Untangled Vine

No excuses, no comments, just an article that the Toledo Free Press ran last week...

Holidays: that 6 week stretch of consumerism and indulging. Wine plays such a natural part of that celebrating, gathering and feasting, that it’s probably wise to have some perspective on how to spend your already stretched dollar.

Hosting a party? Great move! Pigs in the blanket? Check. Crudite? Check Turducken? Check. The baseline festive beverage of choice should be wine. This way everyone can have a great time in moderation. How do you shop for your party? How many wines do you offer? Unless you are a real wine geek, I suggest you keep it simple, Go with a dry white, a couple of dry Reds, and maybe an off-dry wine (please no White Zinfandel). You can get some great party wines for around $10-$12/ bottle, and most local wine shops offer case discounts that will save you 10%. Don’t attempt this on your own; seek professional experience assembling the lineup. The best advice I can give is to place trust your wine merchant. Their career is built upon trying to find you the best wine for the money. They carry brand names because they have to, but if you want to see their face light up, utter the following phrase “I trust you”, and you will be rewarded. Don’t be afraid to discuss your budget. Some general guidelines though, should you decide to go it alone: When choosing a white, keep the acid in moderation. I love a great Sauvignon Blanc, but high acid whites need food, and sometimes these gatherings are more about conversation than sitting down and eating. Chardonnay is always safe (avoid oaky- California versions), but you can wow your guests with a nice Oregon Pinot Gris, White Rhone Blend, or South African Chenin Blanc. For reds, think 2 different style choices. First, something with deep rich fruit and a nice spiciness, like Zinfandel, Syrah, Petite Sirah, Shiraz all of which are great crowd pleasers. Then choose something that has a little more structure like Cabernet and Merlot. Pinot Noir may not be your best choice here simply because it’s nearly impossible to find a decent bottle under $20. You can widen the net to include something imported, because the less you’ve heard of a region, the better the bargain.

Ok. Your party is over and now you want to buy something special for your friends and associates. How do you select something that will be appreciated, remembered and ultimately consumed? Set your budget; know something about their wine preferences, then try to find them something that is a discovery. Often a gifted wine that is gifted is the “gifters” favorite wine, because they want everyone to love it as much as they do.But remember, just because you like it doesn’t mean everyone else will like it, everyone has different palates. Let’s say your friend loves Napa Cabs. Well, you could try to find a Napa Cab they haven’t had, but if they’re astute, they may have beaten you to the punch. The best strategy is to take a style or region, and find a twist. Syrah is a great alternative to Cabernet, and very few people have explored this varietal as deeply as Cabernet, and they have great versions in Napa. Plus, with Syrah, you can get twice as much wine for the money. Or you can take that Cabernet and look for bottlings form other countries; Australia has some great examples of this grape. If you get them something new to them, that will make it memorable. This is a great example of how to use your local wine merchant, with their vast knowledge of all things wine, they will help guide you to find the perfect gift bottle.

Finally, you’ve taken care of wine for others and now it’s time to personally enjoy the holidays with wine for you and yours. What goes with holiday fare? Everything. This isn’t really true, at least not from a culinary standpoint, but at some point, it’s important to just drink great wine without putting any importance on it. Great wine goes best with great times, friends and family. Open something old or new, just make sure you have a great time and happy holidays!

It seems like I am always writing about how busy I just finished being, and then I fail to post for a few months. In new hopes that this cycle has ended, here is what has been up…

a) First order of business let me introduce Abigail Jane to the wine blogosphere. May 29^th, 5lbs 11oz. She’s awesome! She’s been a very big part of my preoccupation. I think I have pictures of everyone I know holding her…

b) Our pacific Northwest Event in Cleveland. We hosted Michael Adelsheim, Adelsheim Vineyard, Peter Rosback, Sineann, Poppie Mantone, Syncline, Susan Neel, McCrea, Craig Camp, Anne Amie. It was a huge success, and as great of an event as we could have envisioned. It made a bold qualitative statement to host such a great event. Very well attended by both the trade and consumers

c) We now have 2 salespeople in Toledo. That means that I now have some help, it also means I needed to spend a lot of time training our new guy. His name is Evan, and he is local musician who know as much about beer as I think I know about wine, but he has a great wine palate and endless enthusiasm. The only thing that makes me nervous is he is very forgiving of late 1970’s Rolling Stones. We are both big fans of both Queen & The Replacements, so I’m not that worried.

d) Maumee Valley Food and Wine Festival-I haven’t been spending as much time on this as I’d like, but it’s starting to take on a life of it’s own. My brother and his team designed that very cool logo. October 6^th, 2007, should be an incredible event. C’mo Toledo, don’t disappoint me, you haven’t yet. I’m staking everything on my theory that you all want something better…

OK, that was a ridiculously long time between posts. Where do I begin? Is anyone still reading this? I originally started this blog as a way to post my articles that were published in one of our local papers. As it turns out, said paper wasn’t so interested in wine articles anymore, maybe they’ll change their mind one day. At any rate, that was my original inspiration for posting. I then became enthralled by many of my fellow bloggers, and I read everyone’s blogs on a nearly daily basis. So, blogging was always on my mind. Then, last year, our company went through a major transformation, and I found myself devoting all of my time and creative energy towards getting this thing off the ground. Business has been growing exponentially, and my involvement in the day to day operations and planning has grown as well. So here I sit 6 months later trying to figure out why I should blog, and of course realize that this is another creative outlet for me. It’s a place to flesh out my opinions, experiences and theories. So this blog exists for my own catharsis, once in a while I get an email, or a friend or family member tell me they read it, but for me, it has to be about an outlet. That’s why I try to avoid the “Today I had a cheese sandwich” syndrome. Today marks the beginning of untangled vine 2.0, or v.2, or the next generation, or electric boogaloo, or the reckoning, whatever.

So what’s really been happening? Well, we are expecting a new addition to our family within the next 2 months. That’s really exciting for us, obviously. But this isn’t my personal journal, so except for the biggest of news, I will skip over these details, this is after all about food and wine, and the cultural battles that we fight for the sake of food and wine as culture. A little too self-important? Yeah, that’s me, and that is my advice on how to enjoy your livelihood, by assigning an Us vs. Them relationship, and treat it like you are personally trying to save the entire civilization.

On that note, I am in the middle of another cultural struggle. I have been asked to head up a Toledo Food & Wine Festival. It’s my own fault, and it was my idea about a year ago to mention this to a friend of mine that sits on the board at Citifest Toledo (that’s the Non-profit organization that puts together many of the well-attended riverfront events including Rally by the River, etc…). They wanted to use me to put together this event, but I didn’t like the amount of time until event (< st="on">Toledo a better place, with a better self image, with what could possibly be the best food and wine event in Ohio ever! The general apathy has been taxing the hell out of me, but I will persevere, and just as I sell wine everyday, I just now need to sell this event to the good people of Toledo if I have to beat them over the head with it. So as it stands, The Maumee Valley Food & Wine Festival will happen on October 6th, 2007.

Also exciting for me, bringing my career full circle. I have always been of French Wine, and lately, we have scored some great French wines for our portfolio (a friend of mine recently compared building your portfolio of producers to building a baseball card collection- this is a perfect comparison) and since we have grown and improved so much, we are now in a position for me to go after some of my favorite producers that no one else can quite do justice to. It’s a small and very good industry, and the constant change and challenge down the next road make everything in the wine industry more and more interesting every day.

Stop number 2, after getting lost, was Duxoup in Dry Creek. With what will always be one of the most memorable winery visits I will ever have, we were introduced to Andy & Deborah Cutter. Want to hear unique? Duxoup leads with Charbono. I can say, especially after tasting Coturri’s practically rancid version yesterday (Not to rant, but with anywhere from 2-10% Residual Sugar, the whole “naturalistic approach to winemaking is lost on me when wine itself is just a pit stop on the way to the natural progression towards vinegar.), that this is the best Charbono I’ve ever tasted. Ok, it’s a bit of a geek thing, but this wine is fantastic. One of the latest ripening varietals in Napa, they usually harvest around Thanksgiving, and end up with 12% alcohol. Great balance and fresh fruit elevate this from a curiosity to a world class wine. We also tasted an excellent Sangiovese & Syrah. The highlight was the handmade home they live in as well as the hand made gravity flow winery. Did I mention they have a thing for Sumo Wrestlers, seriously. The name Duxoup, comes for the French phonetic spelling of the word Duck Soup, which is what they named their home as they were building it by hand over the course of several years.

Labels: Napa Sonoma Trip Day 3-Part 2

So if I took this trip 3 months ago, why am I still writing about it, and just now getting to it? Well, I’ve been really busy, but this blog is the telltale heart of personal journals, so without waxing poetic about my exploits, I feel like it didn’t really happen. Wow, blogs have really improved the quality of my life. But here it is, the dramatic conclusion to my 3 days in Napa and Sonoma, the third day-Sonoma.

We had many stops during this beautiful day in Sonoma, the first was Eris Ross in Glen Ellen. Eric Ross is dedicated to making amazing Zins and Pinot from mostly the Russian River. Their Pinots have an incredible Old-World quality that is most certainly age-worthy, and their Zins are likewise age-worthy, with great vibrant acidity. They source from some incredible vineyards such as Saralee’s and Occidental. These are cerebral wines that have a unique feel. The story behind this winery is interesting as well. 2 old friends, Eric Luse and John Ross Storey, former acclaimed photographers from San Francisco daily newspapers, and longtime epicureans, decided to get into the wine business.

Peter Thompson led us up a long and twisty road, it reminded me of the time, 2 years ago, that I rode up Spring Mountain with the Henry Wine Group SoCal divison, and got so carsick that I booted right next to the VP of the company. Damn You Ford Windstar! Your bad shocks, and top heaviness, caused me to miss the afternoon at Cain (along with being overserved the previous evening) but that’s a different story. Today we were riding to the top of Diamond Mountain, to one of the highest elevation vineyards in the whole region. We already knew Peter Thompson from Andrew Geoffrey was putting out some world class Cabs, but we of course had to take a look at this remote vineyard ourselves. Armed with some beautiful steaks, cheeses breads, etc, Peter hooked it up! With what had to be the most breathtaking view of the visit., 1800ft elevation on a clear day, pretty much gives you the lay of the land. We could see just about every vineyard in the Northern Half of the Valley from one vantage point. A truly spectacular day! But let me mention the wines. Andrew Geoffrey makes one wine, Cabernet. It is blended with all of the usual suspects, and they do receive some
press, but I would just like to say this: press can’t do these wines justice. Their deep, rich tannins, and unending complexity make me think of only one other producer from this region, and at a lower elevation, only Diamond Creek has made wines of
this style. The only difference is the fact that Andrew Geoffrey wines show better young. The vines were planted around 1997, so within a few vintages, they should really start showing their stuff. It seems that 10 years is what Cab needs to peak, which is an almost unimaginable statement having tasted 3rd-5th leaf of these wines.

The rest of the day was spent visiting some potential new producers, and the competition being what it is, they shall remain secret for the time being.

Ballentine has a storied and rich history in the Napa Valley. In fact, they are celebrating 100th anniversary this year. Originating as the Pocai Family, the winery has fluctuated back and forth between Pocai and Ballentine for the better part of the last 80 years, and Pocai Vineyard is still providing some of the best zin grapes around. Van (Ballentine) and Betty (Pocai) have been the embodiment of these 2 families coming together. Van has worked over 60 harvests in Napa Valley, and certainly knows where all the bodies are buried. As we tasted through just about everything you can imagine, we were amazed at the breadth of the wines. My 2 favs were undoubtedly the 05 Chenin Blanc, which has got to be the best example of this grape I’ve ever seen in the US (they used to supply most of Chappelet’s production, so don’t poo poo me), and the as yet unreleased, 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon. Ballentine has always been known for their Zins, and the multiple examples were all impressive in a very noble and structured way. The inclusion of the best oak barrels (Gamba, among others) today, is helping to elevate this historic producer to newfound heights.

One of the main reasons for our Napa/Sonoma trip was for the world premiere of Matt (henceforth known as Mat’tulio) Bonanno’s custom crush Napa Cab. This is a wine made at Steltzner Vineyards according to Matt’s specific instructions and ideal style. Matt and his family are very involved in our company, and this is an exciting time. So we were taken in by the extraordinarily hospitable Steltzner family, and treated to a Michael-Chiarello-eat-your-heart-out-Napa-Valley-get-together.
I can’t begin to describe the generosity and love that is Dick Steltzner and his clan. Every member of the family is the ideal host, buzzing around, connecting people, and most importantly, serving kick ass food. Their’s is not a typical Napa the rich get richer story either. This is a story that dates back 40 years, when buying a swath of land in The Stag’s Leap District seemed like a questionable business move at best. But Dick grew up not too far from the bay area, and had a bit of faith in the potential. You can tell from his demeanor and large, tough hands that this winery was built on sweat equity, and perseverance. This winery was also built on humility and respect for the product and consumer. This is why their wines are priced the way they are, fairly. Stag Leap District Cabs typically retail for double the price of a Steltzner bottling, which is usually better than the competitors version. The Winery isn’t some sort of monument, or Chateau, but rather, a building offset, with a non-descript cavern.

The wines themselves display a consistent style. Since they are mostly Bordeaux Varietals, all of the reds share a common thread of a fine-grained, fruit driven tannin, which can only come from the vineyard. The wines are all balanced, with delicious dense fruit, and incredible complexity. The star for me is the Merlot, which I personally rank in the top 5 Merlots I’ve ever had from the US (along with Pepper Bridge, Larkmead, Medlock Ames and Del Dotto). The Cab is the calling card, and is not to be missed, but one of the outright best values in the whole world of wine is the Claret, which unlike other California Appellation Claret’s at the same price, is 70% Stag’s Leap District, 30% Oak Knoll District.

Last week, the whole team from 55 degrees went on a pilgrimage back to the Motherland (at least of wine in this country). We visited, well, too many Wineries to recount, and a few that I can’t discuss. But we drank some amazing juice, and chatted with some very cool folk, and a few that weren’t all that cool. This is my little chronicle of what went down.

Part 1- L’Uvaggio di Giacomo & Renard at Zuzu


We met with 2 of our geekiest (endearment) suppliers immediately after traveling (and fasting) for 11 hours. Jim Moore of L’Uvaggio di Giacomo must reaaly like to make things difficult. He is one of the best producers of Cal-Itals, well, in California. A tough marketing niche is an understatement. Problem is, everything he makes is excellent. He has opted for an esoteric label, and a very esoteric name. Both of which are probably changing in the not too distant future. He makes Barbera, Rosato, Arneis, Vermentino, Nebbiolo, Sangiovese, and Vin Santo. We tasted all that day except the Vermentino, he’s sold out of that little gem. Moore has worked in Napa for about 40 years, and was pretty important with Mondavi (remember the La Famiglia & Luce projects? That’s him.). He is, as we like to say, Salty. That means he’s like Quint’s (from Jaws) occasionally charming, brilliant, and slightly disaffected offspring. But we love him nonetheless.


Bayard Fox of Renard hits us in our sweet spot. He makes incredible Terroir driven Rhone Varietals mostly from the North Coast. His wines showed great, and we fell in love with a few rarer selections, especially the Truchard Vineyard Syrah, The Santa Rita Syrah (Cote Rotie Anyone?) and the consensus fav. The Cappelli Vineyard Syrah, which was so old world, with it’s nose of raw meat, that we just wanted to cry. Bayard is a Barrel Salesmen by day, and not just any salesmen, he sells some of the best French Oak to guys like Jean Louis Chave. Renard is , French for Fox, which obviously explains the name of the winery. Bayard is also a tremendously cool guy with hilarious opinions and gossip about all sorts of things you don’t read about in the average lifestyle magazine.

If you don’t know either of these guys wine, well, get with it…

Earlier this month, Michel Richard CITRONELLE in Santa Barbara closed their doors in favor of a new concept called Fresco's. For me, this is a very sad turn of events. I relate it to finding out your childhood home has been leveled. I spent 3 years as Sommelier at CITRONELLE, and for me, it was the most intensive and fascinating span of my wine career. It's not that the restaurant was the best restaurant (it was quite good to be sure) it just provided me with a forum to learn a great deal about wine. We had a 500 bottle California/ French list, so, I was well versed in the old school vs. new school dichotomy. It also taught me just about everything I would ever need to know about how buyers feel about distributors and salespeople, and provided me with cue on how not to be that guy. I dealt with an ass of a French chef that makes Gordon Ramsey look like royalty (Felicien Cueff, I curse you wherever you are, enjoying your strange fetish), and a prince of a celebrity chef, who was mostly occupied by his top notch D.C. venture by the same name. I served wine to many celebs, including Julia Child, and I had to throw coked-up dotcom-ers out of a winemaker dinner. Let’s face it, restaurant life generally sucks, long hours for no pay, but, It was where my Career found it’s voice. It was the springboard for everything that would happen professionally from that point forward.

I still stay in touch with some of the good people that I worked with there, and have likely forever lost touch with many others. I have had meaningful wine jobs before this experience, and certainly since, but this span was an epiphany. The first moment I began to succeed and excel. It was the time I built relationships in this business that continue on to this day. It was the time that I fell in love with Santa Barbara wine country. Although I am sad that the Restaurant no longer exists, I know that I will always think back to those days and situations, and continue to learn from the past.