THE SMALL WINE SHOP, STILL RELEVANT
Fine Wines of Stockton, a venerable wine shop, just closed down. Its owners George and Gail Heron decided to retire. This left us with only two other small wine vendors, Wine Wizard’s and Mile Wine Company. Wine Wizard’s owner Larry Johansen, also around retirement age, might be next. George & Gail Heron Is there any room for new entrepreneurs to replace these establishments? The question was posed to me by a young woman, manager of a restaurant we frequent, who is currently pursuing a career in nursing, her training arduous. Owning a wine shop appealed to her as a romantic[...]
CABERNET FRANC; IS THERE ANY HOPE IN AMERICA?
Someone suggested a Cabernet Franc tasting, domestic versus French. Not again! Over the years I’ve been through a few of these. They have all left me with the same impression: the French maintain the essence of the grape while Americans make a mess of it. Would this one be any different? Cabernet Franc is mostly a blending grape, ubiquitous in Bordeaux where it plays second fiddle to its more illustrious counterparts, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. These mixes are imitated in other parts of the world. The only region where Cab Franc is a mainstay solitary varietal is the Loire Valley[...]
WEATHER AND WINE; LET’S KEEP IT SIMPLE
The complexity of our wine universe forces us to break it into categories to make sense of it all. Varietals and geographic regions are the most common, but hard to master. Another one I find quite useful is easier: climate. There are only two climates worthy of note: warm and cool. Identifying wine profiles from these two climates is fairly easy. It is one of the essential first steps in my assessment of wines I taste blind every Friday night as I attempt to guess what each is. Last week I hit a home run with an Alto[...]
FATUOUS FERMENTATION; CAUSES AND REMEDIES
Defective wines, rare as they are, can be educational. This bottle of Galernau, a Loire Valley Cabernet Franc, made a poor impression in a recent tasting. Not only did it have the prominent nose and flavor of Brettanomyces, a yeast that spoils wine flavor, but also a strong fizz in the entry and mid-palate, what we recognized as secondary fermentation, an undesired one. The occasion provoked some thought on the subject. Fermentation, usually mediated by yeast, is the process by which sugars in grape juice are converted to acids, CO2 gas and yes, that all important alcohol. It[...]
CHENIN BLANC RENAISSANCE? WHO KNEW!
Eric Asimov, a wine columnist for the New York Times penned a recent article, published last August, in which he announced a renaissance of Chenin Blanc in the United States. Apparently a dozen new California producers have joined those who never quit making Chenin Blanc, and they, along with others in Oregon and New York State, are driving this revival. The news caught me by surprise, for not only did I not know about this, but more surprisingly, I didn’t notice the decline of the varietal. New World Chenin Blanc has been off my radar for decades. Lettie[...]
SAUMUR-CHAMPIGNY, A CLASSIC, YET A NEW DISCOVERY
It cannot be a coincidence. Two San Francisco bistros two weeks apart, two wines from the little known appellation of Samur-Champigny, both outstanding, both bargains. At Monsieur Benjamin, the hip Hayes Valley spot recently opened by chef Corey Lee, of Benu fame, where the wine list is mostly in three digit prices, I hesitated before ordering the cheapest red on the list. I was dining with Larry and Mariko Johansen, owners of Wine Wizard's in Stockton. I did not know much about Saumur, except that it is in the Loire Valley. Neither did Larry. We figured it must be[...]