NZ winemaker bucks the trend

Neighboring Australia is letting its grapes rot on the vines and in the fields to combat an oversupply from further depressing prices in its wine industry.

But, in New Zealand some growers are bragging about a bumper harvest.

Marlborough, the industry giant that produces Grove Mill and Sanctuary wines, has reported increased after-tax profits as a result of a good harvest and the dropping value of the New Zealand dollar which helps export business, according to company CEO Rob White (seen here).

"The 2006 harvest is considerably up on the 2005 harvest and we are very comfortable with the quality. A bigger harvest produces better economies because it lowers our cost structure," White said.

The forecast was based on a continued decline in the Kiwi dollar, which had helped export sales. But while export prospects were brighter – the company exports 64 per cent of production with sales strong in the U.S. – prices at home were under pressure.

"It's quite brutal. There's increased competition out of Australia ... . There's a lot more pressure from retailers in terms of price and supplier margins. We are seeing prices squeezed."

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SA's Bilton broadens its scope

The new winemaker at one of South Africa's best wineries is making his mark very quickly.

Rudi de Wet (seen here) has created Bilton Wines' first white, a Bilton Sauvignon Blanc 2006. Bilton has built its reputation on its red wines.

De Wet and consultant Giorgio Dalla Cia didn't follow the usual Sauvignon Blanc style, adding a touch of Sémillon for its brilliant green straw color and tropical fruit notes.

Bilton's vineyards are located high on the slopes of the Helderberg, where the climate encourages slow ripening of the grapes and the development of several varietal flavour.

The new wine is expected to retail domestically at about $6 a bottle, jumping to about $9 or $10 once it is exported to the U.S.

Cinzano wooing the ladies

Cinzano isn't just the same old vermouth plus a name on cafe table umbrellas.

The Italian company is adding to its product lineup for the first time in 144 years with two new varieties of its wine-based drink, Spritzz Up, which are designed to be drunk with lemonade or tonic over ice.

"Fruity Wine" and "Cheeky Red," says the company's marketing manager, are aimed at women in the 18-30 age niche.

"We've looked at the market, done our research and believe there's a sizeable opportunity for a wine-based drink that you mix with lemonade or tonic in large wine glasses over ice," Karen Crowley said in a statement.

Spritzz Up is 14.5% alcohol by volume. The primary market will be the United Kingdom, but with an eye toward taking the drink to the U.S. in the near future.

Cinzano has been making vermouth since 1796 and is particularly known for its red, sweet version called Cinzano Rosso although it also has a white called Cinzano Bianco plus Cinzano Extra Dry, and rosé, lemon and orange versions.

The brand is owned by Campari Group.

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Illinois latest to give re-corking the OK

Come Jan. 1, 2007, you can count Illinois among the growing number of states allowing re-corking of wines purchased with restaurant meals.

More than 30 states now allow restaurants to re-cork unfinished portions of wine bought by customers. Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed legislation Monday that will allow patrons to take one partially consumed bottle with them, providing all laws involving transportation of alcohol are followed.

In most cases, that means the bottle must be recorked, put in a secure bag, and carried in a locked glove compartment or trunk of the vehicle. Otherwise, the Illinois Vehicle Code still prohibits transportation of alcoholic beverages in open containers.

John Cullerton, D-Chicago, who sponsored the legislation in the state senate, said he did so because it may reduce the number of drunken drivers because diners would no longer feel the need to drink the entire bottle before they leave the restaurant.

Wine Spectator does the honors

Wine Spectator magazine has selected three establishments to become new Grand Award winners in its annual global rankings of what it refers to as "restaurants passionate about wine."

That brings to 77 the number of Grand Award winners, rather exclusive company when one considers we're talking the whole world, and that the total number of places honored at one of three award levels is just 3,772.

The newbies are:

• Blackberry Farm, in Walland, TE, in the heart of the Great Smoky Mountains. It has 4,200 selections among 90,000 bottles.

• Restaurant Latour, at the Crystal Springs Resort in Hardyston in northern New Jersey. It has 2,800 selections among 28,000 bottles.

• Sona, in Los Angeles. It has 2,200 selections among 21,000 bottles.

The full listings of award winners are in the "Dining Guide" issue of Wine Spectator dated Aug. 31.

Decision is in: Too many Georgian wines are fakes

When Russia slapped a ban on the import of wines from neighboring Georgia and Moldova, merchants in the smaller countries loudly protested.

Russia's health ministry said too many of the wines from their former partners in the defunct USSR were health hazards because of impurities and intentionally deceptive ingredients.

Turns out the Russians were correct, at least in the case of Georgia. The United Nations Food & Agricultural Organization (FAO) now says its tests show that 90% of Georgian wines sold abroad are counterfeit, and 80% of what Georgia exports is sold in Russian markets.

Back in May, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili served wine to his cabinet ministers -- "special" blends of several varieties of foreign counterfeits of Georgian wine. He was making the point to chastise government ministers for not assertively promoting Georgia's wine abroad, thereby allowing bogus brands to take a share of the market.

Police have been arresting sellers and purchasers of phony Georgian wines (as seen in the photo above), but the problem has broad reach in this area of Europe.

Georgia has a long winemaking tradition and for years had a good reputation in Europe, but the FAO says current practices range from alcoholic cocktails mixing spirits, colorings and flavors to wines bearing false appellations of origin.

Emmanuel Hidier, of the FAO Investment Center, said in a statement that the Georgian government had made some progress in crushing the fake wine market at home, but the situation had barely improved for wines sent abroad.

The FAO has been closely involved with Georgian wine since 2000, when the government asked it to help draft the country's first wine law. That law paved the way for Gerogia's first appellation of origin system, similar to those seen in other wine countries. Winemakers are required to reveal where they got their grapes and how they made their wine. A loophole used by counterfeiters takes advantage of the fact that no official documentation is needed to transport wine in bulk or in bottles within Georgia.

The FAO said it was now helping the Georgian government create a new oversight agency to improve implementation of the wine law.

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South Africa goes on a terroir

Simply saying a wine is from Australia, South Africa, Argentina, France or wherever doesn't satisfy the true wine lover. Such folks thrive on detail, such as terroir.

That's the characteristics of the dirt and the atmosphere and the topography of where a particular grape is grown, and what the better winemakers wrest from the soil.

The first South African Terroir Wine Awards gives recognition to the importance of such information.

Bon Courage Estate in Robertson, Steenberg Vineyards in Constantia and Bloemendal Estate in Durbanville made history at the first-ever SA terroir event.

Bon Courage entered two wines, and each won a national certificate emblematic of the best in class -- shiraz and fortified dessert wine, in this instance.

Steenberg also received two national certificates, the top red blend and the top merlot.

Bloemendal won only one best in class, the top sauvignon blanc, but it did double duty by receiving the highest score of all the wines entered.

Twelve wines originating from eight different winegrowing areas in South Africa's Cape winelands received national certificates. Only a certified "wine of origin" made from grapes from a specific ward (a smaller area within a district), estate or single vineyard qualified for the competition.

Its organizers say this type of competition is the first of its kind in South Africa and probably the first of its kind in the world.

The 2006 SA Terroir Wine Awards national certificates for the top wine of a specific cultivar were awarded to the Meerendal pinotage 2004 (Durbanville), Hartenberg cabernet sauvignon 2003 (Stellenbosch/Bottelary), Koelfontein chardonnay 2004 (Ceres), Hamilton Russell pinot noir 2004 (Walker Bay), Hildenbrand chenin blanc 2005 (Wellington), Bergsig touriga nacional 2005 (Breedekloof), Bloemendal sauvignon blanc 2005 (Durbanville), Steenberg merlot 2004 (Constantia) and Bon Courage shiraz inkara 2004 (Robertson).

The Steenberg Catharina 2003 (Constantia) received the national certificate for the top red blend, the Bon Courage white muscadel 2005 (Robertson) the national certificate for the top fortified dessert wine and the Lord Neethling weisser riesling noble late harvest 2005 (Stellenbosch, Neethlingshof) the national certificate for the top natural sweet wine.

Most entries were shiraz wines (24), followed by red blends (23), sauvignon blanc (20), pinotage (18), chardonnay (15), cabernet sauvignon (13), merlot (10), chenin blanc (7), fortified dessert wines (7) and natural sweet (4). Two Cap Classique, Colombar and touriga nacional wines were entered and one gewürztraminer, Cape riesling, pinot noir and white blend.

The three wines that received the highest average points were the Bloemendal sauvignon blanc, Avondrood sauvignon blanc 2006 (Goudini) and Steenberg merlot 2004.

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Rhode Island joins recorking movement

We recently reported on new laws approved in Maryland and Ohio to allow restaurant patrons to carry out unfinished portions of wine purchased by the bottle.

Add Rhode Island to the list.

Gov. Donald Carcieri has signed into law what statehouse denizens in Providence have been referring to as a "merlot-to-go" bill. It lets restaurants recork and seal unfinished bottles of wine. Supporters of the law say it should reduce drunken driving because people will no longer feel that they must finish a bottle of wine.

As in the 30 other states allowing such activity, the bottles need to be recorked and transported in an inaccessible area, such as a car's trunk or behind the last upright seat in a van.

Join Mr. Parker, for a mere $12.5G

When most people think of the Naples (FL) Winter Wine Festival, they think opulence. So, it should come as no surprise that an event noted for raising $40 million for charity since its inception in 2000 continues to think big.

The latest twist: a $12,500-a-ticket wine tasting session with Robert M. Parker Jr. (above), one of the world's most influential wine critics.

The festival, scheduled for next Jan. 26-28, already has lined up a list of celebrity chefs that includes Wolfgang Puck and Emeril Lagasse. The chefs are paired with various vintners to prepare meals at the homes of festival trustees.

Separate auction items for 2007 will include dinner with Martha Stewart in her New York and Maine homes, and a walk-on part in the ABC-TV show "Grey's Anatomy." Plus, a Rolls-Royce Phantom will be auctioned off.

The Parker event is ultra-ultra exclusive, limited to just 50 people for the Jan. 25 session. The $12,500 price will NOT include a ticket for the festival itself. That event, limited to 550 attendees, goes for $7,500 per couple or $20,000 for four people.

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Cornell names its latest offspring

The wait is over.

Meet Noiret, Corot noir and Valvin Muscat, New York's three newest wine grapes.

As I reported a few months ago, the new varieties come from the patient nurturing process at the New York State Agriculture Experiment Station run by Cornell University in the Finger Lakes village of Geneva. Prior to their public release, the varieties go under code names. After release, it is up to winemakers to decide whether they'll use the names in their labelling.

Bruce Reisch, a grape breeder and professor of horticultural sciences at Cornell, said the newly-named grapes developed by Cornell are broadly adapted to the wine-growing regions of the East and produce high-quality varietal wines superior to those now being produced.

The grapes were released at the 31st annual American Society for Enology and Viticulture/Eastern Section Conference and Symposium, held July 9-11 in Rochester, N.Y.

• Noiret (nwahr-ay) is a mid-season red wine grape. It is a hybrid made in a 1973 cross between NY65.0467.08 and Steuben.

• Corot noir is a mid- to late-season red wine grape, It is a complex interspecific hybrid resulting from a 1970 cross between Seyve Villard 18-307 and Steuben.

"Both Noiret and Corot noir represent distinct improvements in the red wine varietal options available to cold-climate grape growers," Reisch said. "Wines are free of the hybrid aromas typical of many other red hybrid grapes." Noiret is richly colored and has notes of green and black pepper, with raspberry and mint aromas and a fine tannin structure, he said. Care should be taken to grow Noiret on sites less susceptible to extreme winter temperatures and downy mildew."

• Valvin Muscat is a mid-season white wine grape with a distinctive muscat flavor and aroma that is desirable for blending as well as for varietal wines. The complex interspecific hybrid grape resulted from a 1962 cross between Couderc 299-35 (an interspecific hybrid known as Muscat du Moulin) and Muscat Ottonel.

"Valvin Muscat is recommended for the production of high-quality muscat wines," Reisch said. "Vines are well suited to good grape-growing sites in the eastern United States, and should only be grown on suitable rootstocks." Some care should be exercised to control disease, and fruit should be picked when the muscat flavor reaches its peak, he noted.

Click here for my pre-release tasting notes.

With the new varieties, whose names are trademarked, the Experiment Station now has nine wine grapes to its credit. The previous Cornell releases are: Melody, Horizon, Cayuga White, Chardonel, Traminette and GR 7.

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A guide to the guides

There are lots of wine magazines with lots of tasting notes and lots of "best of" ratings.

How do you know which truly are good consumer guides?

That's something the former editor of Wine Enthusiast magazine wondered, so he put together a guide to the guides that makes for good reading.

As W.R. Tish (seen here) notes, "It doesn't take a fly on the wall at editorial tastings to see important differences among the major glossy magazines, as well as the extent to which their burgeoning wine review sections are as much marketing guides for the trade as they are buying guides for consumers."

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Maryland, Ohio: Put a cork in it

On July 1, Maryland joined about 30 other states that allow restaurant diners to take home unfinished bottles of wine. In late September, Ohio will join the crowd.

Such bottles still are considered "open containers" and can be transported only in a locked glove compartment, cargo area or trunk of a vehicle.

"We believe that this new law will encourage more customers to purchase wine by the bottle while simultaneously encouraging responsible drinking," said Melvin Thompson, vice president of government relations for the Restaurant Association of Maryland, in a statement. "Re-corking gives the customer the choice of finishing the wine at home instead of being forced to drink it or lose it."

Will this really matter to restaurateurs?

I checked with Jerry Pellegrino, owner/chef of Corks in Baltimore, a wine-centric establishment that deals exclusively in domestic wines, many of which Pellegrino ferrets out in his travels around the country.

"We offer our guests so many alternatives to ordering an entire bottle of wine that I'm not sure the law will help our wine sales, what proponents of the legislation claim," Pellegrino said.

Some restaurateurs were concerned that because it is less expensive to buy a bottle of wine than buying it by the glass, the sales of by-the-glass wines might drop off. However, others note that people who purchase by-the-glass usually do so to either limit consumption or to try something new without a commitment to an entire bottle.

"We're offering over 40 half-bottles and each one of those can be ordered by the glass," Pellegrino told me. "And, we're not talking wines that are the normal suspects. We have things like Foley Charbono, Martinelli 'Guiseppe and Louisa' zinfandel, a vertical of Corison 'Napa' cab and Paul Hobbs 'Dinner Vineyard' chardonnay available. So, if you don't want to order another full bottle at Corks, you don't have to."

Brian Fiori, general manager of Morton's steakhouse in the Sheraton hotel at Baltimore's Inner Harbor, said recorking could be an advantage for solo diners.

"We have a lot of single diners from the hotel," he said, who like to have fine wine with their meals. He told the Sun newspaper the recorking rules will allow these diners to pick a bottle of wine from the part of the restaurant's wine list that offers the widest selection, then bring the leftovers to their room.

A few other Pellegrino observations:

"The law may benefit properties that don't offer an aggressive wine by the glass program or where wine isn't a priority and guests may want another bottle for the table. But I think, going back to the big picture, the law sets a tone about how we view wine in Maryland. We're saying that it's OK to take a bottle home in your car. If you're a wine drinker, you're responsible enough to drive around with it and not gulp it out of the bottle on the highway.

"Maybe it's not something that we should regulate so tightly. Under-age children aren't going to start ordering it on the Internet and have it shipped to their home, and so on. So, financially it's not going to be that beneficial to restaurateurs, but in our quest to deregulate how wine is purchased and distributed I think it's a big win."

In Ohio, where Gov. Bob Taft signed a bill on June 20 that will allow restaurant customers to take home their unfinished bottles, the 90-day countdown to implementation is under way.

Said Walt Wirth, a managing partner in the distributing company 55 Degrees, "The biggest losers will be the servers or managers who got to finish those partially empty bottles of wine."

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Chirac's Parisian wine collection to be sold

Jacques Chirac did a lot more than run Paris during two decades as its flamboyant mayor before he went on to become premier of France.

Among other things, he collected 5,000 bottles of wine, a stash the city now wants to sell off.

The majority of the cellar's 5,000 most prestigious bottles, including several 1990 Château Pétrus, worth more than $1,800 each, are scheduled to be sold this fall. Bertrand Delanoë, the current mayor, said he expects the sale, which includes 191 bottles of 1976 Krug champagne, to raise about $700,000.

During his time as mayor of Paris, from 1977 to 1995, Chirac and his wife, Bernadette, were known for their penchant for food and wine on which they are said to have spent $2.7 million of taxpayers' money between 1987 and 1995 alone. Delanoë, who became mayor in 2001, has cut the wine and champagne budget by 65 per cent.

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Arizona toasts a new era

Arizona seems to be having a wine-fueled love fest.

After grape growers, winemakes, wholesalers and retailers reached a compromise on what sort of new legislation would benefit all parties, the state legislature and governor quickly got on board.

The result: a new law will protect growers' existing rights and help fledgling wineries.

Rod Keeling, president of the Arizona Wine Growers Association and owner of Keeling Schaefer Vineyards near the town of Willcox in rural Cochise County, said, "We made a compromise deal in an hour and a half, but it took us three days to hash out the language. The wholesalers and wineries wanted a smaller cap (for gallons produced by a winery per year) and we gave them that and got everything else we wanted.

"This is a really good bill for rural Arizona winegrowers," Keeling said in an interview with the Range News.

The bill signed into law by Gov. Janet Napolitano allows any U.S. growers producing less than 20,000 gallons per year to sell directly to Arizona consumers. Previously, Arizona wineries producing less than 75,000 gallons per year could sell directly to consumers, but wholesalers complained that too many wineries were allowed to bypass them.

The new law will also open the Arizona wine market to out-of-state wineries under 20,000 gallons per year.

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Wine tourism on the rise

• See event and contact information below.

Wine tourism has become commonplace now that every one of the United States has at least one winery, and most of them many more.

The majority of states have created wine trails to entice tourists to tour various vineyards and wineries. Pamphlets for self-guided tours are usually free and areas are marked with unique signage to keep motorists from wandering too far off course.

But certain wine-intensive areas in the U.S. and elsewhere are taking advantage of the global boom in wine consumption to push interest to a higher level by creating centers to educate and entertain the masses.

The New York Wine & Culinary Center project, for example, opened this month after a whirlwind 10-month construction schedule.

As the facility, located on the shores of Canandaigua Lake near Rochester, begins its opening programs, a similar facility is under way on the West Coast with a projected May '07 opening.

It's the Walter Clore Wine and Culinary Center, a $9.2 million project located in Prosser, Wash., in the Yakima Valley wine region.

The Washington facility's backers foresee it as both a destination for tourists and a place for winemakers to gather. It will have a 17,500 square-foot building, vineyards, organic gardens and a public park.

The main building will have a restaurant, exhibition galleries, a theater, a demonstration kitchen, wine bar and a retail shop.

The center's namesake is the late Walter Clore, regarded as the father of Washington wine. The state is the No. 2 producer of premium wine in the United States, trailing only California.

To the south, in California's storied Napa Valley, is the 10-year-old Copia against which all other wine-centric facilities are measured.

Neighbor to such commercially popular wineries as Robert Mondavi, Beringer, Stags Leap, Coppola, Domaine Chandon and Sterling, Copia and the nearby West Coast branch of the Culinary Institute of America have helped make the region an eating-and-drinking mecca that helped fuel the rebirth of Napa, the valley's anchor city of 53,000.

Copia's subtitle is "The American Center for Wine, Food & The Arts." It's a not-for-profit cultural center and museum that has been open to the public for about four years. It includes sprawling herb, flower and tree gardens (seen above), as well as several restaurants, museums and galleries in am 80,000-square-foot building on the banks of an oxbow bend in the Napa River.

"We're a non-collecting museum," said Daphne L. Derven, curator of food and assistant drector for programs. "That keeps us on our toes to continually come up with new ways to educate and entertain our visitors."

Two years ago, on the other end of New York state, Stony Brook University came up with a different model by establishing its Center for Wine, Food, and Culture.

The idea is to split its efforts between its main campus on Long Island and its facilities in Manhattan, offering wine- and food-tasting classes, cultural lectures, and interdisciplinary symposia.

The Canandaigua wine and culinary center is more of a destination place, like its California cousin Copia, although decidedly smaller.

While the exterior is on the plain side and the landscaping news and, therefore, undersized for now, the interior has an impressive upscale Adirondack-style design, utilizing multi-hued, handworked wood wainscoting, stair railings, display shelving and counters. A 36-station kitchen and views of the lake are other highlights of the roughly $7 million project.

Director Alexa Gifford said the final look will include entrance landscaping geared toward representations of indigenous plants from the region.

"We'll have local flowers and shrubs, grape vines and the like that will set the mood for visitors," she said. "Americans in general are used to pulling into a parking lot that leaves you right up to the door. We'll be guiding people along a path that creates a mood, and then they'll walk into this beautiful facility that will build on that atmosphere."

The 15,000 square-foot center will offer hands-on courses in culinary science; interactive exhibits on New York State agriculture, foods and wines; demonstration space; and a live garden outside of the building. And, it has a tasting room with a
rotating selection of wines from New York's major regions (Niagara/Lake Erie, Finger Lakes, Hudson Valley and Long Island), a wine and tapas bar for light meals and wine-and-food pairings, a theater-style demonstration kitchen, a training kitchen for hands-on cooking classes, and industrial kitchens for credited culinary classes and corporate training.

No wine is sold at the facility, but visitors can use a computer right there to order directly from New York wineries.

Planning your trip

Check out domestic possibilities on Dowd's Guide to American Wine Trails and U.S. and Canadian wine festivals at Dowd's Drinks Events Calendar.

Both sites offer live links to recognized trails and events information nationwide.
To check out events and schedules at various wine and culinary centers, call or go online:

• Copia: The American Center for Wine, Food & The Arts
500 First St., Napa, Calif. 94559.
Details: Online or by phone at (888) 512-6742.

• New York Wine & Culinary Center
800 South Main St., Canandaigua, N.Y. 14424.
Details: Online or by phone at (585) 394-7070.

• Stony Brook University
Center for Wine, Food & Culture, Stony Brook, N.Y. 11794.
Details: Online or by phone at 631) 632-6000.

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Fruit wine niche is broadening

Some years ago, I was tromping through the fields at the Eden Vineyards and Winery in Alva, a little burg east of Fort Myers, Fla., and about an hour’s drive south of Tampa.

I was there to look over the modest operation for several reasons. It was the state’s oldest winery, the southernmost winery and vineyard in the continental United States, and it purported to be the only commercial winery using carambola, more popularly known as star fruit.

Fast forward to today. Eden now holds only one of those distinctions. It still is Florida’s oldest operating winery.

The emergence of Schnebly Redland's Winery has taken away the geographic title. It’s located in Homestead, down near Miami. And it, along with Eden and several other producers, makes carambola wine.

Schnebly Redland, owned by the husband-wife partners Peter and Denise Schnebly, is part of a growing niche in the American winemaking industry using more than grapes, or avoiding them altogether.

The Schneblys, for example, produce five grape-free varieties of tropical fruit wines: carambola, mango, lychee, guava and passion fruit. They range in price from $13.95 to $18.95. The winery ships orders to all states except Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Hampshire and Utah.

For a long time, non-grape wines were primarily the province of the home winemaker. For one thing, it is easier to get good berries and fruits than it is to get wine-quality grapes. For another, aging rarely is necessary to ensure a good non-grape wine.

In judging various wine competitions around the country, I’ve noticed an uptick in recent years in non-grape wines its producers feel are of medal quality. Most have been in the port (blueberry, blackberry) and ice wine (peach, cherry) categories, but the range is broadening.

Sometimes the decision to go into non-grape wines has been the result of an established winery looking for new products to sell. In other instances, it has been a matter of economic survival.

A good example of that is Goold Orchards in rural upstate Rensselaer County, N.Y. The Goold family began selling apples there nearly a century ago, and Sue Goold Miller and her husband, Ed Miller, have used almost every trick in the book to keep their business healthy – selling cider, pies, pumpkins, holding breakfasts, craft shows, school tours, even sponsoring a 5-kilometer run on their grounds.

Now, they’re established the Brookview Station label for a semi-dry apple wine. They're giving it to friends and family while they await action on their bid to get state permission to become a farm winery.

Others fruit farms in New York have done the same thing. Warwick Valley Winery in Orange County, 70 miles from midtown Manhattan, makes hard cider and apple port. The Winery at Marjim Manor in Niagara County in the western part of the state has a variety of fruit wines such as apples, pears, cranberries and plums.

Grapes are delicate creatures, thus the use of other fruits in winemaking adds to the business potential for business people in more rugged climes.

North Rivery Winery in Jacksonville, Vt., for example, has carved out a solid place in the non-grape world.

There, rhubarb, raspberry, apple, and pear wines are made. Proprietors Curt and Wendy Barr have done so well since opening in 1985 that they expanded to a second facility, opening the Ottauquechee Valley Winery in nearby Quechee.

At the Three Lakes Winery in the Wisconsin north woods, several generations of the McCain family have parlayed what once was a hobby when they lived in Palo Alto, Calif., into a serious commercial wine business.

It was in California that John and Maureen McCain began using fruit from several of the Japanese plum trees in their front yard, and that led to using other fruits and berries, which in turn led to establishing their winery in an area where John had long vacationed.

Not every fruit winery is located out in the country, of course.

Ferrin's Fruit Winery, in Carmel, Ind., is a scant 20 minutes from downtown Indianapolis. There, David and MaryAnn Ferrin do offer three wines they make, but the bulk of what they produce comes from pears, apples, cherries, cranberries, plums, raspberries and blueberries.

Given that there is at least one winery in every state, it's a safe bet to predict bothing but growth in the non-grape wine industry as more and more people try to make a financial go of it.

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Portugese grape crops destroyed

Get ready to pay higher prices for authentic port wine from Portugal.

Severe storms this week destroyed more than 4,200 acres of grapes in northern Portugal, according to the country's Agriculture Ministry. That leaves about 11,500 acres of grape production. Hail also fell in June last year, causing damage to hundreds of acres.

Heavy rain hit the country from Tuesday, causing floods and damage from north to the south of the country and injuring 16 in the northern town of Famalicao.

Agriculture Minister Jaime Silva said hailstones "the size of quail eggs" fell on crops on Wednesday in Alijo, Sao Joao da Pesqueira, Tabuaco and Sabrosa, four of the most important port-producing regions.

Several local officials, however, have said that up to 80 percent of the port wine crops in their districts was lost in the storms.

Portugal sold 24.7 million gallons of port wine last year, according to the Port and Douro Wines Institute (PDWI).

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Berger lands a new perch

Dan Berger, the California wine writer who ranks among the upper echelons of our craft, is joining Appellation America as editor-at-large for the Internet-based wine portal.

Berger will concentrate on the emergence and redefinition of appellations and the importance of terroir in North America.

The full story is here.

'Wine can't be an antique, can it?'

That's the question the lady asked of Elmer P. Thinkwhile.

You might enjoy his answer. Especially if you're curious about wine collecting.

The noted antiques dealer's ruminations on vintage wines are available here on Wayne Mattox's "Antique Talk" Web site,

Europe's wine woes getting worse

Too much of a good thing can be a problem. Just ask Europe's wine producers.

Wines from the "New World" have become such a consumer favorite in the United Kingdom that drastic measures are being taken.

As reported by The Times of London, "The unquenchable desire of Britons for New World wines has forced Brussels to order nearly a billion bottles of French and Italian wine to be turned into fuel and disinfectant. The European Commission will then spend US$3.03 billion digging up vineyards across the continent.

"The drastic measures to drain Europe’s swelling wine lake come as winemakers across the Continent face a seemingly unstoppable invasion of cheaper and more consistent wines from Australia, Chile, the US and South Africa. Wine critics say it is an inevitable result of French wine producers not adapting to demand."

(Read the full story here.)

Meanwhile, this report from New Zealand deals with the Australian wine glut that is forcing prices of Aussie wines down and affecting other markets:

A flood of cheap Australian wine and intense retail competition mean it is a great time to buy wine but not such a good time to be selling it. Some New Zealand winemakers say Australia's glut is dragging prices down in local and export markets.

"We are definitely feeling an impact from the wine glut – not only in New Zealand, but we are seeing quite a profound effect in the UK market," said Erica Crawford, general manager at Kim Crawford Wines. "Prices have just fallen through the bottom ... . We've noticed this in the last two quarters in the UK. It's so cheap from Australia other countries don't get a look in."

(Read that story here.)

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Let it breath, heavily

The last time I reported on Natalie Oliveros, the porn star/promoter was talking up her Savanna Sogo Uno red wine.

Oliveros, 31, the expatriate New Yorker who is known to her fans as adult video actress Savanna Samson ("The New Devil in Miss Jones") had received a score of 90-91 out of 100 from wine guru Robert Parker for her Italian red.

Now comes word the entrepreneurial Ms. Oliveros will be stripping off the veil from her white blend, a performance scheduled for Wednesday, June 14, in conjunction with the premire in New York of the HBO porn documentary "Thinking XXX," at the Hotel On Rivington.

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Sip transit glorious Finger Lakes

One of the problems with the rapidly expanding number of wineries in New York's Finger Lakes is tourism.

Not that the area doesn't want visitors. Just the opposite. Trouble is, too many of them are potentially dangerous drivers as they move from winery to winery, tasting their wares.

Some enterprising types have been offering a combination of a rental car complete with driver, and even a linkup to a bed-and-breakfast with that service. However, that doesn't do much for the many boaters who pull up to shore and want to visit more tha one winery but have no wheels.

Thus, the Seneca County Chamber of Commerce has begun offering weekend bus tours to local wineries -- four wineries on the west side of Cayuga Lake on Saturday, and four on the west side of Seneca Lake on Sunday.

"The wine tour was in response to boaters coming in not being able to get a limousine or a rental car because they were booked up for the weekend. So they were stuck in the harbor," said Dominic Christopher, the Chamber's executive director. "We're ready for big groups anytime."

Traffic is particularly heavy during the summer months when boaters show up at the state's canal system harbor in Seneca Falls. For $25, they now can take the bus right at the harbor. Of course, the weekend tours, which began June 3 and will run through Oct. 8, aren't limited to boaters. They're available to anyone on a space-available basis.

Meanwhile, a trackless Wine Tour Trolley will also be offering a similar service for visitors in the Geneva area starting Saturday, June 10.

Mike Fitzgerald, who owns a limousine and private tour coach service, bought the trolley which had been used in tourism businesses in New Orleans and Buffalo. Tours on the 26-seat vehicle will cover five wineries in a six-hour period through Dec. 2 at $45 per person.

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NY Wine Center sets opening day

The New York Wine & Culinary Center will open to the public on Saturday, June 17.

Executive Director Alexa Gifford calls the $7.5 million facility perched on the shore of Canandaigua Lake the "physical and electronic gateway to New York's food, wine and agriculture."

California vs. France redux

Thirty years on, California wines trounced Bordeaux wines in a rematch of a historic blind taste test credited with, in the words of one writer, reshaping the world of enology.

The original test was held in Paris. This time around, the Californias had the homecourt advantage in the competition held at COPIA: Center for Wine, Food and the Arts, in Napa, CA.

Napa Valley wines were judged best by the combined scores of two simultaneous panels, one in California and one in London. Judges at both venues gave top honors to a 1971 Ridge Monte Bello cabernet from the Santa Cruz Mountains.

"Maybe it is final justification that it held through all these years and did well," Paul Draper, Monte Bello's winemaker, said to the Associated Press. "I'm truly delighted. Ten years from now, all of us and all the wines will truly be faded and maybe we can lay this to rest."

The highest-ranked Bordeaux was a 1970 Chateau Mouton Rothschild, which placed sixth of 10 wines tasted in the anniversary recreation of the historic "Judgment of Paris." Bordeaux wines took sixth through ninth places Wednesday, with a 1969 Cabernet from Freemark Abbey finishing last.

The rematch of wines from the "Judgment of Paris," billed as the most famous wine tasting in history, was held simultaneously in the heart of California's premier wine country and at Britain's oldest wine and spirits merchant.

"It's just beautiful," said Christian Vanneque, who was a judge at the '76 Paris tasting and again Wednesday in Napa. "It shows that these California wines did win also the test of time."

Said Vanneque, who lives in Indonesia, to Agence France Presse. "I don't know if I will be able to go back to France. After a second time, they will kill me."

Ten judges sampled 10 unlabeled glasses of decades-old premium wines. Two of Vanneque's favorite blind wine picks were from Napa Valley.

"The one I thought was a Mouton was Clos du Val," he said. "The most surprising thing is they were all exceptional. I did not expect to have that much harmony among them all."

"There wasn't one wine that stood head and shoulders above the others," said taster Jean-Michel Valette, a master of wine at Robert Mondavi Winery in Napa. "These are all world class."

The May 24, 1976, tasting is considered a milestone in the American wine industry because it shattered the perception that the New World was capable only of producing cheap bulk wines. It was put together by Steven Spurrier, an English wine merchant who owned a shop and wine school in Paris. Spurrier, now a wine consultant, also was co-organizer of Wednesday's rematch.

The organizers noted that the judges re-evaluated the original reds, then tasted the modern reds and whites from both countries. For the most part, the judges were unable to distinguish the French and California wines.

Top French white was a Puligny-Montrachet Premier Cru des Pucelles 2002 Domaine Leflaive; for California it was a Talley Rosemary's Vineyard 2002. Top French red was a Chateau Margaux 2000 and the leading California red was a Ridge Monte Bello 2000 with 77 points.

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Sneak peek at Decanter wine awards

The results are in for the third annual international wine competition sponsored by Decanter, the prestigious British wine magazine.

The publisher will not reveal the full results until September, but I've obtained the gold medal list so you don't have to wonder for months.

• Katnook Estate Odyssey, Cabernet Sauvignon 2001, South Australia (Red) $50.

• Spier Vintage Selection Shiraz-Mourvedre-Viognier 2004, Australia Coastal Region (Red) $205.

• Auvigue Vieilles Vignes 2004 Bourgogne (White) $21.

• Bredon Brut NV Champagne (White) $21.

• Brown Brothers Patricia Cabernet Sauvignon 2002, Victoria (Red) $21.

• Charles Heidsieck Brut Millésimé 1989 Champagne (White) $145.

• Charles Heidsieck Brut Millésimé 1985 Champagne (White) $178.

• Comte Audoin de Dampierre Cuvée des Ambassadeurs NV Champagne (White) $39.

• Comte Audoin de Dampierre Cuvée Family Reserve 2000 Champagne (White) $99.

• D'Arenberg The Cadenzia, Grenache, Shiraz, Mourvedre 2004, South Australia (Red)$16.

• D'Arenberg The Laughing Magpie Shiraz Viognier 2004, South Australia (Red) $35.

• De Bortoli Show Liqueur Muscat NV, New South Wales (Red) $15.

• Dereszla Tokaji Imperium 2000 Tokaj-Hegyalja (White) $115.

• Domaine Christian Moreau Père et Fils Valmur 2004 Bourgogne (White) $55.

• Domaine Paul Blanck et Fils Riesling 2002 Alsace (White) $32.50.

• Domaines Schlumberger Gewurztraminer 2002 Alsace (White) $52.

• Duval-Leroy Blanc de Chardonnay 1998 Champagne (White) $40.

• F.X. Pichler Grùner Veltliner Dürnsteiner Kellerberg 2004 Wachau (White) $48.

• G.H. Mumm Millesime 1998 Champagne (White) $40.

• Gauthier 1998 Champagne (White) $40.

• Giacomo Marengo La Commenda, Tenuta del Fondatore 1999 Tuscany (Red) $20.

• Grant Burge 20 Year Old Tawny NV South Australia (Red) $25.

• Grant Burge Shadrach 2001 South Australia (Red) $30.

• Green Point Shiraz 2004 Victoria (Red) $18.

• Gróf Degenfeld Tokaji Aszú 6 Puttonyos 1999 Tokaj (White) $55.

• Groot Constantia Gouverneurs Reserve 2003 Constantia (Red) $26.

• Henri de Villamont 2002 Bourgogne (White) $30.

• Henriques & Henriques NV Madeira (White) $25.

• Houghton Chardonnay 2003 Western Australia (White) $18.

• Jean-Claude Boisset "Le Limozin" 2004 Bourgogne (White) $40.

• Longview Vineyards Duncan MacGillivray Yakka Shiraz 2004 South Australia (Red) $20.

• Mastroberardino Radici 2001 Campania (Red) $18.

• Michel Picard Les Chaumées 2002 Bourgogne (Red) $38.

• Mount Rozier Cabernet Sauvignon Cuvee Burr 2004 Stellenbosch (Red) $24.

• Möet & Chandon Dom Perignon 1998 Champagne (White) $100.

• Nicolis "Ambrosan" 2001 Veneto (Red) $35.

• Piper-Heidsieck Brut Divin Blanc de Blancs NV Champagne (White) $40.

• Piper-Heidsieck Brut Millésimé 1996 Champagne (White) $38.

• Piper-Heidsieck Cuvée Sublime Demi-sec NV Champagne (White) $38.

• Plantagenet Shiraz 2003 Western Australia (Red) $30.

• Quinta do Encontro Encontro 1 2003 Bairrada (Red) $135.

• Quinta dos Roques Touriga Nacional 2003 Dão (Red) $25.

• Royal Tokaji Mézes Mály, Tokaji Aszú 6 Puttonyos 1996 Tokaj-Hegyalja (White) $140.

• Royal Tokaji Natur, Essencia 1999 Tokaj-Hegyalja (White) $570.

• Shaw and Smith Shiraz 2004 South Australia (Red) $30.

• Simi Leonardo 2002 Broda (White) $67.

• Taittinger Nocturne Sec NV Champagne (White) $48.

• Taittinger Prélude Grands Crus NV Champagne (White) $50.

• Taylor's Marks & Spencer NV Port (Red) $18.

• Tenuta Oliveto il Leccio 2003 Tuscany (Red) $12.

• Terredora "Campore" Riserva 2001 Campania (Red) $25.

• Tyrell's Wines Vat 1 Semillon 1999 New South Wales (White) $50.

• Wakefield Wines St. Andrew's Cabernet Sauvignon 2002 South Australia (Red) $25.

• Weingut Bründlmayer Riesling Zöbinger Heiligenslein Lyra 2004 Kamptal (White) $40.

• Yalumba The Octavius, Old Vine Shiraz 2002 South Australia (Red) $55.

What's that? Oh, you're welcome.

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Uncorking a tradition

It's popular to look for closure in every facet of life these days. When it comes to wine bottles, that's particularly true.

The debate over alternatives to traditional use of corks, for reasons of hygiene, environmental correctness, finances and the like, is been amped up as more and more quality wines are sealed with non-traditional materials.

Numerous New Zealand wineries have pioneered the use of screwcaps known as Stelvin closures. A co-extruded cork, with an expanded core of DuPont Elvax ethylene-vinyl acetate, sold under the name VinoTop recently was put into use by the Austrian company Anton Volpini De Maestri Packaging Enterprises. Alcoa even has come up with the Vino-Seal glass sealer that looks something like a decanter stopper (see photo).

The Whitehall Lane Winery near Rutherford, CA, in the Napa Valley, has become the first winery in the world to select the Vino-Seal, using it to seal 45,000 bottles of Whitehall Lane premium 2003 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon and 3,000 bottles of its premium 2003 Leonardini Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon.

How do the folks who have to handle a large variety of wine for a living feel about non-cork bottle stoppers?

Opinions vary widely, but I came across an interesting take on the topic from the Parkers, Cheryl and Paul, who run the iconic Chez Sophie restaurant on the outskirts of tony Saratoga Springs, NY. The restaurant, currently in a former roadside diner but poised to move to a new hotel site in downtown Saratoga in time for the legendary Saratoga thoroughbred racing season, has been lauded by local and out-of-town critics for decades. One New York Times writer, for example, referred to it as "Three-and-a-half hours to France, by car."

The Parkers produce a homey periodic e-newsletter for friends and customers that deals with all sorts of topics. The current issues is on corks.

"Every now and then," they write, "Cheryl and Paul get a delivery of wine and find the bottles don't have corks. Especially in Alsace, winemakers are experimenting with the use of screwcaps. So far, every screwcapped wine we have received has been as tasty as the bottles we've received of the same vintage from the same producers with corks. And so far, none of the bottles has been spoiled, something that does happen occasionally with corked bottles.

"Nevertheless, Cheryl usually flips these bottles into the by-the-glass program, to use them up quickly without having to open them at the tables. When someone orders a bottle of these wines after tasting a glass, she finds it awkward to present the bottle at the table, mostly because she is a creature of habit, or at the very least, of traditions she has no real stake in perpetuating. What do you do with the top? Stick it in your pocket and run, or present it to the customer for examination? It took her a long time to learn to pull a cork gracefully, and it's a skill she doesn't particularly want to see become obsolete.

"Paul is less tickly about screwcaps. He thinks they're great, and thinks they are the way of the future so everyone, including his wife, should just get used to them."

One of the health issues involving corks is TCA, shorthand for a particular chemical that infects natural cork, resulting in a musty smell. That's one of the things that makes a wine become "corked."

Despite that, many traditionalists contend using anything other than cork cheapens the wine despite side-by-side tastings that show there is no difference in flavors of wines stoppered with screwcaps, artificial corks, glass or natural cork.

Modernists who would rather pay more for the wine than for the way it's stoppered point out that upwards of $1.50 a bottle is for the cork itself, given the ever-rising price of the natural product.

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Mad Dogs & Englishmen join Fat Bastard

If that headline looks like a jumble puzzle, don't be fazed by it. It means just what it says: The creator Of Fat Bastard Wines has come up with a new naming gimmick.

Mad Dogs & Englishmen is a line of Spanish red and white wines created by Guy Anderson, the Brit who created the Fat Bastard line of French wines.

It includes three wines:

• The red blend, a Monastrell Shiraz Cabernet, sourced from Denominacion de Origen Jumilla, a hot, arid region in the southeast of Spain. It will retail for about $13.95.

• The reserve level, POSH Monastrell Shiraz Tempranillo, is also sourced from Jumilla, planned to retail at about $17.

• The Godello Chardonnay, a crisp white blend, is from the Bierzo region in the cool northwest of Spain. Projected retail price is $14.

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The de-Napazation of Two-Buck Chuck

Bronco Wine Co., producer of the $1.99 Charles Shaw wine commonly nicknamed "Two-Buck Chuck," no longer will use "Napa" on labels of two if its wines.

The reason is simple. Bronco's Napa-named wines also contain grapes grown outside the Napa Valley.

The concession was made to settle a lawsuit brought by the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at the request of the Napa Valley Vintners trade group to enforce a 6-year-old state law requiring that at least 75% of the grapes used to make a bottle of wine must be grown in the county named on the label.

Winemaker Fred Franzia (seen here) of the family that owns Bronco, has lost numerous rounds in the state Supreme Court and other courts attempting to overturn the law.

As the Los Angeles Times reports, "The three brands in question account for $17 million of Bronco's $500 million in annual sales. Franzia will change its Napa Ridge label to Harlow Ridge, named after the street in Napa where Bronco runs a large bottling plant. The label will note that the grapes are from Lodi, Calif., a town south of Sacramento that is gaining recognition for its wines. Franzia said Bronco would use Napa grapes in its Rutherford Vintners and Napa Creek lines."

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Paging Douglas Green

Dear Mr. Dowd:

I live in Newton, MA. While visiting my son recently in Washington, DC, he offered me at dinner a Douglas Green shiraz that I liked and which was very inexpensive.

I have not been able to find it at the local liquor stores and it is illegal in Massachusetts to order wine shipments by mail. Would you know how can I find a store locally that carries it?

Many thanks.

Athanasius Anagnostou

Dear Athanasius:

Douglas Green is a South African winery that sells its wares at wine shops in most U.S. states, particularly in the East.

I suspect a few well-placed phone calls will turn one up for you. I'd suggest, for starters, trying Murray's Liquors, (two Newton locations) 747 Beacon St. (617/964-1550) and 675 Washington St. (617/332-1230) or Lower Falls Wine Co., 2366 Washington St., Newton, (617/332-3000).

You don't mention the vintage of the shiraz you liked, but 2003 was a good one and it usually retails for about $10 a bottle.

If those contact numbers don't help you locally, you may want to ask your son to order a few bottles and ship them to you. There's still nothing illegal about family members helping each other.

For those unfamiliar with Douglas Green, particularly the shiraz, it's an unblended, rich, velvety red with notes of prune, berry and spice. The lingering aftertaste makes it a good pairing with bold meat dishes.

Dear Mr. Dowd:

I am very grateful for your amazingly prompt and exceedingly useful advice.
Many thanks.

Athanasius Anagnostou

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Gala Rouge rolls out the red carpet

PHOTO BY WILLIAM M. DOWD

As a youngster, I became enamored of the artwork of Henri Toulouse-Latrec and his ilk, those gaudy, active posters of a certain time in Parisian cafe society portrayed in such films as 1952's "Moulin Rouge."

Many years later, my never-flagging interest in the genre was moved to new heights by the addition of Nicole Kidman and some really funky music in the oddball 2001 remake of "Moulin Rouge."

So, it was with great interest I observed the introduction of Gala Rouge, a new wine from Brown-Forman's Bon Vivant Vineyards in France that made its debut in a decidedly unorthdox venue: last fall's International Vintage Poster Fair in New York.

The idea, says Laura Simmons, Gala Rouge brand director, was to avoid being one more data-laden French label in an already overcrowded market by presenting a classic Parisian poster-style face to the consumer world.

Brown-Forman certainly went to the right source for its labels. Jim Salvati, a California painter and designer who works with the Disney and Warner Bros. studios on a regular basis, came up with a 1920s look for an 1890 genre, depicting a flapper -- wearing a red skirt on the pinot noir label, a light amber version on the chardonnay -- on a swing and four different type fonts that, curiously, enhance rather than clash with the design.

The brand name itself is explained in a lighthearted way on the back label of the 2004 vintage debut varietals: "Ga-la Rouge (ga-luh roojz) n. 1. A red carpet event [see charity fundraisers or black tie weddings]. 2. A fun evening of your choosing [see Bunko night or poker club] ... " and so forth.

Beyond the design (the labels are available for sale in poster form), let's get down to some essentials:

• Price: $9.99 retail for 750ml bottles.

• Alcohol by volume: 12.5%

• Availability: Theoretically, as of Jan. 1 the test market phase ended and distribution went national. If it hasn't become available in your market, check the Gala Rouge Web site.

• Tasting Notes: The pinot noir is a fruit-rich wine with berries and woody elements in the nose. Soft tannins help make this a bold yet silky offering with a decent, lingering finish. Enough character to hold up to tomato sauces, grilled meats or woodsy elements such as morels, truffles and the like. The chardonnay presents a softly floral nose, then an initial citrus taste that quickly gives way to those floral notes and a touch of pineapple. Slightly astringent finish. Would pair nicely with lightly sauced foods, salads and wide-ranging tapas dishes that present sweet to salty to savory.

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'05 Bordeaux: Let the hype commence!

How good is the 2005 Bordeaux winemakers will be putting on the market next month?

To hear the French wine mavens tell it, the various ailments plaguing their industry are having no effect on the Bordeaux. In fact, the 2005 vintage is being hailed as one of the great vintages ever.

Anthony Rose, wine writer for The Independent newspaper in London, is among the most vociferous journalists calling for a bit of restraint. He wrote in the April 22 edition:

"Apparently insulated from the crisis engulfing the rest of France (where supply of wine outstrips demand, regulation reigns supreme, and producers find it harder to compete with foreign imports), Bordeaux châteaux set out their stall this month for a first taste of the 2005 vintage from the barrel.

"Such is the lavish wining and dining of the world's trade and press during the week-long tasting that Bordeaux might have a serious case to answer for deliberately fattening the calf. Amid the hype surrounding what some Bordelais are calling the greatest vintage ever, the knives are being sharpened for the killing they expect to make next month when they announce their prices."

This isn't to say it's all hype and hyperbole. Early tasters are saying highly complimentary things about the vintage. Here's a small sampling, beginning with Rose himself:

• "Despite inevitable variations in style, 2005 is likely to go down as a great vintage in line with the most recent classics of 1982, 1990, 1996 and 2000. Investors will cash in, but better news for wine drinkers is that many fine, lesser classified châteaux such as Batailley, Belgrave, Brane Cantenac and Talbot should be relatively affordable, as should good crus bourgeois in the mould of Beaumont, La Tour de By, Phélan-Ségur and Charmail."

• John Hunter of the Belfast Telegraph: "The good news for embattled Bordeaux producers is that the 2005 vintage seems to be the best in years."

• James Suckling of Wine Spectator: "Just how special the 2005 wines in Bordeaux are will be better understood in late March, when the wine world descends on the region to taste the new wines. However, the first indicators of Bordeaux 2005 look very exciting, even if it was only sips from a few vats and barrels."

• Bill Blatch of Vintex, a Bordeaux wholesaler, quoted in Agence France-Presse: "I have never seen a vintage like this one. here's power, 14 percent alcohol, tannins, acidity and fresh fruit."

And then, there is Robert Joseph, noted English wine critic, putting things in his own perspective:

"Come off it, this is the third 'vintage of the century.' Three already, with 2000 and 2003, and we are only in 2006. It's a bit much."

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Aussie grape dumping begins

Tens of thousands of tons of Australian Riverland wine grapes will be dumped on the ground or left to rot on the vine this season.

As I reported back in February, the drastic action was looming because of a national oversupply of grapes that would force down wine prices.

Some South Australian growers have been left with no market for their fruit because some could not get contract renewals with wineries and some had contracts suspended. Industry officials say the region's lost income could hit at least $65 million.

Glenn Arnold, a grower in Loxton who was interviewed by ABC television, said, "We're just trying to survive. Everybody says there's swings and roundabout and you know good times are followed by bad times, bad times are usually followed by good times ... . We've just got to hang in there.

"If we don't we're out, we're gone. And that will happen to some people unfortunately and that's pretty bad."

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Shiny new Trucks on the road to market

Red Truck of Sonoma, CA, is best known for its Red Truck and White Truck blended wines. They may take a back seat for a while as promotion attention is lavished on four new single-varietal wines: 2004 Red Truck Cabernet Sauvignon, 2004 Red Truck Merlot, 2005 White Truck Chardonnay and 2005 White Truck Pinot Grigio.

Red Truck was introduced in 2002 by Fred and Nancy Cline of Cline Cellars, wrapped in an eye-catching label created by local artist Dennis Ziemienski. It was a blend of syrah, petite syrah, cabernet franc, mourvedre and grenache, made by Charlie Tsegeletos. When Wine Business Monthly named it one of the "hottest small brands of 2004," the Clines and Tsegeletos last year added White Truck, a blend of sauvignon blanc, pinot grigio, chardonnay and viognier.

Dan Leese and Doug Walker, who purchased a majority interest of the brand from the Clines last year and formed the Axiom Wine Co., are behind the latest expansion of the line.

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Texas cracks down on wine shipping

Texas has, for years, had a law on the books banning ordering wine from any out-of-state location. But, showing some common sense in favor of consumer freedom of choice, it has been operating under a 2001 court-orderd injunction not to enforce the law because of questions about its constitutionality.

That, apparently, has changed. The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission has been sending out cease-and-desist notices to out-of-state retailers that "were shipping the wine in illegally," according to TABC spokeswoman Carolyn Beck.

The state legislature passed Senate Bill 877 last May, allowing out-of-state wineries to ship wine directly to Texas consumers, but prohibits out-of-state retailers from doing the same thing.

The notices have prompted several members of the Sacramento, CA-based Specialty Wine Retailers Association and three Texas wine consumers to file suit against TABC Administrator Alan Steen. They allege the TABC action violates the U.S. Constitution's commerce clause.

"They basically invited this particular lawsuit by sending out these cease-and-desist orders," says John Hinman, a partner with Hinman & Carmichael LLP in San Francisco and general counsel of the Specialty Wine Retailers Association.

Of course, not all wine retailers are opposed to the TABC stance.

Jim Cubberley, manager of Austin fine wine merchant Lake Travis Wine Trader, told the Austin Business Journal that out-of-state wine retailers have been making sales without adhering to the same regulations he must contend with, such as those that require working through Texas' three-tier system of wine importers, wholesalers and retailers. That system adds about 20 percent more to the cost of his wine, as compared to the products sold by out-of-state wine shops, he says.

"People are able to sidestep the local retailers such as us by purchasing things that we cannot purchase," Cubberley told the Journal. "It's hard to be competitive with the extra hoop that we have to jump through."

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Worried French put wood in wine, not vice versa

The sagging French wine industry often tries to put a good face on its situation despite increased global competition and less than stellar sales.

That now will be a little more difficult to accept since the French government plans to allow vintners to flavor their wine with wood shavings, a technique French winemakers have derided as the work of lesser mortals.

Adding wood chips to wine to increase oak flavor has long been practiced by some winemakers in the U.S., Australia and South America. The idea is to avoid the cost and time involved in aging wines in oak barrels.

"The use of wood shavings is already authorized by the European Community and will soon be entered into national regulation," France's Agriculture Ministry said in a formal statement, an effort to "open up the range of authorized winemaking practices."

Wine purists in France predictably have objected to the move, but others in the industry are all in favor of it. As Roland Feredj, director of the Bordeaux wine council known as CIVB, told the Associated Press:

"It is a remarkable and very realistic advance -- it's practically miraculous. In general, France always wants to give lessons to the rest of the world, and in winemaking we are realizing that the Australians and the Americans also have things to teach us about wine regulations."

The decision comes just a week after the government announced a $108 million bailout to help the national wine industry. More than $14 million of that sum is earmarked to increase exports. The industry has been on the decline in terms of sales and prestige for a half-dozen years, losing the leadership position in numerous countries as other nations' wine industries have grown and improved.

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Breaking the Cornell code

NY70.0809.10.

NY73.0136.17

NY62.0122.01

Mmmmm, that's wine.

Those are the current designations of three wines in the Cornell University grape breeding program that will be named in July.

Cornell's Agricultural Experiment Station at Geneva in New York's Finger Lakes region is the center of creation of new grape hybrids. One of the most successful recent products is the Traminette grape, a superb descendant of Europe's Gewurtztraminer -- gewurtz the German word for spicy, tramin for the northern Italian town that was home to a grape varietal brought to France by Napolean's troops.

The above-mentioned species will get their names in July. Then it is up to winemakers whether they want to use that name on their labels or sell the wines as generic stuff, like Joe's Red Wine. For the most part, winemakers like to use the official names to sell to an increasingly wine-savvy market.

I had the opportunity to try the code-named wines during a visit last weekend with owner/winemaker John Brahm at the Arbor Hill Grapery, a small but very productive winery and specialty foods manufacturer in Naples, N.Y., on the west side of Canandaigua Lake.

Brahm, 63, a Cornell grad who was born and raised in the Finger Lakes, is someone to listen to when he's excited about a grape. His track record for producing award-winning wines is admirable. Among his most recent triumphs were a pair of gold medals in the 2005 New York State New York Wine & Food Classic with a best-of-class Rhine Street White and a 2002 Classic Traminette.

Brahm shared a taste of NY70.0809.10 (SV 18-307 x Steuben), a light-bodied, late-maturing vinifera type wine with an emphatic blueberry nose, finishing with a darker berry flavor and a hint of vegetal notes.

The NY73.0136.17 (NY33277 x Chancellor x Steuben), a mid-season maturer, has a distinct peppery character with moderate tannins and a much more complex structure.

"My biggest decision now is whether to leave these alone, or figure out exactly how I want to blend them," Brahm said. "Sometimes you get it just right on the first try and shouldn't keep fooling with it. I'll have to give that some more thought."

The third coded grape (Couderc 299-35 x Muscat Ottonel), also a mid-season ripener, is a highly-flavored muscat that would be best used in blending or as a dessert wine. It has a banana start and citrus finish that immediately makes one think of pleasing food accompaniments.

Whether any of these three will join Traminette as an emerging star will take several years to determine.

Traminette was the fifth wine grape cultivar to be named by the Cornell Agricultural Experiment Station, following the release of Cayuga White in 1972, Horizon in 1983, Melody in 1986 and Chardonel in 1991.

It's a late mid-season white wine grape that has shown good productivity, partial resistance to several fungal diseases, and cold hardiness superior to its parent Gewürztraminer. Traminette resulted from the cross of the Gewurtz and the Joannes Seyve 23.416, made in 1965 at the University of Illinois, which abandoned it, then picked up and planted by Cornell in 1968. The first fruit was in 1971 and the original vine was propagated in 1974.

Traminette is considerably hardier than Gewürztraminer and the equal of other similar cultivars such as Seyval, Vidal blanc, Cayuga White and Aurore. Three growers in New York and one each in Georgia, Maryland, Missouri and Michigan tried test-growing it in its infancy, with the best results in New York leading to the spread of its use there, where it ripens in the early October.

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Constellation firmament expands again

Constellation Brands Inc., the world's largest winemaker, is shelling out $1.09 billion to buy Vincor International Inc., the Canadian company.

The purchase is Constellation's ninth since 2000 as it added Robert Mondavi Corp. and the Australian vintner BRL Hardy Ltd. Constellation had made two unsolicited bids and a hostile tender offer for Vincor late last year, all of which were rejected, before agreeing to a friendly takeover.

"We're combining our brands with the scale and distribution and marketing capabilities that the much larger Constellation brings to the party," Vincor CEO Donald Triggs said in a media interview.

Constellation is based in Fairport, near Rochester, NY. Vincor, founded in 1874, is based in Mississaugua, Ontario, but owns wineries in Canada, California, Washington, Australia and New Zealand, turning out such wines as Inniskillin, Toasted Head, Jackson-Trigg and Kim Crawford.

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NY wine center on a very fast track

FROM THIS ...

... TO THIS ...

Photos by William M. Dowd

... IN JUST SEVEN MONTHS,

CANANDAIGUA, NY -- The New York Wine & Culinary Center project has gone from groundbreaking ceremony in August 2005 to under roof and 10 weeks from a projected soft opening.

I toured the facility, on the shores of Canandaigua Lake near Rochester, NY, this weekend and -- confession time -- was amazed at the rapidity of construction.

Walking through construction-dust-coated corridors, offices and public spaces, the impressive upscale Adirondack-style design was unveiled -- from multi-hued, handworked wood wainscoting, stair railings, display shelving and counters to a 36-station kitchen, slate-floored rest rooms and views of the lake, the roughly $7 million project is coming together at a pace that some doubters, me included, have difficulty believing.

The center, noted director Alexa Gifford, will include entrance landscaping geared toward representations of indigenous plants from the region.

"We'll have local flowers and shrubs, grape vines and the like that will set the mood for visitors," she said. "Americans in general are used to pulling into a parking lot that leaves you right up to the door. We'll be guiding people along a path that creates a mood, and then they'll walk into this beautiful facility that will build on that atmosphere."

The center is being financed by $2 million in state funding and the rest from various private funds. The major private backers are Centerra, formerly known as Constellation Brands, the locally-headquartered company that is the world's largest manufacturer and distributor of alcoholic beverages; Wegman's Food Markets, a five-state chain based in Rochester, and Rochester Institute of Technology's Hospitality and Service Management School.

The mission of the Center will be to foster knowledge in the wine, agriculture and culinary arts industries across New York State. To do so, the Center will offer hands-on courses in culinary science; interactive exhibits on New York State agriculture, foods and wines; demonstration space; and a live garden outside of the building.

"We have been doing a lot of talking to various businesses and organizations that, understandably, are asking, 'What's in this for me? Aren't you competition?',' said Gifford. "We've been explaining that in no way will we compete with private businesses. We're here to enhance an understanding and support of New York's wonderful food and wine products. They like knowing that, and we're planning to work with schoolkids as well as tourists and businesses."

The 15,000 square-foot facility will include a tasting room with a rotating selection of wines from New York's major regions (Niagara/Lake Erie, Finger Lakes, Hudson Valley and Long Island), a wine and tapas bar for light meals and wine-and-food pairings, a theater-style demonstration kitchen, a training kitchen for hands-on cooking classes, and industrial kitchens for credited culinary classes and corporate training. It also will house the offices of the New York Wine and Grape Foundation.

Agriculture is one of New York's most vital industries, encompassing 25 percent of the state's landscape and generating more than $3.6 billion last year. It has 7.6 million acres of farmland with 36,000 farms and is the nation's third-largest wine-producing state after California and Oregon.

The project marks a major step in increasing the visibility of New York's wine industry to tourism and agribusiness interests. How significant the industry is to the state is shown in a just-released report from MKF Research, a California-based consulting firm analyzing New York's situation.

With 31,000 acres of vineyards, 212 wineries and 1,384 grape farms, New York is the nation's second largest wine producer after California and the third biggest grape grower behind California and Washington.

Wineries, grape producers and related businesses in New York, from liquor stores to makers of bottles, glasses and labels, account for almost 36,000 jobs and a $1.3 billion payroll, the state-funded study reported.

In addition, it said that wine sales alone generate $420 million in sales, but the state industry's multiplier impact on the economy came to $3.4 billion in 2004.

A FEW MORE VIEWS

Photos by William M. Dowd

Alexa Gifford discusses the Center's progress with Jim Trezise, head of the New York Wine & Grape Foundation.

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