Chile

We got some updated numbers on Chilean wine sales recently.  Depending on the news source, Chile is either the fourth or fifth largest wine exporter in the world behind Spain, Italy and France but still ahead of the United States.  They are also either the third or fourth largest importer into this country behind France and Italy and perhaps Australia.  So how did they rise to such heights when they only control 4.6% of the worldwide wine market?

The Chilean wine industry was started by Spanish settlers in the 16th century.  It was a thoroughly domestic market they served for centuries before American demand changed things in the 1980's and 90's.  A 180 degree turn followed when American investment from our industry leaders led to purchases of specific vineyards and wineries AND purchases of bulk wine.  20-25% of Chile's exports have been bulk wine imports to America, China and elsewhere.  So, after centuries of being a domestic-consumption wine country, Chile turned into a global player seemingly overnight.

So where do huge tanks of bulk wine go when imported by American wineries?  They are worked into California wines where, unless the label says estate bottled, only 75% of the wine in the bottle needs to be sourced from California.  Why supplement with Chilean juice?  Two reasons: The stuff is good, better than the bulk wine from California's Central Valley.  Secondly, when a label achieves mass market appeal and the sales numbers indicate a juggernaut going forward, the giant industry players will pay millions of dollars for that label.  They are, in effect, betting their future on it.  Then they need to fill those bottles as economically as they can to make their venture profitable.  Chilean wine is perfect for that purpose.

Eat This, Not That

Eat This, Not That is an American media franchise including the eatthis.com website, quarterly magazine, videos, e-books and downloadable pdf's, according to wikipedia.  We are familiar with them from scanning news aggregator websites where they post regularly.  They are kind of like a Consumer Reports for foodies.  

Sugar is definitely a hot button issue for them.  In their 2010 publication, Drink This, Not That, they focus primarily on the heavily sugared drinks Americans love.  We're interested in them today because one of our suppliers sent us the provocative October 19, 2022 article, 6 Wines Made from the Lowest Quality Ingredients.  Frankly, we were shocked, not that adulteration was going one - that's an open secret - but rather that someone had the guts to out the crooks. 

(Because there are no laws preventing adulteration of wines sold to a public and we shouldn't have to think of such a thing anyway; the term "crooks" isn't meant literally.)

90+ percent of the American wine business is controlled by the thirty largest companies in the world and they are overwhelmingly American.  To say they are powerful in this industry is to understate things just a tad.  They are the domestic wine industry.  They control the chain store wine business.  So why poke the bear?

Back in 2015 Constellation Brands, the second largest wine company in the world, purchased the Meiomi label from Joe Wagner of Caymus Vineyards fame.  Constellation is the well known long time owner of Mega Purple grape concentrate, since sold to Vie-Del.  Tintura grape concentrates have been around a long time and go by many different brand names.  Mega Purple is just the best known brand.

According to the Eat This, Not That article, Meiomi is the number one wine made with the lowest quality ingredients because of the use of the grape concentrate.  That's where they stop.  After all, they are a food magazine.  If a wine-writing muckraker had done the expose, they would have gone further.

Sandhi Central Coast Chardonnay

Our last post was almost three month ago, making that interval the longest dry spell we've had since we started this thing 543 posts ago.  We've tried to post in that interval, by the way.  Just last month we thought we had a good one about Bonny Doone wines but when we sat down to do it, it just wouldn't come.  What could the problem be?  It's just a silly blog.

So, we're going to overcome this writer's block thing slowly, with baby steps.

If you go to sandhiwines.com or to their marketer, skurnik.com, you will be greeted by an exceptional and classy professional presence.  Contrast this approach with the mass marketers who try to mask what they are doing with their transparently fictious, romanticized winery backstories.  Those stories can leave you cringing from their patent obfuscation.  They obviously don't want you to know anything about their product.  Sandhi (and Skurnik) want you to know what makes what they are doing better than others.  Their winemaking intentions in particular are absolutely noble compared to those who merely intend to turn out a commodity.  They also believe in passing along the kind of critical product information so lacking at other sites.

The Sandhi wine we have in the store currently is the Central Coast Chardonnay.  While the Sandhi/Skurnik websites assert their fine wine bonafides, this particular wine is not mentioned.  The Central Coast Chard is an entry level effort that gets eclipsed at the website by their estate wines.  So how do we know it's good?  We have it on good faith from an Atlanta sommeliere.  A real sommeliere.  That alone should tell us this one is food friendly.

Violets & Tar

"Violets and tar" has to be one of my favorite wine descriptors.  I can't remember when I first heard it but it fits a Rhone-style (Grenache/Syrah) red blend like a glove.  Soft purple berries and spice.  What could be better?

By the way, honorable mention for wine descriptors goes to cardboard, new garden hose and wet dog; all of which strike me as being, shall we say, less than complimentary.  Cardboard?  Really?  Guess that creative writing class paid off for somebody.

So about a month ago a fella was in the store who quickly revealed himself to be a wine industry insider.  His eyes would scan the shelves and when they settled on something, he quickly grabbed it and put it on the counter.  No fooling around.  He knew what he was after.  So I called him on it and sure enough, he was retired from the business in another state.  And I think to myself - opportunity!  Here's a resource brain for me to pick.  Someone who knows wine and isn't a commissioned Atlanta wine salesman.

The first bottle he picked up was Folded Hills Syrah from Santa Ynez Valley, California.  He couldn't believe we had it here.  While he didn't give me his verbal violets and tar appraisal, his excitement said it all.  His other two purchases were similar Euro-red blends from France and Spain.  So he was a violets and tar guy after all, even if he didn't say it.

So before he left I hit him up for some recommendations which included Andrew Murray and Tablas Creek Central Coast, California Rhone-style blends.  Oh yeah, he's violets and tar all the way.

The best thing about Rhone-style red blends has always been value.  Ten dollars can get you a decent red dinner wine.  Tablas Creek is exceptional at fifty.

Domus Aurea

We intended this post to be about the Big Red Monster Paso Robles wines but as often happens with California wines, information about the stuff is lacking.  In our research we learned one corporate entity contracted with another to secure the juice for someone else to make the wine before it then gets put into the bottle with the ever so cute label.  That, apparently, is all they want you to know.  Buzzkill.  Then, if you want a real mega-buzzkill, check their ever so cute posts on facebook.  It's as if they think we're stupid.

If you like good California Cab and Zin, you should pick up the Monsters.  We have been assured by our usually very reliable vendor, they are indeed quite good.  Even if they aren't forthcoming with product information.

Clos Quebrada de Macul is a family-owned, hillside vineyard overlooking Macul, Chile's oldest wine region.  It was planted in 1970 before grapes were valued for quality and not merely as tonnage.  Hillside vineyards are more labor intensive with lower yields so unless you have a hopeful vision for the future of the wine business, this move wouldn't make sense.  This time they guessed right.

The owners sold their grapes for twenty years before American investment money facilitated the building of a physical winery in the early 1990's.  The first Domus Aurea Cabernet Sauvignon was released in 1996.  The wine always uses estate grown fruit made with a non-interventionist winemaking ethic.  Their website offers tasting notes for the last fifteen vintages so these are indeed cellar selections.

The 2019 vintage is 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc and 4% Petit Verdot.  The color is ruby red with purple hues.  The nose is herbal, balsamic, black currant, black cherry and fig.  In the mouth the wine shows dense power and structure with evident oak and fine tannins.  The finish shows more berries and minerality.

The descriptors above are from their website.  We tasted the wine a month ago.  It would compare favorably with California Cabs at considerably higher prices.  As a formidable steak wine, it should be decanted for at least an hour before serving.

Domus Aurea is one of a family of Chilean wines we tasted before purchasing this week.  Our pricing reflects fine value for each type.

Dao

Big, bold, tannic and dry.  V-e-r-y dry.  That's what we remember about Portuguese Dao from about fifty years ago.  But things change in the world's commercial wine industry and success and investment money breed imitation.  Much from Old Europe is now a little less dry and a little less tannic, reflecting the new New World palate.  

Fifty years ago wine was weird for most of us.  Beer and liquor were our mainstream beverages.  Wine was weird.  At that time, Mateus Rose was a popular Portuguese product marketed by Sogrape, the largest producer of Dao wines.  It was a game changer for many of us and in hindsight, it was a good introduction to the world of wine.

Today wine is a part of our culture.  So we were stunned when we tasted the 2018 Casa da Passarella Porguguese Dao.  It was as if we flashed back fifty years to that simpler time when wines more accurately reflected their European roots and not the modern Americanized version.  In all honesty, this Dao is the most European wine in the store.

The Douro Valley is the most famous wine region of Portugal.  Along with Vinho Verde to the west, Douro occupies the northernmost part of that country.  Douro is known for Port wine and the great grape there is Touriga Nacional which has its origins just to the south in Dao.  

Remember the Phoenicians from a couple posts ago?  They were the world's first wine traders and in all likelihood, they were responsible for making Dao one of the oldest viticultural sites in the region.  Dao is a plateau (500-1500 ft elev.) surrounded on three sides by mountains with the Dao River running through it.  The climate is temperate, moderated by the conditions just described, with long hot summers and rainy winters.  The soils are granite and schist and the diurnal temperature shifts there beneficially enhance the grape acidity to balance its fruit.

In our research for this post we consulted three websites.  All were informative but portugal.com went further.  They call Dao "Portuguese Burgundy."  High praise, since Burgundy is the finest wine region in the world.  They say Dao exhibits "complexity, elegance, balance and maturity."  We also found a review for this wine that said, "powerful, concentrated, not weighty but intense with blackfruits giving it richness."

Food affinities should include any red meat dish that is noticably spiced, preferably with a sauce or gravy.  Stew would be nice.  Decant.

Preface by Skipstone

Short of tasting a wine and knowing its quality, a wines label is as good of a selling point as any.  If that wine has a good reputation, then your expectations reflect the promise the label represents.  Vineyard terroir and viticulture along with hands-on quality control at the winery are what ensures that quality reputation.

Second label wines were started in the 1800's in Bordeaux, France to utilize juice from younger vines in prominant vineyards, vines that weren't quite ready for prime time; so a second label was created to get that juice out to market.  It made sense for both the winery and for wine lovers of that product.  Wineries could profitably market this extra juice and their customers could claim a certain brush with fame, even if it was just the second best wine from an illustrious property.

Flash forward: Wineries in California and elsewhere see this phenomenon and decide to cash in.  New World second labels, while often very good quality wines in themselves, weren't necessarily from the same vineyards as their namesakes.  (If the truth be known, some of the namesakes marketed as the primary labels weren't exactly what they were advertised as either...but that's a different subject.)  Then, in time, as the second label gains repute and market share, it is usually spun off; that is, it's sold, usually to an industry giant and whatever juice had previously gone into the bottle would be completely different henceforth.

Preface by Skipstone is different.  It is an authentic second label.  As a matter of fact, as its name implies, Preface may more accurately be called an introductory wine to Skipstone's better wines.  But that declaration may even understate things.  According to one reviewer, Preface is already of similar quality to Skipstone's more pricey offerings.  In other words, Preface is a fine red wine appreciably ranked with its peers in the Skipstone stable.

Preface is a Bordeaux blend of 66% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Merlot, 9% Malbec and 6% Cabernet Franc.  The cool 2018 vintage meant a longer hangtime for the grapes resulting in "full flavored ripenesss and enhanced aromatics."  Skipstone's organic estate fruit is harvested at night to retain freshness.

Philippe Melka is Skipstone's consulting winemaker.  His record for scoring 100 point critically acclaimed wines is second only to Thomas Rivers Brown in California.