I am the ape-man, I am the walrus, koo-koo ka-choo!

Climbing barrels is tough work - but fun! In order to save space barrels full of wine are stacked four high - empty barrels are six high. So to do things like sulfur dioxide additions, topping wine (or taking barrel samples... hmmmm, barrel samples) you need to hop on up! It takes a bit to get used to but once you are going, you'll be a "barrel monkey" in no time.

Bins, Bins, Bins

I finally arrived to start my new career and I have been thrown in the "deep end". Hundreds of fermentation bins and barrels to sanitize before the first fruit arrives in a few weeks. It is often said that for every hour of what one would call "romantic winemaking" there is four hours of washing up. Well if that is true then I have a LOT of winemaking due my way!

That said this is a great time to be in the winery - getting to know your fellow interns, having time to scope out the facility and getting acquainted with all the barrels that will be loving filled with Pinot before too long.

So sorry there hasn't been a post in a while but the "Internets" are sketchy up here (something to do with all those series of tubes, I guess). Anyway, promise to post more soon!

2006 Château Guiot (Southern Rhône, France)

Grenache & Syrah Rosé

Darker than what I would normally associate with French Rosé - looks more Californian. Attractive bright strawberry and raspberry nose with some spicy, stemmy action.

In the mouth, a more full flavor of red berries than most French Rosé. Very "juicy" - reminds me of a watermelon purée. Snappy acidity makes this a great Summer quaffer. Great choice for a house rosé. Damn delicious tonight with some wilted Summer greens.

Year in, year out Château Guiot can be counted on for a great value Rosé.

Score: 87
Price: $7.99 (Winex)

Goon bags are "greener" than bottles

The pouch is the new goon bag. Says Chris O’Shea of Versus Wines:-

"Initial consumer feedback from around the world has been very positive to the wine pouch. The innovative design offers convenient handles for portability and on-the-go consumption, a leak proof tap, is light and easy to squeeze into a bag or picnic hamper and the packaging also allows contents to be cooled more rapidly than traditional glass."

He also goes on to say that pouches are more "green" than glass bottles since pouches have a lower carbon footprint than glass. Now I know that goon bags have other post-consumption uses such as for bedding but now they should be the packaging choice of green-conscious as well as the poor college student.

"Studies conducted on the pouch found that although glass is easier to recycle, even if 100% of the glass bottles produced were recycled and 0% of the pouches were recycled, they would still achieve a significantly lower environmental impact and less waste."

Selling goon bags as environmentally friendly. Thats a good one!

Save the world, use cork!

The cork lobby is at it again.

"The production of screwcaps gives off over 10kg of CO2 per tonne compared with 2.5kg of CO2 per tonne for corks...

Seeing as how the cork industry has an overwhelming market share lead to protect against alternative closures (which have grown from 2% market share ten years ago to nearly 20% today), push-back is expected. A few years ago it was "romance" now it is "eco-friendly".

Now, I agree that cork is a renewable resource in that the harvest does not damage the oak and that cork forests provide a unique ecosystem that may not be replicated if the oaks are replaced with faster growing trees such as pines. I also get that an oak tree sequesters carbon dioxide over its long life time in order to produce the cork -- all good by me. However until cork taint (2,4,6-Trichloroanisole or "TCA") is virtually eliminated (I am talking less than 99%) - I am going to be looking to lower my carbon footprint elsewhere in my life.

I'm certainly not going to add to my carbon footprint by taking a tainted bottle back to the store!!

Gary V brings the "Thunder!" with Kosta Browne

If you haven't seen Gary Vaynerchuk on Wine Library TV you need to give his video-blogging a look. As he says he only knows two ways to taste - from his hip and his heart. He shoots from his hip and he comes from his heart. He is a little OTT but compared to the overly serious tasting notes you usually see, he is a breath of fresh air. His wine vocabulary is unique. He describes the second wine in this videocast as "stinky sock meets green pepper meets dirt with a chocolate bar on top left by a camp fire". Nice!

He tastes the 2003 and 2004 Kosta Browne Sonoma Coasts in this episode. As I mentioned earlier the 2003 Kosta Browne Sonoma Coast was the bottle that made me want to become a winemaker and will always have a special place in my heart but as Gary points out the 2004 version is a to-die-for wine.

I can't wait to start working with Michael Browne next week!

"The wonderful, magical animal" - Crispy Pork Tails

As all of my friends know, I have an obsession with all thing pork — that "wonderful, magical animal". Since I discovered the wonders of farmers markets and the beauty of unusual cuts thanks to The Omnivore's Dilemma we have been experimenting with everything from bison neck, to pigs trotters, to beef marrow bones and tripes. For anyone who is excited by the possibilities of viscera and butcher cuts that have been forgotten in our Walmartized world should check out Nose to Tail Eating. A passion for the taste of "real meat" is what is going to save us from the $0.99 beef mince that came from who knows where. End of rant...

To bring us back from the precipice of grey meats are innovative chefs like Fergus Henderson.

Fergus Henderson's creations since they involve all of the senses in the culinary experience do need wines that have ample mouth cleansing acidity yet follow with enough fruit to stand up to the sensory assault of such richly flavored meat. The following recipe which comes from Nose to Tail Eating is a great match for a rich Pinot Noir like the 2004 Alcina Russian River we enjoyed it with. If you prefer a white, a young Sauterne with bracing acidity like a 2001 Chateau Bastor-Lamontagne would be an excellent match for the velvety mouth-feel of this dish.

Crispy Pigs’ Tails

To serve four


8 long pig’s tails

2 onions, peeled and roughly chopped

2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped

2 sticks of celery, chopped

a bundle of fresh herbs

3 bay leaves

10 black peppercorns

1 head of garlic

zest of 1 lemon

1/2 bottle of red wine

1.1 litres chicken of light stock

2 tbsp English mustard

4 eggs, whisked together

450g seasoned flour

225g fine white breadcrumbs

a large knob of butter

Steps:-

Place the tails in an oven dish with the vegetables, herbs, peppercorns, garlic, lemon zest, and wine, and cover with the stock. Cover with tinfoil, place in a medium oven, and cook for 3 hours, checking on it so it does not cook too fast; when done you should be able to easily pinch through the flesh. Remove from the oven. Allow to cool in the stock, but remove the tails before it turns to jelly and drain any excess liquid off them (you can refrigerate them at this point).

When they’re cold and firm, mix together the mustard and eggs and have ready three bowls flour, egg and mustard, and breadcrumbs. Dust them with flour, roll them in the egg and mustard mix, and finally coat them in the breadcrumbs so that they are well covered (do this just before you cook, otherwise the crumbs will go soggy).

Get a large ovenproof frying pan or roasting tray hot, add the butter, and when sizzling add the tails and roll them around (watch out, they can and will spit — be very careful). Place in a hot oven for 10 minutes, then turn them over, making sure there is enough butter, and roast for another 10 minutes, keeping an eye on them so they do not burn.

Serve hot with watercress or red mustard salad. Some may like a spot of malt or red wine vinegar on their tails. Encourage the use of fingers and much gnawing of the bone.

Get your hands dirty and fatty with this dish that is as much about the tactile senses as it is about aroma and taste!

<Best Homer Imitation> Hmmmmm, crispy pork tails... aaaaarrrrrrgggghhh </Best Homer Imitation>.

The old closure debate

I am an unabashed fan of screwcapped wine (mainly because I hate corked wine but not needing a corkscrew is a plus too!) so I am always excited when I hear about consumer research that indicates that wine drinkers are accepting it more. A new study has come out that indicates that US consumers who are neutral or positive towards screwcaps has increased from 47% to 57% from 2004 to 2005.





While this is definitely a step in the right direction, closer examination reveals some problems.





While consumers may be "accepting" of screwcaps they aren't crazy about them. Only 15% say they are positive about screwcaps against 42% who say they don't like buying wine with this closure at all. Most disturbingly, a similar study that asked specifically about the context the screwcapped wine was going to be consumed in (and also included respondents from the UK, France and Australia) the acceptance of screwcaps by US drinkers plummets in more "premium contexts" - special occasions, gift giving & dinner parties.





As someone whose dream is to make super premium Pinot Noir the lack of acceptance of screwcapped wine in these contexts where consumers are willing to pay $30+ on a bottle of wine is concerning. However the two bright spots in the study are in Australia where the acceptance of screwcaps remains above 50% in all consumption contexts and the UK (Australia's biggest export market) which is also well above the US rates in "premium contexts" and just as high as Australia in more informal ones. One would think that the UK numbers will continue to rise once more producers like UK market leader Jacobs Creek put their entire range under screwcap including their Johann Cabernet which retails for £ 40.

Maybe it will take a Robert Mondavi to make the leap here? What do you think?

I like to call it the "goon bag effect" ™

Sure, some may say that correlation doesn't imply causation. Others may say that wine consumption tends to rise and crime tends to fall with rising disposable incomes, implying that they both have a common cause (disposable income) but neither causes the other. Another explanation trotted out is that the US has an aging population and it is primarily the young who commit crime and older folk who drink wine.

Personally I subscribe to the "goon bag effect" ™.




More people are drinking boxed wine. Boxed wine makes people happy. Happiness makes people less likely to commit crime. Quod erat demonstrandum!

International Pinot Showdown — US vs Australia (with a Shiraz/Syrah coda)

The name of the restaurant was all I needed to hear — Bird, Fish, Cow. Sounded like a great excuse to see how Russian River, one of America's top Pinot regions, matched up against Mornington Peninsula, which has been heralded as the region that will put Australia on the world Pinot map. Considering all the controversy that erupted out of the Mornington Peninsula International Pinot Noir Conference, the theme seemed timely.

Wines were tasted blind by a group of eight wine geeks in Sydney during my eight hour layover on the way from Los Angeles to Wagga Wagga. All that we knew was that one wine in each flight would be Australian and one would be American.

Flight One — 2003 Stonier Reserve vs 2004 Roessler Kanzler


The Stonier was leathery and had an unpleasant green stemminess along with a dash of band-aidy Brett and a dab of VA. On the positive side there was some bright red cherry, plush strawberry, and some snappy acidity. Once the bag was lifted it was a bit of a shock, I had really wanted to like this wine. Especially after James Halliday had practically drooled all over it. Bummer.


The Roessler was your prototypical Russian River Pinot on the first whiff. Cherry cola, forest floor, red berries (raspberry and strawberry) and baking spice. Super plush in the mouth, nice acidity to cut the ripeness of the fruit with a long high toned finish.


Group Vote: 8 votes for Kanzler, 0 for the Stonier



Flight Two — 2005 Port Phillip Estate vs 2005 Kosta Browne Russian River


The Port Phillip was very well constructed. Sandro Mosele is one of Australia's great Pinot artisans, a bottle I had recently of his 2004 Kooyong Estate Pinot Noir was superb. The Port Phillip was the most feminine wine of the day — not light, feminine. Opens with violet, dark cherry and maybe some plum. Very "juicy" in the mouth with elegant tannins that will make for damn tasty Pinot in a couple of years but still approachable now.


The Kosta Browne Russian River was a great wine. Seeing as I am working with them, I feel I must refrain from commenting except to say that I voted for this bottle.


Group Vote: 6 votes for Kosta Browne, 2 for Port Phillip




Anne "Swervin" Irvine with the flight's winner, the 2005 Kosta Browne Russian River


You say Shiraz, I say Syrah - 2004 John Duval The Entity vs 2004 Carlisle The Judge


Can you say Deep Purple? The John Duval was an opaque, deep purple verging on squid ink! Wow! Blackberry, violets, dark cherry, plum and some oak. In the mouth cocoa and vanilla show themselves too. Fantastic balance of fruit, alcohol, wood, and tannins. Will be even better in a few years when the tannins get a chance to settles down because the are B-I-G right now.


Carlisle is one of my favorite Syrah producers and so I was excited to have it matched up with the John Duval. Once it hit the glass, I was sure this was the Carlisle, in fact I was so sure I have fuzzy memories of offering to run down the road naked if I was wrong. Almost rivaling the John Duval for color this is definitely the Carlisle I have come to know and love. Big and ripe aromas fly out of the glass - the first thing that hits me is freshly baked blueberry pie and pepper. Blackberries, smoke, bacon fat and licorice follow. Massively rich mouth-feel — this is almost more of a sensory experience than a wine. Kudos to Mike Officer!


Group Vote: 5 for Carlisle, 3 for John Duval
(although it should be noted that the table thought that the scores may be reversed if the tasting was held in 2010.)

How did I get here exactly?

It was a year and a half ago at the Los Angeles Angels Spring Training Camp. A belated birthday dinner at Mosaic - it snowed(!) on our drive to the restaurant in Phoenix. The wine list? Amazing! I had heard about Kosta Browne from fans on the Robert Parker Message Boards - $90 for 2003 Kosta Browne Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir as a birthday wine seemed fair game. What I didn't know then was that this bottle would change my life.

A year and a half later I find myself a week away from starting my new adventure by spending harvest at Kosta Browne, quitting a twelve year career in advertising, and earning an apprentice wage learning the ropes from some of the world's great Pinot Noir artisans.

With "The 33 year-old intern" I hope I will be able to let you in on the ups and downs of jumping out of the corporate world and getting my hands stained red. Great wines quaffed, musings on the industry, and some other random drivel is promised.