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Spring takes early fling at wineries
Saturday and part of Sunday were spent traipsing around the sixth annual “Barrel into Spring” wine tasting sponsored by the eight member wineries in the Grand Valley Winery Association.
This year the event again has a second two weekends, with the next coming May 17-18. There might still be tickets ($65 each), call Two Rivers Winery at 255-1471. The event usually sells out, it’s capped at 380 attendees to keep numbers manageable for the sometimes cramped quarters where winemakers are doling out wine and information.
Last year, on what was almost a last-minute whim, the GVWA decided to add a second weekend to appease the long waiting list. Even without much advertising the event still drew close to 100 guests, said Davy Price, who along with husband Bennett owns and operates DeBeque Canyon Winery.
“We didn’t want to lose those people and decided to have a second weekend,” said Davy Price. “And I’m glad we did. This year, we’ve had a lot of interest in both weekends.”
The first weekend nearly sold out and it’s likely the second will come close, too. Saturday was a bit chilly early on, as an east wind, feeling as if it were blowing right off the snowfields on Grand Mesa, whipped the tents at Carlson’s Vineyards. But Sunday was near perfect, with little wind, lots of sun and blossoms everywhere you looked.
Except in the orchards. It’s been a late spring as far as grape buds are concerned, but that’s good from a winemakers standpoint since a late bud break protects the fruit from frost.
“This year is going to be huge,” promised Doug Phillips of Plum Creek Cellars. “We had a mild winter and as long as don’t get a late frost, we’re going to harvest a lot of grapes this year.”
Inside his recently expanded facility, which includes 500-pound white oak doors made from 200-year old lumber, winery worker Paula Butler was using a glass thief to offer samples of a new 2007 cabernet sauvignon that showed marvelously, something you can’t always say about wines still in the barrel.
The wine, still four months or so from bottling, was bright and fresh with soft tannins and full of blackberry and dark fruits, a lovely wine and one of my two favorites from the weekend.
“I’m getting some new barrels and I want to put the cab into that new oak for just a short time, like maybe only a month or so,” said winemaker Jenne Baldwin-Eaton. “That will give it some other nuances without overpowering the fruit.”
This is a cabernet sauvignon to save and serve, and at an estimated $17 a bottle I’ll be among the first in line when it’s released next fall.
The other “Barrel into Spring” participating wineries include Canyon Wind Cellars, Garfield Estates Winery, Grande River Vineyards, Graystone Vineyards and Two Rivers Winery.
I’ll get to my weekend’s other favorite next post.
**Plum Creek Cellars winemaker Jenne Baldwin-Eaton conducts a taste test during Saturday’s “Barrel into Spring” event.
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Keeping ‘the land’ in Italian wines
VERONA, Italy — It only took two days to figure out traffic patterns at Vinitaly, billed as the world’s largest gathering of wine producers, held this year April 3-6. With 5,000 winemakers and an expected 150,000 attendees, well, if you learn of anything bigger, let me know.
It’s a four-day, once-a-year opportunity to taste wines from each of the 20 Italian wine-producing area and you could spend a whole day working your way through just one of the 11 pavilions, each about the size of a football field but much more interesting.
On opening day I wandered around the Friuli (north of Venice) pavilion and met Rino Russolo, a gracious man in his late 20s who’s gradually becoming the fourth generation of his family to produce wine from the rocky soils of the Friuli region.
We had visited the Russolo winery a day earlier, and Rino had shown us the gravelly soils and how he used the Guyot system of trellising to protect his vines.
This stony plain at the foot of the Alps, only 60 kilometers from Venice, is best known for its crisp-edged and minerally whites, including sauvignon blanc, pinot gris and muller thurgau. It also produces some interesting indigenous wines such as malvasia istriana, an aromatic white wine that needs to be drank young, and refosco, a powerful and tannic red also known as terlano, with flavors of currant, wild berry, and plum.
But what stood out during our tasting (I was there with Robert Prough, owner of Epic Wine Co. in Santa Cruz, Cal, who specializes in discovering and importing small production wineries) was the unexpectedly magnificent pinot noir Russolo produces.
It was bright ruby red, with only a hint of the natural smokiness that’s all-too powerful in most American pinot noirs. Aromatic and redolent with flavors of strawberries and cherry cola and a bit of vanilla from a light touch of oak, this was pinot noir at its best.
“In 25 years that’s the best pinot noir from Italy I’ve ever tasted,” Prough said as he stared at his glass. “The flavors are true pinot flavors. I’m sort of shocked.”
A few days later, at a tasting hosted by Alois Lageder, I ran into Anthony Dias Blue, editor-in-chief of The Tasting Panel Magazine. Blue was walking around clutching a glass of Fattoria Zerbina’s 2004 Pietramora sangiovese and offering a taste to anyone who approached.
“I’m astounded,” Blue said, using almost the same words as Prough. “This has to be the best sangiovese I’ve ever tasted. And I’ve never heard of the winemaker before.”
High praise, indeed, from too well-respected and knowledgable wine critics,but it’s indicative of the care and passion shown by many Italian winemakers who strive to keep their yields low and their quality high.
“We want to capture the land in our wines,” said Rino Russolo, and his obvious passion for wine and creating something pure and lovely made the entire trip worthwhile.
But like too many wonderful Italian wines, these probably will never see the U.S. market. Small production, the cost of importing a couple thousand cases, and the strength of the euro all contribute to these wines staying home.
*Rino Russolo explaining the trellis system in his Friulian vineyard.
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MAGRE, Italy - This quiet commune dating from the 12th century lies a few kilometers south of Bolzano and about 40 kilometers north of Trento along the Fiume (River) Adige in northernmost Italy.
Northern Italy, at least this part, is the Sud Tirol, the South Tyrol, a part of the Italian countryside that switched countries and alliances several times over the past centuries as wars and invaders came and went.
Bolzano, locals like to say, is considered the southernmost town in Austria since residents here are more likely to speak German as a first language rather than Italian and everyone is at least bilingual and information signs list both languages.
Magre is a little more than midway between Bolzano and Trento, which in turn is considered the northernmost of the true Italian cities.
“This is a German village and you go down the road to the next village and it’s Italian,” said Alois Lageder with a laugh.
His winery in Magre is the newest building in a village where horsepower can mean the real thing as well as the latest sleek Audi limousine.
The winery, built in 1996 on a site that’s been used for winemaking since the 1400s, uses renewable and alternative energy including solar panels and geothermal exchange for cooling and heating. One side of the building borders a rock cliff offering natural cooling and maintains air flow throughout the winery.
“We’re all proud of our heritage, and we tried to respect that heritage and history when we built the winery,” Lageder said Sunday during Summa 08, a two-day gathering of 36 select wineries showing their products in a drafty and somewhat renovated (electric conduits curled around the corners) granary built in 1620.
Lageder’s is an interesting story. He’s the largest independent wine producer in the area (Cavit and other industrial-sized producers are here, also) and also a fervent believer in bio-organic wine production. 2007 marked his 51st vintage.
“I think we’ve lost some of our contact with the past, especially with the overuse of technology in winemaking,” Lageder said during a brief conversation.
His wines include 22 varietals and blends in the Tor Lowengang line and select reserve and estate reserve wines under the Cason Hirschprunn label.
One of the gates into the Alois Lageder winery at Magre, Italy. * Alois Lageder
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Italian varietals that stay home
VERONA, Italy - It’s Day 3 of VinItaly, possibly the world’s largest gathering of wine producers and it’s all Italy. With 5,000 producers and maybe 150,000 visitors over the fair’s four-day run in the city made famous by the fantasy of Romeo and Juliet, Vinitaly is a once-a-year affair that offers unexpecting visitors tastes of Italian wines you’ll never see in the states.
Yesterday I tasted raboso, a dry and very acidic red wine that spends 2 years in wood, including a year in chestnut barrels, it’s one of the indigenous grapes you need to taste to appreciate.
Other fascinating indigenous varietals include pignoleto, a fizzy white from the Bolognese hills and picolit, which comes in dry and slightly sweet, and even a very dry lambrusco, yes, a drinkable lambrusco that isn’t the sweet Cold Duck memories of long ago.
Not everyone wants to be discovered by the U.S. market but even so there’s no U.S. distributor about to take the risk of importing these wines, even if the dollar wasn’t sinking into the far distance against the euro.
But VinItaly is a great opportunity to dig deeper into Italian wines and the passion shown by Italian winemakers.
More in VinItaly soon. Ciao, ciao, ciao…
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Holding on too long
I’ve been opening some old wines recently, thanks to a going-away reminder.
When chef and restaurateur Dave Dame decided on Bisbee, Ariz, as his new home, we marked his going by opening a three-liter bottle of Beringer’s 1997 Estate Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon.
The bottle was part of a fortuitous purchase seven or so years ago when the winery offered the limited big bottles for what now amounts to pocket change for a big-name California cab.
Big bottles age more slowly than the normal .750 ml size and we were anticipating something just at its peak.
It started a bit restrained, not at all like it was on release but after 30 minutes or so the nose opened up and more of the dark fruit and a bit of mint started showing on the palate.
But we all agreed that this wine was at its peak, or maybe even a little beyond.
Except for some notable exceptions (a traditional Barolo, for example), there’s danger in holding a wine too long. People wait and wait for the perfect occasion, forgetting a wine, like life itself, goes on.
That caused me to look through the rest of the oldies in my cellar. They aren’t ancient, only a few as old as 12-15 years, but most of them weren’t made for long-term aging.
Some of them have shown their age, brick-red around the edges and flat tasting.
Others, however, have been brilliant, with still-bright fruit and soft tannins and a complexity only age can bring.
I’m glad I didn’t wait.
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Lodi isn’t Bordeaux, you know
I was wandering around the French wine section in a liquor store in Steamboat Springs last week when one of the clerks, I guess he was a clerk, anyway, broke my reverie by asking. “So, you interested in wines?” Given that I was perusing some recent Bordeaux and had a 2003 Chateau Le Grande Clotte in my hand, I wasn’t too offended that he guessed correctly.
But then he said, “We’re tasting some wines from Lodi in the tasting room, a couple merlots and chardonnays.”
Bad guess on his part. That’s why I was in among the French stuff, because I wasn’t interested in something from Lodi, especially merlots and chardonnays since the area, smooshed between San Francisco and the Sierra Nevadas, is better-known for its old-vine zinfandels.
But maybe the old-vine zins don’t have any trouble selling while the younger stuff, the merlots and cabernet sauvignons and chardonnays, don’t get the press or recognition.
Some of those older zinfandel vines date from before the turn of the century — the other century — and it’s likely the Italian immigrants in the Grand Valley were buying train cars of Lodi zinfandel grapes to make their own wines.
Out of politeness and curiousity I tasted the Lodi merlots and chardonnays and while there was nothing overtly wrong with them, there was the expected big fruit and the heavy toast — slash — vanilla overpowered the grape itself.
It was nothing like the Bordeaux I wanted, so I spit and left. I hope he wasn’t too disappointed.
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State ‘wine guy’ featured on CPR
Steve Menke, the state’s new enologist, will be featured today on Colorado Matters, the Colorado Public Radio show, at 7 p.m. You can access the show here or listen tomorrow to an archived broadcast here.
Menke, aka “the Wine Guy” as he puts it, is working out of Colorado State University’s Orchard Mesa Research Station alongside state viticulturist Horst Caspari. The two will assist growers and winemakers in growing not only better grapes but market share, as well.
Menke officially is a CSU employee (he has a doctorate in biochemistry from the University of Wyoming) as an associate professor of enology (the study of wines). He said in an CSU interview that he was attracted to Colorado “by the kinds of wines produced here.”
“There is an unquantified taste that accompanies high-altitude (wine grape) growing,” Menke said in that interview. “I would like to investigate the mature flavor of a grape here at high altitude.”
Is there yet a word specifically for high-altitude terroir? Whatever it may be, Menke is sure to have plenty of opportunity, since Colorado boasts some of the world’s highest vineyards.
Menke also was featured last month in an article in The Denver Business Journal, which can be read here.
His position is funded jointly by CSU, the Colorado Wine Industry Development Board and the Rocky Mountain Association of Vintners and Viticulturists.
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In praise of austerity
In the most recent issue of Wine Spectator magazine, columnist Matt Kramer reported that at a recent tasting one guest described a wine as austere, saying, “And that’s not a good word in my book.”
Perhaps, mused Kramer, today’s wines taste (and are made) the way they do because austere is considered a pejorative.
So what’s wrong with austere?
I’m not sure I want a wine that tries to convince me in the first 30 seconds. I want it to wait for the right questions instead of shrilly throwing out guesses like a game show contestant.
What I mean is wine shouldn’t deceive us.
Why can’t a wine be austere and still be drinkable and lovely? Why should the wine demand to speak first, yelling at us of its massive nature while still in the glass?
I prefer instead a wine that gives us time to consider its complexity with the same deliberation you would give a beautiful sunset or ponder a relationship that went an unexpected direction.
Alice Feiring, whose name you read here occasionally, wrote about Kramer’s column and asserted, “We like austere! It might mean that the wine is an approachable 13% alcohol, maybe it didn’t have its tannins erased and just maybe it is interesting instead of NyQuil-esque.”
And New York Times wine critic Eric Asimov wrote a fascinating article that appeared last January in the International Herald Tribune about tasting some Barolos he termed both austere and sensuous.
“Call it intellectual if you want, but to me few wines go for the gut like Barolo,” Asomov wrote.
At a recent dinner party, a friend suggested that an older wine would be good “once it opened up.”
Funny, I thought, the wine is open, showing a calculated reticence typical of its mid-90s vintage and 13-percent alcohol (a well-received California cabernet sauvignon sadly no longer available).
Its age was showing a bit but the fruit and tannins were balanced and there was the barest whisper of oak. It was austere, and very good.
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Analog wines still out there
Not everyone wants a hot wine (meaning one with a high alcohol content, 14.5 percent or more) although it’s hard to prove simply by looking at what’s available.
Here’s an article out of the L.A. Times that offers some opinions on both sides of the argument, although there is so much more to what’s being done to wine than can be covered in a single-page story or blog.
California winemakers revel in having optimal climate conditions winemakers in other areas, especially parts of France, can only dream of having.
While some of that might be changing due to global climate change (how else to explain the run of outstanding vintages recently coming out of Europe?), some (thankfully not all) French, Italian and Spanish winemakers are pushing their own envelopes in terms of getting their grapes ripe enough and using questionable winemaking techniques to produce wines that will mimic and sell as well as the full-throttle big reds first made popular in California.
That’s bad news to those of us still seek those analog wines somehow surviving in a continually more digital world. We want wines that speak of their vineyards and their traditions, not of technological innovations designed to make them not simply drinkable but (more importantly to the winemaker) commercially successful.
You might find some of those analog wines coming out of California, but they’re increasingly rare.
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Wine sales up, imports still strong
From the 2008 Unified Wine & Grape Symposium held Jan. 29-31 in Sacramento, Cal. comes these notes, courtesy of several sources.
Bob Krauter at Capitol Press in Sacramento reported wine interest continues to soar in the U.S., where consumers last year spent $30 billion buying 314 million cases of wine, a 4 percent increase over 2006.
Of those 314 million cases, 100 million were imported wines.
In restaurants, imports grab 43 percent of the market, according to Josh Greene, editor and publisher of Wine & Spirits Magazine. Jim Downing of the Sacramento Bee quotes Greene as saying a new generation of young sommeliers is looking both to have fun with their wine selections and also make a statement.
To do that, Greene said, they need “to find a wine they’re as excited about as the chef is” about his flavorful discoveries at the local farmers market.
And speaking of sommeliers and wine stewards, Downing reported that although sommeliers purchase only a small proportion of the wine sold, they have a much greater impact on determining future industry trends.
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Next generation might be outsiders
A few weeks ago I ventured the guess that most of Colorado’s oldest wineries won’t be under the same ownership/management within 10 years because the current owners are nearing retirement age and there aren’t any family members coming up behind to take over.
Now, a study reported on the Decanter Magazine Web site says “most American family wineries” aren’t making plans for an eventual transition and that leaves them “prey to corporate takeovers.”
“Effective transition planning takes a minimum of five years, probably 10,” said Rob McMillan of Silicon Valley Bank and Scion Advisors to Decanter’s Panos Kakaviatos. “Although the survey shows that many people want a transition, only 10 percent are actually talking about it to the next generation.”
McMillan was talking about wineries surveyed in California and Oregon but his words are just as true for Colorado.
While it’s unlikely, given the current state of Colorado wines, that any major liquor conglomerates such as Constellation Brands will take a shot at a Colorado winery, what it does mean is without proper planning, the winery might go on the market simply to pay the estate taxes.
The survey goes on to say most wineries were founded when the business was young and ‘cottage-based’ and the pace was slower. And while many wineries might consider themselves successful or at worst financially even, a change in generational ownership might cost 20 percent to 30 percent of the wineries’ total value, an amount most next generations won’t be able to afford.
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Two more affordable 2005s
Continuing the search for affordable 2005 Bordeaux, we found a couple here in town that were under $20 and very drinkable.
Chateau Bellevue Rougier ($10, imported by Great Lakes Wine Co. and the Baum Wine Group, Bensenvile, Ill.) is from Entre-Deux-Mers, the expansive forested area between the Dordogne and Garonne rivers. Curiously, the appelation Entre-Deux-Mers only applies to the area’s white wines, so the reds all are labeled either Bordeaux or Bordeaux Superior.
But don’t discount the reds. They tend to be concentrated and aromatic, and the chateau Bellevue Rougier is both, redolent of dark berry fruit and earth. It’s 13.5-percent alcohol and tastes mostly of merlot with some cabernet sauvignon, cab franc and petit verdot.
Chateau de Terrefort Lescalle ($12, imported by Summit Distributing, Aurora), is from Macau in the Margaux commune in Medoc. Dark red with a nose of forest and dark fruits, is 65 percent merlot, 35 percent cabernet and equal parts petite verdot and cabernet franc.
The practice of putting the varietal on the bottle, something we in the U.S. take for granted, isn’t the general practice elsewhere, especially Europe. That said, the 2005 vintage will be the first where French winemakers in the St. Emilion area can use varietal labeling, although it’s likely most of them won’t break with tradition until they see how the new labels help wine sales.
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Old Butch stomps again
Butch Cassidy robbed his first bank, so the story goes, in Telluride. Now, he’s looking for money in grapes.
Paul Newman, who some of us faintly recall from a remarkably forgettable movie 40 years ago about Butch Cassidy and who in recent years has made his mark selling pasta sauces and salad dressings under the label “Newman’s Own,” has released his own wines, a California chardonnay and a California cabernet sauvignon, both priced around $16.
No, he didn’t make them, that honor went to Trinchero Family Estates in Napa, but the wines carry Newman’s mug. He worked with Rebel Wine Co., a collaboration between Trinchero and Three Thieves wines, the same market-wise guys who brought us California varietals in a jug.
As with his other products, Newman will donate all profits and royalties after taxes for educational and charitable purposes.
We haven’t yet tasted “Newman’s Own” wines, but here’s what Mike Dunne of the Sacramento Bee has to say about them.
As counterpoint, we also present the unabashed and endearing opinions of Alice Feiring, who as you’ll see definitely has some, well, reservations, as to the quality of the juice inside the bottles.
Try a bottle for yourself and decide. It might be a real steal, something Old Butch would appreciate.
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Two for the skies
From the Department of Do We Really Need This? comes this by way of fellow Cox blogger Mark Fisher at the Dayton Daily News. It’s one way to sneak the good stuff past the TSA guards on your next flight so you’re not stuck with the plonk airlines normally serve: The WineRack.
You can add your bad puns in the comment section below.
Speaking of airline wine, some airlines are responding to customers’ complaints by upgrading their wine service and selection and even hiring in-flight sommeliers (business class, you know) to ease the pangs of long-distance travel (and perhaps the joyless meals staring at you).
Judges at the Cellars in the Sky 2007 competition recently honored American Airlines as having the best Business Class Wine Cellar among the 26 airlines in the contest.
According to a story on cnnmoney.com (HERE) American’s wine consultant Diane Teitelbaum personally selects the 60 different wines and 16 different wine lists served each month on American’s planes.
No word on whether you can take home that unfinished bottle.
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Two from 2005
This one has to be short because I have two wine stores to check out for bargains today. Been trying to find some affordable 2005 Bordeaux (if you’ve been following all the news about the 2005 vintage you know what I mean and we’ll talk about that in another post) and recently found two decent wines in my price-restricted range.
Interestingly, both of these showed better on the second day but by the third had faded into expensive red-wine vinegar.
Chateau La Grande Clotte (Lussac-St. Emilion), $22 at Corks in Montrose but you can find it for $16 over the Internet. Mostly merlot with a bit of cabernet sauvignon. Soft tannins, a little leather and the earthy scent and taste I expect in a Bordeaux. Importer: The Stacole Co., Boca Raton, Fla.
Chateau de Terrefort Lescalle, $12 at Park Lane Liquors in Steamboat Springs. A blend of 65 percent merlot, 15 percent cabernet sauvignon and 10 percent each cabernet franc and petit verdot.
Dark red with a nose of black and red fruits and a bit of vanilla. A decent wine but not as good as the Grande Clotte. Importer: Sumit Dist. Co., Aurora.
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‘Wine cop’ takes her stand
It’s only February and I’m already one wine book behind.
Well, not really behind, I s’pose, since the book still lies somewhere in the depths of a publishing house and hasn’t yet seen the comforting lights of my favorite indie bookstore.
Last year I began reading Alice Feiring’s wine blog In Vino Veritas,originally because I figured anyone calling herself “wine bitch” must have something worthwhile to say and now I read it because she does.
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Chianti Classico worth the wait
This last month’s wintry weather had me searching for something to ward off the chill and perhaps offer a memory of warmer climes. Comfort food leads to comfort wine and there are few wines more comfortable than Chianti.
The best Chianti is Chianti Classico, which comes from a specified area in Tuscany and is made primarily from the sangiovese grape. Small percentages of other grapes, including cabernet sauvignon and merlot, also are allowed.
However, after its boom in the 1970s Chianti became a sad victim of its own popularity when winemakers responded to the increased demand by pumping out factory lots of poorly made Chianti. Today, inexpensive ($12 and less) Chianti tastes like, well, cheap Chianti.
In his book, “Making Sense of Italian Wine, ” (Running Press, 2006, 180 pages hardbound, $24.95) writer Matt Kramer said “Chianti Classico is ‘il vero coure,’ the true heart of Tuscan wine.”
Today’s Chianti Classico remains true to its Tuscan roots. John Brecher and Dorothy Gaiter wrote in the Wall Street Journal that “When we think about Chianti, we think about red bricks.”
I imagine they refer to the laid-back, refined elegance and rustic simplicity of the Tuscan countryside, something appealingly rural yet not Huck Finn.
Using those international varietals to soften and fill out the native sangiovese, along with the adoption of new sangiovese clones, has restored Chianti Classico to the sort of wine you love to drink simply because it tastes good.
The 2004 vintage is recommended as one of the better recent vintages. It goes well with roasted chicken and root vegetables as well as the as-expected Italian fare.
And why the wicker basket in those earlier Chiantis? According to one story, in the early days of glass making bottles, wine bottles in particular, were round, without a flat bottom. The solution was to make a stand for the bottle to sit in, and the next step was wrap the entire bottle in wicker, which also protected the delicate glass from breaking.
It must be true. How else was that bottle ever going to stand up with a candle burning in its mouth?
*There’s no telling what selections of Chianti Classico you’ll find in local stores. Look for the 2004 vintage, which is said to be one of the best in recent years. The Black Rooster on the label is the definitive sign of Chianti Classico.
Small winemaker gets big fast
In a few strokes of the pen, Glenn Foster went from a winemaker without a winery to a winemaker with four (or maybe three-and-a-half) wineries.
Foster and his wife Natalie, who have operated the Colorado Wine Room in Fruita for the past two-plus years and do business under the corporate name of Talon Winery LLC, recently purchased the three wineries formerly owned by Fred Strothman of Palisade.
Now, the Fosters have St. Kathryn’s Cellars, Confre Cellars and Meadery of the Rockies, in addition to a small (very small) winery located in the Wine Room.
The new additions to the Foster wine properties are going to present a major change for Foster, who grew up in the Bay Area of California and cut his winemaking teeth at Ravenswood Winery in Sonoma, Cal., which his father W. Reed Foster helped found in 1976.
The change will be in the type of wine (or not wine) that comes out of St. Kathryn’s, Confre Cellars and the Meadery.
Is mead wine? That’s a question to spur hours of argument among wine purists, but then so would many of Strothman’s other products, particularly his fruit wines and his fruit-and-honey blends.
Foster says he plans to continue the mead and fruit-based wines and has been taking some lessons from Strothman on making mead.
Whether or not you agree that mead or the fruit blends qualify as “wine,” there’s no denying one of the most-popular venues at the Colorado Mountain Winefest regularly is the St. Kathryn’s booth.
“There are so many people who like sweet wines,” said Glenn. “He’s famous for them. I would walk down the street with him and people would stop and say how much they like his (fruit) wines.”
One of the top sellers is the pomegranate wine, which Foster says is made from real pomegranate juice and not just a blend of a base white wine with pomegranate concentrate.
Evidently, there’s only one other winery in the world making a true pomegranate wine and that’s the Rimon Winery in Israel. Rimon is Hebrew for pomegranate.
“That stuff walks out the door,” said Foster, in great part to the health benefits of pomegranate juice, which is loaded with antioxidants.
Foster said he and Natalie will continue to run the Colorado Wine Room “with a little more emphasis on the wines we make.”
Talon Winery currently bottles a viognier, a rosato (a sweet rosé of mostly cabernet franc) and Rock Red, a red table wine blend of merlot and cab franc.
In spite of some initial concerns about the task ahead, Foster said he’s anxious to get back to having a full-size winery in which to work.
“I’ve been a winemaker without a winery for about three years and I’ve felt very closed in and very frustrated,” he said. “Trying to make wine (in the back room of the Colorado Wine Room) is difficult and I was chomping at the bit to get out (to Palisade).”
Foster said he considers the melding of his wine-making talents with the potential of the new wineries “tradition meeting innovation.”
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Law aims to allow wine at groceries
We are reluctant to watch the Legislature in action, if for no other reason there are so many other productive things to do.
But one thing I’ll be watching this year is whether the state decides to allow liquor sales in grocery stores, something long opposed by liquor retailers for fears it will dilute their market.
At least one bill has been mentioned for this legislative session and should it pass, Colorado will join the 34 other states that allow wine and full-strength beer sales in groceries.
Colorado law now allows the holder of a retail liquor license (most stores carry 3.2-beer) to sell full-strength beer and wine at one store in the state.
The law was designed to prevent one person or corporation from owning more than one liquor license and eliminate the chance of a chain controlling liquor prices and selections.
So far, only five grocery stores, one in Greeley and the rest in Denver, have opted to do so.
Today, however, food stores argue that customers are demanding the chance to buy wine and beer at the same place they buy food.
A Massachusetts study noted that those 34 states now allowing grocery store sales of wine and beer are “as good or better than packages stores” at enforcing minimum-age laws and competition from grocery stores does not drive liquor stores out of business.
Half-bottles have a place at the table
When I called Tony Bartkus this morning at his shop Tony B’s Wine List in Centennial, he was next door at Tony’s Meats, the very upscale delicatessen/catering business operated by Mick Rosacci and his three siblings.
Bartkus’ store is at 4991 East Dry Creek Road, just north of C470 between Holly and So. Colorado Blvd., in case you’re headed to Denver over the holidays.
At one time the two stores were connected by ownership, not just initials, but since Bartkus purchased the liquor end about 18 months ago, the shops are separate albeit symbiotic businesses.
Bartkus was helping someone pick out a gift basket and you probably couldn’t ask for anyone much better, since Bartkus not only is a trained sommelier but also has years of experience around fine foods, which makes pairing wine and foods one of his specialties.
But this call wasn’t about pairings, or at least food, anyway. It was about wine, and specifically Bartkus’ affection for half-bottles, those 375-ml bottles that seem to be making a bit of a comeback in stores and restaurants.
When I stopped at Bartkus’ shop last week, I stocked up on a case of half-bottles, ranging from a 2003 Saint-Veran white Burgundy to a 2001 Chianti Classico and a 2005 Chateau Hureau cabernet franc from the Loire Valley.
Bartkus has a personal affinity to half-bottles and carries upwards of 20 different half-bottle selections, none of which will break your bank.
Bartkus, a sommelier who has delayed his study for Master of Wine certification while dealing with a 5-month-old son, says he has customers who come in just to stock up on the halfs.
“I have a lot of customers who know it’s a good way to try a lot of wines without committing to a full bottle,” Bartkus said. “Also, people (buy half-bottles) when they’re having a wine tasting and that way don’t have to have so much at the table.”
He also said when only one person in a couple has wine with dinner, a half-bottle is perfect.
“When my wife was pregnant and couldn’t drink, I drank half-bottles,” Bartkus said. “It’s sort of a personal thing for me, I think a half-bottle of Champagne is good any time.
“I guess I have an Old World, European palate, and my selections sometimes reflect that,” Bartkus said. “I like some of the smaller French appellations and of course I love Bordeaux.”
His half-bottle distributor isn’t afraid of lesser-known, more-adventurous wines that “challenge the every day palate, and I can hand-sell every wine that comes out of the shop,” Bartkus said.
A recent glance through his half-bottles revealed wines from France, Italy, Spain, Hungary, New Zealand, Australia, the U.S. and several other countries.
“If it’s out there and I can get it, I’ll carry it,” Bartkus said.
Recently, restaurants have found its sort of chic to offer half-bottles for adventurous clients curious about trying new wines.
Plus, since some of those wines are so pricey, a half-bottle lets you try one without signing for a sub-prime mortgage, and you know where that leads.
You might find some half-bottles scattered around Grand Junction, but in some ways their popularity was hurt when Colorado moved into the 21st Century and updated its liquor laws to allow diners to take home unfinished bottles of wine.
Antediluvian liquor laws (they’re still out there, don’t fret) forced diners to either drink an entire bottle of wine or to relinquish it to the kitchen staff (which isn’t always a bad idea, since most wait staffs aren’t well-trained in wine).
With a half-bottle, the only person who gets anything after dinner is the recycler.
*A couple of Tony Bartkus’s half-bottle selections. There has been some discussion on the Internet whether half-bottles age faster than the traditional 750-ml bottles.
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Please save this wine
With the holidays here and people dropping by the house, I find myself at the end of the night facing one or more open bottles of wine and wondering how to keep them fresh and drinkable for another day.
There’s an interesting article this week in the San Francisco Chronicle about the various methods of preserving wine once the bottle’s been opened. Reporter Janet Fletcher covers all the common methods of keeping the integrity of wine, ranging from vacuum pumps to inert gases to even freezing what’s left in the bottle.
It’s particularly pertinent to me since it’s quite common around my house to have a couple glasses from a bottle of wine and then think, now what?
I’ve been through a variety of exercises, including spraying nitrogen into the bottle, then re-corking and refrigerating the bottle. While that seems to do, well, okay, there’s still something gone because once that cork comes off, the wine starts changing.
Of course, that doesn’t always stop me from drinking it anyway, but most times it either gets saved for cooking or goes down the drain.
Fletcher talks to enologists, wine professionals and educators and her final summation says there really isn’t a good way to save that wine, no matter what Eric Burden tried to convince us 30 year ago.
The main culprit in ruining a wine is oxygen, and while refrigerating a recorked bottle slows down the oxidation process, it isn’t foolproof.
Fletcher cites Roger Boulton, a professor of enology and chemical engineering at the University of California at Davis, who said the colder the wine, the more soluble the oxygen and the easier it is for the gas to dissolve into the wine.
But it’s still better, says Boulton, to refrigerate white wines and keep reds in a cool cellar than leave them at room temperature.
And that’s what I’d do. I’d drink what I wanted, stick the cork back in the bottle and chill it. Then open it the next day and see if it’s drinkable. While I prefer to cook only with a wine I’d be willing to drink, you could save that leftover for cooking.
Or if you and your significant other frequently find yourselves dealing with this problem, you might want to start buying some half-bottles.
During a recent trip to Denver, I found a marvelous selection of 375ml bottles at Tony’s Wines and Specialty Beers on Dry Creek Road in Centennial, just north of C470. Because those smaller bottles are hard (impossible?) to find in Grand Junction, I’ll talk more about Tony’s selection of half-bottles next time.
Meanwhile, if you know where someone can purchase half-bottles in Grand Junction, please let us know.
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Latest comments
Good post Dave. I never knew that about the wicker basket. Most chianti I’ve orderd lately has been disappointing, hopefully I can choose more wisely now.
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I am totally in favor this, merely from a convenience stand point. I have to choose sometimes between going grocery shopping and going to the liquor store because I only have time to do one. If I can buy wine at the grocery store, then I’ll have some
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