The Art & Craft of Natural Wine

“? if you will make a man of the working creature, you cannot make a tool. Let him but begin to imagine, to think, to try to do anything worth doing: and the engine-turned precision is lost at once. Out comes all his roughness, all dullness, all his incapability; shame upon shame, failure upon failure; [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheWineConversation/~3/UnY5bHBIPGk/

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Spring 2012 WWP Wine Index: Who's Hot? Who's Cold?

HOT

  1. Kosta Browne
  2. Schrader
  3. Rhys
  4. Rochioli
  5. Dehlinger
  6. Saxum
  7. Carlisle
  8. Littorai
  9. Thomas Rivers Brown
  10. Bedrock
  11. Sojourn
  12. Rosé</li>
  13. Radio-Coteau
  14. Kutch
  15. 2010 French Reds
  16. Peyrassol Rosé</a> 
  17. Scarecrow
  18. Pontet-Canet
  19. Ridge
  20. Moscato
  21. Rivers Marie
  22. Fontsainte Rosé</a>
  23. 2009 Chateauneuf-du-Pape Deals
  24. Pépière Muscadet Briords
  25. Sea Smoke
  26. US Postal Service Shipping Wine
  27. Cru Beaujolais
  28. 2010 Calera Central Coast Pinot Noir
  29. 2009 Burgundy
  30. Honig

COLD

  1. Bordeaux
  2. Chardonnay
  3. 2008-2011 Napa Cabs
  4. 2010 California Zinfandel
  5. Sea Smoke
  6. Scarecrow 
  7. Rhys
  8. 2009 Chateauneuf-du-Pape
  9. Carlisle
  10. Malbec
Rankings determined by what I'm hearing about, reading about, and buying. The Hottest or Coldest entities are ranked No. 1.

A retweet I read the other day by @nvwineandcigar brought back some terrific memories of collecting baseball cards when I was a kid:

"1984 rookie Eric Davis makes his debut and must wear a numberless jersey when Cincinnati forgets to pack an extra road uniforms."
I immediately went up to our attic and got out two medium-sized boxes of baseball cards and other memorabilia that represented the best five percent I collected from 1988-1991. It's unfortunate my interest coincided with a time when a glut of cards flooded the market and the early days of the steroid scandal. These cards could have been worth something otherwise!

Nevertheless we had a great time pouring over the cards.

The piece of memorabilia that brought back the most pleasant memories -- quite unexpectedly -- was an old issue of Beckett Baseball Card monthly. It was the one with the black and white photo of Bo Jackson on the cover in shoulder pads with a baseball bat over his shoulders. I saved that issue, I guess, because it was going to be valuable.

Leafing through the magazine, I was reminded of the many similarities between baseball cards and wine exploration. The price guide, as if anyone could fetch the prices they quoted, reminds me of the numerical ratings at the back of Spectator. The interest in catching cards from rising stars before they became too expensive is similar to discovering hot new producers before their mailing lists are full. The cards are produced each year, like vintages of wine. The list goes on and on.

But the single best page in the magazine, that I'd completely forgotten about, was the Weather Report. A completely arbitrary list of who and what was Hot and Cold. A combination of rising stars, reliable veterans, collectible sets, and disappointing players.

Readers loved to read and react to the list as it was updated each month. You were so savvy to have caught a player before he debuted on the list with a "NR" (not previously ranked). And you were indignant when your favorites fell from glory.

Like it or not, the list seemed to have its finger on the pulse of the hobby. So I thought it would be fun to create the same sort of list for wine.

Should outs to @AndyA3 @MoralBeast @wineduggery and @jmfran1 for sharing their thoughts already.

Methodology


My intent with this list is to capture wine producers/categories/regions/stories that are surging in popularity -or- falling out of favor for one reason or another. Wineries with mailing lists that are hard to crack. Winemakers who seem to have the magic touch. Categories that people are talking about this season. Reliable producers who never seem to fall out of fashion.  Wineries who, if their wines were offered by a retailer, would cause you to stop what you're doing and take note. Wines you hardly ever see at retail.

Categories that are being ignored because they present a hard-to-like style or their value equation doesn't add up. Wineries that are popular with many but risk falling from their lofty perches if they can't continue to deliver.

The Bottom Line

 

I'll acknowledge: This list is biased towards my preferences and the categories I pay attention to. But I tried to include entries I hear people talking about that I don't care for myself.

Next time I update the list I'll provide commentary on the actual picks rather than taking a stroll down memory lane. I hope you enjoy this installment. 

What do you think? What wines are hot lately? Which are cold?

Leave a comment or drop me an e-mail: wellesleywinepress@gmail.com
I'd love to hear from you.


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Short term wine storage: How warm is too warm?

Weather-wise this past week in Boston has been gorgeous. The high temperatures topped 80F yesterday and I started to get concerned about the boxes of wine I have sitting around that don't fit into my wine fridge. The room where I tend to keep wine got up to 76F yesterday afternoon so I decided to take the wine down to the basement where it's in the low 60Fs.

With quite a bit of wine in-flight across the country as spring shipping season is in full swing I've also been wondering whether those shipments might be exposed to more heat than we'd like.

It got me thinking I might be overreacting a bit.

The wine sitting on a retailer's shelf has, in some cases, been through much worse. Who knows what weather that wine was subject to when it was shipped? And how long as it been sitting on the retailer's shelf in a room that's usually air conditioned but likely hits the mid-70Fs during the warmer months?

And what about my friends who live in warmer climates? Wines stored on the counter spend most of their life in the high 70Fs. How long until those wines are spent?

I know first hand how extreme heat can destroy wine. When we were moving from Arizona to Massachusetts a few years back I had a couple boxes of wine in the $30-$60/bottle range. It wasn't enough to warrant exploring separate climate controlled transport - or so I thought - so I just shipped it with the rest of our household goods. The wine was totally cooked. Some wine seeped out of the corks as I could see on the capsules. The wine tasted lifeless and like stewed vegetables. After popping 2 or 3 spoiled Sterling SVRs (that blew me away at the winery) I was thirsting for anything fresh and clean. Anything!

So, for short term storage, how critical is it to keep wine cool? Here's Wine Spectator's Dr. Vinny weighing in on a similar question:

Is it OK that a bottle of wine was exposed to a temperature of 70-75 degrees for 24 hours? Answer: http://bit.ly/GH5HXo
My take is that I'm comfortable keeping wine in the mid-70Fs for a month or two. But if it's going to be longer than that I'd seek out some way to keep the wine cooler. Especially for nicer bottles that merit mid-term aging. 

Question of the Day: What's your take on this?


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WellesleyWinePress/~3/EXrWrgEAlhg/short-term-wine-storage-how-warm-is-too.html

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Tasting notes - Berlin Tasting

Here follows my tasting notes from The Berlin Tasting in Copenhagen. No. 1 - 2005 Chateau Mouton-Rothschild (Bordeaux) Dark colour with intense smell of pencil, cigar, currant and spicy wood. It’s full-bodied, rich and concentrated but also with an upfront softness. 96/100. No. 2 - 2004 Sassicaia (Tuscany) Not so intense in the nose - a little cherry. The [...]

Source: http://www.wine4freaks.com/40/tasting-notes-berlin-tasting/

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WBW 76: Barossa Boomerang

Not too long ago I drank quite a bit of Australian wine, particularly Shiraz. Given that this grape, also known as Syrah, expresses greatness in the Barossa Valley I could not pass an opportunity to revisit this region for this months’ Wine Blogging Wednesday. Our host, Adam from Wine Zag, proposed we look for any [...]

WBW 76: Barossa Boomerang originally appeared on Winecast. Licensed under Creative Commons.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Winecast/~3/FS8LnHLmfVk/

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Age Verification Comes to Twitter

It is a common occurrence to be barred from entering a wine related website until you have confirmed your birthdate, or at least confirmed you are of legal drinking age in your country. On Facebook it is already possible to stop under-age members from seeing certain content. However, until now this could not be done [...]

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