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It’s time for another edition of our monthly international virtual tasting known as Wine Blogging Wednesday. This month the theme is Portuguese Table Wines hosted by my friends Gabriella and Ryan from Catavino. From their home base outside Barcelona, Spain they cover wines made on the Iberian Peninsula shared by Portugal and Spain. This month they have asked us to focus on lesser known Portuguese wines so Porto, Madeira and Vinho Verde are out. Also out is the popular Douro Valley appellation where most of the wines on the shelves here in the U.S. are made.

With those guidelines in mind, I started to look for wines around town and frankly didn’t find a whole lot of choices until I ventured to one of the urban wine stores in Minneapolis. I selected two wines, a white and a red, made by producers I was unfamiliar with and regions I had never tasted before. One of the wines was even made from a grape variety I had not tried, Alfrocheiro Preto.

The white was made in DO Estremadura just northwest of Lisbon from 100% Alvarinho. This grape is mostly known here in the U.S. by it’s Spanish name Albariño and is one of my favorite white varietals. According to a fine piece over at Catavino, Estremadura is the second largest wine producing region in Portugal with 311,000 hectoliters produced annually. This wine is produced by DFJ Vinhos, which seems like a fairly large operation from their website, with a wide range of single varietal and blends, but there was not much else about their background from the sparse information there (in English, anyway).

DFJ Vinhos, “Grand’ Arte” Alvarinho (Albariño), Estremadura, Portugal 2005 ($9 on closeout)

Straw yellow in color with aromas of citrus and white peach. Refreshing grapefruit and mineral flavors finishing bone dry with good acidity. More in the lighter Pinot Grigio style than the ripe and generous Albariño I have come to appreciate more this summer. I think this wine is getting a bit past it’s prime but it’s still a nice example of Alvarinho that would pair nicely with a salad on a warm afternoon.

12.5% ABV
Natural cork closure
Score: 86
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

My second selection was more in line with what popped into my brain when I first heard about this theme. A lot of very nice red wines from Portugal are appearing on wine store shelves and this is a nice example of what can be found for less than $15. It’s a blend of Touriga Nacional and Alfrocheiro Preto, two indigenous red varieties. Touriga Nacional is the best known as the lead grape used in Porto but it’s also getting quite popular in table wines. Alfrocheiro Preto is a bit more obscure but is an important grape in the Dão region where this wine was made by a cooperative. The Dão is south of the Douro Valley where their red wines must contain a minimum of 20% Touriga Nacional for some reason.

C.V.R. DAO, Quinta dos Grilos, Vinho Tinto, Dão, Portugal 2004 ($14)

Inky purple-black in color with aromas of strawberry, cherry liqueur, minerals and licorice. Rich in the mouth with juicy raspberry and cherry fruit, a touch of black pepper and plush tannins. A bit like a Petite Sirah in the color, body and tannin department but the flavor profile is more like a Syrah-Pinot Noir blend (think big Cali Pinot). A very satisfying wine that would pair well with roasted meats.

13% ABV
Natural cork closure
Score: 88
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

So another great Wine Blogging Wednesday comes to a close with two very nice wines to pick up and enjoy. Thanks once again to our hosts this month, Gabriella and Ryan from Catavino . I’m looking forward to next month where we’ll be searching for affordable Burgundy. Look for the announcement soon over at the Brooklynguy’s Wine and Food Blog.

Original post by Tim

Every so often, a perfect storm of work, personal commitments and an occasional Ken Burns documentary keep me from posting here. Usually it’s just several days but in this case it’s been over two weeks. So forgive me if I post a bit more frequently over the next few days to catch up…

Besides not writing or podcasting I pretty much stopped my blog reading. As I returned to Google Reader last week, I had the maximum 1,000+ posts on each of my subscription categories. So I simply pressed the “Mark all as read” button on most categories except for wine blogs.

In my perusal of the past several days, a few posts stood out. But none of these got me thinking more about wine blogging than Jeff’s post over at Good Grape on how 98% of Wine Bloggers Are Hacks. When I saw Ryan’s post today asking the difference between amateur and professional wine writers, I started to think about my credentials, or lack thereof, for what I do here.

Jeff’s post highlights veteran wine writer Matt Kramer’s piece about how 10,000 hours of training is the minimum to attain expert status in any field. Said another way, that’s 3 hours a day for 10 years. It’s been 9,458 days since I turned 21 back in the early days of the first Reagan Administration. To be fair, my wine drinking started three years earlier due to the drinking age in New York being 18 at the time but I really didn’t get into wine until I transfered to a university in northern California in 1980. If I assume that I spent an hour each day studying wine since then, I’m nearly at that 10,000 hour mark now. But my daily consumption of wine didn’t really begin until the mid-80’s and tasting wine is not the same as reading about wine.

So I’m still very much a hack by this definition.

Ryan’s post this morning asked when a blogger crosses the threshold from amateur to professional status? Since by definition an amateur does not get paid for doing a particular task this seems like an easy question. But in this age of affiliate marketing and sponsorship most wine bloggers can earn some sort of income from blogging. But this is not yet enough to earn a living for any wine blogger I know so I guess most of us are still amateur wine writers (or critics, if you like).

But I don’t think this matters very much as wine bloggers are starting to be taken seriously by consumers. Expert or professional status might have been the hurdle for wine writers in the print era but in today’s low-cost, online personal publishing era this barrier has evaporated.

I’ll still working on getting my 10,000 hours in, anyway

Original post by Tim

Every so often, a perfect storm of work, personal commitments and an occasional Ken Burns documentary keep me from posting here. Usually it’s just several days but in this case it’s been over two weeks. So forgive me if I post a bit more frequently over the next few days to catch up…

Besides not writing or podcasting I pretty much stopped my blog reading. As I returned to Google Reader last week, I had the maximum 1,000+ posts on each of my subscription categories. So I simply pressed the “Mark all as read” button on most categories except for wine blogs.

In my perusal of the past several days, a few posts stood out. But none of these got me thinking more about wine blogging than Jeff’s post over at Good Grape on how 98% of Wine Bloggers Are Hacks. When I saw Ryan’s post today asking the difference between amateur and professional wine writers, I started to think about my credentials, or lack thereof, for what I do here.

Jeff’s post highlights veteran wine writer Matt Kramer’s piece about how 10,000 hours of training is the minimum to attain expert status in any field. Said another way, that’s 3 hours a day for 10 years. It’s been 9,458 days since I turned 21 back in the early days of the first Reagan Administration. To be fair, my wine drinking started three years earlier due to the drinking age in New York being 18 at the time but I really didn’t get into wine until I transfered to a university in northern California in 1980. If I assume that I spent an hour each day studying wine since then, I’m nearly at that 10,000 hour mark now. But my daily consumption of wine didn’t really begin until the mid-80’s and tasting wine is not the same as reading about wine.

So I’m still very much a hack by this definition.

Ryan’s post this morning asked when a blogger crosses the threshold from amateur to professional status? Since by definition an amateur does not get paid for doing a particular task this seems like an easy question. But in this age of affiliate marketing and sponsorship most wine bloggers can earn some sort of income from blogging. But this is not yet enough to earn a living for any wine blogger I know so I guess most of us are still amateur wine writers (or critics, if you like).

But I don’t think this matters very much as wine bloggers are starting to be taken seriously by consumers. Expert or professional status might have been the hurdle for wine writers in the print era but in today’s low-cost, online personal publishing era this barrier has evaporated.

I’ll still working on getting my 10,000 hours in, anyway

Original post by Tim

The next element we need to consider for our open-source Roussanne, is target TA (total or titratable acidity). Since pH is the measure of the intensity of acidity, I will include both of these together in this post.

Roussanne is a high acid variety so we should have good acidity to work with right off the vine. If needed, we could acidify with tartaric acid which is very common in California winemaking and not something to be avoided, unless necessary, like watering back. The high acidity of the Roussanne can be blended back some with the addition of fatter varieties like Marsanne or Chardonnay which we will explore further as we go along.

So the main decision here is the intensity of the acidity, measured by the pH. The higher we go makes the wine more impressive by itself but sacrifices it’s friendliness with food. My preference is for the most food friendly wine here but I’m open to your comments and suggestions.

Next, we’ll get into yeast; such fun!

Original post by Tim

Over the weekend, Tyler, a.k.a. Dr Vino, posted a summary of Wine Blogging Wednesday 37. In all, 52 54 entries were tallied; a new record just edging out hammering my 51 from earlier in the year. And what a round-up it is, with all sorts of indigenous wine varieties from all over the world. I’ll definitely be looking at this for future reference.

Across the pond in suburban Barcelona, Spain, my ex-pat friends Gabriella and Ryan from Catavino took the cork out of WBW 38 with the theme of Portuguese Table Wines. They have several rules for this one but basically any non-fortified table wine from Portugal qualifies as long as it’s not from the popular Douro appellation, high production rose (think Lancers and Mateus) or Vinho Verde. Looks like I’ll be visiting the folks at Solo Vino for some bottles somewhat off the beaten path this time out.

Join us October 15th to see what everyone has chosen.

Original post by Tim

I’ve been a subscriber to the Wine Spectator online since I let my print subscription lapse a few years back. It just seemed to be a waste of paper piling up for the various roundups, Top 100 listings and occasional articles that would attract my attention. So the web version seemed like a good idea, if only to save some trees and clutter in the house.

I wouldn’t have otherwise noticed the current outage of the Wine Spectator website today unless they sent me an email informing me that they would be down for the entire week. I guess it’s not just a database problem that could be recovered from in a few hours at most sites; they went down hard.

But I’m not sure if it matters much given all the other choices for reading about wine online these days. So maybe I should cancel when they come back online and try Robert Parker’s online subscription (I do miss Neal Martin’s prose)?

Or maybe I should just save my money all together?

Original post by Tim

It’s again time for Wine Blogging Wednesday with the theme of Indigenous Varieties suggested by this month’s host, Dr Vino, Tyler Coleman.

I had high hopes to be able to feature some of the hybrid wine grapes developed to withstand the weather extremes here in Minnesota. So I searched out producers of Frontenac, Frontenac Gris, La Crescent, and Marquette. But I came up short on my afternoon of tasting at two local wineries and searching in local wine stores so these “indigenous varieties” will be written about another time.

So my backup plan was to write about my new obsession with Roussanne. As you know from my now daily posts, I’m making a wine from this grape at Crushpad along with many of you. Part of the research before crush is to nail down the style and other characteristics of Roussanne so I’ve been tasting quite a few of these wines of late. One of these wines hails from the Costières de Nimes in the Languedoc Roussillon region of France: Chateau L’Ermitage, “Cuvée Sainte Cécile.”

But before I review this wine, let me back up and talk about Roussanne and what makes this an “indigenous variety.” When Tyler introduced this theme, he asked us to find a wine made with grapes native to the region the wine is made. Unlike other Rhône grapes that are actually from Spain (Grenache being a good example) Roussanne can trace it’s heritage back to France’s Rhône Valley. Sticklers for detail might point out that Languedoc Roussillon is not the Rhône, but Costières de Nimes is just across the river from that famous region, so this wine is technically “indigenous.”

Roussanne gets it’s name from it’s russet color when ripe and is one of the more difficult grapes to grow. A late variety to ripen, Roussanne is very susceptible to rot and mildew. Therefore, it’s one of the most obscure white varieties with only a few hundred acres grown outside of it’s native Rhône. In the northern Rhône, Roussanne can only be blended with Marsanne. In the south, other varieties such as Grenache Blanc and Viognier are also permitted along with Marsanne.

Roussanne is known for it’s unique herbal aromatics and bracing acidity so blending with other grapes is most often what winemakers choose. In California and Australia some are bottling the variety on it’s own but the vast majority of the best examples are taken from the southern Rhône model and blended with Grenache Blanc, Viognier, Marsanne and sometimes Chardonnay.

One of Roussanne’s most interesting aspects is it is one of a few white wines that benefit from extended bottle age. Somewhat like Riesling, the wines are fresh and bold when young but take on very interesting bottle character with 10 or even 20 years of cellaring.

Chateau L’Ermitage is located in Costières de Nimes, literally across the river from the southern Rhône. Along with sea breezes from the Mediterranean, the vines benefits from soil mostly made up of fine pebbles which is typical of this terroir. Chateau L’Ermitage grow traditional Rhône varietals Syrah, Grenache, Mourvèdre, Roussanne, Grenache Blanc and Viognier.

Tasting Notes:

Chateau L’Ermitage Blanc, “Cuvée Sainte Cécile”, Costières de Nimes 2006 ($20) - A blend of 70% Roussanne, 20% Grenache Blanc and 10% Viognier.

Very floral and fresh with ripe pineapple, white peach, orange peel and almond aromas. Rich in the mouth with ripe pineapple and pear flavors finishing bone dry with good acidity. A very nice introduction to Roussanne blends at a steal of a price.

13% ABV
Synthetic cork closure
Score: 92
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Thanks again to Dr Vino for a great theme this month. I’m looking forward to tasting some wine from Portugal when my friends Gabriella & Ryan host next time.

Original post by Tim

The next question to deal with for our community-generated Roussanne is target and maximum alcohol. This one is somewhat linked to how ripe the grapes are when harvested and which yeast we will use to transform the juice into wine. But we can always “water back” very ripe juice to lower the alcohol if required (not my first choice).

Alcohol gives the wine body and weight on the palate but too much can produce off odors and a “hot” finish. Too low and the wine is thin and watery. The range Crushpad has is between 13-15.5+%. Shall we shoot for 14% but limit to 14.5%, or perhaps aim a bit lower?

Original post by Tim

Near the top of the Crushpad 30 White Wine Plan Companion is a simple question:

Style: Describe characters you would like to highlight or downplay in your wine.

Sounds like a simple request but one that I find difficult to put into words. Sure, I’ve had some Roussanne I really liked from both California and the Rhône but what were the specific elements that made these wines something special?

Before we get into this any further, let me back up and talk about the Roussanne grape as this might be new for some readers. Roussanne is native to the northern Rhône region of France where it is one of two white grapes, along with Marsanne, allowed in the appellations of Crozes-Hermitage, Hermitage and St. Joseph. It’s also grown in the southern Rhône where it is often blended with Grenache Blanc, Marsanne and Clairette Blanc.

An inconstant producer, Roussanne is not grown in large quantities anywhere in the world and there are less than 250 acres planted in California today. The name Roussanne most likely comes from it’s russet-colored berries when ripe. Wine made exclusively from this grape is highly acidic, but high in aromatics, so other white grapes are often blended to balance the final wine.

The Westerly Vineyard was established in 1995 by entrepreneurs Neil and Francine Afromsky. These were the first wine grapes planted in the Happy Canyon area of Santa Barbara’s warmest wine region. They planted 85 acres of Bordeaux and Rhône varieties and developed a name for the vineyard with their Westerly Vineyards brand. Last year they sold the Westerly Vineyard to Chicago financier Jack McGinley, but retained the “Westerly Vineyards” brand and access to the grapes grown in this vineyard. Thus, the vineyard name change and it’s unclear if we can use Westerly on the label of our Roussanne this vintage.

Westerly Vineyards Roussanne is released as a blend simply called, “W Blanc” which is mostly Roussanne (75-80%) blended with Viognier. Both the Wine Spectator and Wine Advocate have favorably reviewed Westerly Vineyards W Blanc which I will excerpt below:

Wine Spectator:

The 2004 W Blanc Estate (75% and 25% respectively) exhibits a light gold color along with a gorgeous nose of honeyed flowers and tropical fruits, good underlying acidity, and bold, exuberant, intense flavors nicely buttressed by acidity and tannin. This serious, French-styled white is reminiscent of an exotic white Hermitage. Drink it over the next several years. 90 points

Wine Advocate:

The 2003 W blanc (80% Roussanne and 20% Viognier) offers up a beautiful, crisp bouquet of rose petals, apricots, and exotic tropical fruits (passion and guava). An elegant, streamlined effort, it exhibits more minerality than most California dry whites, as well as a dry, well-delineated, ravishing style. Drink it over the next 1-2 years. 90 pts.

Although this sounds almost exactly like the style of Roussanne I prefer, it seems to lack the aromatic and flavor characteristics of mandarin orange that I find so fascinating with this varietal. Perhaps this aspect will be in our grapes or we might need to trade some juice with another Crushpad Marsanne group to introduce this complexity. I will buy some bottles of Westerly Vineyards W Blanc to taste for myself and will also bring them to group barrel tastings of our wine as a benchpark.

Whatever the final decision, what do you think we should aim for style-wise with this wine?

Original post by Tim

Now that harvest is getting into high gear in California, it’s time to make some decisions on the winemaking plan for the Roussanne we will be making together at Crushpad. Being a late ripening varietal, our Roussanne will not be ready to harvest until mid-October but there are 30 decisions to make in the coming 4-5 weeks before the grapes are picked.

So everyday from now to harvest, I will blog about each decision and invite readers to comment that will influence our decisions for each item. Those who join the Winecast Crushnet group will have inside access and directly effect these decisions because this is our wine, not my wine. The first 50 members will be assured a one-case allocation of the final product and the opportunity to lend a hand directly in San Francisco or virtually via the internet. Should the group exceed 50 by harvest, I will work with the folks at Crushpad to increase production.

To join the group, just sign up over at Crushnet and request to join the Winecast group. It’s free and easy to do in just a couple of minutes. Depending on the timing of the harvest, I will be on hand for the sorting and crushing of the grapes at Crushpad. I hope to see many group members there. We’ll also get together for barrel tastings in San Francisco and Minneapolis as the wine develops.

When I first announced this project a few weeks ago, I knew there was another blogger/podcaster working with Crushpad on a wine but had no idea it was Gary Vaynerchuk from Wine Library. I think this is great and will definitely join his group to make a Napa Cab. I also hope to be able to get Gary on Winecast to compare notes on our approaches in making our first commercial wines.

A very interesting Wine 2.0 adventure awaits, join us.

Original post by Tim

I’ve been on more than my share of flights this summer, both domestic and international, and one thing that bugs me is how poor wine service has become on airlines.

Yea, I know, there is some pretty decent juice poured in business and first class, but I’m talking about the bottles served for $5 in coach. In my recent experience none of the wines on offer are worth the money and I tend to drink ice water on flights as a result.

It would seem to me that this is an interesting marketing opportunity for wine brands of a certain scale or brands known for consistent quality and value. Since bottling for airlines requires a special line out of reach for most small to medium wineries, only larger production brands tend to play here. Some are obviously using this as a way to expose their brand to new customers as about half the time the wines presented to me are from unfamiliar wineries (mostly from the southern hemisphere for some reason).

But what if someone like Cameron Hughes bottled some larger lots or a special blend just for airlines? They could change the wines over time to expose customers to something better than the average fighting varietal now most common. On the back label they could tell their direct marketing story.

I’d definitely fork over $5 for this kind of juice any day.

Original post by Tim

I’ve been on more than my share of flights this summer, both domestic and international, and one thing that bugs me is how poor wine service has become on airlines.

Yea, I know, there is some pretty decent juice poured in business and first class, but I’m talking about the bottles served for $5 in coach. In my recent experience none of the wines on offer are worth the money and I tend to drink ice water on flights as a result.

It would seem to me that this is an interesting marketing opportunity for wine brands of a certain scale or brands known for consistent quality and value. Since bottling for airlines requires a special line out of reach for most small to medium wineries, only larger production brands tend to play here. Some are obviously using this as a way to expose their brand to new customers as about half the time the wines presented to me are from unfamiliar wineries (mostly from the southern hemisphere for some reason).

But what if someone like Cameron Hughes bottled some larger lots or a special blend just for airlines? They could change the wines over time to expose customers to something better than the average fighting varietal now most common. On the back label they could tell their direct marketing story.

I’d definitely fork over $5 for this kind of juice any day.

Original post by Tim

I worked in Napa last week and drove past some of the most well known vineyards loaded with fruit almost ready for harvest. I also drove past vineyards south of the city of Napa that appear to be setup for machine harvesting and are across the road from a lumberyard and tool rental place. This got me thinking about the differences in wines and what separates great wine from just well made, clean wine.

How much of this difference is due to the decisions of winemakers in the cellar and how much is due to the vineyard practices and place they are grown?

Terroir has long been part of the mythology of wine marketing. But is there really a difference between Cabernet grown at Martha’s Vineyard and the vineyards in American Canyon? Would we be able to taste the difference if both vineyards were made into wine by Heidi Barrett?

From my experience I’d say yes, but it would be interesting to see what some of the best winemakers would make from more humbly grown grapes. Alas, I don’t ever think we will see this in reality but it’s interesting to see what folks like August Briggs are doing at Castle Rock and his eponymous winery.

In the end, place matters but how much is open for debate. As with all luxury goods, scarcity and reputation drives wine prices but quality can be another story altogether.

Original post by Tim

As WBW founder Lenn gets back in shape to finish the summary of our last event, the good Dr. Vino has prescribed indigenous grape varieties for the next round on September 12.

Many native grapes are made into interesting wines and Tyler has asked us to pass on the “Big 6″ from France and focus on more obscure wines. Italy would seem to be a good place to look for interesting indigenous grapes but I might stay closer to home and focus on hybrid grapes developed at the University of Minnesota.

Join us next month and pick a wine to blog yourself. All it takes is a couple of minutes to sign-up at the new Wine Blogging Wednesday blog and you can post there when you are ready.

Original post by Tim

After almost three years of podcasting and blogging about wine, it’s time I try my hand at making some.

I’m pleased to announce my new side project in collaboration with the folks at Crushpad: Roussanne 2007.

Yep, I’m going to make a couple barrels, perhaps a bit more depending on demand, of one of the great white grapes of the Rhone, Roussanne. And not just any Roussanne, but grapes grown in the Westerly Vineyard (now known as McGinley) in Santa Ynez’s Happy Canyon area. This is just north of where I grew up and it will be great to get back to my roots and explore what it means to be a winemaker again.

Although I have never mentioned it here, I have made wine over several vintages. My first efforts were from canned concentrates in the mid-1980’s which ended in wines that mostly were poured down the drain. Undeterred, I continued my quest in the obscure vineyards of Oregon, Wisconsin with two vintages of Marshall Foch, Leon Millot, Dechaunac, Aurore and Seyval Blanc. These wines proved to be much more drinkable with some actually quite quaffable. But they were not what I was looking for so I stopped with the 1990 vintage. Although I later moved near the Finger Lakes in New York, I was never tempted to restart my winemaking until I could make wines from vitis vinifera grapes grown in my home state of California.

This vintage my wish has been granted and I will make Roussanne, perhaps blended with other Rhone whites, and podcast and blog the experience with you.

And you can directly participate by joining my Crushnet group and being on my advisory committee. Not only will you help me make all the decisions for this wine from fermentation procedures to aging to labeling, but you’ll also get a one-case allocation of this rare wine. A maximum of 70 members will have the chance to taste this wine in barrel and in the bottle.

Just sign up at Crushnet and then search for the Winecast group and join. Shortly thereafter I’ll approve your membership and you’ll be in for a great ride.

So who’s in?

Original post by Tim