Charles Shaw: What A Long Strange Trip It?s Been

This week stories about the 10 year anniversary of Charles Shaw wines began to hit the news. If there is a single wine brand I get asked about by people not into wine, it’s this Trader Joe’s success story. The funny thing is the story of Charles Shaw started over 35 years ago but few [...]

Charles Shaw: What A Long Strange Trip It’s Been originally appeared on Winecast. Licensed under Creative Commons.

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Field Notes from a Wine Life ? Media Edition

Odds and ends from a life lived through the prism of the wine glass…

Rex Pickett

If you’re not reading Rex Pickett’s (author of Sideways and Vertical) blog, you are officially remiss.

Pickett is a gifted writer who cranks out perfectly incubated long-form posts with turns of phrase that are both wry and rich, offering insight into the machinations of publishing, film and stage that few culture vultures grasp.

Pickett recently wrote an extensive (3900 word) post on the reasons why a film sequel to Sideways (directed by Alexander Payne) would not be made from Vertical, Pickett’s book sequel.  In doing so, Pickett offered a discursive meditation on Payne’s artistic pathos and the factors that may be playing into Vertical’s stall on the way to celluloid.

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Unfortunately, Pickett removed the post after re-publishing a second version that deleted much of the armchair psychologist rumination he originally channeled from Payne’s psyche.  An email inquiry to Pickett on why he removed the post (in either iteration) has gone unanswered.

If I were a muckraker, I would publish the post because Pickett’s deletion of the post from his site did not delete the post from RSS feed readers like Bloglines or Google Reader.  But, I’m not a muckraker…

Hopefully, Pickett will revisit the topic in a manner that is less confessional and more elucidation because it was worth the extended read time.  Until then you can read the other posts on his site and gain tremendous insight into the vicissitudes of the publishing process, what the afterglow is like after capturing the cultural zeitgeist and how he’s helping bring Sideways to the theatre with a stage version.

It’s definitely recommended reading.

A Discovery of Witches

While we’re on the topic of books and authors (and with Halloween around the corner), a reinforcing mention goes to Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20.  Earlier this year a little book she wrote called, “A Discovery of Witches” was published and immediately shot up the best sellers lists.  The movie rights were acquired this summer by Warner Bros, likely securing Harkness’ financial future in the process.

While I read fiction infrequently (the last fiction book being Vertical by Rex Pickett), those that I know who can tell the difference between kindling and a classic call A Discovery of Witches “mad genius.”
Any conversation about a wine blogger doing good should begin with Deb Harkness who is now dabbling in rarified air.  Pick up her book if you haven’t yet.

Bargain Wine Books

There’s little doubt, in the prolonged US economic malaise we’re experiencing, that “value wine” and “bargain wine” are hot topics.  Heck, an entire channel of business has been defined with “Flash” wine sale sites.  Given that, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that a couple of wine books would be published with this specific focus.

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What is a surprise is that the books are authored by wine writers with real chops engaged in offering a deeper narrative than the slapdash compendiums of wine lists that has passed muster in years gone by.
Just in time for the holidays, Natalie MacLean has Unquenchable: A Tipsy Quest for the World’s Best Bargain Wines publishing on November 1st and George Taber, a wine writer on a tear with his fourth book in six years, has A Toast to Bargain Wines: How Innovators, Iconoclasts, and Winemaking Revolutionaries Are Changing the Way the World Drinks publishing on November 15th.

An Idea worth Duplicating?

Celebrity deaths come in threes and new wine ideas come in twos.

We’ve seen this duplicative market entry in recent years with winery reservation systems CellarPass and VinoVisit and now we’re seeing it with quasi-wine search engines.

WineMatch and VinoMatch are both in the early stages of launch purporting to help a consumer match their likes with wines they might enjoy.

Meh.  The problem with these sites isn’t that consumers don’t need help finding a wine they like, the problem is that most wine consumers don’t understand what kind of wine they like.  Yes, it’s the tannins that dry the back of the mouth and its residual sugar that makes that K-J so delectable…

By the time consumers figure out their likes and dislikes graduating beyond the “go-to,” they don’t care about having somebody help them “match” their wines to their tastes because they’re on their own adventure.

It’s just my opinion, but these sites face looooong odds of finding consumer success and short of the slick willy seduction that happens with some wineries who haven’t been bitten and as such aren’t twice shy, they won’t find *any* success.  But, I’ve been wrong before, at least once.

Pictures and Pithiness

While we’re on the topic of online wine services, I’m not sure whether I should be happy or aghast that I’ve been a habitué of the online wine scene for long enough to see a derivative – it’s like watching a remake of the movie Footloose when I was saw the original in the theatre.

There’s a new wine site called TasteJive that takes the concept of a wine blog called Chateau Petrogasm, popular in 2007 and 2008, to new heights.

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Around the premise that a picture is worth a thousand words even if that picture has nothing to do with wine, they have created a site that provides nothing but visual metaphors with a 140 character description for finding wines you might like.

I loved the idea of Chateau Petrogasm, I like the idea of a perfectly crafted 140 character slug, but I’m very uncertain about the community aspect of TasteJive—the users who control the uploading of pictures and descriptions.

As noted mid-20th century photographer Diane Arbus said, “A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know.”

Not exactly a recipe for success in bumping into a wine.

Source: http://goodgrape.com/index.php/site/field_notes_from_a_wine_life_media_edition/

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Top Values in 2010 Chateauneuf-du-Pape (and where to buy them)

Photo by wburris

With all the excitement surround 2010 Rhone as it relates to Scoop the Spectator 2012 I thought it would be interesting to pause for a moment and focus on the best actionable values in 2010 Chateauneuf-du-Pape. When I say actionable I mean wines that can still be had at retail for at or below release price.

But determining value is a little more complicated. Sometimes when people talk about value wines they really mean wines under some arbitrary price. But the deal hound knows that value can be had at all price points - it depends on what you get for your dollar.

When scanning through the ratings and prices in Wine Spectator's recent 2010 Rhone issue I noticed they didn't have a Top Values section for 2010 Chateauneuf-du-Pape. Although they did have a Top Southern Rhone Values section (CdP is part of the Southern Rhone) it was capped at $20. That being the case there were no CdPs in the value rankings.

We can scan the Top CdPs for good Quality-to-Price Ratio (QPR) wines but I thought I might be missing some good wines because the lowest rated wine in that list is 94 points.

To determine value within a category I use the wwpQPR equation (Wellesley Wine Press Quality-Price-Ratio). There's a JavaScript implementation of this calculator on the right side of my site. Give it a try if you're interested, but I've pulled Spectator's ratings for 2010 CdP and put them through the equation:

More on the WWP QPR here if you're interested, but here's what the wwpQPR scale looks like:

Interpreting the wwpQPR's Normalized Scale:

  • >8.0 Incredible value
  • 4.0-7.99 Outstanding value
  • 2.0-3.99 Very good value
  • 1.5-1.99 Good value
  • 1.01-1.49 Above average value
  • 0.5-0.99 Below average value
  • 0-0.49 Poor value
Normally I try to obtain these wines and taste them to offer an additional opinion to consider. But these 2010s, from what I've tasted, really need time to be enjoyable. Compared to the gregarious 2007s, these 2010s are more classically styled. That being the case, I doubt I'm going to pop a lot of these in the near term, least of all before the best values have disappeared from retailers.

All of these are 2010 Chateauneuf-du-Papes, sorted by value according to the wwpQPR Calculator:

  1. Domaine St. Prefert Charles Giraud 99WS/$75/3.20 wwpQPR (Very Good Value)
  2. Domaine St. Prefert Auguste Favier 97WS/$58/2.16 wwpQPR (Very Good Value)
  3. Domaine de Beaurenard Boisrenard 97WS/$70/2.16 wwpQPR (Very Good Value)
  4. Chateau Fortia Tradition 93WS/$31/1.94 wwpQPR (Good Value)
  5. Kirkland (Costco) Signature Cuvee de Nalys 91WS/$20/1.89 wwpQPR (Good Value)
  6. Le Vieux Donjon 96WS/$66/1.82 wwpQPR (Good Value)
  7. Domaine Giraud Les Grenaches de Pierre 98WS/$105/1.81 wwpQPR (Good Value)
  8. Domaine Giraud Tradition 95WS/$54/1.76 wwpQPR (Good Value)
  9. Domaine Giraud Les Gallimardes 97WS/$88/1.72 wwpQPR (Good Value)
  10. Domaine Ferrando Colombis 95WS/$58/1.64 wwpQRP (Good Value)

    How about that Costco wine sneaking in there? Don't think I would have caught that if I hadn't done this exercise. (PS I've tried had the wine, didn't much like it. 86 points WWP)

    Some of these we've talked about before -- Four 2010 Chateauneufs that have a very real chance of slipping away -- but those four wines were more through the lens of which CdPs have a shot at winning WS Wine of the Year.

    I wanted to push a little further to find the 5 best CdP values you can still actually buy.

    So I had to press on to the next 10 wines. I started catching white CdPs - had to filter those out of course ;)

  11. Domaine du Vieux Telegraphe La Crau 96WS/$75/1.60 wwpQPR (Good Value)
  12. Domaine de la Cote de L'Ange 93WS/$39/1.54 wwpQRP (Good Value)
  13. Clos des Papes 98WS/$128/1.49 wwpQPR (Good Value)
  14. Domaine Tour St.-Michel Feminessance 95WS/$66/1.44 wwpQPR (Good Value)
  15. Tardieu-Laurent Vieilles Vignes 96WS/$85/1.41 wwpQPR (Good Value)
  16. Chateau Fortia Cuvee du Baron 92WS/$55/1.37 wwpQPR (Good Value)
  17. Domaine de Cristia Renaissance 96WS/$88/1.36 wwpQPR (Good Value)
Of these 17 wines, here are the 5 best 2010 Chateauneuf values you can still buy along with some commentary:

Domaine de Beaurenard Boisrenard CdP
97WS/$70/750 Cases Produced
2.16 wwpQPR: Very Good Value

Still available between $60 and $70 but only from a few retailers: Wine-Searcher

Best East Coast play: Empire Wine at $70
Best West Coast play: K&L at $60

Note: Beaurenard also makes a regular CdP bottling that's also a nice value (93WS/$44). RP only went 91 points on this one so this should temper enthusiasm a bit.

Chateau Fortia Tradition CdP
93WS/$31/9,000 Cases Produced
1.94 wwpQPR: Good Value

Still available between $28 and $38 from numerous retailers: Wine-Searcher

Best East Coast play: $28 at Gary's
Best West Coast play: $28 at Vinopolis

Note: There is a 92WS/$34 "Cuvee de Baron" bottling as well (also a good value) and some retailers list a Rouge bottling which I don't see a rating for from Spectator.

Domaine Ferrando Colombis CdP

95WS/$58/400 Cases Produced

1.64 WWP QPR: Good Value

Some east coast availability between $60-$90: Wine-Searcher

Best East Coast Play: Grapes the Wine Co
Best West Coast Play: None

Note: A whopping 97 points from RP on this one so I'd expect it to go quickly.

Domaine de la Cote de L'Ange CdP
93WS/$39/6,000 Cases Produced

Better availability on the east coast south of release price: Wine-Searcher

Best East Coast Play: Gary's and Wine Library both at $32
Best West Coast Play: Vinopolis at $36

Note: They also produce a pricier Vieilles Vignes bottling (94WS/$62). 93 RP as well.

Clos des Papes CdP
98WS/$128/5,600 Cases Produced

Availability beginning to diminish at favorable price points but the ship hasn't sailed yet: Wine-Searcher

Best East Coast Play: Grapes the Wine Co
Best West Coast Play: Premier Cru
Best Massachusetts Play: Gordon's (though I doubt their pre-arrival offers are still actionable)

Note: Even when the 2005 won Wine of the Year it could still be found for just slightly over retail. I wouldn't go too nuts trying to track this one down. It's out there. 99 RP.

Hope this is useful. If you haven't already, don't forget to get your entries in for Scoop the Spectator 2012! Many of these wines haven't been guessed yet. Contest ends Friday and we're playing for a $200 Amazon Gift Card. Thanks for the entries so far! I've updated each of the entries with Wine-Searcher links to make it easier to find these wines.


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WellesleyWinePress/~3/gHwGuU_otEQ/top-values-in-2010-chateauneuf-du-pape.html

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Wine Word of the Week: Viticulture

This week?s Wine Word of the Week is viticulture. Official definition from Jancis Robinson?s The Oxford Companion to Wine: Viticulture is the science and practice of grape culture. Viticulture is practiced consciously by viticulturists, often instinctively by grape-growers or vine-growers. Practices vary enormously around the world?. For still wines, it is arguable that the viticulturist [...]

Wine Word of the Week: Viticulture was originally posted on Wine Peeps. Wine Peeps - Your link to great QPR wines from Washington State and beyond.

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Blogging can?t die

Blogging can’t die. Take the original meaning of the word blog; it comes from the contraction of “web” as in the world wide web, and “log” as in to log ideas, or journaling. Today, and forever, there will be people logging what they think about all manner of subjects that they are passionate about. I recently [...]

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