Please Drink More...Wine

All eleven of you who read my blog regularly, know that I haven't been too regular of late. What I've been doing, in lieu of writing about wine, is trying to sell the juice. After all, that's what pays the mortgage. I'm returning to this page to encourage the slothful spenders out there to pick up the pace.

My day consists of calling on regular clients -  restaurants and retail shops, and looking for new aforementioned clients. The conversations I've been hearing lately go something like this: 

"Hi Tim"

"Hey! How are you today, Mary" (cause we live in the South and that's the way we greet acquaintances)

"Pretty good for this time of year, that's why I brought a book to work, so I won't be boared to tears."

"Where are all the tourists?" I ask with great consternation after fighting for the last parking space in a sea of license plates from other than NC.

"I don't know, but I do know they aren't buying wine...yet"

What is wrong with this? It may take thousands of words and bottles of profit to discern the true answer, but here are some thoughts.

1. Too many people are tied to this American idea that wine is a luxury item (i.e. "I'll have a beer or tequila if I want something to drink"). Spend a few moments looking at this ...well, after consulting with my IT expert (AKA my wife), seems we can't get the link. Just Google "wine folly wine vs beer." 

2. Too many Americans have an anti-Europe mentality that completely overlooks the idea that dinner can be eaten at a slower pace, with family and friends around the table, and that conversation can linger beautifully into the wee hours over a mere bottle or two of wine. That favorite TV show can be TiVo'd, precious moments can't.

3. Most people don't drink wine to get drunk. See parenthetical #1

4. Ignorance amongst wine buyers still runs rampant. Hence, the plethora (I knew I'd use that vocabulary word one day) of wine bloggers, Certified Specialists of Wine, and Sommelier wanna be's.

The answer(s):

1. Walk way out on a limb and spend $15 on a decent bottle of wine you've never had. You may not like it, but you've at least helped the economy, your antioxidant level, and should be no worse for the wear.

2. Go to a free wine tasting. If you can't find one in your locale then please leave the Antarctic and join the rest of humanity where wine tastings are everywhere. Google it, for crying out loud.

3. Ask somebody else! Ask me! Ask the wine shop person! Communicate! 

4. Buy wine as a gift.

5. Celebrate with sparkling wine.

6. Toast life...it is too short not to.

The bottom line is that wine isn't bad, in fact, it is good, good for you, and can lubricate the dry rusty areas of our social interaction. In the end, there are tens of thousands of people relying on these wheels continuing to move, and I'm just one of those.

Drink responsibly, but also drink what makes sense!

This Woman Knows How to WINE

Most everyone I know has made a volcano from paper mache with vinegar and baking soda to create the magma; but, how many of us, at the age of nine, tried to make wine using their grandmother's grapes? Sharon Fenchak did just that. (Oh! And she also made the volcano.)

"I've always been fascinated with fermentations," says Fenchak, one of the two Winemakers at The Biltmore Winery for nearly 15 years, "and the idea that yeast and bacteria can change things." That led her to eventually obtain a Bachelors in Food Science from Penn State, and a Masters from U.G.A.

Her early fascination with the science of transformation was further enhanced while stationed in Italy during a stint in the Army. Her family in Pennsylvania weren't really drinkers, so it was a bit of an eye-opener to see most folks in Italy drinking wine regularly with meals.

Sharon, with fellow winemaker Bernard Delille

But that just adds to the complexity of this woman. She is petite, physically fit, a huge football fan (you have to be if you've gone to both Penn State and the University of Georgia). She is not what one would picture as a winemaker at the most-visited winery in the U.S. .  One probably pictures Bernard Delille quite easily; after all, wine making is almost genetically encoded in older men from France, right?

The Biltmore Estate Winery

I am asked most everyday I work in the Biltmore Winery Tasting Room what my favorites are; Fenchak can't really name favorites, since she learned early on that wine is meant to go with food, and a favorite would all depend on what's cooking. "I am currently very pleased with our Biltmore Blanc de Noirs," speaking of The Biltmore Wine Company's award-winning Pinot Noir-based sparkling wine (methode champenoise). It recently received a 97-pt rating from the Beverage Tasting Institute, to go along with Golds at Lodi and Monterey competitions and a Double Gold at the Taster's Guild International Wine Competition. Impressive credentials, great sparkling wine, and at a great price (~$24.99).

Also on her "currently enjoying" list is the Biltmore Limited Reserve Malbec. Personally, I enjoy this rich and intense, yet smooth wine with a nicely seasoned roasted chicken.

When I asked Fenchak about creating a particular style in the wines (e.g. a South American or French Malbec), she quickly points out that the grape tells her what style it wants to be. These aren't South American grapes or French grapes, but Californian.
"The quality of the wine is the quality of the grape," Fenchak added. I took it that she also meant that for the particular style that is achieved.

 

A typical day for this winemaker is never typical. It all depends on the season. Imagine being a winemaker with not only 94 acres and six varietals to work with, but one that travels to California and Washington (among other areas in the U.S.) regularly to source the best varietals in order to offer over 30 wines in quantities approaching two million bottles a year! That is a lot to do, and she and Delille do it very well.



I hope, as I'm sure Fenchak and the entire Biltmore Wine Company hopes, that she will be continually fascinated by the transformation of making all these different wines for all the different people who cross over this special threshold in Western North Carolina.




Special thanks to the Biltmore Company for providing these photographs.

Warning! This Is Going To Be Dry (like my humor)

What are tannins? I can't tell you how often, in my tasting-room role, I'm asked this simple question. The problem is that you can give a relatively simple answer like:

Tannins: a group of chemical compounds or phenolics found predominantly in the skins, seeds and stems of grapes. Tannins are vital to a wine's profile as they are partly responsible for its taste and sensory properties. They also play an important part in stabilizing the color of red wines by binding with the anthocyanins. Tannins in wine are also derived from oak, during both barrel maturation and barrel fermentation.

But then the guests stare at you with a blank face until they further qualify their original question while reading some of the descriptions on our wine menu:
"So what's the difference between this, pointing, 'with moderate tannins,' this, again pointing, 'soft tannins,' this, almost stabbing the menu with their finger, ' well-structured with integrated tannins,' and, finally, this 'with lingering tannins'?"
I certainly can't blame the relative newcomers or even the more advanced wine geeks for needing more information on this enigmatic element of red wines. I'll give it a try though.

Two of the basic truths of these terms are that "grippy" tannins (i.e. those that make your lip adhere or grip to your teeth) only come from the grapes themselves, while soft or smooth tannins originate from the oak in the aging process. And, speaking of the aging process, tannins are what allow many red wines to age gracefully. The tannins are said to diminish or soften with time, so that a wine that tastes very harsh when young can reasonably be expected to age well in 7-10 years or more.

Here's a partial list of higher-tannic wines, and therefore, those that can be cellared a few years with a beneficial softening of those harsh young tannins (maybe that's why my father would say he would "tan my hide!"):

Cabernet Sauvignon
Nebbiolo (i.e. Barolo, Barbaresco)
Tempranillo
Syrah
Montepulciano

Now for those wines with lower tannins:

Pinot Noir
Zinfandel
Barbera
Gamay (i.e. Beaujolais)
Merlot

Interestingly, the thicker the skin of the grape, the greater concentration of tannins.

Do I Have To Like It?

In my roles as a pourer of wine in a tasting room and as a seller of wines, I struggle with the concept that not all wine is good. I want tasters to have an exceptional experience and enjoy all the wines I pour as they home in on their buying preferences. When I'm out selling to restaurants and wine shops, I certainly hope the buyers will love every drop I allow them to taste, from the obscure South African blend to the more-familiar Cotes du Rhones. But, when all is said and done, preferences prevail and someone, more often than not, says "I'm not sure I like that one!" 

When this first happened, I shrugged it off as an indication of an unsophisticated taster/buyer. They must not realize what they're tasting. Don't they realize where these grapes came from? What they had to go through with that hail storm two years ago, and then those long hot dry spells that followed? What about those people with the pruning shears? They left us to fend for ourselves, bleeding and in pain.

The fact is that, in spite of the well-meaning vineyards and well-educated winemakers, many poor-quality wines (i.e. wines that aren't worth the cost of the empty bottle or the cheap high) make it to market every year, and we just have to accept it. The importers/distributors must have some customers with a fuzzy palette, or a congenitally clogged nasal passage that prevents any semblance of discernment when evaluating the wines, but again, we have to accept it.

I had an interesting conversation with a young wine taster the other day. She works at a restaurant and has the opportunity to taste the wines offered at that establishment on a regular basis. She ended up the 25 minutes of tasting about 15 different wines from dry whites through semi-sweets, into full-bodied Malbecs and spicy Syrahs, only to land on the White Zin as her favorite. "I guess I don't have a very sophisticated palette," she sadly admitted. Au contraire, you had the good sense to take my advice and try in the proper order, swirl/sip/slurp and consider thoughtfully each one, and draw a conclusion based on YOUR FACTS. Stop letting others tell you what you should like!

I went out today with two South African blends and a new Cava for my accounts to sample (and, hopefully, purchase). While the two blends exhibited unique and tantalizing favors, not typical of other South African wines. The Cava was a huge disappointment. I tried it and was in agreement. There was something that didn't fit, like a hotel room labeled as "non-smoking" that someone, at some point in time, had drained a pack of Lucky Strikes in and the proprietors had tried to cover up with a $&@"! load of air freshener.

I'm trying to be a good salesman. As simple as listening may sound, it is a learned art. I may have a long way to go, but that doesn't mean I blind myself to the obvious and try to sell something that just ain't right by calling it "unique for its terroir," or "exhibiting exceptional character." My accounts didn't care for it, plain and simple...you can't win 'em all!

My Take on "2014 Wine Wish List"

Well, I raised a few family-eyebrows with my last post (Drinking & Religion: Divine Reconciliation), though most comments from cousins were made in an understanding fashion.
This post should be a bit more benign:

I listened with great interest to the following radio program:

The Sipping Point Radio: 2014 Wine Wish List

The host of The Sipping Point, Laurie Forster, and big-time blogger, Joe Roberts of 1WineDude.com, offered their top ten resolutions that they wish the wine world would adopt. We were sailing along beautifully through the list, including "Don't judge those who prefer Muscadine to Bordeaux." I tell the guests at The Biltmore Winery tasting room that they've entered a no-judgment zone. Biltmore offers a wide range of styles from a lightly sweet and light-alcohol Zinfandel Rose' to a beautifully-complex Tempranillo; but, we make 35 different wines for a reason -- they each have their fans, whether they've just enjoyed their first taste or they're seasoned grape nuts like me. As Roberts said, "can't we all just get along?"
Forster and Roberts went on to discuss the negative aspects of the numeric point scale (AKA Parker Points). While I agree that we need to take chances and actually look at wines with 89s as being great in spite of a mark below 90, I believe strongly that those numbers help beginners more than the well-wined to start their own adventure with a bit of a treasure map in mind. After all, any movie or book with a treasure map typically ends up with a chest of dust, or someone else getting to the prize before you. Enjoy the journey of discovery as you sample an occasional 94-pointer just for the heck of it. I also think of points in the same light as the prosaic descriptions that all of us in the biz are guilty of using. Linzer torte? Really? Those do help me focus on what I might find in my own mouth and nose.
Then, rather abruptly, they stepped on my toes. Forster suggested that the three-tier system (1. Winery/Producer, 2. Importer/Distributor, 3. Consumer) kept too many wines from the consumer as the distributors tend to work exclusively with the big-named conglomerates that foist Americanized wines on an unsuspecting consumer. I work for #2, the importer/distributor Robert Walter Selections, and we happen to focus on the small family-owned wineries of France, Spain, and Germany that have no interest in changing the vinification process to please the American palette. They are, for the most part, biodynamic and organic (though they are too small to worry with inspections and certifications).
We would hate to have the intention of our small business quashed by a few consumers who wanted to save a few bucks on a unique Cotes du Rhone. Importers/Distributors serve a necessary function in terms of legal issues of importing alcohol, providing U.S.-specific labeling, safely transporting larger quantities in order to keep the shipping costs at a very low per-bottle average, not to mention the poor winery that wants to make wine, not spend night and day taking hundreds or thousands of individual orders and packaging and sending a bottle here or a half-case there.
I'm sure it was not the intent of Forster, and Roberts, to say that all wine should be available directly to the consumer, but the suggestion that even a few offer that raises my hackles a bit. So, enough of that, and, as Roberts asked...yes, we can get along.

Drinking & Religion: Divine Reconciliation

Most people who know me know that I was raised a PK (i.e. a Preacher's Kid). Jokes abound about how PKs are the worst of all -- there's even the old classic song about "the only boy who could ever teach me was..." you know the song. But my father was more strict than the typical protestant preachers I know. He was the fourth of ten children born into a poor Appalachian farming family. He went into the Air Force following seminary to become a chaplain, rising through the ranks and retiring after a stellar 27-year career.
Now just imagine how it feels to be slapped across the face for forgetting to say "sir" or for letting a word like "heck" or "gosh" slip out of your mouth. That is strict. We had to toe the line at all times, in all situations, and around all family, friends, and strangers. I didn't do the usual and turn my back on my religious upbringing, nor did my brother, Mark. However, the oldest brother, Alan, had rejected Christianity for intellectualism at an early age. Born a genius with a 175 IQ, Alan was at home in books, numbers, theories, socialism, sex, drugs and rock-n-roll -- quite literally. It's difficult to summarize the next 20 years or so of his life, but Alan was baptized following a remarkable conversion, citing only that he'd reached a point beyond which intellectualism could not explain -- a belief in God and the mysteries surrounding our existence was the only explanation. Six months later he was killed while riding his bike to work on a foggy October morning.
All this to say that I was raised a Christian, and I will always be a Christian, and I will die and go to be with my Lord in Heaven...someday...and I will see my brother(s) there as well.
I can drink to that...
My father was suspicious when my mother baked using vanilla extract -- after all, it had alcohol in it. How many cookies would we have to eat to get a buzz?
I'll never forget going to a party at my parents' friends' house. They had invited all the chaplains (my dad the Baptist, the Lutheran, and the Episcopalian) and their families. My brothers and I were in utter amazement as we witnessed the two other chaplains, and their wives, and our hosts drinking wine and beer -- right in front my mom and dad!! And they were laughing and having a great time, while my dad seemed to retreat into the corner - a place where his big personality never went. We never discussed that party that night or ever. It just sits in my memory as a reminder that drinking can be a very acceptable thing among a body of believers. Now, don't go out and try to convert the congregation to imbibe regularly; but, at the same time, don't cast aspersions on those believers who feel that wine is a gift from God, to enjoy in moderation and with a healthy dose of adult responsibility thrown in.
This is hard to write. My aunt was killed by a drunk driver more than thirty years ago. She was driving with another aunt and two of their children in the back seat. The others were all seriously injured, the surviving aunt spent weeks in the hospital after being given a two-percent chance of surviving! How do I then reconcile drinking at all?
I know my limits. Have I crossed them before? Yes. Without a doubt. But each day that God allows gives me reason to rejoice and to celebrate what time we do have, as well as to reflect on sins of the past. Just look around you and see what gifts you've been given and embrace your loved ones, and enjoy what you have. Share what you have with others. Give a bottle of your best to a friend. Have people over for dinner and laugh. Live life abundantly. That's how I can reconcile having a glass or two.

Ecclesiastes 9:7 (ESV)

7 Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.

Amen