Category:Regional wine

State Fair wine update

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

Friday morning update: How about some video? There’s a 15-second commercial in the front, but after that, the Wine Curmudgeon and Channel 11’s Garry Seith talking about Texas wine. Plus, I’ll be back at the Fair this afternoon for some more Channel 11.

Set those digital recorders. The Wine Curmudgeon will be on Dallas’ Channel 11, sometime after 5:30 a.m. on Friday, to talk about the Texas wine garden and wine stage at the State Fair of Texas. I’m told I’ll even get a chance to display my corkscrew skills.

And, no, that’s not too early to drink wine.

Texas wine at the State Fair of Texas

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

The Texas wine garden at the State Fair of Texas, and the interviews that we do on the wine stage, is one of the Wine Curmudgeon's two or three favorite events. John Bratcher, my partner in Two Wine Guys, and I interview Texas winemakers, sommeliers, wine personalities (and even wine writers) about Texas wine: what's good, what's bad, and what still needs to be done.

It's all about bringing wine to the people, which is something that I believe in strongly and that the wine business could mostly care less about. Is it any fun being heckled by a bunch of drunks during halftime of the Texas-Oklahoma football game? Nope. But it's worth it if just one person comes away from the fair with the understanding that wine is not difficult, and that regional wine is legitimate.

Which is why this is a very difficult post to write, since this year's event looks like it will be the last one that we do. More, after the jump:

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Thank you, Texas Legislature, for a job well done

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

Texas is facing one of the most serious crises in its history, and no, it’s not the wildfires consuming the state, the years-long drought that has helped cause many of the wildfires, or even our on-going budget crisis.

It’s the breakup of the Big 12 athletic conference. How does the Wine Curmudgeon know this is so serious? The Legislature, which usually approaches state government as if it needs to hurry up and get home, open a beer, and sit in front of the TV in its t-shirt, is actually concerned and threatening action. The governor and lieutenant governor even issued statements.

This is the same legislature, of course, that eliminated $4.3 million over two years in state funding for the Texas wine industry. Gone is the money spent on research, including key efforts to determine which grapes are best for Texas. Gone are the marketing dollars that helped make the Texas one of the top wine tourism destinations in the country. Gone are most of the state employees who helped make Texas the fifth biggest wine producer in the country. It was all part of the 40 percent cut to the agriculture department’s budget.

Full disclosure: The state paid me $5,000 in 2010 for two Texas-related wine events, the taste-off against New York and the Texas wine stage at the state fair. But I’d write this post regardless, because it has never been about the money (and I took less money to do the wine stage this year). Instead, it’s about doing the right thing, which I’ve always done and which I’ll always do.

As opposed to the legislature, which has an agenda of its own and which always baffles the rest of us. To the legislature, football is more important than creating jobs or helping an industry grow that has consistently produced jobs, especially in depressed rural areas — and that has a multi-billion dollar effect on the state. Wine apparently isn’t manly enough for the Legislature, which sees college football — corrupt, money-grubbing college football — as the proper venue for its efforts. They deserve each other.

How desperate is the situation for state’s wine industry? Ed Hellman, the Texas Tech professor who heads the state’s grape research funding, is trying to raise the millions of dollars needed to restore grape research through private donors. State funding, he says, has gone away and will never come back. Meanwhile, a group of Texas wine aficionados has proposed to restore the marketing money through another voluntary donation program. What’s next? Selling band candy or holding a bake sale?

What Hellman didn’t note, because he is too nice a guy, is that Texas Tech signed ex-football coach Mike Leach to a five-year, $12.7 million contract before firing him a couple of years ago. That $12.7 million would fund the state’s wine grape program for six years. Aren’t priorities wonderful things?

Virginia Governor’s Cup 2011

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

It’s almost enough to make one think Virginia wine is jinxed. First, there was the terrifically unseasonable heat and humidity during the Wine Bloggers Conference in Charlottesville in July, and we know how that turned out. Then, Hurricane Irene hit the Atlantic coast at the same time that judging was scheduled for the white wine portion of Virginia Governor’s Cup competition.

Two judges canceled, and Landsdowne Resort, where the judging was held, was as empty as I have ever seen it (and the Wine Curmudgeon has been to Landsdowne more times than he would have thought possible). And even I was a little worried about the storm — probably from watching too much shouting on The Weather Channel.

But all went well. The wine, though entries were down from last year, was more then competent — and some were even better than that. Irene stayed far enough out to sea so that Landsdowne didn’t get any of the storm, and we had more rain on Sunday morning than we did on Saturday when the hurricane came through. Competition guru Monty Barrett did a stellar job.

Five wines made it through the first round of judging to compete for the Governor’s Cup — a petit manseng, viognier, chardonnay, vidal blanc and white blend. We tasted blind, so I don’t know the producers, and the winner won’t be announced until October. But I thought the two best wines were the viognier and vidal. The former was young and rich, almost French in style, while the vidal was fresh and citrusy, without a hint of hybrid foxiness.

My guess, though, is that the chardonnay will win. It was about as oaky and toasty as an East Coast wine can be, and that’s a style that judges like. It was well made, certainly, but I didn’t think it reflected the state’s terroir as well as the others.

Local food people still can’t figure out this local wine thing

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

The following comes from a friend of mine, and you'll understand the need for anonymity. She's a food writer who was at an oyster roast in the Pacific Northwest when someone pronounced that the reason Pacific oysters are superior to all others is that the region produces wines to match them.

My friend, of course, was speechless. "This made me think of you," she emailed. "Not surprisingly, he'd never heard of Texas wine." In fact, Texas has oysters from the Gulf Coast and wine to match, like dry blanc du bois and rose.

The Wine Curmudgeon can't decide what's more annoying: That someone who pretends to be a wine expert doesn't know that there is wine made in regions outside of his tiny, insular world, or that he knows as little about food and wine pairings as the character in Annie Hall knows about Marshall McLuhan. (Yes, I'll post the clip at the end of this.)

Because, according to this logic, oysters from Louisiana — which I happen to think are the best in the world, courtesy of the late, great Mr. Jutz — are irrelevant because there isn't Louisiana wine to go with them. Or that Maine lobsters are somehow lacking because there is no matching Maine wine. Or, to look at this illogic from the other side, that Loire wines aren't quite as good as they could be unless you can find Loire shellfish to go with them.

Where is Marshall McLuhan when you need him? After the jump, courtesy of drkatzjr27 at YouTube.

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Regional wine labels: Is a wine where it says it’s from?

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

When is a wine made by a winery in your state not from your state? More often than you think.

This is the great conundrum of the regional wine business. The best way for local wineries to market their product is to proclaim its local-ness. But, given the way the wine business works, their wine may not be made with local grapes, but with grapes or juice imported from California or even Europe. Confused? It gets worse. Federal law allows wineries to be appropriately vague about whether the wine is made with local grapes.

All in all, regional wine labeling is a maze that consumers (many of whom are baffled by wine labels to begin with) don’t know they have to negotiate. After the jump — how labeling laws work, what to look for on a regional wine label, and why so many wineries take advantage of this gray area.

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