sommelier news

S ommelier N ews

June 2011

The Floating Cellar by Roger Morris

Stand by your Merlot by Katie Kelly Bell

First Press by David Wilkening

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The Floating Cellar

By Roger Morris

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Stand by Your Merlot

By Katie Kelly Bell

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First Press

By David Wilkening

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Contents Contributors

Managing Editor Roger Morris writes about wine, food and travel for several print and online publications, in-cluding Wine Enthusiast, Beverage Media, iSante Maga-

zine and The Daily Meal. His blog is at www.beentheretastedthat.blogspot.com. He lives in ru-

ral Pennsylvania with his wife, the artist Ella Morris, and

their six free-range yard cats.

Katie Kelly Bell is an Atlanta-based food and wine writer. She is a regular contributor to Modern Luxury magazines and her work has appeared in everything from Delta Sky to Southern Living. In between dead-

lines, Bell shares her wine musings and insights on her blog at www.salthill.wordpress.com.

David Wilkening is a former newspaperman in Chi-cago, Washington, Detroit and Orlando, where he was a feature writer and often political editor. He worked in

politics as a consultant at the national level before be-coming a freelance writer. He has contributed to numer-ous publications and often writes about travel. He is also

a ghost writer who has several books under his own name, including the latest, "How to Hide."

The Floating Cellar Across the Atlantic on the Queen Mary 2, One Glass at a Time

By Roger Morris

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Mr. Morris goes tasting

It is about 3:30 p.m. on a Thursday after-

noon in May, and head sommelier Kelley Mi-

chael Schaefer is leading an audience of per-

haps 70 wine drinkers – mostly middle-aged

males, some as wine-green as a Spanish joven,

others comfortably at the advanced reserva

stage – through the last of five wines we are

tasting in the Britannia restaurant.

The first four were full frontal in their iden-

tification – an older Etienne Sauzet Bourgogne

Blanc, a Shafer “Red Shoulder Ranch” Chard, a

Domaine Fontaine-Gagnard Chassangne-

Montrachet rouge and a Calera “Ryan Vine-

yard” Pinot Noir – but the last one is blinded.

We start the name-that-wine game with our

first deduction: the wine is red, so that elimi-

nates perhaps half the categories in the world.

Progress made. In spite of the protests of one

over-anxious gentleman, we eliminate the pos-

sibility that it’s a third Pinot Noir. More pro-

gress.

Normally, I don’t care for these parlor

games, even if I get to drink the clues. Per-

haps for the same reason, I will miss the mas-

(Continued on page 4)

querade ball on Friday night. But Schaefer is an enthusiastic fellow, so I play along.

Besides, I’m part of a captive audience. Sure, we could just get up and walk away at any mo-

ment, but what could be a more-interesting diversion than drinking good wines in the middle of the

North Atlantic on the second day of a six-day crossing from Southampton, UK, to mid-town Manhat-

tan aboard the Queen Mary 2?

Part of the fabled Cunard line of passenger vessels, Queen Mary 2 is a huge ship, a floating hotel

containing a half-dozen or so floating restaurants and one big floating wine cellar.

On the voyage out, to England, along with my two brothers for a one-week course in driving on

the wrong-side of the road, I participated in a similar tasting, all known entities, then chatted with

food and beverage manager Bernhard Fischer about the food and wine demands of the voyage. Ac-

cording to Fischer, he had on board almost 4,000 souls to feed and water on board – 2,516 passen-

gers and another 1,311 crew members.

For the watering part, he carries an inventory of around 400 different wines, and he pours about

(Continued from page 3)


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Floating a selection of wines for tasting

8,000 bottles per crossing, mainly during lunch and dinners. Cunard also has its custom brand of

low-enders made by Wente, and these are the standard by-the-glass pours. There is no dedicated

wine bar aboard the vessel, although Veuve Clicquot rents shop space for its own Champagne bar.

Fischer says the idea is to carry as little inventory as possible, which requires good planning.

“We poured the last bottle of ’87 Petrus last night,” he informs me, and, as he can’t call the local

distributor to run over a few bottles later this afternoon, Petrussians will have to drink something

else for the next few days. There are no ports of call between Southampton and New York City for

emergency re-stocking. Petrus aside, there are several selections in the $30 range, and most wine

list offerings are under $100. The average markup appears to be somewhat less than in most big-

city restaurants.

Of course, serving the wine needs of 2,500 diverse drinkers calls for more than just a good cel-

lar.

“We have a staff of 30 trained sommeliers,” Schaefer tells me when we later get together for a

one-on-one over coffee. “When I was working on the Queen Victoria, we only had 22.” All the som-



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The Royal Cocktail

meliers received special wine training with continuing education onboard and are encouraged to get

advanced sommelier degrees.

There are two classes of travel on the QM2 categorized by where you eat. If you eat in the multi

-level Britannia restaurant – which is quite elegant – then you are essentially in tourist class. The

Grills are for first-class passengers, although some of the elegant suites are probably beyond mortal

classification.

“There is considerable competition among the sommeliers to get into the Grills,” says Schaefer,

who hails from British Columbia. Although meals are free, wine, beer and liquor are not, and guests

customarily tip extra in addition to the built-in shared tips. It goes without saying that tips are bet-

ter in the Grills and in the reservations-only Todd English restaurant on board.

Being a sommelier who lives seven days a week on a ship that crosses the ocean between Old

World and New World two dozen times a season is a lot harder than learning how to walk with the

roll of the ship or how to pour a straight arc of red wine when the stormy seas outside are swelling at

around 10 feet.

“Each sommelier is assigned 60 people per seating, which is considerable, and there are two

seatings daily, seven days a week” Schaefer says, especially when everyone shows up. A general

perusing of tables at any dinner shows few guests drinking cocktails, more drinking beer (a large

contingent of Germans is going to and from Hamburg on my passages) and most drink wine. Diners

are handed a wine list by the somms as soon as the captain gives out the food menu, which changes

daily. Food service is never hurried, but it is prompt, so a sommelier has to move quickly if wine is

to arrive at the table before the food. Sommeliers also work lunches in the restaurants and in the

buffet cafeterias, although there are fewer demands for alcohol in the latter. They also have to lend

a hand during turn-around days when the ship docks in port around 7 a.m. and sails at 5 p.m. with a

first seating at 6.

One peculiar custom that seems weird to us Americans – but which the continentals seem to

think is normal – is holding a bottle over for the next evening when a table doesn’t finish it. When I

arrived each evening bound for my assignment table, usually in a suit and tie to most people’s tuxes,

I would see bedraggled-looking wine bottles with swatches of identification tape awaiting their mas-

ters – considerably more oxidized than they were the evening before.

Meanwhile, back at the tasting, I am pretty convinced that we have a Left Bank Bordeaux in our

mouths – possibly a Chilean Cab, but probably not – but Schaefer is leading some others through a

consideration of the southern Rhône. The people at my table seem wine-worthy, and they independ-

ently are saying Bordeaux as well. Since I’ve noted that the Bordeaux 2004s – a very nice vintage

and a relatively affordable one – are prominent on the Queen’s wine list, and since the red has defi-

nitely moved a few vintages toward vinegar, I guess 2004 as the vintage. Which château, I haven’t

a clue. When the wrapper comes off the bottle, it is indeed a 2004 Bordeaux – a St. Estephe I’m not

familiar with.

So, feeling on a roll, I toddle down the hall, walking to the sway of the ship in an un-straight line

that would get me arrested in a sobriety field test and treat myself to a flute of Clicquot.

After all, the Queen is driving tonight, and I don’t have to get behind the wheel.


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Clarke Swanson, owner of Napa’s Swanson

Vineyards, still cuts a dapper figure.

Clad in a corporate suit (complete with stiffly

starched pocket handkerchief), he moves about

the room, flashing his warm smile and expres-

sively bushy eyebrows at guests assembled for a

recent wine dinner. He chats, answers questions

and makes a point of knowing his crowd; and the

guests love it. Clearly Swanson is man who

knows how to do business, which is no surprise,

as he hails from the mega business of frozen

food and TV dinners – yes, that Swanson. In

1953, Clarke’s father (along with his brother)

launched the groundbreaking concept of a TV

dinner. (A 1963 ad slogan was “Swanson Night –

everybody wins!”)

Swanson continued the family tradition of

groundbreaking in 1985 when he bought a parcel

of 100 acres in Oakville in the heart of Napa Val-

ley, where everyone was growing Cabernet Sau-

vignon, and promptly planted Merlot, then used

primarily as a blending grape to soften Cabernet.

Enlisting the services of the legendary André

Tchelistcheff, Swanson was able to cultivate a

serious, noteworthy Merlot.

Swanson is clear about his decision to plant

Merlot at the time. “It wasn’t some inspired gen-

ius, or vision,” he says. “At that time, everyone

was growing Cabernet Sauvignon. It was every-

where, and I wanted to offer something differ-

ent.” Then, the 90’s arrived with Merlot as the

must-have wine. “At that time everyone began

producing Merlot,” he remembers, “much of it

mediocre; it was not good for us and what we

were trying to do. We’ve been stalwarts of Merlot

production for a long time.”

Now that Pinot Noir is the must-have wine,

Swanson feels good about the quality of Merlot in

the market. “It’s funny, I got a big kick out of the

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Stand by Your Merlot Pioneer producer Clarke Swanson has met the Sideways challenge head-on

By Katie Kelly Bell

movie Sideways, but I had no idea it would have

the impact it did,” he says. “Thankfully our sales

didn’t drop---but we sure had to work hard at it.

And this recession has been no picnic either.”

Swanson notes that there was a lot of truth to

the movie’s references to Merlot as crappy wine.

“There were too many marginal Merlots out

there, but the market has been purified, and the

varietal is on the upswing again,” he says. “After

all that, we plan to stick with Merlot.”

It’s been a smart decision. Despite all the

setbacks, Swanson has emerged as one of the

largest producers of premium Merlot in Napa.

Winemaker Chris Phelps (who trained under

Christian Moueix at Petrus in Bordeaux), coaxes

out layers of fruit in each wine. Taste, enjoy-

ment and pleasure are the words the come to

mind when sampling the Swanson portfolio. And

what a portfolio it is. Swanson might be best

known for its Merlot, but the rest of the wines

merit a closer look.

Always intrigued by new possibilities, Swan-

son took some more risks in Napa, being one of

the first winemakers to plant Sangiovese, Pinot

Grigio and to blend Cabernet and Syrah (The

“Alexis Red” label.). His risks continue to pay off

in the form of his cleverly marketed, small-batch

Salon Selections.

During our wine dinner, we started by sam-

pling the stunning 2010 Rosato. Made from first-

run juice of the Sangiovese grapes, it has a rich,

deep-salmon hue. The wine literally bursts with

notes of cherry and watermelon, conjuring child-

hood memories of cherry Jolly Rancher and wa-

termelon popsicles. This is a craveable wine and

gorgeous to boot. The 2006 “Crepuscule,” crafted

by Swanson’s dessert wine maker, Marco Capelli,

is one of America’s top-rated late- harvest Semil-

lons (who knew?). Golden, honeyed and com-

plex, it has notes of peach and a whiff of citrus –


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First Press By David Wilkening

A product that just flies off the shelves

“Distressed and elated” was the response of movie star Dan Aykroyd to the news that thieves stole

21,000 bottles of Crystal Head vodka from a California warehouse. The star of the “Blues Brothers” said

he was sorry to lose the liquor, but “we are happy that some consumers will be afforded the opportunity

of tasting it at significantly lower than retail price.” He reminded everyone that Crystal Head, which has a

distinctive, skull-shaped bottle, is available legally everywhere. It has racked up $5 million in sales since

it was launched in 2008 by the actor and the Newfoundland Liquor Corporation.

At least they aren’t stealing Dan’s vodka

Growth in prestige wines signals better times ahead for the Russian wine market, says a new report from

Wine Intelligence. Around 40 million Russians now drink wine on a regular basis. Rising wealth and

spending levels following the global recession are encouraging more trading up to higher priced brands,

particularly among the urban elites, according to the Russia Wine Market Landscape Report. That’s the

good news. The bad news: Authors note Russian wine market remains an unpredictable place to do busi-

ness “and is not for the faint of heart.”

Was that sperm whale or whale….? Oh, forget it!

Chantal Martineau, writing in Food Republic, raises the interesting question: Can a cocktail be too silly?

She quotes Dale DeGroff, who is often credited with pioneering the current cocktail renaissance. “Bacon

is where the line should be drawn,” he says. Martineau says personally she thinks ambergris (clotted

sperm whale cholesterol), which has been popular with young drinkers, “is not something I want swim-

ming in my punch. But that’s just me.” On the other hand, no one is forcing her to drink fishy cocktails.


it’s a perfect ending to a meal.

Next up for Swanson is a whole new line (available through direct sale from the website) called Mod-

ern House Wines. Made from a small batch of 100% Oakville Merlot and blended with other Bordeaux

varietals, consumers can mix and match the playful labels (such as “Please Forgive Me,” “Swell Swill,”

“Lucky Night” and “Just Married”). While this appears to be more about marketing than terroir…it’s still

tasty fun.

It’s been a challenging consumer climate for Merlot, but Swanson, with heaps of effort and business

savvy, has been able to keep wine drinkers interested. And it looks like there is more to come.

(“Swanson” Continued from page 7)

http://www.wine.co.za/attachments/PDF-View.aspx?PDFID=2073

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Those who are ambivalent buy rosé

Why do wine purchasers pick one or another bot-

tle? The answers: The simplicity of a label, the

wine's color and price are factors which sway

most people to buy. That's the message from a

panel of consumers who were put under the

spotlight at Consumer Question Time - the first

industry briefing of the London International

Wine Fair (LIWF). Color was the first thing

14,000 British adults thought about when making

wine decisions. Only four percent said they ask

for help from a sommelier or serving staff.

Note to LIWF: He first checked to make sure

it was red

A private U.S. collector paid $123,899 for a 1945

Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Romanée-Conti,

beating the highest price ever reached for a 750

ml bottle of Burgundy at auction, according to

news reports. Only 600 bottles of this end-of-war

Burgundy icon were ever made.

Their credit cards were maxed out

A Southern California couple bought a small Napa

Valley winery paying all cash for the $4.7 million

property on Silverado Trail near Calistoga. More

than just another deal, writes the Press Democ-


rat. “It’s the latest indication that lifestyle buy-

ers, people who are more focused on creating a

hobby business in wine country than making a

substantial profit, might be returning to the mar-

ket after a two-year absence,” says the newspa-

per.

They come in Riedel crystal wrappers

”The world’s most expensive tequila popsicle is

made with 24 ct. gold flakes and Tequilas Pre-

mium Clase Azul Ultra, which retails around

$1,500/bottle,” says PR Newswire. Available at

the Marquis Los Cabos resort in Baja California

Sur where it’s served poolside, which is regularly

lauded as one of the most impressive infinity

pools in the world.

I taste magenta with a soupçon of blanca

Constellation Brands, whose labels include Clos

du Bois, Ravenswood, and Robert Mondavi, is

using something called "sensory analytics" to

help it better understand consumer preferences,

according to Bloomberg Business Week. That's a

fancy term for getting expert tasters to classify

wines according to precise descriptions, which

are cross-referenced with consumers' impres-

sions to uncover correlations. For example, says


Become a Friend of The International Sommelier Guild at Facebook.com

http://www.tequilaspremium.com/

http://www.tequilaspremium.com/

First Press

US ADDRESS

4109 NW 88th Ave.,

Suite 101

Coral Springs, FL

33065

Fax (954) 272-7377

CANADIAN ADDRESS

269-762 Upper James

Hamilton, ON

L9C 3A2

Fax (905) 481-2417

TELEPHONE

U.S. Toll Free

(866) 412-0464

Canada Toll Free

(866) 399-5009

U.S.

(302) 622-3811

Other Countries

(905) 858-1217

E-mail: [email protected]

Web: www.internationalsommelier.com

It’s a Matter of Taste

Constellation's U.S. chief of marketing, Chris Fehrnstrom, "many con-

sumers deny they like sweet wines" when they actually do. "There is a

very strong segment in sweet wines," he says. That insight helped

launch Primal Roots, a "silky, jammy" wine now being shipped to stores.

South African vintage springs bok

The 2011 season in South Africa was characterized by “considerable cli-

matic fluctuations, especially early in the season [and] large-scale flood

damage along the Orange River also impacted on the wine crop,” says

VinPro Consultation Service. But the industry is nevertheless pleased

with the quality of the wines and the fact that the size of the crop will be

about equal to last year. “The South African wine industry is able to

buffer large fluctuations in overall crop size and quality thanks to the

diversity of the respective cultivation areas,” says VinPro.

But the vineyard workers have steady jobs

The South African wine industry has oversupplied the market, particu-

larly with red grapes and wine and will face a shortage of grapes within

five years as growers reduce the acreage they cultivate, according to

Distell Group Ltd. (DST), the country’s biggest wine and liquor producer.

“Vineyards are being removed and not renewed,” Erhard Wolf, Distell’s

general manager, told Bloomberg News. But they are not alone. Over-

supply is affecting other wine-producing countries, Wolf said. Further,

Australia should remove about a quarter of its vineyards to balance sup-

ply and demand, he said.


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President

Joseph Miller

Vice President

Wayne Gotts

Dean of Education

Roberta Belfry

Department Heads

Peter Bodnar Rod

Catherine Rabb

Michael Muser

Michelle Bouffard

Erica Landon

Anuhea Hawkins

Cellar Masters

Franklin Ferguson

Karim Ladhani

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=DST:SJ

http://topics.bloomberg.com/australia/

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July 2011

Today, It’s Cariñena by Roger Morris

Silvertap Dance by Katie Kelly Bell

First Press by David Wilkening

13

Today, It’s Cariñena

By Roger Morris

18

Silvertap Dance

By Katie Kelly Bell

21

First Press

By David Wilkening

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Contents Contributors

Managing Editor Roger Morris writes about wine, food and travel for several print and online publications, in-cluding Wine Enthusiast, Beverage Media, iSante Maga-

zine and The Daily Meal. His blog is at www.beentheretastedthat.blogspot.com. He lives in ru-

ral Pennsylvania with his wife, the artist Ella Morris, and

their six free-range yard cats.

Katie Kelly Bell is an Atlanta-based food and wine writer. She is a regular contributor to Modern Luxury magazines and her work has appeared in everything from Delta Sky to Southern Living. In between dead-

lines, Bell shares her wine musings and insights on her blog at www.salthill.wordpress.com.

David Wilkening is a former newspaperman in Chi-cago, Washington, Detroit and Orlando, where he was a feature writer and often political editor. He worked in

politics as a consultant at the national level before be-coming a freelance writer. He has contributed to numer-ous publications and often writes about travel. He is also

a ghost writer who has several books under his own name, including the latest, "How to Hide."

Today, It’s Cariñena A journey through northern Spain’s Garnacha-rich region

By Roger Morris

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Downtown Zaragoza

Wednesday – The Road to Zaragoza

The 10:30 a.m. AVE train to Zaragoza pulls

out of Madrid’s Atocha Station and, once the sub-

urbs have been cleared, begins its non-stop slash

across northern Spain, reaching speeds of

around 190 miles per hour. It is late May, and

the open countryside is sprinkled with red clus-

ters of poppies, moving their blooming parade a

few miles northward daily.

We are en route to the Cariñena wine region

near Zaragoza, a city located downstream from

Rioja and Navarra on the Ebro River, to taste

wines and talk with producers. Since the turn of

the new century, Spanish winemaking districts

that once weren’t listed on wine atlases seem be

taking their turns in debuting in the international

wine market – Rías Baixas, Toro, Priorat, Bierzo,

Jumilla. Now, it is Cariñena’s time, its wines

slowly slipping into the export stream to appear

on the world’s retail shelves.

The book on Cariñena is that its D.O. came

early, in 1932, and it is home to 2,000 grape

growers and 44 wineries on 36,000 acres of pre-

dominantly red-grape vineyards, both indigenous


and international.

Once in Zaragoza – a much larger, cos-

mopolitan and attractive city than I had ex-

pected – writers David Rosengarten, Michael

Franz, John Stoker and I are whisked off to

lunch at La Bal d’Onsera, a Michelin one-star

restaurant near our downtown lodgings, the

Alfonso I hotel. Over a delicious lunch that

begins with a savory tomato water with pis-

tachio and works its way through pork steak

tartar; lobster with beans, beef and egg

yolk, and foie gras and onion ravioli in a

chick pea broth, we talk with winemakers

José Pablo of Bodega Pablo and José Pascual

of Gorys.

The conversation is mainly about Gar-

nacha, Cariñena’s most-popular variety, and

how it differs from Garnacha, or Grenache,

grown elsewhere. “Cariñena” is the Spanish

spelling for “Carignane,” but, although the

grape and the region share the same name,

less and less of it is planted here because

Garnacha and international red varietals are

considered both better and more market-

able. For variety, we taste a Gorys

Crespiello, a local grape whose origins date

to the 12th Century and which is also known

as Vidadilla.

After lunch, we drive about 30 miles southwest along A23 to Cariñena, the small town that gives its

name to the district. Here we visited Prinur, a modern winery made of small blocks of limestone that re-

flect the local soil composition and whose wine bottles are a rectangular shape that remind me of eau-de

-vie containers. Prinur, we are told, has vineyards in three of the 14 villages that make up the Cariñena

D.O.

Dinner back in Zaragoza is at the Aragonia restaurant, where we meet Ignacio Martinez de Albornoz,

in charge of promoting the Aragon region and its products abroad, and our winery hosts for the evening,

Jorge Navascues of Pago de Aylés and Susana Munilla, representing Victoria Dominio de Longaz. Aylés

produces the somewhat popular El Burro “Kickass” Garnacha, but of equal interest is its delicious 2010

Dorondón Chardonnay, somewhat of an artistic rarity in this red-dominant region.

“I like a French-style white wine made in a foudre, like a Leflaive Montrachet,” Navascues says, “but

there is no winemaking culture here to produce a different style that can be aged.” Macabeo (Virura) is

the local indigenous white grape of preference. The Dominio de Longaz reds are also interesting, but, as



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Ignacio Martinez de Albornoz

yet, it does not have an American importer.

Thursday – The Red Heart of Cariñena

A long day is ahead of us as we caravan the next morning back to Cariñena – four wineries to visit

during the day and two more dinners. Although there are some prominent hillsides, most of Cariñena’s

vineyards are on large plains that sweep up from the river toward the mountains.

At our first stop, Ignacio Marin, we are greeted by Angela Marin, whose family owns three wineries,

this one for production of crianza or wines of the vintage. Part of the ritual at Marin is for visitors to sign

barrels heads, not guest books. By the looks of these oak ledgers, the Chinese and Japanese are fre-

quent visitors. Marin brings up something that we hear repeated later – that the grafting “cure” for phyl-

loxera originated in Cariñena, although no one seems to know who or at what vineyard. (Note to self to

do more research on this.)



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Old vine Grenache

Here, and at other wineries we

visit, a theme is repeated – big Gar-

nachas, often from old vines, that have

lots of dark red fruit, loads of dusty

tannins, are approachable young but

having sufficient leanness and acidity

to serve well for making reservas. We

also taste several enjoyable young

Garnachas during our stay that have

rich fruitiness from total or partial car-

bonic maceration, yet with surprisingly

hearty, and compatible, tannins.

Solar de Urbezo, our second stop,

is fairly well-known in the U.S., and I

particularly like the 2010 Vina Urbezo

– a Garnacha-Tempranillo-Syrah car-

bonic maceration blend – and the 2005

reserva, a 50-50 Cabernet and Gar-

nacha blend.

Next is the first of four regional co

-ops we will see on our journey, the

very modern Grandes Vinos y Viñedos,

the largest in Cariñena and in all of

Aragon. We taste mainly the Coronas

de Anayon and Beso de Vino lines,

most of which are good values. Before

lunch, we are taken on a tour of vine-

yards in the rolling hills overlooking

the town of Cariñena. While not ex-

actly Châteauneuf-du-Pape, many of

the old, head-pruned vines as well as

new plantings are on extensive beds of

small gravel. “Most of the reserva

wines come from the hills,” winemaker

Marcelo Morales tells us. “We pick them a little later, and we pay more attention to the phenolic poten-

tial than the alcohol potential.” Drip irrigation lines are also in evidence in some plots, watering being

permitted when needed.

The last stop before our retreat to Zaragoza for the night is the smaller Covinca co-op, where the

wines are intense, savory and lean, which I rather like, but my colleagues would prefer more fruit.

The delight of the day is meeting early that evening Enrique Abad. Abad is a foodie first, the owner

of the tapas bar El Cantálerico in Zaragoza where we nosh and sip, but he has gotten into wines, first as



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Enrique Abad

an amateur and recently as a serious, if small, producer. Unfortunately, his El Diamente de Abarando, a

crisp, spicy, dry moscato, is not sold in the U.S. “I think I’m the only one who makes a dry moscato in

Cariñena,” he says.

Our final stop of the evening is for a tasting of co-op wines under the Virgen de Aguila brand that,

frankly, are not on a quality par with wines we have tasted elsewhere.

Friday – Final Thoughts and the Getaway

This really is a short a wine trip!

Today we visit our last two wineries – Añanas and San Valero. Añanas is a new family winery

started in 2000, director Nacho Lárdo tells us, and sells its wines under the CARE brand. Its Chardonnay

is quite nice, though tasting more of lemony cream than do most Chards. The reds are generally blends,

and it is interesting that here as elsewhere Syrah is seen as the fast-closing comer among international

varieties.

Like many co-ops, San Valero, our final visit, makes wines under multiple brands, and two that are

most-often seen in the U.S. are Monte Ducay and Carinus. The latter line includes a tinto made of 20

percent each of Garnacha, Tempranillo, Merlot, Syrah and Cab, and, somewhat surprisingly, it’s a pretty

good wine for $10. Winemaker Julio Prieto takes us on a tour of vineyards on the plains south of town.

After our cultural moment (which every wine visit must have) – a tour of the impressive, multicul-

tural Aljaferìa palace/castle/barracks restoration – we are back on the AVE to Madrid, our heads heavy

with Garnacha dreams.


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The San Valero lineup

Wine on tap is a centuries-old concept that is suddenly new.

Europeans have been serving wines directly from barrels for centuries, and the Romans stored and

dispensed wine from amphorae. And yet Silvertap, a sustainably focused Sonoma winery that produces

100 percent of its wine on tap, continues to receive rave reviews as a leader of a hot new trend.

“Wine dispensed from barrels has been around a long time,” agrees Dan Donahoe, a Silvertap princi-

pal and one of its founders. “We are definitely version 2.0. But, from a quality-control standpoint, most

places don’t go the length that we have gone to be sure the wine dispenses as fresh out of tap as it was

when it went in the barrel.”

In fact, keg wine (or barrel-to-barrel as Donahoe prefers to call it) enjoyed a brief resurgence in the

late 70s and early 80s with Anheuser Bush’s Master Cellars project. In an effort to reuse their beer kegs


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Silvertap Dance A funny thing happened on the way from the amphorae

By Katie Kelly Bell

Gregg Quinn, Jordan Kivelstadt, Dan Donahoe

and leverage existing infrastructure, they filled

emptied beer kegs with wine. It flopped abys-

mally.

Donahoe says he knows why. “Wine and

beer are not created equally,” he says.

“Everything from the gas to the seal to the

tubing can have a significant adverse effect on

wine.” As wine flows through a normal tap, the

higher acidity can strip the stainless and rub-

ber parts that it encounters, and it emerge

tasting like plastic and steel. So Silvertap did

its homework with MicroMatic equipment, a

major keg and tap producer, and together they

crafted wine-specific dispensing equipment.

Donahoe cites four specific elements that

must be in place to produce good tap wine and

notes the terrible consequences if purveyors

skimp on quality control at any level:

• The keg must be crafted with a spe-

cific grade of steel, as beer kegs are not

durable enough, and wine will erode

them.

• The tubing must be flavor lock tubing,

comprised of high-quality, dense plastic

that prevents oxidation. A keg is her-

metically sealed, and that tubing is the

key to the wine not going bad over-

night.

• A gas blend of nitrogen and CO2 (commonly known as Guinness gas) is preferable because that

small about of CO2 will never dissolve into the wine and will help keep it fresher in the keg over

longer period of time.

• Cleanliness is next to goodliness. “We are probably cleaner at our winery then they are at a

microchip factory,” Donahoe says.

“Keg wine is not without its complexity,” agrees Matt Licklider, owner of Lioco wines, which is one of

about 20 wineries that also use Silvertap’s kegging services. “Most facilities are not set up to retrieve

the kegs – you send out bottles and you’re done. With kegs, you need logistics to get them back.” But,

he admits, “Silvertap is doing a great job of making it easy for us, and we far underestimated demand



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Filling the kegs

for it. All of my distributors are

asking me for kegs.”

Renowned Paul Hobbs win-

ery recently retained Silvertap to

keg some of its Crossfire Char-

donnay. The decision to keg

some wine was one they care-

fully considered, as Jenifer Free-

bairn, director of sales and mar-

keting for the winery explains.

“The demand (for keg wine) is

there, but we are a very high

maintenance winery,” she says.

“We expect quality control at

every level, and Silvertap was

able to answer all of our con-

cerns about quality. The green

aspects are also very appealing

to us.”

One reusable keg is equal to

26 bottles – a lot of glass, corks,

labels, foils and boxes wineries aren’t paying for. For on premise sales, keg wine eliminates oxidation,

and hence fewer bottles get tossed out. “We’ll fill and keg wine for wineries and deliver the product to

them to distribute as they wish,” says Donahoe.

Silvertap’s own wines include Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon and

Merlot, all mostly sourced from the Russian River and Dry Creek valleys, with the Sauvignon sustainably

farmed at Woods Vineyard. Silvertap’s own wines are sold in several of country’s top restaurants in Phoe-

nix, San Francisco, Atlanta and New York.

Donahoe is currently spending most of his time addressing Silvertap’s biggest issue – simplifying re-

trieval of empty kegs. “Our big vision is to have the big brewers offer filling stations around the country

where the kegs can be refilled, which will enable us to import wines in from Argentina,” he says.

“Hundreds of thousands of gallons of wine are shipped all over the world in giant bladders. Why not ship

to a filling station at various regional centers?”

Indeed, a variation of the filling station is still practiced in Argentina, at coops in France and else-

where, with the locals bringing their own empty jugs to a winery or off-premise store, paying their

money and opening a tap, then driving away with their own generic reds and whites.

Donahue is now working on his first international venture with Italy at a much-larger scale. Serving

wine from a barrel is an idea that is not yet tapped out.


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Dan Donahoe plays taps

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First Press By David Wilkening

Whispers words of wisdom, Lettie Teague

Carl Sandberg called Chicago “hog butcher for the world” and “city with big shoulders,” but today

Carl might have added “city of the big zinfandels.” “With access to some of the biggest wines in the

world, and some first-rate restaurants (and funky wine bars), Chicago’s wine scene is so vibrant,

I’m willing to call it the second most-important wine city in the country right now,” writes Lettie

Teague in The Wall Street Journal. “No, I think Chicago is the first-best wine city,” responds Paul

Hart, a partner in the wine auction house Hart Davis Hart. Proof: In 2010, the Hart Davis Hart team

sold more wine at auction in the US than any other auction house in America, including New York

which is generally regarded as the No. 1 wine market.

For Aussies, China is the next U.S.

China has developed a big taste for wine, with production there now exceeding Australia, says the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation. “Improved living standards have led to the increase in demand

and opened up a massive market,” it says. Australia is among countries trying to slake the new

thirst after it saturated the U.S.market.

Wine for those who give a Puck

In what Huffpost Food calls his "continued quest for food world domination," Wolfgang Puck has

launched his own wine label. “Two Buck Puck” remarked wine blogger Talia Baiocchi. The wine will

be sold at most of Puck’s dining, bistro and catering restaurants nationwide. It’s also available on


Become a Friend of The International Sommelier Guild at Facebook.com

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the Home Shopping Network in a nine-piece

set. Produced by California’s Delicato Family

Vineyard, it is available in four varietals and

retails for about $8 a glass or $32 a bottle

Next comes sippy bottles

Nothing new about the search for the perfect

wine container, but now at least three U.S.

wineries are offering high-tech foil pouches

that look like children’s drink containers.

Glenora Winery in New York, Clif [correct]

Family Winery and Farm in Napa Valley and

Indulge in Santa Barbara all sell wines in the

containers, says Reuters Life, adding the

pouches flew off shelves when they appeared

last summer. The pouches, made in South Af-

rica by AstraPouch, take half as long to chill as

a bottle, weigh much less and will keep the 1.5

liters, the equivalent of two regular-size bot-

tles, fresh for a month after they've been

open, according to Glendora winemaker Steve

DiFrancsco.

Next comes Ralph Lauren’s Polo wines

Up until a decade ago, wine was seen as old-

fashioned and outmoded, but now it’s emerg-

ing as a fashion statement. So says Robert

Beynat, chief executive of the recently held

Vinexpo. “This is perhaps nowhere truer than

in Asia, where holding a glass of red wine aloft

at a glitzy wine bar or restaurant is considered

the height of sophistication,” says The Inde-

pendent. According to Beynat, wine is experi-

encing a global revival, especially among the

younger demographic who have embraced it

as a chic status symbol.

Tweeps twitter for winery twip

A New Zealand winemaker has found a way to

entice social drinkers: a Twitter contest invit-

ing Tweeps to provide a 140-character feed-


back in return for a free trip. Brancott Estate is

asking for “creativity” and “judicious care” in

creating the award-winning tweet about their

Sauvignon Blancs, Pinot Noirs or Pinot Grigios.

This is not entirely new. In 2009, Chateau des

Charmes, a vintner in the Niagara region of

Canada, brought "twasters" or Twitter follow-

ers together in a wine tasting for the launch of

its newest bottle, Generation Seven.

Smart horns in on biodynamics debate

His verdict: nonsense! That’s the opinion Aus-

tralian viticulturalist and leading global con-

sultant on viticultural methods, Dr. Richard

Smart, has about organics and biodynamics

being better for the environment. He made his

remarks at the Wineries for Climate Protection

conference in Barcelona. “When people buy

food, they don’t mind choosing products that

have been grown on land treated with chemi-

cals, so why should they care about how a

wine has been treated?”

He thought “mixologist” was a fighting

word

Dan Dunn’s writing of “The Imbiber” column

on Food Republic requires him to spend time

around folks who make cocktails for a living,

prompting him to ask what they should be

called. “Mixologist” is the current term, at

times replacing bartender. But here’s a better

description that avoids a single term:

“Mixologist is a term that I believe refers to a

PART of the complete bartender,” says Alex

Straus of Hemingway’s Lounge in Hollywood.

“A complete bartender knows and uses mixol-

ogy, along with his knowledge of the weather,

politics, sports, maintenance, plumbing and

how to make someone end up outside before

they start a fight.”


First Press

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Web: www.internationalsommelier.com

It’s a Matter of Taste

Johnnie Walker runs a victory lap

Johnnie Walker Scotch whisky was the fastest-growing international

spirit drink in 2010, according to Reuters. Seventy percent of its

growth was from three markets - Brazil, Mexico and duty free. Its

largest market is still the U.S.

Texas becoming Australia of spirits

Tito’s is gobbling up market share of the vodka business nationwide.

“And it's hardly the only Texas-made spirit making a name for itself,”

says NBC. More and more, everything from vodka to rum is made in

Texas, it says. ”Every time I turn around, they have a new one,”

says liquor store owner Packy Watson.

Vino wins out over vin in 2010

Italy surpassed France in total wine production last year, according

to recent data from the European Commission. “The two countries

have long sparred over the top slot, with the winner's mantle switch-

ing back and forth from year to year,” says Huffpost Food. Most of

the variability can be attributed to changes in growing conditions

from year to year, the source says. “Both Italy and France consis-

tently produce far more than the third-biggest producer, Spain, who

in turn produces far more than the fourth-biggest, the U.S.,” says

Huffpost.


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President

Joseph Miller

Vice President

Wayne Gotts

Dean of Education

Roberta Belfry

Department Heads

Peter Bodnar Rod

Catherine Rabb

Michael Muser

Michelle Bouffard

Erica Landon

Anuhea Hawkins

Cellar Masters

Franklin Ferguson

Karim Ladhani

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/wine/8571222/Italy-overtakes-France-to-become-worlds-largest-wine-producer.html

http://www.fao.org/docrep/012/al176e/al176e.pdf

http://www.fao.org/docrep/012/al176e/al176e.pdf

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