ordonez. Whoopdeedoo. Vineyard66 says: As I am still researching Spanish wines, I’ve noticed that my good friend Bill from California has been spouting off about Muga Roija. Of course, he was speaking about the red wines the area is famous for. I [...]
This is another dry red wine from the sunny ?emovsko valley near Podgorica, Montenegro. We’ve covered a few wines from the Planta?e winery in the past and this is probably the poorest of their wines, without much character. Enjoyable only with a meal.
The difference in perception of this wine and the Dulka Cabernet we just covered is quite huge - the wine makers from Fru?ka Gora do seem to know how to add some magic to their wines and add a special touch to it (OK, it costs twice as much, but is well worth it!).
Score: 5/10 Price: 240 RSD (?3) Retailer: Widely available in Serbia and Montenegro
Tasted by PatrikO. Full throttle, packed with fruit and with a beautiful nose. Best Turriga I've had. Ready to drink now. (92 pts.) - Tasted 5/19/2008. [FIND IT!]
Once again, I’m pleased to say that this little blog has been chosen as a finalist in the Winery Blog category of the 2008 American Wine Blog Awards. Steady, here’s the sales pitch: if you like what you’ve read here; if you have learned or laughed or even just shaken your head in utter disbelief because of this blog; if you can admit to your friends and colleagues that you do read this blog, then would you vote for it? And while you’re at it, would you ask those same friends and colleagues to vote, too??:) Take a look at the other deserving finalists in this category (many of which are my own faves), and in the other categories as well. There’s great stuff happening in the wine blog world—this is your chance to check it out!! Voting starts March 21 & ends March 28. Click here to vote.
'An onsite accident occurred at Wirra Wirra yesterday following the collapse of a fermenting tower at our winery in McLaren Vale. A number of fermenters, tanks and a presses have been damaged, resulting in some loss to our 2008 vintage.
'We are currently working closely with the authorities and SafeWork SA to assess the full extent of the damage.
'We’d like to extend our thanks to all the emergency services whose quick action and professionalism were outstanding. Our thoughts are with our young cellar hand who is currently in a serious, yet stable condition at Flinders Medical Centre. We are pleased to hear that he is making positive progress.
'While it is difficult to determine at this time the full extent of wine lost, it is significantly less than has been reported. Some of the wine in tank may still be salvageable, while offers of fruit from growers to offset the loss have been coming in thick and fast. Whilst the loss of wine is important to our business, clearly the safety and welfare of our staff is of greatest priority at this time.
'Workplace safety for all our staff is of paramount importance at Wirra Wirra, and we are thankful no more serious injuries were sustained.
'We’d also like to extend our thanks to the winemaking community of McLaren Vale and our neighbouring districts who have rallied round with offers of help and well wishes; we have been extremely touched by their support and generosity.
Trott produced the first vintage of Church Block back in 1972 “with a little help from his friends”. It looks like history will repeat itself in 2008.'
BREAKING NEWS: 3.13PM AEST March 6 2008
McLaren Vale winery, Wirra Wirra, earlier today suffered considerable damage to its winery when a number of 45,000 litre fermenters collapsed, causing damage to some tanks and presses, and a significant loss of vintage 2008 must and wine.
One cellar hand sustained minor injuries, however no serious injuries have been reported.
The winery has temporarily been shut down, and staff are working with officials to ascertain the full extent of the damage.
Wirra Wirra is unable to determine when the winery will be up and running again.
Alfonso Cevola was asking me last night if I knew of any other good places to stay in the Verona area -- besides the friendly Conca d'Oro B&B that I wrote about after Vinitaly (click here) and the beautiful Alla Colombara (click here). I told him I did and he urged me to write about it. I happily comply; I'm long overdue writing about Villa Monteleone. If the name seems familiar, it will be because I have written about the classy wines of Lucia Raimondi before. Her house is a...
I?ve just spent a few hours researching some wines Susan and I are tasting next week. Well, attempting to research would more appropriately describe this exercise in frustration. I?m still astonished how many winery websites are hard to find, poorly laid out, and then give little or no information. Sometimes I dig through page after page after page and finally discover a two-line tasting note ? how exciting.
To all you wineries, if you think this amount of information will have wines flying off the shelves, think again. First of all, by the time most consumers are looking up a wine on the Internet they?ve already tasted it, so they?re after more detail than ?black cherries and leather.? And could you include just a few words on your different vintages? Your 2001 tasting notes are getting a little dated. Besides, I?m sure your 2006 will taste different ? different weather, different harvest conditions, different wine.
How about a little technical information? French Oak or American Oak for example. A few lines covering pH, harvest dates, Brix at harvest, and residual sugar would be nice. Wine geeks will love you and talk up your wines ? free promotion.
I?d also think you would have your labels available for download ? after all, your design person?s already done the graphics in digital format, so just get a copy. Buyers could then print the label and take it to their favorite store as a reminder of what they?re looking for. Wine reviewers would be able add a label to their review or blog ? more free promotion. People could share copies with their friends and family: look at this great wine I just found. Even more free promotion.
People viewing your site aren?t usually there to read all about the owners and how wonderful they are ? at least not at first. Surprise ? top of most people?s hit list are the wines themselves. What grape varieties? What quantities in your Bordeaux style blend? Can we have a little story on the style of wines you are trying to produce? Who is the winemaker and what?s their philosophy, experience, and technique. What does your winery look like ? a picture or two might be nice especially for the folks buying your wine who live across the country.
Oh, and some way of getting a hold of you would be nice ? an email address or phone number would be cool. How can you except to answer questions ? like ?where do I buy your wines?? Or maybe you just like seeing your wines sitting in the warehouse.
None of this actually takes that much effort. Really, it doesn?t. All you need to do is spend a little time and money on your website to make it stand out among the rest. If you want to see what I mean, here are links to a couple of websites that get it right.
Arrow Leaf Cellars in BC?s Okanagan has a site that?s easy to negotiate and includes a contact list, newsletter, pictures of the vineyard, and a great tech sheet. There?s even info on screw caps with a link to the New Zealand Screwcap Wine Seal Initiative ? just in case you haven?t been converted yet.
Down under, Peter Lehmann Wines has another fantastic site ? history, descriptions of the area, info about the winemakers and the wines. After spending time on the site, you want to buy rush out to the store and buy a bottle or two.
And to the winery in Australia who will not put info on their web site because it is too ?techie,? it?s time to get with the Digital Age. You say you?d rather have people come to the cellar door to get info than surf the Net. Yeah, right. I?ll just hop on a plane from Canada right away. Lots of luck selling wines in our local market and no reviews from this quarter. SUSAN'S NOTE:
I confess, I have a severe love/hate relationship with the web. I admire Frank?s ability to search through layers and layers until he comes up with some nugget of information, but I certainly don?t share it. No results after a couple of Google searches and I?m on to something else. And sites that give me no contact information put me into orbit ? Frank usually doesn?t even bother telling me about them any more because then he has to listen to my usually loud, always colourful verbal tirades.
However, one interesting thing did come out of his visit to the ?We don?t believe in an Internet presence? Aussie site. Our debate on whether the owner was simply stupid or was being blatantly arrogant was lively, thoroughly entertaining, and will certainly keep them at the top of our ?Do Not Visit or Buy From? list for a long, long time. FYI: arrogant won hands down.
Note: Photos show the Arrow Leaf Cellars' vineyards and porch area. Wine bottles show Arrow Leaf's Zweigelt and Peter Lehmann's Semillon. Enjoy.
Winslow welcomes winery By BILL DUHART ? Courier-Post Staff ? April 29, 2008
Larry Sharrott III, left, and Larry Sharrott Jr. pose for a portrait in the tasting room of Sharrott Winery, Tuesday, April 15, 2008 in Winslow. (Douglas M. Bovitt/Courier-Post)
WINSLOW ? For Pam Merkey, another wine-maker in the neighborhood was nothing to raise an eyebrow about.
"We all make wine around here," said Merkey, who lives on South Egg Harbor Road here in the Blue Anchor section of the township. "This is a very strong Italian community. We all visit each other's houses on Sundays to taste each other's wine."
But when the chance came for a relative to sell 34 acres of land that had been in her husband's family for generations to an upstart commercial wine operation, the family jumped at it.
"They could have sold that . . . and split it up but they didn't," said Merkey, 47, a residential development banker. "It got to stay what it is and that's a lot better than five houses out there."
That's the way Larry Sharrott III and his father Larry Sharrott Jr. feel about it. The Sharrott farm bucks a recent trend in a township shedding its farming identity for rapid residential growth. Residential land makes up 76 percent of the taxable property here, compared to only 5 percent for farms.
The Sharrotts, computer technicians by trade who have an affinity for distilling spirits, bought the land in 2003 for $175,000.
The winery offers 10 varieties of wine showcased in a 450-square-foot tasting bar atop a plateau with a patio overlooking the vineyard. The tasting bar is part of a 2,500-square-foot building that also houses the winemaking operation with grapes grown in the vineyard.
"We see ourselves as a bulkhead against development," said Sharrott Jr., 60, a retired computer executive. "They call this the Garden State but most of the gardens are turning into somebody's backyard."
"We're preserving open space and our farm is a new business for the township," added Sharrott III, 33, whose day job is at defense contractor Lockheed Martin.
The property, once an apple orchard, is zoned rural and restricted to one house per 10 acres of land, which officials said is not likely to change. But it had been vacant for several years.
"No question, it's something everyone welcomes," said Ed McGlinchey, township zoning officer and director of public works. "It's pretty obvious we had a big influx of single-family homes stretching back to the 1960s. Times were great for the residential building community."
But a sewer connection ban in the rapidly growing township has put a cap on new growth. Eighty-one percent of Winslow is in the environmentally protected Pinelands preserve. The Sharrott farm is in the Pinelands but farms are exempt from many of the restrictions.
"It takes a lot longer to get other types of businesses approved and its a lot more expensive," McGlinchey said. "We're not going to get a huge amount of taxes from the winery, but it keeps with the traditional character of the township."
Read the rest at: http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080429/NEWS01/804290373/1006/news01
Reach Bill Duhart at (856) 486-2576 or bduhart@courierpostonline.com
Tecnorati
Add to that the looming issue with Italian wines: Who can you trust?
This whirlwind in Tuscany is finally reaching the shores of America. Already in New York and out West there is rumbling. Pushback. Wayback. The midsection of the US has been rabbit punched for eight grueling years and we need a moment. To pay our bills, to recalibrate. To gather some hope for ourselves.
Let?s talk about wine. I was with a young one who lived in Southern Italy for four years and just returned home to Texas. We were tasting wine and she remarked about a winery in Campania, ?I don?t remember their white wine tasting so buttery and smooth and international.? I hadn?t thought about it, I was too busy plowing on through the year, when out of the mouth of babes came a truth. She was right. Last week, in New York, I was having dinner with an old friend and we were talking about the very same thing. ?Yeah, I talked to one of the owners and asked him how it was going. Do you know what his answer was? Our wines are very popular. Not, our wines are a reflection of our land. But, our wines are appealing.? Oh really?
I was in Italy last month, tasting Barolo and Barbaresco. For what seem like hundreds of years now I have tasted Nebbiolo, what a rollercoaster ride! Sometimes the wines are a reflection of where they come from, in that unique way a wine is when it only has one area where it is comfortable growing. And then sometimes it seems like we are dealing with a perfume manufacturing mentality; crank out another flavor, give us something sexy for the camera, can you show us some skin? More toast. More velvet, more color, more money, more stuff. Less substance.
Salespeople rattle about this wine and that wine like it is the latest laundry detergent or smart phone. What happened to the old gang who loved the camaraderie and the product? Sure there might be an incentive here or there, but what about the thrill of the game, not the urgent flavor of the moment? What about the soil? The vine? The grape?
These wines are now like trophies, everything is a treasure, without the hunt. We want a pretty wife; we get the doctor to make her prettier. We want to be cool, we get a fast car. We want to sell, we quote a score.
What about all those Italians in our veins and our DNA, looking out from generations past, what would they think of this moment?
This is a dry, slightly sparkling wine, with a pleasent, rich, complex aroma. A pleasure to sniff and taste, there’s a fruity note and there’s quite an undefined spicy note, definitely requires another bottle of researching 
. The producer specifies it as a wine “with characteristic Muscat taste and smell carrying combination of spicy tones of incense, cinnamon, basil and fruit tones of pine apple and strawberry”.
How does one follow up a lunch like the last one? With an appointment to visit an important cellar in the historical center of Alba. Our visit with Ceretto came to an end and we pressed one last espresso into the remaining space we had. Then a few thanks you's and buon lavoro's and a brief walk back to the parked car, to ply the meter with more time. I gave a call to Cesare Benvenuto over at 
Young Cesare greeted us warmly at the portal of the Pio Cesare winery. This was a winery that the town of Alba grew up around. How many times had I walked around the town and never knew the winery that slaked around underneath the ancient bricks. All very interesting to realize an historical operation was so cleverly concealed. As if the act of making wine was the most important aspect. Note to Napa: Hide a winery in the middle of St. Helena and make it a seminal one. No tee shirts, no restaurant, no Godfather?s desk. Hmm?
In the tasting room, little details of a long life of the winery surface. This is a quaint stop; I would have never thought the Pio Cesare winery to embrace such tradition and to enshrine it along the walls and in the cellars. It?s like finding an old battleship in the depths and then exploring the galleys looking for things left behind.
Then we run into Rome. About eight feet below we encounter a wall the Romans built over 2,000 years ago.
We are walking in a working museum.
After hitting the lowest level of the cellar, where the old wines still rest, we headed back up to taste through the range of wines that are in release. I did my due diligence for the work related business; after all we represent the winery in several states. Those notes are not for these pages, though I will say that the 2004 vintage in Piedmont for Barolo and Barbaresco is stunning. I am breathless when tasting these wines. These are classic wines, in general, and I recommend collectors (young ones) to snag some.
It is a restaurant and a country home, with 6 guest rooms starting at ?75.00 for a double. This is a find. And the restaurant and cellar are outstanding. The 
So after a huge day and a great finish, we headed down to the cellar for a little Barolo Chinato and a farewell to Alba. Cesare and chef Manola along with his partner Rossano led us down through the kitchen into the cellar, where treasures after treasure of red wines from the Langhe, and beyond, slept in peace. A gravel floor and another private cellar (reserved for special wines and foods) were situated beyond where we settled. A little Chinato, a little grappa, a shot of espresso to make the road down passable and that was our night.
This is another dry red wine from the sunny ?emovsko valley near Podgorica, Montenegro. We’ve covered a few wines from the Planta?e winery in the past and this is probably the poorest of their wines, without much character. Enjoyable only with a meal.
