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Vinography: A Wine Blog
Sun Apr 24 04:47:10 EDT 2011
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Vinography Images: The Wine Library -

The Wine Library
I always enjoy poking around in the wine cellars of wineries. I like seeing where they keep their reserve stocks -- their wine libraries of past vintages from which they carefully select a bottle to serve or share on special occasions. Something about dusty bottles thrills me, tapping into my adolescent passion for treasure hunting. -- Alder Yarrow

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ABOUT VINOGRAPHY IMAGES:
Vinography regularly features images by photographer Matt Wilson for readers' personal use as desktop backgrounds or screen savers. We hope you enjoy them. Please respect the copyright on these images. These images are not to be reposted on any web site or blog without the express permission of the photographer.

My daughter gets a kick out of smelling what's in our glasses when we're drinking with dinner, but she knows better than to steal mommy's wine.

Apparently, though, not everyone else is as careful. A number of people just landed in court over Mommy's wine.

The wine world is notorious for its highly aggressive, even draconian, protection of brand names. Who knew that one of those brand names was "Mommy?"

"MommyJuice" and "Mommy's Time Out" are apparently in a death match to determine which has the right to Mommy's name.

Careful kids, don't make me separate you! Don't you know I love you equally?

If I made any of the wines named: Mama's, Big Mama, Mama Mia, Mountain Mama Madness, Sugar Mama, Sweet Mama Rosa, Mama Cina, Red Hot Mama, Mama's Vineyard, or the lovable Mama's Bear Hug White, I guess I'd be a little nervous (yes, those are all real wines). Perhaps there was some prescience in the folks that named their wine Don't Tell Mama.

Don't you know Mommy doesn't like being sued? That calls for a glass of Mama's Boy, for sure.

Can't we all just get along?

Read the full story.

Across the Valley
This is a classic view of Chilean wine country, with gently rolling hills on the valley floor and the mountains and stark blue sky. I believe this is a view across the Carmenere vineyards of Casa Silva called Los Lingues, about 80 miles south of Santiago in the Colchagua valley -- Alder Yarrow

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To set the image as your desktop wallpaper, Mac users should follow these instructions, while PC users should follow these.

PRINTS:
If you are interested in owning a print of this image please contact photographer Matt Wilson through his web site.

ABOUT VINOGRAPHY IMAGES:
Vinography regularly features images by photographer Matt Wilson for readers' personal use as desktop backgrounds or screen savers. We hope you enjoy them. Please respect the copyright on these images. These images are not to be reposted on any web site or blog without the express permission of the photographer.

Growing up, my attendance at Passover seders was spotty at best, not for any lack of cajoling or even demands on my mother's part. I suppose we hadn't ever gone regularly enough for it to feel like a family tradition, so despite all the usual methods used to make it tolerable for kids, I found the whole thing interminable. Despite being a poor-excuse-for-a-Jew, I do have fond memories of my few encounters with Manischewitz. With just the right combination of verboten and high sugar content (especially for a hippie kid that didn't get much sugar at a young age) it was certainly the high point of the few seders I did go to.

After a long time, and with a palate now spoiled by a burgeoning interest in wine, I tried everyone's favorite Passover drink again, and found it, well, vile. Which is why I was amused and quite enchanted to hear it both referred to as the 11th plague, as well as its origins so nicely researched in this piece in the Atlantic.

Despite the nostalgia and tradition behind it, as someone who loves wine, and more importantly good wine, I do have to urge you to move on, however, tradition be damned. There is plenty of decent kosher wine out there, as I wrote a couple of years ago for Epicurious.

There is even some truly stellar kosher wine out there, if you can manage to buy some before the gentiles scoop it all up.

Of course, if you want to look at your yearly four glass dose of concord grape syrup as yet another symbol of our people's suffering, that's your prerogative. But life is too short to drink bad wine, no matter how much it reminds you of childhood.

Why do journalists continue to consider it a revelation that the "average" consumer can't tell a $8 wine from a $45 wine? This ground has been covered so many times, yet trials of this sort (in this case roughly 600 consumers at the Edinburgh Science Fair) continue to be conducted.

I certainly don't begrudge those who have the curiosity to test this hypothesis themselves, rather than relying on the tests that have already been done. And I actually appreciate the extent to which such tests and their inevitable results help ordinary wine consumers feel good about their enjoyment of wines on the lower end of the price scale (as opposed to the common self-critical assumptions that they are incapable of appreciating the expensive stuff).

I guess what amazes me is that anyone would think that somehow uneducated, inexperienced consumers would ever be able to pick out the more expensive wine just by taste alone. Hell, a lot of wine journalists and winemakers couldn't do that consistently, let alone a population of random people who may or may not drink wine.

Of course, even leaving aside the tasting abilities and expertise of the test subjects, such tests are fraught with difficulty, starting with the most basic of presumptions that somehow there is a correlation between the organoleptic qualities of the wine and its price. Expensive wine is not by definition better, no matter what the marketing says. Is there a positive correlation between quality and price? Well some would say no quite vociferously. But I believe there is, if only because of the fundamental principles of economics operate in wine as they do most everywhere else in the world.

And then there's the fact that many expensive wines aren't necessarily designed to taste great right now, and would never be able to compete with a plush young wine on all but the most studied palates.

But leaving those and many other problems with such testing aside, the fundamental reality remains: most people pay very little attention to what they put in their mouths, and have very little language (and the experience that produces such language) to differentiate amongst the flavors and sensations on their palate. To say this is not to make any value judgement about the situation, merely to state the facts. Sort of like saying a lot of kids don't know much about and can't really appreciate classical music.

So, can we stop running these tests already, and focus on just encouraging everyone to simply drink more wine, no matter at what price point?

Read the full story.

Most wine tasting events focused on a specific style or type of wine that take place in California suffer from a single, but important deficit: they feature almost exclusively California wines. Go to a Pinot Noir event, and you get 95% California Pinots, etc.

There are a few notable exceptions to this, however, and one of my favorites is the annual fete for Rhone style wines called Hospice du Rhone.

For those who have not had the pleasure of attending Hospice du Rhone, it is a unique treat for anyone who enjoys this kind of wine. Attendees spend a laid-back two and a half days of seminars, dinners, and parties which offer a unique blend of California and international wines and wine talent. It's a pure, unadulterated wine fest.

The event begins with a night of bowling and debauchery, which is followed by a full day of seminars on everything Rhone that ends with various dinner parties at wineries in the area. Day two for some people begins with a big dose of antacid and more than a liberal dose of coffee to compensate for the previous evenings festivities. The second day includes more seminars and the grand tasting, which offers the remarkable and instructive opportunity to taste California, French, and Australian Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre, and the other 19 Rhone varieties side-by-side.

The overall event is a very down-to-earth, and often humorous, celebration of the twenty-two Rhone varietals and the people who love them. The wine seminars are top notch, and the grand tasting is a fantastic opportunity to taste a lot of excellent wines, many of which are sold only through mailing lists, or not sold in the United States at all.

If you're a wine lover looking for something great to do the first weekend of May, you'd be hard pressed to find a better way to spend a couple of days.

Hospice du Rhone 2011: So You Think You Can Rhone
April 28 - 30, 2010
Paso Robles Event Center
2198 Riverside Ave
Paso Robles, CA 93446 (map)
805.784.9543

Tickets are $795 for the entire weekend (with a la carte pricing for various elements), and $100 for the Grand Tasting available for purchase online, and should be purchased in advance as the event will likely sell out. Also, book your accommodations quickly as they tend to be scarce in this little town the closer you get to the event.

The Wilds of Bio Bio
One of the wine regions I really wanted to visit, but didn't get a chance to while I was in Chile was Bio Bio. Several of Chile's wine regions are "frontier-like" but Bio Bio is very much a new frontier of cool-climate winegrowing. While I was in Chile I heard rumblings of top producers from Burgundy falling in love with the region, which seems poised to be a potential source of excellent Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, and, in the case of the vines shown here, Chardonnay. -- Alder Yarrow

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ABOUT VINOGRAPHY IMAGES:
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Spring certainly seems to be Pinot Noir season in the Bay Area. Several major Pinot focused events -- the Pinot Noir Shootout, the World of Pinot Noir, the Anderson Valley Pinot Noir Festival, the Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Passport Event, etc. -- all occur within a span of about three months. To this impressive list, we may be able to add yet one more annual event, judging by the crush of the crowd at the first ever "In Pursuit of Balance" tasting held a couple of weeks ago at RN74 in San Francisco.

This was a somewhat unusual Pinot Noir tasting in several respects, not the least of which being that it came with its own manifesto. Put together by Rajat Parr, the well-known sommelier for the Michael Mina Group of restaurants, and the young Jasmine Hirsch of Hirsch Vineyards, this event was as much a statement as it was a tasting. Parr, who has become somewhat infamous for not selling Pinot Noirs over 14.5% alcohol in his RN74 restaurant, believes strongly that the beauty of Pinot Noir is only expressed when the wine is "in balance," and this tasting was an attempt to showcase exactly what he meant.

Of course, balance isn't exactly a straightforward thing when it comes to wine, is it? Some might say balance is in the eye of the beholder, while others would contend that it is as perceivable and concrete as the color of the wine. What is the relationship between balance and alcohol level? Between balance and acidity? Where does balance come from? The event's manifesto offers its own interpretation "Balance is the foundation of all fine wine. Loosely speaking, a wine is in balance when its diverse components - fruit, acidity, structure and alcohol - coexist in a manner such that should any one aspect overwhelm or be diminished, then the fundamental nature of the wine would be changed."

That's a pretty good definition to start with for me, but I might add that in particular, when I speak of balance in a wine in a positive sense, I am often referring to the tension between the expression of fruit and the acidity and whatever minerality might exist in the wine. Whereas when I think about wines that are out of balance, they can be so not only because they lack acidity or lack a fruit expression, but also because some components in the wine like tannic structure or alcohol obscure other aspects of the wine.

Not assuming that there was no more to say after the drafting of their manifesto, the event began with a panel discussion moderated by Ray Isle of Food & Wine Magazine. By the time I showed up (45 minutes late thanks to meetings that ran over time at work) I caught only the last few minutes of discussion and the questions from the crowd. Judging by what I saw, it was a very interesting panel, but perhaps not definitive in its consensus on what balance actually meant. The panel was webcast as it happens, so hopefully that means a video will be forthcoming. I'll post it here when it is available.

After the panel, I joined a large crowd at RN74 for a tasting of some thirty or so producers that gathered to showcase their wines under the banner of balance.

Not all of the wines were balanced.

Having said that, the quality of wines at this tasting, with a few exceptions, was perhaps the highest of any single public tasting I've attended in San Francisco. In short, a lot of Pinot Noir superstars showed up to pour at this event, and irrespective of the ideology that united them, that was certainly enough to justify the event.

The question remains, however, whether this group was indeed defined by a common characteristic in their wines, in addition to a common belief that so clearly unites them.

My answer? I'm not sure. Certainly these wines skewed slightly to the lower end of the alcoholic strength of California Pinot Noir. But not so much (but for a couple of exceptions, like Wind Gap's jaw-dropping 12.5% alcohol) that these wines were all clearly in a category of their own compared to the bulk of California Pinot. Of course, balance is not simply about alcohol level, though that clearly figures heavily in the conception of this group's sense of balance.

Ultimately, I think this whole event and the philosophy that underlies it, comes back to a yearning for California Pinot Noir to more resemble Burgundy. Is that a reasonable desire? Perhaps. I certainly tend to appreciate California Pinots that have some of the restraint and complexity that I find in Burgundy, though I find even the best California Pinots a far cry from Burgundy. They're just different animals. And if this is the case, I think it is possible to go too far in demanding that California Pinot Noir model itself in Burgundy's image. On the other hand, I think a bunch of the California Pinot Noirs I try have too much new oak, are picked too ripe, and finish with alcoholic heat.

So balance is a great aim, but as Vanessa Peay put it in the bit of the panel discussion I caught, perhaps it's more about a journey than a specific destination.

This was a fantastic tasting, though if it happens again, I hope the organizers will move it to a more suitable venue than RN74, as it was a heavily overcrowded and poorly configured space.

Here are my scores for all the wines that were poured.

WINES WITH A SCORE AROUND 9.5
2009 Kutch "McDougall Ranch" Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast. $48
Light to medium garnet in the glass, this wine smells of raspberry, flowers, and brown sugar. In the mouth it is wonderfully silky and taut between flavors of raspberry and elegant, wet dirt qualities. Quite delicate and poised, this is one hell of a classy wine, with a long finish of mineral and fruit. Perfectly balanced and delicious. Outstanding.

2009 Peay Vineyards "Ama Estate" Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast. $53
A new bottling for the Peay label, this wine is light to medium garnet colored in the glass, with a wonderfully floral and stony nose of raspberry, cranberry and dirt aromas. In the mouth apart from being quite sexy and slithery on the tongue, the wine conveys an overwhelming sense of delicacy in its raspberry and cranberry and mineral flavors. Hints of herbs emerge on the finish. Fantastic.

WINES SCORING BETWEEN 9 AND 9.5
2008 Chanin "Le Bon Climat Vineyard" Pinot Noir, Santa Maria Valley. $43
Light garnet in the glass, this wine smells of spicy raspberry and cranberry fruit. In the mouth the wine explodes with juicy acidity, carrying bright flavors of raspberry, cranberry and cedar across the palate on a velvety smooth surface. The finish is long and fine. Click to buy.

2008 Chanin "Bien Nacido Vineyard" Pinot Noir, Santa Maria Valley. $43
Pale garnet in the glass, this wine smells of raspberry and floral aromas with a hint of wet dirt. In the mouth, wonderfully juicy raspberry, and briary green leaf flavors mix with brown sugar and floral notes that linger in a long finish. Delicate and exuberant at the same time. Click to buy.

2009 Wind Gap "Woodruff Vineyard" Pinot Noir, Santa Cruz Mountains. $50
Light to medium garnet in the glass, this wine has a nose of slightly green grape stems caramelized veggies, and pure ethereal raspberry fruit. In the mouth, the wine explodes with juicy raspberry fruit, and a deep wet dirt character that is stunning. Flavors of woody stems and brown sugar morph to a caramel and mineral quality in the finish. Fantastic acidity, wonderful balance and delicacy. A staggering 12.5% alcohol.

2007 Calera "Ryan Vineyard" Pinot Noir, Mt. Harlan. $40 Click to buy.
2007 Ceritas Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast. $55 Click to buy.
2007 Clendenen Family Vineyards "Le Bon Climat" Pinot Noir, Santa Maria Valley. $60 Click to buy.
2007 Cobb "Emmaline Vineyard" Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast. $78 Click to buy.
2009 Copain "Les Voisins" Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley. $38 Click to buy.
2009 Copain Kiser "en haute" Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley. $55
2009 Failla "Pearlessence Vineyard" Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast. $55
2009 Failla "Hirsch Vineyard" Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast. $65
2007 Flowers "Frances Thompson Estate" Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast. $70 Click to buy.
2009 Kutch Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley. $39 Click to buy.
2009 Littorai Wines "The Pivot Vineyard" Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast. $63 Click to buy.
2009 Littorai Wines "Savoy Vineyard" Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley. $63 Click to buy.
2009 Peay Vineyards "Pomarium Estate" Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast. $53 Click to buy.
2008 Wind Gap "Woodruff Vineyard" Pinot Noir, Santa Cruz Mountains. $50
2009 Wind Gap Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast. $36 Click to buy.

WINES WITH A SCORE AROUND 9
2009 Au Bon Climat "Le Bon Climat - K&U" Pinot Noir, Santa Maria Valley. Not available in the US.
2007 Calera "Jensen Vineyard" Pinot Noir, Mt. Harlan. $70 Click to buy.
2008 Ceritas "Escarpa Vineyard" Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast. $55
2009 Ceritas "Escarpa Vineyard" Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast. $55 Click to buy.
2008 Cobb "Diane Cobb: Coastlands Vineyard" Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast. $68 Click to buy.
2009 Copain "Monument Tree" Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley. $50
2009 Copain "Wentzel" Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley. $50
2009 Failla "Keefer Ranch" Pinot Noir, Russian River. $42 Click to buy.
2007 Flowers "Sea View Ridge Estate" Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast. $70 Click to buy.
2009 Freestone Tank Sample Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast. $55
2009 Hirsch Vineyards "Bohan Dillon" Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast. $30 Click to buy.
2009 Hirsch Vineyards "Reserve - Barrel Sample" Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast. $85
2009 Kutch "Falstaff" Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast. $48
2009 LIOCO "Hirsch Vineyard" Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast. $?? Click to buy.
2007 Littorai Wines "Savoy Vineyard" Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley. $63 Click to buy.
2008 Miura "Silacci Vineyard - Matador" Pinot Noir, Monterey County. $??
2005 Mount Eden Vineyards "Estate" Pinot Noir, Santa Cruz Mountains. $?? Click to buy.
2009 Peay Vineyards Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast. $40 Click to buy.
2009 Sandhi Wines "ELV Tempest" Pinot Noir, Santa Rita Hills. $75
2009 Tyler "Bien Nacido N Block - Old Vines" Pinot Noir, Santa Maria Valley. $65

WINES SCORING BETWEEN 8.5 AND 9
2008 Alta Maria Vineyards Pinot Noir, Santa Maria Valley. $25 Click to buy.
2008 Au Bon Climat "Isabelle" Pinot Noir, California. $50 Click to buy.
2009 Cartha Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast. Click to buy.
2008 Cobb "Coastlands Vineyard" Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast. $68 Click to buy.
2008 Evening land Pinot Noir, Sonoma coast. $40 Click to buy.
2009 Evening Land Vineyards "Tempest Bloom's Field" Pinot Noir, Santa Rita Hills. $63
2009 Evening Land Vineyards "Occidental Vineyards" Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast. $120
2007 Freestone Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast. $55 Click to buy.
2008 Freestone Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast. $55 Click to buy.
2007 Hirsch Vineyards "San Andreas" Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast. $60 Click to buy.
2007 LIOCO "Michaud Vineyard" Pinot Noir, Chalone. $?? Click to buy.
2008 Miura "Garys' Vineyard" Pinot Noir, Santa Lucia Highlands. $60 Click to buy.
2009 Mount Eden Vineyards "Estate" Pinot Noir, Santa Cruz Mountains. $??
2007 Mount Eden Vineyards "Estate" Pinot Noir, Santa Cruz Mountains. $?? Click to buy.
2008 Native9 "Rancho Ontiveros Vineyard" Pinot Noir, Santa Maria Valley. $55 Click to buy.
2009 Native9 "Rancho Ontiveros Vineyard" Pinot Noir, Santa Maria Valley. $55
2009 Soliste "Sonatera Vineyards" Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast. $??
2008 Tyler "Clos Pepe" Pinot Noir, Santa Rita Hills. $62

WINES WITH A SCORE AROUND 8.5
2009 Alta Maria Vineyards Pinot Noir, Santa Maria Valley. $25 Click to buy.
2009 Calera Pinot Noir, Central Coast. $24 Click to buy.
2008 Miura "Pisoni Vineyard" Pinot Noir, Santa Lucia Highlands. $60 Click to buy.
2008 Tyler "Presidio" Pinot Noir, Santa Barbara County. $50

WINES SCORING BETWEEN 8 AND 8.5
2007 Soliste "L' Espérance" Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast. $??

WINES WITH A SCORE AROUND 7.5
2008 Soliste "L' Espérance" Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast. $??

So there I was, sitting in Business Class on my way across the country, courtesy of an all-too-rare-these-days upgrade (thanks to my lowly status), and the option of having a glass of wine with my lunch arose. Always up for an adventure, I ordered the Merlot, and gamely tucked in, when I had the chance.

It was awful. The sort of wine that I didn't want to have a second mouthful of.

The wine had just underperformed my very low expectations, which I thought was hard to do. You see, it's been a long time since I had what I thought was a decent glass of wine on a domestic airline. Most of the time I don't have the option of a glass poured from a 750ml bottle, so I don't drink wine while flying. On those rare occasions when I do fly Business Class, it's usually internationally, and I admit to being spoiled by some of the Asian airlines in the early 2000s which spent a lot of money on their wine programs.

But here and there I grab a glass on a plane between our coasts, and generally I have the sense that the state of wine above 30,000 feet in this country has gone, er, downhill, from a point that wasn't that elevated to begin with.

So as I stared at that Merlot, gently slopping over the top of my glass through the latest rash of turbulence, I found myself wondering how the hell the wine gets on the airline in the first place, and what sorts of constraints (I imagined there must be a lot of them) would result in me having that specific glass of Merlot in front of me at that particular point in time.

I knew where I could get the answers to my questions. I had met sommelier Doug Frost at the Taste of Washington wine event several years ago, and he seemed like an approachable guy. We had a good, if short, conversation while waiting for our respective taxis one day at the hotel we were staying at.

Frost, who is one of only three people in the world who hold both the Master Sommelier and Master of Wine titles, has been the worldwide wine consultant for United Airlines for several years now.

He graciously agreed to answer my questions by e-mail about the hows and whys of airline wines (at least in the context of his client, United), and if we're lucky (and he stops in to see how this thread develops) he might answer some of yours left in the comments as well.

How long have you been choosing wines for United?
I started choosing wines for United a little more than seven years ago and have been the sole wine and spirits consultant during those seven years.

Have you or do you work for other airlines?
No, United is the only airline for which I've consulted.

Can you please describe the process of selecting the wines? Where do you find them and how do you evaluate them, and then how do you (or others?) decide which ones end up on planes?
The selection process begins with a typical rfp tender; sent out to all available vendors/importers/wineries. The rfp sets out the price range, the grape(s), the country or region of origin, the vintage range and the style of wine that is being sought out. We require of the wines that they exhibit balance in style (no excessive alcohols, tannins, and such) and without noticeable flaws (we look for VA, EA, Brett, H2S and the like). We go through written wine offerings covering hundreds of wines, and I cut that number down based upon an agreed upon count and my best guess at the likelihood of the wine's success in subsequent tastings. Next we set up a preliminary tasting; it might be a few hundred wines, it might be five or six hundred. In some years that has been a blind tasting; of late, it is not. Out of that group, I choose about 100 wines for the final tasting - not a predetermined number but that's how things usually go. Finally, the tasting group (comprised of purchasing, beverage, culinary and logistics management, as well as an occasional guest either from among the Global Services ranks or outside wine professionals) tastes the wines blind and selects the wines that will be boarded, dependent upon the price and the availability.

When you say all available importers distributors, do you really mean, every one in the country?
Well, there are only a few brokers who specialize in such work: they each handle many wineries and importers. There are a small group of wineries that sell directly, and there are a relatively small number of European wineries that wish to do business with airlines.

Would you be willing to share more details about the RFP? Like the price ranges, or how you describe the specific styles?
Sorry, I'm not allowed to share pricing information. The style issue is easy: like I say, we offer one each New World red and one Old World red, as well as one New World white and one Old World white; and one of the reds is light to medium-bodied (generally Pinot Noir or Syrah/Grenache based) and one is full-bodied (Bordeaux variety-based). One white is Chardonnay and one is non-Chardonnay (Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, some such).

How DO you determine what to put in that RFP? What's the thought process behind the selection of the RFP contents? What drives your sense of which wines should be on the list?
In First Class, we need classic names and character. In Business Class, we can step outside the classics to a degree. Throughout all classes of service (First, Business, Domestic First Class, Coach Class), I need overt fruit more than anything else. I concede that somebody can complain about my choice, that they may find some of the choices simple and perhaps boring, but my greatest wish is that there is always fresh, well-preserved fruit. And I try to bear in mind what my predecessor, Bob Thompson, used to say (I paraphrase): that most travelers feel hassled and harried and we want that glass of wine to change a traveler's day, to slow it down and make it better.

What kinds of constraints do you have in both determining the pool of wines you have to choose from, and then your final selections?
Price is of course a constraint. Perhaps surprisingly, over the last seven years I have not had my budget trimmed, nor have I been under any pressure to save money in any of the cabins or categories. The biggest constraint is often availability: we buy hundreds if not thousands of cases of any particular wine and often the wineries have, by the time the selection process is completed, decided that they aren't willing to part with so many cases. Perhaps more importantly, we're trying to place all wines in a "style matrix": New World wines with Old World wines, full-bodied and powerful against lighter-bodied, softer wines.

Do all the planes have the same wines at the same time, or do you put certain wines on certain routes? What strategy is there, if any, for determining what wines end up on what routes?
Most international flights carry the same wines at the same time, but we typically change the wine selections every two or three months (depends upon the class of service, and the velocity of the wines). We also have changing wine selections on domestic flights (First Class) and PS flights (in Business Class) and will at times offer wines that are selected for their routing: Chianti into Italy, Shiraz into Australia, Malbec into South America and such.

Do you select all the wines, or just those for business and first class?
I participate in and help guide the process of selection of all wines aboard United flights.

How do you decide (or do you) which wines end up in first class vs. which ones are in business class?
Price is of course part of the selection and categorization of the wines we board. We also try to be smart about matching wines to the class of service. For instance, we see First Class International wine selections as requiring a classic structure and provenance. Business Class passengers may be willing to try less familiar wines, so we have boarded Albarino, Chianti, Ribera del Duero and the like in Business Class; we haven't yet done so in First Class.

I have the impression that the quality of wines available on US Domestic flights has gone down significantly in the last 10 years. Do you think that's true? If so, is it just another symptom of the cost cutting we're seeing everywhere, or something else?
I'd have to repeat what I wrote before [editor's note: I submitted this claim to Frost in our private correspondence leading up to this interview] : I would respectfully disagree. I have greater leeway in pricing than I did when I began, and there are more interesting wines available now than a few years back, when I was less adventurous in the selection process. I think that consumers are far more savvy today than they were five years ago, and we're trying to keep up with them. I believe that we have done so but it's a challenge to stay in front of trends and prejudices.

What's the hardest thing about being the wine buyer/director for an airline?
Our biggest challenge is logistics: we ship and board wine in many ports around the world: Japan, England, Argentina, Australia, many cities in the US and Europe. Trying to change the wines on a standard time frame in all those cities is a trip. Further because of these logistical challenges, we are selecting wines to be boarded sometimes as much as a year later. We have to be very smart about the appropriateness and the stability of those wines.

What's the best wine on United right now in your opinion?
Tough one: Henriot Brut Millesime 1998, Cuvee Diamant Brut, Brocard Chablis Premier Cru Vaillons 2007, St Supery Cabernet Sauvignon 2005, Grahams LBV 2003

* * *

What other questions would you have?

Rolling Vineyards
Nicely tended vineyards have a wonderful effect on rolling hills, turning them into sculpture. The hills above are found in the lovely winegrowing region of Leyda in Central Chile. Cooled by breezes from the sea, Leyda has become known for its Sauvignon Blanc. -- Alder Yarrow

INSTRUCTIONS:
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Sometimes you hear an idea and wonder to yourself, exactly why it's taken someone so long to come up with it. And the really good ones make you think, "now why didn't I come up with that?"

That's exactly what I thought to myself when I first heard of the San Francisco Vintners Market. It's a farmer's market, but for wine. Simple as that. Walk around, taste a bunch of wines, and buy the ones that you like. So incredibly straightforward it took years for someone to come up with the idea.

But now it's happened three or four times here in San Francisco, and it's clearly a smashing success, from the standpoint of the people who attend, as well as the vintners, who are actually selling wine, in some cases, a lot of it.

All you gotta do is buy a ticket and show up. Think of it as a tasting room that you don't have to drive to. Or a big wine tasting you can go to and finally not have to worry about finding some retailer somewhere that carries the wines that you fell in love with at the tasting.

This event is about helping smaller wineries sell their wines to the public. More than 100 of them will be pouring and selling their wares from all over California. It's definitely worth checking out.

San Francisco Vintners Market
Saturday and Sunday April 9th & 10th
1:00 PM to 4:00 PM
Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, CA

Tickets are $50 if purchased in advance (prices go up $10 at the door). You can also purchase a VIP ticket for $80 and get access to a room of $50+ wines.

Make sure to spit some wines out so you get a chance to try a lot of them !!

Food and wine pairing is the big bird around the neck, or the monkey on the back of American wine appreciation. How we've gotten to this place I'm not entirely sure. I suspect it has something to do with the fact that as a country our wine drinking and food cultures are imported, and somewhat recently compared to the rest of the world. We lack a native or intuitive sense of wine as food, and of wine as an essential part of the dining experience.

Don't ask me to fully explain how or why this has resulted in Americans' utter obsession with the concept of food and wine pairing as some sort of art, because I can't. Yet somehow, there seems to be an insatiable demand for tips, tricks, rules, examples, guidance, glossaries, and formulas.

I've written at length (and to much controversy) before about the inanity of all this, but It's clear that I'm very much in the minority.

Amazon lists no less than 159 books on food and wine pairing. Of the several hundred apps on the iPhone, more than 100 offer food and wine pairing suggestions, with nearly half that many seeming devoted only to that end.

Could the millions of words, innumerable hours, and millions of dollars spent on this subject be mostly wasted? There's a new research study that suggests as much. Conducted by Wine Opinions this study seems to suggest that a vast majority of the wine purchased in America isn't consumed with food at all. According to the Napa Valley Register, which reported on some of the survey's findings, the survey of core wine drinkers (those who drink daily and who make up 82% of wine consumption in the US) showed that 60% of their wine consumption is done outside of sitting down to a meal.

If this is true, then our food and wine pairing obsession is as unhealthy, not to mention fruitless, as I have suspected. I'm sure that plenty of people regularly, even constantly explore and enjoy the exercise of matching food with wine, but for every glass carefully chosen to go with a specific dish, there appear to eight more consumed in the same way most people drink a scotch.

I can only barely imagine what might happen if wine writing and the attentions of wine lovers actually matched their real behavior. Would a large portion of the critical establishment stop excoriating all wines that are greater than 14.5% alcohol as having no place at the dinner table? Would wine drinkers feel free to not only drink whatever they like, but to explore and experiment in their wine choices without fear of doing something wrong? Would more people actually drink wine because they knew it didn't always HAVE to go with food?

Of course, I haven't seen the detailed study methodology, or results, so my thoughts here are somewhat rash. But a guy can dream, right?

About three months ago, I found myself wandering around the halls at the Vino2011 tradeshow in New York. Put on by the Italian Trade Commission, it is the largest Italian wine show outside of Italy, and an opportunity to taste an awful lot of Italian wine in a very short period of time.

Sometimes when I go to such events, I have a plan to focus on certain regions, or grape varieties, but sometimes I just wander to see what catches my eye.

Which is how one afternoon I ended up in the back corner of a side hall where a rather unadorned table held a few ice buckets, out of which I saw peeking a bottle of ros� that was the palest shade of pink you could imagine.

Just as some people immediately notice an Hermes scarf from twenty yards just by the stitching, or a F.P. Journe watch from a glimpse of its hands across the room, I tend to pay an awful lot of attention to the hue of ros�. The lighter the better, I say, and when I see one shimmering towards the pale side of colorless, it's like finding a twenty dollar bill on the sidewalk.

Little did I know it, but I was about to be introduced to some of the most unique and special wines of Northern Tuscany.

The rather plain-looking (compared to the snazzily dressed representatives at other tables) old lady behind the table was engrossed in a phone conversation, and had her back to me as I approached. This suited me just fine, as I hoped to simply sneak up to the table, grab a taste of the wines, and if they weren't all that great, head off to the next table without wasting much time for conversation.

But then I poured a bit of that ros� for myself, and put it in my mouth, and learned why, among certain circles in the wine world, when you ask someone who the best wine producer in San Gimignano is, there is no hesitation before they say Montenidoli. I had exactly this experience for several weeks after tasting these wines, and was left with the distinct impression that I had just been let on to a secret, much later than everyone I knew.

The woman behind the table, who eventually introduced herself after she finished her call and saw me stunned in the grip of her tremendous wines, was Elisabetta Fagiuoli. And the twinkle in her eye demonstrated that this wasn't the first time she'd snared such an unsuspecting taster.

Fagiuoli and her husband Sergio founded their winery in 1965, on their hillside property across a little valley from the picturesque Tuscan town of San Gimignano. Montenidoli means "mountain of little nests" and with its forested reaches and populations of swallows it's easy to understand how it came by that name. San Gimignano, known for its many intact Medieval clock towers and surrounding wine, is quite famous in the wine world for being awarded the very first DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata) designation of anywhere in Italy. This honor was no doubt due, in part, to the historical significance of Vernaccia de San Gimignano which has been famous since at least as far back as the Renaissance, where it was a favorite of the sculptor Michelangelo.

Fagiuoli's land sits on a bulge of some of the oldest rock in Italy, and she claims that it was planted to vines first by the Etruscans, whose 7th century BC civilization lends Tuscany its name. She and her husband own about 900 acres on the top of her hill, of which most is essentially a nature preserve -- ancient forest and wildness. Out of this forest the Fagiuolis have carefully coaxed about 57 acres of vines, olives, and farmland.

Part of their inspiration for becoming vintners was the discovery of ancient olive trees overgrown with brambles that they believe are as old as the stone home they moved into on the property, which dates back to the 13th Century and was purportedly constructed by the Knights Templar.

Since breaking ground in the late 1960s, insecticides and herbicides have never been used on the vineyards, and the Fagiuolis avoid the use of copper and sulfur on the vines except in dire circumstances. The grapes are harvested by hand, carefully sorted, and then destemmed and crushed.

The winemaking is mostly done in what might be called an ancient style, with the primary concession to modernity being temperature controlled steel tanks for the white wines. The reds ferment in epoxy-lined cement tanks before moving to wood barrels.

Elisabetta is both the viticulturalist and the winemaker, and ultimately the keeper of the soul of Montenidoli and its wines. She is widely credited with singlehandedly elevating Vernaccia di San Gimignano to a new level of quality, and continues to make some of Tuscany's most distinct wines, now from vines that are 50 or more years old. Her label bears the words "Sono Montenidoli" or "Only Montenidoli" in reference to the fact that the wines have always been, and will always be, only from grapes that she tends herself.

Without question, her white wines are some of the best made in Tuscany, and are incredible values. They are some of the most exciting things I have put into my mouth in 2011 and I highly recommend seeking them out.

TASTING NOTES:

2007 Montenidoli "Tradizionale" Vernaccia di San Gimignano, Tuscany
Palest gold to near colorless in the glass, this wine smells of wet stones, white flowers, and unripe pears. In the mouth it is crisp and juicy with green apple, wet stone, and hints of citrus zest. Excellent acidity, wonderful balance and texture, and a long floral finish make this a truly delightful wine. Score: between 8.5 and 9. Cost: $19. Click to buy

2007 Montenidoli "Fiore" Vernaccia di San Gimignano, Tuscany
Near colorless in the glass, this wine has an unusual nose of cucumber and white flower aromas. In the mouth the wine is electrically bright and crisp with lemongrass and stony minerality. Notes of cucumber and green apple emerge amidst a delicate skein of white flower aromas. Perfectly balanced, with delicate acidity. Made from her best Vernaccia grapes, and only free-run juice that is kept much longer on the lees than her normal wine. Score: around 9. Cost: $24. Click to buy

2009 Montenidoli Rosato di Canaiuolo IGT, Tuscany
Pale salmon pink in the glass, this wine smells of rose petals and orange peel doused in a cool spring rain. In the mouth tart strawberry and orange peel flavors swirl in a satiny textured body, and morph into more citrusy rosehip tartness as the wine finishes. Delicate, crisp, bone dry, and everything you could dream of a ros� being. Utterly fantastic, and deeply quaffable. Score: around 9.5. Cost: $20. Click to buy.

1999 Montenidoli "Il Templare" Bianco IGT, Tuscany
Medium gold in the glass, this wine has a nose of dried orange peel, white flowers, and what I can only describe as the sweet smell of wet leaves. In the mouth the wine has a beautiful poise and texture, with flavors of beeswax, wet stones, lychee, and lemon cream. Incredibly exotic and impeccably balanced with beautiful acidity, this wine literally had me speechless for minutes. It has aged beautifully, and clearly will for more than a decade or two longer. An unusual blend of Vernaccia, Trebbiano and Malvasia, it is a wine that Fagiuoli is considering selling some of out of her library. I certainly hope for our sake that she does. Score: between 9.5 and 10. Cost: unknown. Current vintages sell for around $28. Click to buy.

In addition to the wines above, Montenidoli makes a third Vernaccia, and four red wines.

Spring Storm in Colchagua
Chile is a land of extremes, thanks to its extremely varied, and tightly woven topography, where steep Andean peaks dive down to rich valleys that range from deserts to lush green swards that very quickly lead to the coast. Weather comes from many directions and can often be fierce. But in its aftermath there is sometimes great beauty, as storm clouds dissapate over rolling hills of beautiful green vines. -- Alder Yarrow

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Download this image by right-clicking on the image and selecting "save link as" or "save target as" and then select the desired location on your computer to save the image. Mac users can also just click the image to open the full size view and drag that to their desktops.

To set the image as your desktop wallpaper, Mac users should follow these instructions, while PC users should follow these.

PRINTS:
If you are interested in owning a print of this image please contact photographer Matt Wilson through his web site.

ABOUT VINOGRAPHY IMAGES:
Vinography regularly features images by photographer Matt Wilson for readers' personal use as desktop backgrounds or screen savers. We hope you enjoy them. Please respect the copyright on these images. These images are not to be reposted on any web site or blog without the express permission of the photographer.

Forget Red States and Blue States, now there are Wine States and Beer States. While alcohol of choice isn't exactly going to be the best way to demarcate political affiliation at any point, apparently there are some pretty clear differences when you look at the political donations from alcohol producers to legislators.

I know this will come as a shock, but...

Democrats = wine
Republicans = beer

Of course, it's not completely black and white, but that's the general trend. According to the web site OpenSecrets.Org, which is run by the Center for Responsive Politics, Democratic lawmakers get more contributions from wine companies than beer and spirits companies, and Republican lawmakers are just the opposite.

The question is, why does this not come as a big surprise? Because I'm a democrat and I love wine and I live in California which is both generally Democratic and the country's largest producer of wine? I'm not sure that it's quite that easy, but that might have something to do with it.

For the most part, the largest political contributions made by the wine industry come from California, and so it stands to reason that they would tend to support Democratic causes more. And while it's not quite so consistent, a lot of the big breweries come from states that tend to be Republican controlled (Coors in Colorado, for instance).

The biggest wine and spirits companies tend to spread money around across parties, it seems. Anheuser-Busch InBev contributed equally across party lines last year, according to the report.

So why should we care about this? Well for starters, it may be relevant in the upcoming fight over the heinous piece of legislation called HR1161, which you should contact your congressional representative about, and make sure they vote against it if it comes up for a vote.

Second, it's also worth noting what a puny little amount of money wine producers in particular, and alcohol producers in general spend in Washington compared to other industries. Alcohol producers in aggregate give a few paltry million dollars, compared to say $38 million by the National Association of Realtors. Perhaps someone with more math skills than I could normalize the contributions by size of each industry and see whether, as I suspect, the wine and spirits industry isn't working the American system quite as well as it could be.

Read the full article.