Defiant by Seghesio

You might say Seghesio is the premier Zinfandel maker of California.  Around 1980 they were responsible for the production of most of the red wine made in Sonoma County and most of that was Zinfandel.  For the entire iconic Seghesio story, which is about as emblematic as any of California's giants, check out our V&C blogpost dated June 14, 2014.

Defiant is a new label from Seghesio released slowly through restaurants beginning in October of last year.  It is a Zinfandel-based blend with Cabernet Sauvignon, Barbera, Alicante and Syrah in supporting roles.  Seghesio owns 315 acres in Sonoma Valley in three parcels located in Dry Creek, Alexander Valley, and the Russian River Valley.  The Defiant label only says "Sonoma County" so it may be sourced from anywhere therein.

The name Defiant refers to the Seghesio family determination to succeed in this industry.  Edoardo Seghesio emigrated from Italy in 1886, first apprenticing himself to Italian Swiss Colony before purchasing his own winery in 1902.  Then he and his heirs gradually amassed vineyard land throughout the early twentieth century eventually becoming the largest operator in Sonoma in 1980.  Significantly, they didn't start their own Seghesio label until 1983.  They were solely grape farmers for the first eighty years.  Angela Seghesio, the family matriarch at mid-twentieth century, is believed to be the inspiration for the mindset Defiant symbolizes.

From their website Defiant is characterized as "dark, savory, and bold".  The nose shows "youthful blackberry, mocha, and spicy aromas".  The taste shows "blackfruits, and pepper with savory notes".  Now here is what our tasting panel thought:

Gin - "The peppery finish with a hint of mocha is evident in the tasting. It's rich without being overwhelming, with an interesting bite at the end. A smooth aftertaste, and something fascinatingly different in the realm of reds!"

Min- I like the rich full body taste. This would be a good wine with a good Italian meal or a good steak.


Mike - A nice Zinfandel blend that is not too "rasiny" tasting and soft tannins with a medium finish.

Doug- The construction industry is not dead. Clearly evident in this wine is the fine construction supporting the chocolate notes with the right balance of spice and robustness. This is a guys wine that will leave the women feeling warm and tingly. Nothing wrong with this experience - great start and smooth and strong finish.

Steve = Full body wine with a beefy finish! Good by itself or your favorite steak!

Rose (circa 2017)

Ever notice how trendiness is kind of a merry-go-round you can jump on at any point of the loop.  It doesn't even have to be a conscious jumping-on.  You can just saunter into the bar, er, wine shop, and order a rose just for the heck of it, just to say to yourself you tried it.  It doesn't matter that your friends are all into roses.  The time was just right for you.  The wine industry is ideal for just this sort of ad hoc endeavor.

Make no mistake though, the trend du jour is clearly rose wine.  To say they are hot is to risk understating things.  And roses aren't just the perfunctory pink wine category anymore either.  Within that category wine lovers are discerning wine styles that click with them just as they have found with reds and whites.  It's interesting to see the process unfold, to say the least.

So, ground zero in the trendy rose loop has to be Provence.  That fresh, aromatic, light-bodied, pale pink wine really sums it up for a lot of us rose lovers.  Why go any further down the road when this stop is so satisfying?  Well, because there are darker roses which use some oak, there are less dry roses that cuddle up in that way, and there are the spritzy-to-bubbly ones that seem to be more of a tonic than a sedative.  And I'm just skimming the surface!

Akakies is a Greek Rose (maybe the best in the store) that counterintuitively sources its fruit from hillside vineyards!  Testamento is Argentine Rose of Pinot Noir.  It's the find of the year at this store and exemplary of that grape type's potential in the category.  If you grab a Portuguese pink don't be surprised to get some fine bubbliness (seafood, ya know) and if you get a darker Spanish rose you may discern some oakiness.  And if you buy Bordeaux rose, expect the Cabernet/Merlot structure emblematic of that blend.

Is there a clear cut style winner?  Yes!  Everyone around the world is trying to duplicate that refreshing Provencal style.  But roses are so much fun across the board, who's going to doubt the outliers!


This Thursday June 29th at 5pm Brian Espanol leads us in a tasting of Austalia's Two Hands Angel Share Shiraz, Napa's Markham Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon and Rutherford Hill Merlot, and the Wairau River New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.  Please join us

A Pitch for Lighter Reds

It's summer now and I feel obligated to throw a monkey wrench into the wine-loving habits of backyard grillers everywhere. With the next three months expected to be on the somewhat toasty side, let's see what culinary fun we could have if we lighten up the red wines a bit.

First of all if you're in a temperature-controlled indoor environment with a big fat juicy steak on your plate I see no reason not to enjoy that monumental monster Napa Cab that's been calling out your name.  But if you're there in your friendly confines but the sliding door is open half the time as your crew is going in and out from activities in the backyard and you, yourself, are part of that in and out traffic maybe, just maybe, a lighter red may work better for your purposes.  And if beads of sweat are at times appearing somewhere on your brow from all of that in and out, well then, maybe going lighter makes sense.  After all, who wants to feel bloated?

A nice new world light red alternative can be Argentine Malbec.  I say "can be" because Malbec can be all over the map stylistically which unfortunately works against the plans of thoughtful customers who reasonably want to know what the wine is before purchasing it.  In this store we sort them out by the heft of the wine.  You want a lighter red?  You got it!

Spanish wines have now arrived as a conscious alternative to the big new world reds of California. They have the same dark fruit flavors of the big California reds but are lighter in body.  Some have the new world forward fruit but most are balanced with the longer winey flavors Europe is known for.

Italy makes some of the nicest light winey reds on the planet and if sales here reflect generalities then a whole lot of people are enjoying them.  Aside from a lighter body, what's the attraction?  Like most Europeans, they're food friendly, meaning they have a higher acidity.  That higher acidity is a digestive aid any time but in the summer heat, it's downright refreshing.  And if served slightly chilled (fifty degrees or so) it's even more so!

So just to recap: Lighter reds are, well, lighter (no bloating); refreshingly acidic when served somewhat chilled; and food friendly with longer and winier flavors.

This Thursday, June 22nd between 5 and 7pm, Chuck Crouse offers us a tasting of Spanish and Italian reds and whites.  Most noteworthy should be the Coto de Hayas Campo de Borgia Centenaria, a red Garnacha made from the fruit of one hundred year old vines!  Please join us.

Familiarity Breeds Contentment

Familiarity breeds contentment.  So says Matt Kramer in a Wine Spectator article entitled "The Hardest Part" from the November 15, 2014 edition of the magazine.  Kramer maintains the hardest part of his job is trying to get people to try new wines.  I can relate.

In the November 26-27, 2015 issue of the Wall Street Journal Lettie Teague writes similarly that "Loyalty is not a virtue when applied to wine.  It leads to an unnecessary narrowing of options."

Interestingly both writers are dealing with the same problem - how to introduce new wines to people who are hooked on the tried and true.  And the problem, of course, wouldn't exist if the subject matter wasn't so intimidating.  In an effort to de-mystify the subject here in the store I like to tell people, "On the list of important things in life, wine shouldn't be too high."  (Hopefully that takes the edge off the transaction, you know.)

If the truth be known, the hardest part of being in the wine business is selling the stuff.  We on the selling side know what it is or what it's supposed to be but we usually don't know the customer so we ask questions about the purpose of the purchase (dinner or cocktail) or what the customer's history with wine is (California, Europe, or elsewhere).  We try to nail down any information that will help to provide the best wine for their tastes.  After all, we do want them to come back.

In fact whenever any of us sits down to enjoy a new bottle of wine, if we are experienced we may know what it's supposed to taste like but if it is a new wine then we may be surprised by something about the wine that is unexpected.  And that is good.  As the man once said to me, "That's why they make more than one kind of wine."

Kramer's article leads him to conclude that consumers could save a lot of money by trying some of the great wines from places other than California.  Teague acknowledges that California has nailed the comfort zone for the American palate.  It's up to the sommeliers and wine merchants of America to ease wine lovers into an expansion of that zone.


Please join us next Thursday the 8th of June at 5pm for a tasting of whites from sommelier-owned Mouton Noir of Oregon and reds from environmentally conscious Ventisquero of Chile.  David Hobbs presides over this one.

Wine Labels

There's a lot of down time in wine retailing this time of year so my mind wanders a bit, sometimes to frivolous things like wine labels.  Or is it frivolous?  Lettie Teague of the Wall Street Journal says, "A wine label with wide appeal is a wine's single greatest sales tool.  It can make a good wine more desirable and a bad wine more salable.  It is the sole emissary for the product on the store shelf and a source of great wealth."

If I may, my corollary would be - if the label sucks it doesn't matter how good the wine is because it's not going to sell anyway.  My proof lies in the tragic losses littering the annals of wine sales history.

So I looked around the store at the winners and losers in wine labels and made a couple of obvious conclusions.  The popular wines currently in the store must, by definition, have good labels just as the historic wines like Beaulieu Vineyards must be credited likewise since they have endured for generations.  No big surprises so far, right?

What about all of the rest; the plain labels, the busy labels, the serious labels, the funny labels, and so on?  Teague cites a New York retailer who believes twenty dollar and up retail wines should have a plainer, more serious label while lower priced wines can be silly.  I agree with that.  Moreover, if you look at French wine labels in general you can conclude that they take their product seriously.

But then there are the Orin Swift/Prisoner wines that have some of the most outrageous labels anywhere and they retail for $40-$50.  And they sell great (!) so I guess they must be aiming for an other-than-serious audience.

Here are some other winners:

Forty Ounce Rose is a French liter bottle rose in the store that sells purely because of the label.  I think it's supposed to resemble a malt liquor product and customers crack up as they purchase it.

Virginia Dare is a label from Coppola that I believe sells solely because of the packaging.  It features a pale yellow background with antique image of the historic personage from American colonial times. It also has an atypical bottle shape and embossed glass, all of which is very, very retro.

Carlin de Paolo is an Italian Piemontese label that features a slim older gentleman in baggy suit and turned-up hat striding across the label from right to left.  He looks comical, like he's on a mission of some kind.  This label also has that light yellow background that's easy on the eyes.

My Essential is a California label that features painters' swatches across the bottom of the label meant to approximate the colors of the wine's constituent grape types.  A larger swatch is front and center on the label to represent the primary type.  Customers regularly comment on how neat this label is.

So that's a snapshot of the popular wine labels in these parts.  Take it for what it's worth.  And for what it's worth, Teague says, "a great label can probably convince people to buy a bottle once but only a great wine will inspire them to do so over and over again."

What's Wrong with Australia?

Thirty years ago Australian wine was money in the bank for retailers.  Bring in anything Australian and have no fear, the stuff will sell and when that inventory is gone, re-order something else from down under.

But no more.  Australia doesn't sell any more.  What happened?  Who or what pulled the plug?

Here are six possible explanations:

     1. The Yellow Tail Effect.  This is actually a no-brainer.  When the cheap stuff with the catchy label arrived on these shores, the more expensive stuff stopped selling.  Cause and effect.  We live in a mass market world marketplace where those pipers call the tunes.  If they can do enough things right with their pitch and the stuff in the bottle is palatable, well, the rest is history.

     2.  The Quality.  Back in the mid-eighties when the first wave from Australia arrived, the quality was ridiculous.  Inexpensive wines were way too good, as in twice as good as California at any price point...and that's my point.  It's the oldest trick in the wine book.  Make it too good at first to get your foot in the door and then cheapen it over time.  Yellow Tail has done the same thing.  They're just better marketers.

     3.  The Marketing.  Australia flooded the eighties market with the cheap stuff and never marketed the exceptional stuff the way other wine countries do so the great whites other than Chardonnay never got promoted and they were better than the Chards.  The great reds were promoted in the nineties but the appellation system, the distinct regions of origin, never got the promotion it deserved so by the nineties average wine lovers' perception of Australia was that they only made cheap wine.

     4.  The 2008 Recession.  Everyone took a mega-hit in 2008 but the currency exchange rate with Australia post-2008 seemed to impact trade more so than with other nations.

     5.  The Style.  This is a personal theory of mine.  Any wine style that is blatantly over the top, exceeding the norms of international wine standards, that wine style is not going to last.  Australian reds have always been extreme fruit bombs.  Perhaps too extreme for most wine lovers.  I wonder how many people filled their cellars with the stuff and then burned out on the style.

     6.  And now for the real crusher...Global Warming.  The Australian vineyard environment is warm to begin with.  And now it's getting warmer.  Grapes ripen earlier leading to increased sugars leading to wines with higher alcohol levels leading to the wine styles just mentioned.  So while climate change is probably not responsible for the failures to date, if this climate thing doesn't change, the Australian wine industry may end up on the industry chopping block.


On Thursday the 11th of May at 5pm Ted Fields joins us with a tasting of Spanish reds.  Please join us.  

The Chinese Puzzle

Before his retirement a few years ago, wine salesman, Henry Leung, had quite a following here whenever he scheduled a wine tasting.  Henry was a former New York City restaurateur who was once featured prominently in the Wine Spectator magazine for his abilities to pair wines with Chinese cuisine.  That Spectator feature made it painfully clear that pairing wines with Asian food was not a strong suit for most of us westerners.

California Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay, the popular go-to's for most of us, really don't seem to work with Asian foods.  Henry and a lot of other wine guys opted for the unctuous Gewurztraminer in particular because of its spiciness.  Others of us liked the idea of light dry or off-dry whites in general for our Chinese fare.  Last fall Lettie Teague fleshed out the problem in the October 8-9, 2016 Wall Street Journal offering several new options for creative pairings.

First of all, Teague states what we already know - there are actually eight different Chinese cuisines so it helps to know what we're up against!  Moreover, "a single dish can flood the palate with sweet, spicy, salty, and sour flavors, and sometimes, all at once!"  And the sauces that usually offer the best indicator for wine selection in European cuisine work just the opposite with Chinese foods.  Then on top of everything else, if you add soy sauce or other condiments, well, you might as well just grab a beer!

In general Teague feels red wines don't really work with Chinese food although lighter reds like Italian Dolcetto and French Beaujolais and regional Burgundies may have a chance because of there finesse. Big reds (and oaky Chardonnays) would just clobber the stuff.

Teague also defers to dry Rose as an acceptable choice although not with spicier fare.  She likes Rieslings (both dry and sweet) and other light whites with the spicy stuff.  But here's the go-to that really resonates with her - Champagne!  "Bubbles help clear the palate (like beer), counteracting the salt and the heat of the spice."  She says a sparkling rose may be the best of both worlds!

So why this post now?  Because we're loaded with stacks of sparklers in the store that are delectable bargains AND we have shelves of the primo stuff too.  After all, it is the season!

This Thursday at 5pm Tommy Basham joins us for a tasting of Spanish wines.  Please join us for that one.