The Warden: Georgetta Dane blends at the Big House.

posted by Gregory in Snooth, Wine Industry, Wine

Snooth was happy to be able to host The Big House Wine Company’s winemaker, Georgetta Dane, while she was making the rounds here in New York last week.

Georgetta, originally from Romania and trained in food sciences as well as oenology, happened to fall into the wine business in her home country but is certainly making a name for herself while defining the style at Big House wines.

Some of you might associate the Big House label with the irrepressible Randall Graham who founded the brand. For some two years now it’s has been functioning independently of Mr. Grahams Empire with the desire to continue to provide complex and interesting wines at affordable prices. One way of keeping the value proposition in balance is to avoid competing for the big money wines, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in particular.

In their place Georgetta and Big House wines rely on a vast palette of grapes, 42(!) in total. By drawing on the nuances from each grape, Georgetta builds wines of quality and consistency, a difficult challenge indeed.

While speaking with Georgetta, we were able to review her winemaking philosophy, which she compares to a perfumer.  Each varietal wine at Big House is vinified separately, with the exception of the Big House Pink which is produced via the saignée method, bleeding some pink juice from many vats of fermenting red wines to alter the juice to solids ratio in those reds, adding some oomph to the reds and providing a complex base for the wonderful “Pink” they produce.

Once each wine has finished fermenting Georgetta begins the intricate task of creating the final blend that will become either the Big House White or the Big House Red. In the case of the red there may be over 20 varieties in that final blend. The base is always a big, bold wine full of dark fruits. To that base Georgetta adds a middle drawn from “Italian varieties” that are valued for their “ insane fruit that brings harsh tannins but they disappear into the base.” The final layer of the wine consists of the top notes contributed by perfumed and spicy varieties, perhaps even a floral white to add some lift to the nose.

The process is repeated for the white in much the same manner yielding wines that are full yet deliver a remarkable amount of complexity and even finesse at their price points.

There are two tiers of wines produced by the Big House Wine Company, located in Soledad California with vineyards that surround the Soledad State penitentiary, hence the name. The original Big House wines: White, Pink and Red, represent the “lower tier” while the more distinctive offering: The Birdman, The Lineup, The Slammer, and The Prodigal Son, are the “upper tier”. In addition the Big House Wine Company also represents the Cardinal Zin brand which was sold by Randall Graham along with the big house wines.

While these wines offer great value and are lovely on their own and with food I am hopeful that Georgetta might some day have a free hand with some of the varietals she currently works with. I look forward to trying her, Charbono, Tempranillo and Teroldego!

2008 Big House White

This is surprisingly aromatic with a base of apricot fruit topped with very floral notes that recall viognier and a bright lemon drop tone that is complimented by bay leaf, herb, and powdered sugar notes. Medium full in the mouth with enough acidity to balance the touch of sweetness here. A bit simple in the mouth, it’s pretty front loaded but does return some nice floral character on the moderately long finish. 84pts.

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2008 The Birdman Pinot Grigio

A nice note of almond milk greats the nose followed by a grassy, dandelion note that is more wildflower than green grass. In the mouth there is almost a hint of minerally tannin here with decent acids supporting a round but well balanced mouth feel with nice kiwi fruit and a minty top note that leads to a clean, spicy finish of decent length. 86pts

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Big House Pink 2008
Still a touch tanky on the nose with some floral notes and lightly jammy strawberry fruit that picks up a bit of nuanced spice, tea, sandlewood and juniper berry. In the mouth this is bright and juicy with a lean, crisp feel that partners well with the slightly earthy, tarry spice tones. Not a fruit bomb but with fresh strawberry and a hint of peach. 87pts
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Big House Red 2006

A touch grassy at first but then gaining a bit more of an earthy edge that evolves into a dried floral tone. Fairly nice wild red berry fruit on the nose with a core of grapy and lightly gamy tones. The bright acids in the mouth help to support nice sour berry flavors and the modest, if slightly angular, tannins add volume in the mouth with a salty, mineral tang on the back end that leads to a surprisingly long finish. A very solid table wine with character. 86pts

The Lineup 2006

A Grenache/Syrah/Mourvedre blend
Very perfumey nose with subtle gamy undertones supporting blue fruits and a snappy Syrah element with a a nice hint of sisal and dried flowers. Nicely balanced in the mouth with a fresh lively feel and intense juicy red berry fruits with hints of spices, cigar box, leather and black pepper adding nice complexity to the black plum fruit on the finish. 86pts

The Slammer Syrah 2006

Another nicely perfumed nose with pepper, tar, wood spice violets and maple bacon all adding depth to the blackberry fruits. Bright and crisp in the mouth with a touch of woodspice brownie up front followed by sweet, but not sugary, red fruits that have a nice vegetal/violet top note that gains intensity but is not off-putting since it offers nice contrast to the fruit. A nice balance of flavors though this does finish a touch short. 87pts

The Prodigal Son Petit Sirah 2006

This smells nicely earthy with a slight edge of char right out of the bottle. Big black grape skin and blueberry fruit are edged with hints of petrol, powdered sugar and bay leaf. This is round and fleshy with plenty of acid to help support the red cherry fruit and nice sandpapery tannins that add a hint of astringency to the mouthwatering mid-palate.  With that blueberry dichotomy of sweet and sour this remains lively in the mouth with good length and volume and a nice finish with a touch of asphalt and hint of woody mintiness reinforcing the slightly rustic quality of the wine. 88pts

Cardinal Zin 2006

A touch stewy on the nose with slow to open notes of macerated cherry with hints of cocoa, pipe tobacco, coconut and eucalyptus. Supple in the mouth with good acids and slightly chewy tannins that are well integrated in the dark wild plum fruits. The back end shows a bit more spicy and wood tones with a touch of woody astringency that adds to the red currant fruit tones on the final. A well rounded and well behaved Zin. 86pts

Gregory Dal Piaz

Community Manager

Snooth

Views from Italy

posted by Gregory in Snooth, Wine Industry, Wine

I’ve been documenting much of my days here via posts on the Snooth Forum but to add some color I thought I’d do a little blogging so without further ado, a few photos from the top of the boot.

You can follow along my travels in more detail here, but I’ll briefly put a few of these photos in context

When I arrived in Italy I went basically from the airport to the Sella estate in Lesson, Northern Piedmont. We tasted a few wines with Cristiano the winemaker before visiting the summer home of the Sella family, now siting preserved but unused. A photo from thetop floor balcony shows the warmth here, check out the palm tree, as well as the encrouchment of housing that has virtually replaced the vineyards in this area.

Sella makes wines from Lessona and Bramaterra, The soil in Bramaterra includes sand of volcanic origin and some decomposed porphyr but the sand, and rock it’s derived from accounts for the significant differences between the two wines. both wines are made in a very traditional way and are aged in the Sella cellars in large, neutral wood, though some new oak has been used on some wines.

I’ll of course add tasting note for the sella wines soon but we had a great visit and i know a shipment of wines is on way to the US as we speak so I hope you al keep an eye out for them.

Our Next day began with a visit with one of my favorite producer, Mauro Mascarello of Giuseppe Mascarello. We tasted the line-up chez Mascarello along with renowned Italian journalist Franco Ziliani. As usual this was a high point of my trip. The wines were great, as they tend to be. We toured the cellar after the tasting where, among other gems, lay future vintages of the famed single vineyard Monprivato aging comfortably in their large wood botte.

Of course it could be argued that these large ovals aren’t really large botte. I don’t think that Franco and Mauro were actually arguing that while we took a look at these really large botte, out of commission for over a decade but still a fixture in the winery!

The botte are not the only contains that are throwbacks to another era found in the Mascarello cantina. Both 13.5 liter quarter brentas and these awfully attractive damigiane, look at those tin labels, how cool is that, are still used regulalry to help manage quantities of wines. i want to manage one right into my cellar. Heck, I’ld even take one empty!

Afer the cellar tour we went to da Felicin for a great lunch when we had the chance to blind taste a few great and very surprising bottles of wine. A very humbling experience for all involved as no one really got any right.My guesses from left to right:  1993 La Morra from Rivalta, a 1988 Barolo from Monforte, a 1978 Barolo from Barolo, and finaly a 1974 from who knows. the wines totally outperformed and that was probably due to the fact that they’ve spent all the life in one place after having been moved a few kilometers. What a lovely lunch and a humbling experience.

After lunch we were treated to a tour of the cellar where we got a chance to see some of the wines we didn’t drink. Suffice it to say we had a blast taking a look around at treasures like these.

After lunch, it was a long lunch so after lunch it was 5, we headed back to Alba for the welcome reception for the Alba Wine Exhibition. Along the way we stopped by to take a look at Mauro’s Monprivato vineyard. I have another shot of the vineyard from Cannubi that I’ll post tomorrow but looking north from Monprivato  one can see the wonderful Bricco Boschis estate of the Cavallotto family.  The winery is centered on the top of the ridge and all you see is Bricco Boschis, well pretty much.

Further to the west and a bit further north is Alberto Racca’s tenute Montanello. certainly a new operation but one with roots going back over a hundred. the facilities were once the Cooperative winery for the village of Castiglione Falletto and occupies a wonderful vantage point overlooking some of the great crus of Castiglione.

I’m cheating a bit now as we jump ahead a day to Monday night when we ended up in the village of Barbaresco for an afternoon tasting and dinner at Antica Torre. Since we had about 90 minutes to kill between the tasting and dinner we decided to take a walk out of the south of the village to visit some rather renowned vineyards. For example here we are looking back towards the village and you can see Moccagatta under the houses that line the top of the ridge and beneath that Paje.

Here’s a closer look at Paje. You might notice how lush and verdant the vineyard in the middle is. That’s Roagna’s organically grown vineyard producing exceptional wines while in totally harmony with the naturally occuring ground cover that help to prevent the landslides that have plagued this region recently. Good for the wine, good for the environment and good for the terrain. Why doesn’t every vineyard look like this?

We continued down the road until we came to the fork that divides Faset on the right from Asili on the left. We went up the right hand road and walked up to the top of Bricco Faset. We then went down through the vines and turned back to take this picture of Bricco Asili, just the crown of this hill.

We made it over to the road that heads down through the vines and under Bricco Asili and went around the corner where we ended up under Martinenga with Asili to the left and Rabaja to the right. Perhaps the most important slope in all of Barbaresco and that’s the photo that did not come out! I did however get a photos of these unusually high pruned old vines that lay at the bottom of this famed slope separating these vineyards from the Rio Sordo  which lies just beyond the stand of trees on the background.

We climbed up through Rabaja and Asili and let me tell you I will never forget how steep these vineyards are. It has been a great start to this trip and I have alot more to come. I’ve got some great video of the vineyards as well so help put them all in context. I hope you enjoyed this little bit and I look foward to my next installment. Until then Ciao!

Gregory Dal Piaz

Community Manager

Snooth

A Second Chance - Casa de Sonoma Cabernet Bottled in 1947

posted by Gregory in Snooth, Wine Industry, Wine

It’s not often that one gets a second chance with wines like this.  Way back when, in my early years of wine discovery I had the distinct fortune of being able to patronize a small wine shop in Watermill New York. I forget the name of the shop, Watermill Wines I would guess, but do recall the proprietor, George.

Watermill, being part of the Hamptons, had a split personality in the 1980’s. It was frenetic resort community for 90 days of the year, who can forget Danceteria in Watermill, and a lazy, farming and fishing community for the remainder of the year. A desolate and insular community with modest needs for a fine wine store at that.

Well George took full advantage of his winter doldrums and would rent a trailer and drive his truck out to California each year to stock up on exotic and rare wines. Wines that otherwise would never see the light of a summer day in the Hamptons. Wines that appeared, to the eyes of a budding aficionado, like treasures only seen in the few, out of print, books that together constituted the entire resource for exploring California wines. Wines that short of going to California, or George’s unassuming Watermill wine shop, would have to remain hidden mysteries

And so it was that I first stumbled into George’s, hidden as it was off Montauk highway, in search of something new to excite my palate. Like many shops of the times there were cases of wines artfully arrayed in the front window, albeit with an aged film of yellow plastic, no doubt applied as some magical defense mechanism to protect the inexpensive Chianti and Chablis display wines from the ruinous rays of the sun.

I was then, as I remain today, primarily interested in Italian wines, and let me tell you George’s shop was woefully deficient in that department. But I was nothing if not thorough so I began to scan the rack just beyond the register. Hmmm, this was different. 1974 Heitz Martha’s, 1971 BV Georges de la Tour, 1968 Montebello, some funky bottle of Casa de Sonoma Cabernet bottled in 1947 but just recently recorked. Wow, what was going on here?

Of course the crazy selection got me interested and George took ample time to answer my questions. To make a long story short George took very kindly to a young, enthusiastic wine geek and allowed me to exchange some organizational activities for tremendous discounts on wine. I still have bottles from George like the 1975 Gemello Mountain Cabernet, 1974 Inglenook Charbono and 1977 Montevina Special Selection Zinfandel that were glorious stepping stones on my path to full fledged wine geekdom but I never was able to get him to cut me a deal on those bottles kept close at hand by the register.

The Casa De Sonoma held a particular fascination for me. Bottled in 1947, it said so right on the label, yet recorked and released only in 1982, this would easily be the oldest California wine I would have tried but the price was a breathtaking $40. That’s in 1985 folks, like I said breathtaking. I was 20 and that $40 would have bought cases of beer, heck you could even get a case of wine for that money, and decent wine at that.

I discussed the bottle with George several times, holding it and taking a peak at the shriveled cork attacked to each bottle in a little sack. George told me the story of the wine, or at least a story of the wine. According to George the wine was made by The El Gavilan Winery in 1941 but before it could be bottled WWII broke out and operation at the winery pretty much ceased as all able bodied men were drafted. Once the war came to an end, or at least when the winemakers’ hitch was up, the proprietor of El Gavilan took advantage of the GI bill to better himself.

Well by 1947 the betterment was in full swing and the now defunct El Gavilan Winery was sold to Sebastiani with a few barrels of this 1941 still intact.  It was tasted and deemed to be special enough to warrant bottling but without a reputation, or existing winery, sales of this “premium” wine were dreadfully slow. So slow in fact that in 1982, when the cork had begun to fail there was still enough wine on hand to make recorking worthwhile and during the recorking it was discovered that they had a verifiable California Classic on their hands, worthy of the exorbitant price.

Well it was a great story with a kernel or two of truth to it but as it turns out not the real deal. I was not to discover this for almost 25 years, for while I never bought a bottle of the Casa de Sonoma from George I never forgot that wine.

Imagine my surprise when I noticed a non-vintage Casa de Sonoma listing while scanning Winebid earlier this year.  Clicking on the link confirmed that this was the same wine and the starting bid was $15! There were several lots available and hoping to insure that I got at least one winning bid I placed increasingly high max bids on each lot. With several days to go until the auction closed I could monitor my success and, if need be, raise my bid.

Well I guess I was the only one talking to George about this wine since Sunday came and I won all the bottles I had bid on for $15 each! Even with the buyer’s premium and shipping I was looking at less than $25 per bottle, a steal. Within a couple of weeks the bottles arrived, looking as intriguing as they had almost 25 years ago. I know one is supposed to allow wine to rest after transport, travel shock and all that, but I couldn’t wait so the weekend after they arrived I was toting along a bottle to a gathering of like-minded winegeeks.

Not knowing what lay in store I chose to not decant this wine. The cork, being only 28 years old, was fairly easy to extract intact. Apon first pour the wine had a little too much of a bronze tone than I would have liked to see but with air it actually turned a bit redder and fresher.  On the nose and palate this exhibits a very typical array of very aged notes, faded backing spices, beef bouillon, cola, and dusty earth yet it does retain a core of black fruit and has a surprising fresh and bright feel to it. It is no powerhouse but it’s not dead yet.  It was a thoroughly enjoyable bottle in fact, with enough complexity to remain engaging and as it evolved in the glass one could only wonder what made it’s way into this Duraglass 4/5 quart bottle. And wonder I did.

The next day I was on the phone with Sebastiani. Vineyards. There was that informative sticker on the bottle announcing that my wine was in fact “From the personal cellars of August Sebastiani – Recorked at Sebastiani Vineyards May 1982”. If anyone knew anything it would be Sebastiani.

I spoke with people in the media department as well as the winemaker at Sebastiani and they could offer no information. I thought it strange that this most intriguing and unique wine, perhaps the most intriguing and unique ever from Sebastiani, was now bottiglia non grata. Could I be the keeper of the flame, the holder of the truth, the last man living who had the story? Of course not, I just needed to dig a little deeper.

And deep I dug, discovering an interview conducted in  2000 by Carole Hicke of one Doug L Davis entitled “HISTORY OF SEBASTIANI VINEYARDS, 1955-PRESENT”. It seems that Doug L Davis was the Vice President and Executive Winemaster of Sebastiani. Well, I thought, that’s the man I need to talk with.

Doug spent over 45 years with Sebastiani, choosing to leave in 2003 during the sale of the winery to constellation brands. Tracking him down was fairly easy and I was fortunate to spend about a half hour on the phone with him last month finally finding out the truth regarding this unique bottling of wine.

According to Doug the El Gavilan bottling got it’s name from a Sebastiani property that was in Santa Rosa “down by the railroad tracks.” It was selected lots of 1941 Cabernet that was bottled in 1947 along with other lots of Burgundy, Chablis and Sauternes!

Being 1947, wines labeled as Cabernet needed only to contain 51% Cabernet with the remainder being primarily Zinfandel, Carignane, Petite Sirah and Mondeuse. While these might seem an odd assortment one has to factor in the way Sebastiani weathered the storm of Prohibition: by shipping thick-skinned grapes, (Carignane, Petite Sirah, Mondeuse), throughout the country to home winemakers.

Back then Sebastiani was almost exclusively a bulk operation and the vast majority of the wines they produced were dessert wines, but there were small lots of table wine produced, though even these limited quantities failed to find a market. These earliest table wines were produced during the transitionary period as Sebastiani founder Samuele passed control of the property over to his son August Sebastiani.

Perhaps to make a name for himself, or simply for the heck of it August chose to bottle about 1000 cases of the 1941 Cabernet and chose the Casa de Sonoma label, Casa de Sonoma being the home August had built for himself in 1947.  The wine was bottled in the El Gavilan winery, which was also owned by Sebastiani at that time.

These 1000 cases were then brought to Sonoma and laid down in old stable on the Sebastiani property. Doug’s first exposure to this wine occurred in his first year with Sebastiani as the flood of 1955 required all hands on deck to help move the cases to higher ground! Fortunately, or unfortunately, the wine pretty much just sat there in those stables after that. It was never actively marketed, though it was sold through the winery and given away as gifts.

August Sebastiani passed away in 1980 and when the contents of the winery were inventoried it became apparent that the corks in these bottles had begun to fail so a recorking program was undertaken. Each bottle was inspected, a few were deemed healthy enough to be left alone and were retained by the winery, but the remainder were individually opened and inspected.

The entire lot, which by this point was about half of what had originally been bottled, was sorted out, with spoiled bottles being discarded and sound bottles being topped off and recorked. Each bottle had its original cork and paper capsule placed in a bag and attached to the bottle to help maintain each bottle’s authenticity and historical significance. What was finally released in 1982 was the best of what remained of a wine that was “never great” but did represent a significant effort that was justified only by the high quality that the 1941 vintage represented.

And that’s the real story behind this bottling. It’s a lot of history for one small bottle and a testament to what California was capable of, and achieved half a century ago. I thank Samuele Sebastini for making the wine possible, August Sebastiani for making the wine, and Doug Davis for making sure the story of the wine was not lost to time.

Sometimes you do get a second chance. In this case I also have a third, and a fourth, and a fifth…

P.S. Gotta love that back label. Well chilled indeed!

Gregory Dal Piaz

Community Manager

Snooth

Thursday March 12 - Gundlach-Bundschu’s 151st Anniversary Live

posted by Gregory in Snooth, Wine Industry, Wine, Guest Bloggers

This evening from 7-8 pm EST join us as we join  Jeff Bundschu, live,  to celebrate Gundlach Bundschu’s 151st Birthday! Ask Jeff questions and listen for his responses and make sure you check out their Poetry slam contest detailed below!

Broadcasting Live with Ustream.TV

Here are some of the details from today’s Poetry contest. Details can be found here.

Happy Deed Day! To celebrate the official anniversary of Gundlach Bundschu - March 12, 1858, is the date that Jacob Gundlach signed the deed to our estate and the beginning of our family’s love affair with the land and the vine - we are hosting a writing contest—poetry, essay, paean, haiku, rap lyrics, or whatever may float your boat. Just make it good.

In honor of our 151st anniversary, we invite everyone who is passionate about wine to tell us, in 151 words or less, what is it about wine that stirs your soul?

We will select a handful of winners to grant delicious prizes, and winners and worthy runners up will gain infamy by having their work published on our website and in print. Use the links at left for additional details. For more information on Gundlach Bundschu, click here to return to gunbun.com.

Gregory Dal Piaz
Community Manager
Snooth

The cellar renovation begins.

posted by Gregory in Snooth, Wine Industry

Well I finally got around to starting work on the cellar reconditioning I had been talking about for a few years. The weekend before New Years I spent two entire days fighting the flu while working away in the cold confines of my cellar.

This cellar had done very well for me for years, even though the original racking was built by a carpenter more interested in making his life easy rather than following directions. A large portion of the cellar has bins that while designed to hold 4 or 6 bottles, only hold 3 or 5. I had been able to live with that limitation for quite some time. At first not worrying that one aisle of the cellar was getting cluttered, and then not worrying when the second aisle become cluttered. Earlier this year I came to the horrifying realization that the entire cellar, this wonderful little piece of heaven, had in fact turned into a dungeon!

So I began to make preparations. I sold several cases of wine so that I could buy some new units. The old IKEA shelving units had been fine for a decade and a half but they were neither the most space efficient nor the best solution. They were, quite simply, the cheapest, and cheap has always been good.

Well this year, of all years, cheap was no longer good enough. Bad timing, or should I say Greg timing. With the mess in the cellar I had decided that I would splurge on appropriate racking with the proviso that what did not fit on the new racking was headed out for sale. A proviso with a rather flexible horizon, fortunately, so that I can see exactly when a sale seems reasonable. Fortunately there is plenty of wine in the cellar that I will not miss but that part of the story will be left for the third chapter.

My first problem was finding the right racking. The Aisle racking kits from Grotto Cellars was exactly what I was looking for. Well not exactly. Exactly would have been pre-assembled, in teak, for free. But this was as close as I was going to get. I was able to assemble a fine selection of units from Grotto’s extensive catalog and put together an order that included

5 - Aisle 260 racks

4 - Magnum 30 racks

1- bin rack

1 7-column rack

1- diamond bin rack

All but the bin rack were kits. Kits with lots of parts as it turned out, but I’m jumping ahead.

So I head out to the house above the cellar and I find all my racks boxed up and waiting for me. All 780 pounds of them!

Before I could even think of dragging the boxes down to the cellar I needed to get the cellar ready to receive said racks. No small feat as it were for if you recall the cellar is fairly bursting at the seams. Down I go into the bowels of the house, open the door and am struck by this familiar sight:

Stepping into the cellar and looking around the full scope of this introductory phase of the operation hits home. All the boxes in the aisles need to be moved out! And that is only the beginning!

In addition the only way to properly move the new racking in is to remove the heavily laden old racks, and where in the world are all these bottles, long held in place by these bare-bones IKEA units,  supposed to go?

Well step one would be to clear out the cases and cases of wine that currently blocked my working space in the center of the cellar so off to the side room went the cases, half to the left and half to the right. One half was scary enough:

This Back breaking bit of work left me with a beautiful, broom clean staging area for further work.

And this allowed me to start working on my planned high density tower that included the open 20 bottle bins ( destined to hold 1999 and 2001 Barolo bought in multiple cases quantities), as well as the 10 bottles bins of the diamond rack ( for the remnants of  cases of 1989 and 1996 Barolo cases) as well as the 7 column individual racking for even more Barolo. The open Bins came assembled and the diamond rack was a breeze to screw together while the 7-column rack gave me an idea of what was to come. It doesn’t look imposing, now does it?

And truth be told it took only about 40 minutes to turn it into this.You can see the pre-assembled open bin rack in the background, leaning on the pole that is to anchor the high-density tower.

Once all three elements of the tower were completed, screwed together, and anchored to the pole I was able to off-load the first IKEA rack right into the tower, which is to the left here:

The high-density tower in all it’s glory:

With the tower done I was able to move the empty IKEA unit up against the wall and then off-loaded the second unit back onto the first unit. Once the second unit was empty I dragged it out to the main part of the basement for it’s ignominious future reuse as storage for crap!

I then proceeded with phase 2 of the attack. The assembly of the aisle units. Now while the 7-column rack required about 40 minutes to complete these units took two and a half hours each! So many screws, so many nails, so much bending, sitting on the frigid floor, so many muscle aches, but finally I had gotten somewhere. The units were built in halves and then assembled into a coherent whole. Of course by building these as halves some whole ended up being more coherent than others and it took me 3 units to perfect my system but I can’treally complain about the results.

Here the first units in place as the second unit is completed.  Notice the empty IKEA rack in the foreground.

Once the second unit was in place more Barolo began to be placed in the vast openess of the Aisle 260’s. I am loving the look of these units. Notice how cases of wine have already began to migrate back into the cellar!

Once i had the IKEA units empty and removed from the cellar I was able to complete the third aisle unit, here you can see the two halves before they are joined:

Once the unit was completed this end unit began accepting my Burgundy collection. I do have to say I was a bit disappointed in how the Burgundy bottles were held. It’s really not the fault of Grotto though. They have made the bins wide enough to accept almost any “normal” bottle and the bins are gently inclined to prevent bottles from sliding out but some Burgundy bottles are just unwilling to cooperate. They will have to be relegated to the bottom units. One of the reasons I chose these units from Grotto was because the  case high bins are actually 3 4-bottle bins with a 13th bottle displayed at the top. These 4 bottle bins allow for very flexible storage solutions and are perfect for this part of my collection.

Well that was pretty much phase one. I filled the Burgundy end of the rack as well as possible, considering the time I hed left and the fact that since Burgundy had no space previously, the vast majority of Burgundy was still in boxes scattered about! I got not quite as far as I had hoped during this weekend. While a lot of assemly was completed virtually no inventorying was done and virtually every bottle on the new racking was in the wrong place! But at least I had started. Before leaving for the weeks until my next visit I had to drag back all the boxes I had previously remoived, and will have to remove again for phase three! Uhg!

So even as I sit here my back aches for what will have to be done. The next visit to the cellar will consist of removing all those boxes and assembling an additional 2 aisle 260’s, then re-organizing ALL the wine on the racks while taking inventory, and finally redoing one of the wall rack areas so I can assemble and install my magnum racks. As I close the dorr I am reminded why. Why this is ultimately worth it. Good night cellar.

Gregory Dal Piaz is the Community Manager at Snooth, an avid Wine Geek with a passion for things Italian, and a long suffering Mets fan.

Snooth Panel Tasting Program takes on Argentine Malbec

posted by Gregory in Snooth, Wine Industry, Wine

This past weekend I inaugurated Snooth’s Panel Tasting Program with a line-up of value driven Argentine Malbec. For this first test drive we proceeded in a very casual manner as we all got to know one and other and each person’s tasting style and speed.

I chose the theme and wanted to focus on Argentine Malbec for several reasons. Primary among them is the fact that times are getting tough and people want to know where to turn for value. It is undeniable that there are some compelling values among the wines sampled. The second point of the tasting was to take the pulse of Argentine Malbec.

There has been a virtual explosion in producer available here in the US market. The quality of these wines has never been higher and they are poised to break through in a significant way. Malbec is or will be the “hot” grape of 2008-2010. It was time to take a look at both the state of the grape in Argentina as well as the state of winemaking.

Malbec has a long and storied history in Argentina where it has produced some exceptional wines. Many of the producers now appearing on the US market are relative new comers to the game though they are blessed with many old-vine vineyards to source their fruit from. I was curious to see which path these newer winemakers are following to success, the full throttle, full extraction paradigm popular with jaded critics or something less in your face and  more suitable for the dining table. Perhaps something more representative of the grape, region and history of Argentine viticulture. The results speak for themselves!

Participants in today’s tasting

Stephanie Moreno – Sales Manager Astor Wines & Spirits
Beth Cotenoff – Vice President Cornerstone Communications
Renee Mack – Healthcare Professional
Leonardo Commercio – Manager Vintage Grape NYC
Ryan Hodges – Manager Park East Wines & Spirits.
Gregory Dal Piaz – Community Manager  Snooth

11th Place
2006 San Polo Auka 14.1% Mendoza - $13.00
It was tough for anyone to find anything nice to say about this wine. Stephanie found  “calamine lotion” on the nose. Beth felt it was “burnt and rubbery” while Leo was feeling charitable with “Chartreuse” . The group’s overall assessment was captured by Renee who summed the wine up as “burnt rubber, horrible”. I was alone in  liking this wine, thinking it very much in line with what people want and expect from malbec. Modern, flashy and obviously oaky, it’s not something I’d buy for myself but I know many people who would enjoy this.

10th Place
2007 Finca Flichman 13.5% Mendoza $9.00
This bottling proudly proclaimed it’s 3 months of barrel ageing on the labels but, unfortunately, that overt and clumsy woodiness turned off both Beth who “hated it” and Leo who found both the nose and palate dominated by
“charcoal and rocks”. Stephanie found the nose an improvement with “more intense floral and spice notes”. I also found the nose to be intensely floral and the best feature of the wine.

9th Place
2006 Luigi Bosca Finca La Linda 14% Mendoza $10.00
This sort of slid under the radar with nothing good said about but nothing bad either. It was “fine but boring” according to Beth though Ryan felt it was a “disappointing example” of malbec. I’d have to concur there, decent and acceptable but nothing more.

8th Place
2006 Budini Malbec 13.5% Mendoza $9.00
This was the wine that saw the most divergent opinions among the group. It was the only screw-top finished bottle as well. Coincidence? Leo Loved the “great nose, with fruit, spice, and tar”. That sentiment was not shared by Stephanie who felt the wine was “lean and green”  or Renee who characterized the wines texture and flavor as “Watered down”.  Again I was in the minority with this wine which I felt was light and fresh, a distinct departure from what Malbec usually is but a fine, simple table wine.

7th Place
2006 Navarro Correas Coleccion Privada 14% Mendoza $10.00
With this wine we step across an imaginary line into “big” wines. This certainly packed a big punch with “lots of blueberry” as Beth put it. “We getting big, jammy and hot, but I like it!” was Leo’s take on it and while Ryan felt that the “nose is much better than the palate, a little more rustic on the nose” my opinion mirrored that of the groups. that this was a big wine with lots of fruit but lacking a bit of liveliness and freshness.

6th Place
2005 Punto Final Reserva 14.7% Mendoza $16.00
If the last wine was hot this was on fire! Renee characterized it as “nondescript but I still liked this, it was almost my third best” and Leo felt it was “what people think of when they think of Malbec” but neither Beth nor Stephanie enjoyed the wine, both finding it hot and Stephanie would have expected” the added year in bottle to have mellowed out some of these harsh tannins, it’s just not balanced. I concur,  for me this was a disaster in a bottle overblown alcohol and bitter extracted tannins + vinous mess.

5th Place
2006 Lamadrid Reserve 14.5% Mendoza $15.00
This was an interesting style of wine. It is a classic “fruit bomb” that Leo found to be “clean juicy and round” though Renee commented on the “quite a warm finish, actually pretty hot” which is what I found as well. It was both juicy and hot! As big a fruit bomb as we had in this line-up and if that’s your style this might be a winner for you.

4th Place
2006 Sur de los Andes Reserva 13.9% Mendoza $12.00
I think everyone was impressed with this bottling. Just as with the Navarro Correas there was a jump up in quality with this wine. Stephanie found it to be” very pretty and full of blueberries” while Leo thought it to be “A bit fleshy but also a bit ashy and glue-like, reminds me of pinotage”, which was a refreshing change from all the Malbec that had spoken so loudly of Malbec. Ryan felt this was a” sure crowd pleaser”, a sentiment shared by Renee who found the wine “Enjoyable and made in an easy drinking style”.  I can’t add much, to me this smelled expensive and was a well balanced richly fruited winner!

3rd Place
2006 Familia Schroeder Saurus 14% Patagonia $16.00
Here was the only outlier of the group, A Patagonian Malbec, was it much of a departure from the Mendozan examples? Yes and no, it was made an a more elegant style than the wines that had preceded it with great aromatics of “sweet cinnamon and a little bit of funk” according to Beth, though Leo found too much of a “rubber-band” note on the nose to truly enjoy it. Ryan was intrigued by the cool aromatics of “Tar quality and black fruit”. I enjoyed this wine and I found it interesting that most of the comments regarding it were both positive and about the wine’s nose.

2nd Place
2005 Luigi Bosca Lujan de Cuyo 14.5% Mendoza $16.00
This was an almost exotic wine and was the wine that showed the most evolution over the course of the tasting. Initially the nose was rich in”soft cocoa powder and waxy fruit” according to Stephanie, there was array of notes “interesting aromas from violets to barnyard” as renee put it. Beth sussed out further nuances of  RM “white pepper and chocolate” and then went on the capture the quality that really set this apart” it’s rich but not jammy” as she said and I could not agree more. This is a wonderful wine that melds intensity of flavor and complexity with elegance and nuance. Really an “old world” example of Argentine Malbec and slightly reminiscent of the famous 1977 Weinert Estrella that remains the benchmark for the region.

1st Place
2007 Achaval-Ferrer 13.5% Mendoza $20.00
This very nearly unanimously chosen as the first place wine. It is as pure a wine as one is likely to find from Malbec with “rich blueberries on the palate” as renee put it. Ryan felt this was “Just what you expect when you open Malbec” and Beth characterized the wine as “earthy and leathery with an animally edge and approachable sweet tannins” Both Renee and Stephanie enjoyed the wines bright, friendly character.  For me the complexity of the Luigi Bosca just barely edged this out for first but the liveliness of this wine in the mouth and it’s fine balance make it a winner for sure.

Well that was it. There certainly are many fine examples of Argentine Malbec under $20 and while there seems to be a bit of a price quality corollary here there are wines at $15 or under that can play with the big boys. These are fine, interesting wines and Malbec really has found the right place to express itself in Argentina. As Ryan put it these wines are successful since these are the perfect “New wine drinker wine,affordable,approachable with nothing to be intimidated by”. I was surprised by several of these wines, my notes can be found in the GDP on Wine Forum.

Next up on the agenda: Zinfandel. If you are interested in joining the Snooth Panel Tasting Program please shoot me an email. I am always looking for new members to join in these fun and informative events!  Gregory@Snooth.com

Gregory Dal Piaz is the Community Manager at  Snooth, an avid Wine Geek with a passion for things Italian, and a long suffering Mets fan.  

The sky is falling! What are we to do?

posted by Gregory in Wine Industry, Wine, Guest Bloggers

These are serious times for the world. Our economy is under severe pressure that few of us have ever seen before and they are taking their toll on the world of wine. Large collections of recently acquired wines are being hastily brought to auction to create some liquidity for those heavily invested in this “liquid asset” and the effect on the wine world will be interesting to watch.

Many factors will come into play here, the first being the aforementioned saturation of the auction market, which has already begun. The sheer volume of wine purchased over the past few of years of wealth accumulation is staggering. Far more wine than would ever be consumed was socked away in ever fancier and ever larger custom wine cellars. Just for illustrative purposes the wine cellaring business, which had been about a $15 million business a decade ago grew to an $800 million business last year! The explosive growth of MacMansions with the obligatory wine room helped to fuel this competitive buying binge as keeping up with the Joneses could now be measure on yet another scale, the opulent and extravagant wine collection.

The majority of what was purchased to fill these cellars were the fine wines of Bordeaux, in particular the first and so-called super-second growths, though with a pronounced effect throughout the sector. Wines that had languished on the shelves for $200 are now $1,000. The demand for these wines was overwhelming and came not only from domestic consumers but the emerging markets of both China, and to a lesser extent, Russia.

Bordeaux is a strange beast in many ways, it is unique in that it has long been a commoditized wine. The auction markets have always been dominated by Bordeaux and the large production of the Chateaux, typically over 20,000 cases per year, ensured that there was enough liquidity in those markets to truly allow the market to set the price of these wines. In fact the famous, or infamous depending on your point of view, Bordeaux classification of 1855, establishing the strata still in evidence today, was based apon the relative pricing of each Chateaux at the time.

Interestingly the phenomenon of global warming and technological advances in winemaking have played an integral part in the run-up of prices and can only exacerbate the pending collapse. In the past Bordeaux, like most fine wine regions, was blessed with a few great vintages a decade. The warming climate and the improved ability to deal with challenging vintages has introduced a new paradigm. In the 1990’s both 91 and 92 were pretty dismal vintages but things picked up with good vintages in both 93 and 94, then excellent vintages in 95 and 96, with a slip in 97 that very nearly undid the Bordeaux trade as a crappy vintage met the ill-timed introduction of the new Bordelaise pricing policy, onward and upward! 1998 was a solid vintage, then came 1999, a pretty vintage that in the past may have been barely acceptable but modern know-how saved the day and the exceptionally powerful dollar brought the wines to market at very attractive pricing, a fine introduction to Bordeaux, but then everything went wrong.

2000, the millennial vintage, the first “Vintage of the Century!” of the new century, conveniently ignoring the reality that it was in fact the last “Vintage of the Century!” of the last century. Then 2001 very good, 2002 classic and well priced, 2003 an aberration of a vintage suffering from the sweltering heat of the season but greeted enthusiastically by the critics who thought that the exoticism of the wines was something to fawn over. Why one would want Bordeaux to resemble over-ripe California Cabernet is beyond me, but the hyperbole approached another ‘Vintage of the Century!” call. 2004 was again a vintage that was fine and solid in a classic style if more expensive than the preceding vintage. And then came 2005, “Vintage of the Century!” yet again and at price increases never before seen. “Buy before they become even more expensive” was the rallying call and while interest was huge, purchasing follow through lagged a bit. That is until the Bordelaise pricing model kicked in with the less impressive 2006’s that were priced above the “VotC” 2005s! In New York they call that Chutzpah.

Well if did not stop there and 2007 Bordeaux prices were released just in time to coincide with the meltdown of global markets. This adequate vintage is priced at or around the price of the better 2006s, converting them into yet another screaming buy! So there they are, a plethora of vintages worthy of one’s cellar, some to drink in the short-term and some to cellar so that our grandchildren can enjoy the finest wines of our nascent century. Cellars are full to bursting, the retail pipeline is full to bursting, winemakers’ cellars are full to bursting, and then the world’s economy decided to implode. So where does that leave us and does this all have a point?

Yes and no. Some of this is just my venting, well only a little bit actually. The point is that for all you Bordeaux fans who have been priced out of the market recently salvation is coming. After last week’s collapse on Wall Street a bit of panic selling spread to the fine wine market. Million of dollars worth of wine have been proposed to auction houses and retailers around the globe in just the past week, and that is only the beginning. The effect of this surge in supply has yet to be felt in the marketplace and the auction channels are keeping their fingers crossed that the Asian markets will sop it all up due to their pent-up demand, but our Asian brothers are not dumb. The super rare wines may hold their value or continue to rise due to their illiquid markets but the sheer volume of Bordeaux that is about to come to market almost guarantees significant price reductions, This may take some time to filter through as auction houses modify their policies to keep hammer prices afloat. By reducing their cut from both the buyer and the seller an auction house can keep hammer prices, the final bid proposed by a buyer, level while real pricing, the hammer price plus the cut or buyer’s premium, usually 15-20% tacked on by the auction house, falls.

This is tricky business yet only postpones the inevitable, wine prices, and Bordeaux prices in particular, though there is little hope that the bloated and obnoxious pricing of much of California’s Cabernet will retain their buoyancy, are set to re-adjust in synch with the grand asset devaluation that is sweeping the globe. France is already bracing for a precipitous drop in wine exports, led by the backed up flow of forsaken Bordeaux. Restaurants are dealing with a nation-wide drop in business and are already seeing consumers switch from the super-premium labels so popular over the past few years to more value driven selections.

So they bottom line, and thankfully we are almost at the bottom line here, is that wine prices will suffer a retreat that will once again allow everyone to share in the bounty. For too many years too much wine had fallen into the exclusive domain of the rich. That was not only wrong but it was a shame, something that is lacking in the wine business. This foodstuff, a simple beverage designed to make life a little more pleasant, was elevated to the level of status symbol comparable to Tiffany, Rolex, or Hermes. If you don’t believe that wait for my blog about the problem with counterfeit wines! Well that time is coming to an end, it took a tortuously painful worldwide financial crisis to facilitate it but the long-term prognosis for wine lovers is improving! Keep tuned into the Snooth wine talk pages as I embark on a set of articles that will focus on value wine, wines to drink while we wait for the fine wine market to establish a new, reasonable, affordable pricing structure.Of course some of these value wines are so damn good you may very well feel that there is no reason to pay more for wine, but that is fodder for another discussion.

Gregory Dal Piaz is the Community Manager at  Snooth, an avid Wine Geek with a passion for things Italian, and a long suffering Mets fan.