Spotlight on New World Pinot Noir: Le Vieux Pin “Belle” 2006
Posted by Shea in $40-$60, BC Wine, Canadian Wine, New World Pinot Noir, Pinot Noir, Spotlights, Very Good on February 6th, 2010
In the last post of my Spotlight on New World Pinot Noir I move, finally, to my home, British Columbia. I decided to approach this region last in order to reflect back on my experiences with the various New World regions as I searched for a BC Pinot Noir that could stand up in quality to these other regions. This is undoubtedly a tough task right now since the region is so young (at about 30 years) and the growing conditions for Pinot Noir not ideal.
In fact, British Columbia is one of the world’s most northerly wine growing regions, with an extremely short growing season and early frosts. However, on the other side of the spectrum, since it is the northernmost tip of the Sonora Desert, the inner Okanagan Valley also sees heat spikes up to 40 degrees centigrade in the summer. This sort of heat can shut the metabolic processes of wine grapes down completely, making for uneven ripening and unbalanced sugar levels. The large Lake Okanagan does produce a lake effect and so offers a cooling influence that can temper the impact of the severe temperatures (whether hot or cold), but there are still many challenges for growers in British Columbia.
Many believe that BC, and the Okanagan in particular, is best suited for high acid, fragrant white wines such as Riesling. I do not disagree; in fact, most of the best wines I’ve tried from BC are white. However, at the recent Taste BC tasting, I discovered that some producers are also having a very serious go at making high quality Pinot Noir; and, while not many producers are succeeding, some are pushing the boundaries of what I thought was possible in British Columbia. One such winery is Le Vieux Pin.
Le Vieux Pin started as a project to produce “terroir” based wines in the Okanagan, mimicking the style of French wines from cooler climates, such as Burgundy and Alsace. The winery is located on the East Bench of Oliver, in the South Okanagan Valley and produced its first vintage in 2005.
In order to achieve its goal, Le Vieux Pin crops at a very low yield level, dry farms (which must be a challenge in the low-precipitation Okanagan), and uses minimal fertilizer. They also claim to have distinct soil compositions in each of their vineyards, with soils ranging from sandy to high gravel, and heavy claim and loam. These distinct soil conditions are the basis for the variation in their wines rather than particular wine making techniques. Le Vieux Pin produces three single vineyard Pinot Noirs, each of which receives the same treatment in the cellar. While I only have had the opportunity to taste one of the wines from this range, I was impressed with its structure and personality, and I did feel it was expressing a particular place.
In fact, I could not place this wine anywhere in the spectrum of New World Pinot Noirs I had tasted so far. The nose was reminiscent of an Oregon Pinot Noir, but the body clearly derived from far less ripe fruit, even while it had greater tannin density than many of the Oregon Pinots I’ve had. In fact, the palate was distinctly earthy and driven by more herbal flavours than you would expect after smelling its nose of cherry cola, baking spice, and cassis. Le Vieux Pin calls this a Pinot Noir for Syrah lovers, and I can actually see what they are getting at. While less ripe than all of the other Pinot Noirs (save perhaps the Rippon from New Zealand), it was still fresh and fruity enough not to taste sour or underripe. My suspicion is that they may have had a difficult time ripening the tannins (skins) in the grapes for this wine as the grapes sugar levels are clearly sufficient. It’s not a perfect Pinot Noir, but it is a wine with personality, and I appreciate that achievement.
Given this uniqueness I would love the opportunity to do both a vertical tasting and a horizontal tasting across the various vineyards.
Very Good+
$45 at Viti, Sutton Wine Merchants, and other private stores
*Full disclosure: I received this bottle of wine as a sample.
To wrap up my Spotlight on New World Pinot Noir series, in my opinion there are distinct styles being made across the New World and Pinot Noir seems to have a far greater diversity of personality than Cabernet Sauvignon does in these regions. In particular, the flavour and style variations I experienced in Oregonian Pinot were exciting, and I think that while this region is young now and learning the ropes, it has the potential to evolve into a mature region producing singular wines with personality. It has a ways to go, but I’m excited at its potential.
New Zealand also continues to be a region for me to watch, although I think it has a considerable challenge with respect to its pricing. The quality is just not there to justify prices mostly above $60 for the higher quality wines. There are just too many Pinot Noirs from elsewhere that have a better quality to price ratio.
Despite my amazing experience with Sojourn Cellars, California continues not to excite me that much. Clearly there is potential here, as Sojourn proves, but too many of the wines are good but not great, and have a more fundamental sameness than the Pinot Noirs from further north. Chile, for me, is also not quite up to par overall with Oregon, even as I did enjoy the Matetic considerably. Again, Chile is a region with potential, but a long way to go. I would put Australia in this category as well. The great producers, such as Grosset, can make good Pinot Noir in the right regions. But, overall, Pinot Noir from Australia generally disappoints, and Grosset is making wines far above the norm.
Lastly, British Columbia is the youngest region in the spotlight, and it shows. That said, good producers are pushing the boundaries and I think it will be possible to produce some good Pinot Noir in the province. However, doing so will be expensive and will rely on the appropriate sites. Most of British Columbia still remains suited to aromatic whites. But, I appreciate that there are wineries out there to make wine with personality and ‘terroir’ rather than simply producing wine to achieve great commercial reviews and maximum extract and fruit.
In the end, this has been a fascinating journey and I hope that you have enjoyed reading it as much as I have writing it.
Up next is a special series for the Olympics that will focus on some of our best BC wineries – with particular emphasis on the small guys, who, in my opinion, are not getting fair or proper exposure in the Olympics (that’s the topic for another rant). I hope people will spread word of these profiles around a bit so that some visitors might happen upon some of the articles and wines and truly taste what BC has to offer.
Spotlight on New World Pinot Noir: Grosset Pinot Noir 2005
Posted by Shea in $60+, Australian Wine, Excellent, New World Pinot Noir, Pinot Noir, Spotlights on February 4th, 2010
Australia is not a land known for Pinot Noir. Notwithstanding its current market woes, with people turning away from its innocuous ‘critter’ wines in ever increasing droves, Australia just never built a reputation for this storied grape. Not that it didn’t try to. It’s just that Australian Pinot Noir never really produces wines so easy to consume as its jammy shirazes. There have been growers bucking this trend though, especially in the regions surrounding Melbourne, such as the Yarra Valley, which tends to be a lot cooler than the rest of Southern Australia. Also, Australia has quite strict quarantine provisions that, unlike New Zealand and Oregon, have prevented the newest Dijon clones from being planted. If Australia opens its borders, the potential for Pinot Noir will likely dramatically increase.
The Grosset Pinot Noir is actually from a region lesser known for its Pinot Noirs and more for its Sauvignon Blancs, the Adelaide Hills. Located in South Australia, just north of the McLaren Vale, the Adelaide Hills is a very sparsely planted region compared to Australia’s major regions. It is also right on the edge of the city of Adelaide, and so the region is being encroached upon by expanding suburbs. The region’s very high elevation and relative proximity to the ocean ensure a consistently cool and misty environment, which is fairly ideal for Pinot Noir, and also provides a stark contrast to nearby McLaren Vale, which is very dry and hot. The high altitude (400m above sea level) and very cool nights tends to produce wines with sharp acidity; but, I would add that in the right hands red wines from this region retain a freshness that eludes so many Australian wines, particularly those that we tend to find on our continent.
While Grosset is famous for its Clare Valley Rieslings, which are surely some of the best in Australia, this Pinot Noir is not made from estate fruit, but from fruit purchased from vineyards in the Adelaide Hills. That doesn’t seem to impact the quality of this wine negatively in any way however, and the master hand of Jeff Grosset is very evident here. Distinct in Australia, Jeff Grosset has always believed in making wines with a sense of place. While the rest of the industry was busy blending grapes from across the country to produce their innocuous shiraz and cabernet blends, Grosset remained true to his passion for producing ‘terroir’ driven wines that still spoke of Australia, but did so with more character than normal. I think it is thanks to people like Jeff Grosset that Australia has the stuffing to weather its current export crisis and reemerge as a region with distinct terroirs, passions, and diversity. When I attended a tasting of Victoria wines last year to help support victims of the bush fires, I experienced a plethora of cooler climate wines that were all doing different things and beating a completely different drum than what most people have come to associate with Australia. And, as I have discovered over the years, there are wines like this from all over Australia, if we are only lucky enough to find them, and have an importer choose to bring them on to this continent for us. We are on the cusp of a huge transformation in the Australian wine industry, and I think it will be for the better.
I wish I could have found some information on the site and soil conditions for this Pinot Noir, but alas could not. I would very much appreciate if anyone can leave some of this information in the comments as I (and I’m sure many readers) would love to know. The nose on this was spicy, earthy and leafy but with good richness and concentration to the cherry and strawberry fruit notes. In other words, the nose was classic richly styled Pinot Noir – but with grace. The palate had good fruit, but far less up front and concentrated than I was expecting. This allowed the other flavours to come through – earth, spice, and a tart crispness that kept this very fresh. I would actually never have guessed this was from Australia and personally found the wine to be absolutely outstanding – by far the best I’ve had from Aussie-land. I think the little bit of age on this bottle helped it to integrate and present itself perfectly when I opened it.
This wine starkly contrasts with my other favourite wine of this series – the Sojourn Pinot from Sonoma – instead focusing on fruit freshness, a clean palate, and bright robust spicyness. This is a true cool-climate New World Pinot Noir and is worth seeking out if you have the chance. I would not hesitate spending this much on the wine again.
Excellent
$70 at Marquis
Social Media, Social Process and the Content Delivery Dilemma
Posted by Shea in Musings, Wine Marketing on February 2nd, 2010
In this article I want to talk about something that is not just limited to the wine industry, but that will become an important factor for all businesses engaged in social media. This is: how are we to effectively engage in a technology that’s visibility is beginning to exceed its maturity. How are we to see through the morass of information to understand the underlying phenomenon that we are dealing with. And, most importantly, how can we predict what all of this new technology will mean in the future.
A common analogy to describe the creation and adoption of new technologies is known as the “hype cycle”, developed by the Garner Group. It looks something like this:
One of the big critiques of this model is that it hypothesizes a static cause-effect relationship between the creation of technology and its adoption. There are many examples, such as fuel cells, of technology that has never been adopted into the mainstream. Jim Bullock at the 2003 Aye Conference hypothesized that technology adoption actually derives from the confluence of two vectors: 1. the social process, and 2. the delivery process. The social process is about people and their expectations whereas the delivery process is about the availability of the technology itself. Most technologies rely on other technologies to be successful, just as, for instance, social media relies not just on computing, but also on portable computing and, increasingly, smart phones.
The dilemma I want to talk about in this article relates to the first vector of technology adoption hypothesized by Mr. Bullock: the social process. This relies on a few presuppositions.
Firstly, these days it is cheap to get content to people. The costs of entry are minimal with electronic publishing, whether in a blog, via twitter, facebook or other social media services, being mostly free. Second, there are two basic kinds of social networks: open networks and closed networks. Open networks do not limit access by filtering individuals based on specific interests or commonalities. Twitter is the de facto example of an open network. Closed networks limit access by focusing on commonalities or interest. Facebook is the most important example of this, but also consider social media sites that focus on wine, like Cork’d, which are explicitly designed to facilitate dialogue amongst a select group of people.
Here’s my thesis: the differentiation between content delivery in open and closed networks is about the social process. Closed networks provide a clear set of tools that guide user’s expectations, and provide them with an easily digestible means to connect and share content. No one is confused about the purpose of Facebook: upon signing up the website asks you to enter your email address to find your friends.
Open networks, on the other hand, provide a limited set of tools to guide the user. Twitter does not build in expectations into its functionality, but instead relies on the user to figure out how to use it and how to interact with others. Twitter requires a more sustained effort to understand than a service like Facebook, which is why so many businesses fail to utilize twitter effectively.
Now, when considering the differing social expectations created by Facebook and Twitter one can notice the fundamental impact these expectations have on the nature of content delivery in these two networks. Facebook, while setting expectations firmly and clearly, limits the diversity of its content delivery to what people expect to read and hear from their friends. Hence, advertising on Facebook is of the traditional non-interactive sort. Intrusive advertising, no matter how well targeted it is, is a necessary consequence of Facebook’s closed nature. People put up with this advertising because the Facebook network has reached such a critical mass that, to put it in economic terms, the costs of not participating are far higher for most people than the costs of viewing intrusive advertising.
Twitter does not operate this way. Because expectations are diffuse and unclear, twitter effectively has no rules for managing content delivery. Even if, over time, we begin to see Twitter using intrusive advertising, this is not the real future of content delivery on open networks. Instead, open networks such as Twitter’s true power is in allowing more diffuse and less intrusive content delivery for businesses. Twitter’s weakness is in scoping and channeling content into easily understandable chunks and in providing guidance for its users.
Thus, if we return to the “hype curve” above, it is only possible to understand social media’s place on this curve if we divide it into social process and delivery process. Right now, the delivery process is peaking, and, may in fact actually be maturing. As newspapers die, content becomes easier and easier to produce to such an extent that almost everyone knows how to and does produce content online, thus making the delivery process nearly ubiquitous.
On the other hand, the social process has yet to mature as fully as the delivery process. Social and personal expectations about social media are not cohesive. Additionally, the delivery processes have fragmented the social processes to such an extent that many Facebook users simply don’t understand or don’t find a use for services such as Twitter and many Twitter junkies are tired and bored of Facebook and its limitations.
If the “hype curve” is at all accurate in relation to social media, then it is only accurate if we increase the number of data points and the number of axes on which to plot the development of the technology. Thus, social media is not just about visibility and maturity; it is also about social expectations, the lost third axis. By plotting along these three axes we can get a better image of the future of social media.
My first thesis that the differentiation between content delivery in open and closed networks is about the social process leads me to the prediction that the future of social media will merge the guidance element of closed networks with the diffusion element of open networks. I believe that Foursquare is an early attempt to achieve this combination of factors, but that its interactive capabilities need to be enhanced.
Thus, the content delivery dilemma in social media is not about the cost of delivery any more. Rather, the dilemma is about the method of delivery. Content is so easy and cheap to produce that users need interfaces that guide them through the sheer volume of material and provide them with guideposts on not just how to manage content, but, more importantly, how to produce it.
A mature understanding of the social process that underlies the development of social media will allow a visionary firm to go beyond traditional monetization and intrusive advertising. In the future, the most successful networks will figure out how to leverage word of mouth marketing within a model of content guidance and signposting within an open network. This will allow for word of mouth marketing to become more important and more targeted than traditional marketing. It will also converge the benefits of visibility with the benefits of social expectations. It is only then that social media will reach the first stages of its maturity.
Beer Wars Keynote from Greg Koch of Stone Brewing Company
Last Sunday I attended the CAMRA BC screening of Beer Wars, a documentary about how the craft brewing industry in the United States has contintuously been shafted by the large beer corporations and their own government as they try to build market share in the United States. The highlight of the screening, other than the many tasty craft beers poured from the likes of Granville Island, Red Truck, R&B, Driftwood, Howe Sound, etc., was the attendance of Greg Koch, founder of Stone Brewing, one of California’s best and most important craft breweries.
Greg gave a short keynote to the audience, talking about his experiences and reliving some tasty moments he had with our local beers. I shot the video to share with all of you because I think Greg is both a great speaker and really gets across the passion that all craft brewers have for their art. This guy is an inspiration and I think craft brewers from across BC should try to follow his example and not compromise on the flavour and intensity of their beers to appease the mass market. Instead, as he says in the Beer Wars documentary, angry beers make for happy people. I agree – and if there is any greater need for liquor law reform it is to support our local craft brewers who have to battle the likes of behemoths like Molson and Coors who dominate the market with their crappy no-flavour lagers.
And, as a note I was extremely impressed with Red Truck’s new Porter and Howe Sound’s Three Beavers Imperial Red Ale – both were full of flavour and really well made. Seek them out. Here’s the video:
Winery Profile: Le Clos Jordanne
Posted by Shea in $30-$40, $40-$60, $60+, Canadian Wine, Chardonnay, Excellent, Pinot Noir, Tastings, Very Good on January 28th, 2010
My relationship to Canadian wine is both similar and dissimilar to most Canadians. It is similar because I have great pride for my country, as many Canadians do. It is dissimilar because for me pride translates into expectations. I would like my country to be famous for more than just ice hockey and doughnuts, and I demand excellence from Canada because I know we can live up to that standard. When we don’t, I feel disappointed but I never give up my search for the exceptional. While sitting at a table surrounded by other Vancouver bloggers and social media types and five glasses of wine I discovered excellence in Canadian wine, for the first time. Le Clos Jordanne has, for me, broken the threshold of quality that I have been searching for in Canadian wine for years. And, I am proud that we finally managed to do it. That Le Clos Jordanne is from Ontario does not bug me as a recently minted BC resident. I think our regionalism detracts from our nation, and I think that we should all be proud of what Canadians are doing no matter where they are from.
Le Clos Jordanne is a joint venture between Vincor and Domaine Boisset from Burgundy. The idea was to start a winery completely from scratch to capture the ‘terroir’ of a particular area of the Niagara Pininsula in Ontario around the village of Jordan. The Niagara Escarpment, on which the Niagara wine region of Ontario is located, has a limestone base deposited by the Glacier that carved out the Escarpment so many years ago. The Escarpment, combined with the cooling influence of Lake Ontario, provides the region with enough warm air to allow wine grapes to ripen properly, even given the extreme climate and, accordingly, frost and short growing season concerns.
Viticulture Manager Thomas Bachelder explained that the aim to produce wines with a sense of place was a decision to take the lessons of Burgundy seriously and to treat the terroir with respect rather than simply copying certain methods. Whereas California became giddy with malo-lactic fermentation and heavy French oak treatment despite the fact that their terroir was nothing like Mersault, Le Clos Jordanne aims to produce wines whose oak and fermentation process compliment the climate, soil, and growing conditions of the grapes. I think they have learned these lessons well (likely because Thomas spent time learning to make wine in Burgundy), and I am hugely impressed with the various wines’ ability to remain distinct from each other, despite very similar treatment in the cellar.
Recently in Montreal a group of wine experts set up a remake of the famous judgment of Paris tasting of 1976 that saw California wines beat French wines in a blind tasting. The idea was to pit France vs. America again, although this time with different wines. However, unbenknownst to the experts, a Le Clos Jordanne Claystone Chardonnay was snuck into the lineup and, amazingly, won top honours in the Chardonnay category. And, just so you have a sense which producers the wine was competing against, consider the likes of Jean-Claude Boisset, Joseph Drouhin, Mer Soleil, Sonoma-Cutrer, and Chateau Montelena, amongst others. These are serious competitors who are well respected and garner high scores from all sorts of media. As much as such tastings must be taken with a grain of salt, I think that this achievement is significant.
So, with that in mind, let’s take a look at the wines. In a non-traditional move we were encouraged to begin with the Pinot Noirs before moving on to the Chardonnays. The first wine was the basic ‘village wine’ Village Reserve Pinot Noir 2006, which retails here in BC for $30. This was very forward and fruity, with a nose of spice, and medium bodied cherry. While simple, the palate is also really enjoyable with its dense but grippy medium body, hint of caramel and spice, and fantastic density and delineation. Very Good+.
I next moved on to one of the single vineyard offerings, the Claystone Pinot Noir 2006, retailing at $45. This was a big step up in terms of structure from the basic village wine. It had a softer, stonier nose, with a decidedly twiggy element. The palate was again soft, but also fruit driven and very elegant. Its grippy dry texture is austere but also draws into a lengthy and wonderful mineral finish. Very Good+ to Excellent.
The last red, the Grand Clos Pinot Noir 2006, was a selection of the best parts of the vineyards, and is a big very complex wine that is still very young. The nose had fantastic layering even as it was difficult to derive all the aromas just yet. Its red berry fruit was, as Thomas said, distinct from many New World Pinot Noirs, which often tend towards darker, richer fruits. The palate had a touch of grapefruit, some eucalyptus, and a spicy mid-palate. The great mid-palate structure will allow this to sit a while and develop more significant separation of all the complex layers. This is very likeable, but also reserved. Excelent. $70.
And, now on to the whites, beginning with the Claystone Chardonnay 2006 (the winner of the Montreal tasting). These chardonnays are unlike anything else being done with the grape in Canada that I’ve tasted so far, and are certainly vastly superior to most every BC chardonnay I’ve tasted. In fact, these are almost dead ringers for very tasty Burgundy wines, even while still having a sense of place. Is it distinctly Ontarian? Well, that will probably take some time to tell, but this is a great start. The nose is rich and has pineapple, banana and licorice. But this is not a flabby or buttery chardonnay. No, this has great acidity, is very clean and highlights its citrus flavours while offering hints of opulence with its banana and caramel. The long, minerally finish brings the palate back down to earth and keeps the opulence in check. A very good chard. Very Good+.
The last wine, a Grand Clos Chardonnay 2006, was my wine of the tasting. It is still reserved and I can understand why some would prefer the Claystone right now, but for me this kind of chardonnay is what you would see in a young Premier or Grand Cru chablis – tightness, almost reticence, but with the promise of greatness. The palate doesn’t give a lot up yet, but is dense and very complex. The texture is rich and wonderful – very rounded and even more opulent than the Claystone – but the structure is outstanding. This is real chardonnay, built for food, and could one day rival an excellent wine from Burgundy. Excellent.
In conclusion, these are the first wines from Canada that I’ve given an excellent rating to, and they well deserved it. For me, they broke the quality threshold that I’ve been longing for all these years. My only hope is that as many of you as possible can get the chance to taste these. Right now they are in very limited supply (I believe some are at 39th and Cambie), but if you want to taste great Canadian wine, these are absolutely worth seeking out. Colour me extremely impressed.
Contest: Win Two Tickets to PS I Love You Petite Sirah Tasting
I love petite sirah. I first discovered the grape several years ago on a trip to Napa. It can sometimes be overblown, but it really has great potential. I’ve wanted to go to this tasting, put on by the Petite Sirah advocacy organization PS I love you, for some years but haven’t had the chance. If you are at all into big, tannic, and extracted wines, but wines that can also be rustic and brambly, Petite Sirah could be for you. So, whether you are new to the grape or already a convert I recommend entering this contest to get a chance to attend the tasting in Alameda (just outside Oakland). Oh, and this tasting is supposed to have some of the best food around for a wine tasting, with some top notch gourmet food purveyors and restaurants in attendance.
Event Details
PS I love you Petite Sirah Tasting
Friday February 19, 2010
6pm-9pm
Rock Wall Wine Company
Alameda, CA
$140 value
Contest
To have your name entered into the draw to win two free tickets, here’s what you have to do:
1. join the Just Grapes Wine Blog facebook fan page,
2. follow me on twitter (@justgrapeswine), and
3. tweet something about this contest with a link to the contest page and @justgrapeswine in the tweet,
then you are entered in a draw to win the tickets. The draw will take place on February 14th.
Good luck!
Spotlight On New World Pinot Noir: Matetic EQ Pinot Noir 2005
Posted by Shea in $40-$60, Chilean Wine, New World Pinot Noir, Pinot Noir, Spotlights, Very Good on January 26th, 2010
So my idea to have weekly spotlights seems to have been thrown for a loop. I still love the idea of spotlights, though, so I’m just going to continue a given spotlight for however long it takes me to complete, interspersed with other posts. The current spotlight on New World Pinot Noir has been fascinating for me, and while I originally did not plan to try a Chilean Pinot Noir, a reader convinced me otherwise. After tossing a few ideas around I settled on this, the 2005 Matetic Pinot Noir from the San Antonio Valley. Matetic is one of the most important producers in the region and is widely considered to make one of the best Pinot Noirs in Chile.
Chile has always been a particularly distinct region, being so isolated that it is one of the last remaining places on earth where the original vitis vinifera vines can be planted without grafting them onto Phylloxera resistant rootstock. While water is scarce, necessitating irregation in most regions, it is still extremely cheap to grow vines in Chile given the consistently even climate, almost total lack of rot, and cheap land. And, don’t forget that non-grafted vines are much cheaper to plant. Of course, with developing popularity comes increasing land prices and more and more foreign interest. In fact, many wineries in Chile have been started by jet-setting foreigners, one of the most important of which is the Spanish producer Torres who helped bring recognition to Chile in the first place.
While the Central Valley is by far the most famous and most important region in Chile, with its sub-regions such as Maipo and Colchagua, the San Antonio Valley (a subregion of Aconcagua) is one of Chile’s hot new regions. It is particularly interesting for white varieties and for Pinot Noir since it has one of the coolest climates in Chile, being so close to the coast. Casa Marin, for instance, makes my favourite Sauvignon Blanc in Chile with grapes grown in this region. This new region, first planted in 1997 and officially recognized in 2002, has infertile soils of of clay and granite that help add depth and complexity to the wines grown here.
Matetic is run by a Croatian family that immigrated to Chile over 100 years ago, made a fortune in ironworking, and bought the Matetic estate about 20 years ago. A massive 16 000 hectare property, the Matetic family started planting vines here in the 90’s and made their first wines in 1999. Matetic is unique in Chile not because it is organic, which is becoming increasingly popular, but because it has been a pioneer in taking up Biodynamics in the country – a form of vineyard management and winemaking that is becoming increasingly important as much as it is also controversial. The Matetic estate is only 20km from the sea, making it particularly exposed to the very cool Pacific breezes. Of course, this also makes the 120 hectares of planted property particularly well suited for growing cool climate grapes such as Pinot Noir. The diurnal temperature fluctuations make this property particularly good at maintaining natural acidity in their wines while also producing wines with big fruit flavours. If you are curious to view a bit of the estate, take a gander at this video shot by wineanorak writer Jamie Goode.
Now, to the wine! The nose is very Chilean with its distinctive funk, somewhat like an earthy and twiggy cassis bramble. Otherwise, underling the intense power of the funk on the nose are hints of cherry and earth. With air, the nose mellows and adds chocolate and more earth. The palate is both classic and unique: cherry twigs, and generally massive fruit. There is good depth to the mid-palate here with earth, twigs and a punch of spice. This is really flavourful, but also starts out with a hot chocolatey finish (it is 14.5% ABV). I found after a couple hours of air, however, the heat dissipated and the alcohol integrated well into the wine.
In the final analysis, this is unique wine, but it also doesn’t really taste like typical Pinot Noir. There is such a distinctive “Chilean funk” quality to it (similar to what you get w/ the cabs and the carmeneres down there), and I have to admit I am not a fan of that funk. I almost feel like it is a flaw, but I suppose it is something unique about Chilean terroir. That said, I do think this is elegant and tremendously structured and a very good value at $50. Also, many people actually like that distinct Chilean funk, and if you do you will probably love this wine. Most U.S. Pinots at the $50 price in Canada would not have this level of structure. I think this is a peculiar wine with aging potential and I think it’s an enticing hint at the possibilities of Chilean Pinot Noir. It doesn’t bowl me over, but it makes me think.
Very Good+
$50 at Kitsilano Wine Cellars
ZAP Contest Winners
Posted by Shea in ZAP Zinfandel Festival on January 25th, 2010
The draw is now complete, and the winners of a pair of tickets to San Francisco’s ZAP Zinfandel Festival are:
1. Craig Gummer [NB: original winner Steve Paulo from Walnut Creek, California was unable to attend]
and
2. Kevin Whitaker from Scottsdale, Arizona
Congrats to both! And thanks to all who participated in the contest. This year’s festival is sure to be an outstanding event.
Taste BC 2010 Recap
Posted by Shea in BC Wine, Canadian Wine, Tastings on January 22nd, 2010
I recently attended Taste BC, a wine tasting event put on by Liberty Wine Merchants as a benefit for the BC Children’s Hospital Foundation. The event featured a host of BC wine makers, breweries and food purveyors as well as live music. It was quite an excellent opportunity to taste a wide range of BC wines and meet and chat with the winemakers. Such tastings are always a bit of a whirlwind for me since I tend to work fairly professionally and mechanically through the tastings to find the best wines. This year I decided to bring my video camera and shoot short interviews with some of the winemakers about certain wines that I thought stood out. This year’s video includes interviews with Tantalus and Le Vieux Pin. I wanted to include Meyer Family Vineyards, because I think they are making some pretty darn good wines, but unfortunately the audio was simply too quiet, given the poor acoustics of the room. Otherwise, the event was very enjoyable and I recommend that anyone interested in BC wine attend next year.
As for my picks of the show, here’s what I thought were the best wines of the night:
Ex Nihilo Vineyards Riesling 2007 – Very Good $25
Le Vieux Pin Pinot Noir “Belle” 2006 – Very Good+ $45
Le Vieux Pin Sigma Blanc white blend NV – Very Good $?
Meyer Family Vineyards Chardonnay 2008 – Very Good+ $35
Meyer Family Vineyards McLean Creek Vineyard Pinot Noir 2008 – Very Good $40
Meyer Family Vineyards Central Okanagan Vineyard Pinot Noir 2008 - Very Good+ $40
Tantalus Vineyards Riesling 2008 – Very Good+ $23
Tantalus Vineyards Rosé 2009 – Very Good+ $22
Tantalus Vineyards Pinot Noir 2007 – Very Good $?
Vista D’Oro 2007 – Very Good $49
Wild Goose Vineyards Stoney Slope Riesling 2008 – Very Good $23
The Millennial Quotient: How 21-35 Year Olds Are Changing The Wine World
Posted by Shea in Wine Marketing on January 20th, 2010
Millennials are hot in the wine world right now. Everyone is talking about us and trying to figure out how to sell to us. Recent data shows that Millennials are consuming more and better wine at a younger age than their parents’ generation, but no one seems sure what this trend means and where it is going to go. Marketers often try to tap into the trend, but few do so successfully. Witness the collapse of Roshambo winery in Napa (Alder over at Vinography has a great article on it) whose marketing was designed to target this age group, but whose business model ultimately failed.
Why is everyone failing to understand this demographic? For one, I don’t think that Millennials all fit into the same pattern – there are definite segments with distinct qualities. However, what I want to write about here is the segment of Millennials who are starting to think of and treat wine as more than a vessel for alcohol delivery, but who are becoming genuinely interested in exploring what goes on behind the bottle and who are starting to associate wine with food.
From my perspective, there are ten characteristics of this group that thus far marketers have poorly understood. Keep in mind that my opinion is based entirely on personal experience and reflection and not on market research. I encourage debate and reflection on this issue more generally. Here’s what I think (in no particular order):
1. We care about process.
With the increasing importance of movements such as the slow food movement and initiatives that focus on understanding the source of food rather than simply the end product, Millennials are becoming increasingly interested in understanding the process behind what we are consuming. We are ever curious about biodynamics, organics, vineyard practices and additives. Wine labeling is far behind the trend on this issue, but when and if it ever catches up, Millennials will be checking them just as fastidiously as food labels. More and more certifications will start to develop and these will hold sway so long as they gain respect in the community.
2. We care about the small guy.
We don’t tend to believe in big corporations anymore. We don’t like to support them, particularly when it comes to agricultural products. As more and more Millennials begin to understand that wine is an agricultural product, their support for small producers and farmers will increase. Of course, major brands that sell wine cheaply will still prosper; however, there is a huge open niche for small producers if they market themselves correctly and reach out to the Millennial generation.
3. We don’t mind spending money, but we want to feel ‘honest’ value at any price point.
Marketers often make the mistake that Millennials want the cheapest option possible. That is not the case. Millennials see wine as coincident with food, and often bring it over to friend’s places as guests. No one wants to be the cheap guest; everyone wants to impress their friends at the party with a carefully thought out (or really good) selection of wine. Wineries who make the assumption that Millennials care about price more than quality are simply missing the boat. Both price and quality matter to this growing segment of wine appreciators.
4. We have growing skepticism for commercial wine scores.
Millennials don’t like to be told what to do. Wine scores are convenient, but this emerging group of wine appreciators is caring less and less about them. New services such as Cellar Tracker, blogs, and good old word of mouth, fuel wine sales within this demographic just as much as scores do. And, with time, the value of commercial scores will continue to diminish.
5. We see wine as community and conversation, not prestige.
Again, social media is not something you can just jump into and succeed at. Underlying social media is the basic tenet that Millennials see wine as a community building enterprise, and one that fosters conversation. We care far less about the prestige of a particular wine or wine region, and far more about new exciting discoveries made through friends. That, and we see wine as a vessel for community rather than simply a product to consume.
6. We think of wine as personal discovery.
Just as much as Millennials see wine as community, we also see it as part of personal discovery. Finding the wines you love, and the styles that resonate with you is part of building a Millennial’s sense of personal style and sense of self. We actually don’t want to be the same as everyone else; rather, we want what we consume to feel individualized and an honest expression of what we care about.
7. We like to think of wine as our own culture and not benefiting from the cache of others.
Millennial wine appreciators in North America are not buying wine for the cache of a particular region. While French wine remains popular, it is not because we are buying into the prestige of French culture. Instead, Millennials like wine to express and become part of their own culture, wherever we are from. This helps to explain the popularity of the BC wine industry with young BC wine drinkers. However, BC wineries that try to rely simply on local pride and not consider all the other factors that make wine drinking Millennials tick will fail to properly tap into this market segment. Don’t forget, we care about QPR, process, and honesty too.
8. We see wine as multivalent and not univalent.
Similar to how wine scores are diminishing in importance, Millennials tend to see wines as having many meanings and possible interpretations. We don’t really care about accurately describing a wine along some rigid objective line. We appreciate a diversity of opinions and thoughts. But, this does not mean we are simple relativists. No, Millennials also have a great respect for knowledge, and care tremendously about why things are the way they are. We just don’t think there is one answer to the question.
9. We believe in principles and knowledge, but not rules and rankings [plus don't talk down to us].
This is an extension of the last point. Certain things can be understood objectively, other things cannot. Millennials do believe that certain principles and knowledge are useful to know in wine appreciation. However, we don’t care so much for rules and rankings – we just don’t find them useful in understanding wine. Again, if wine is just as much cultural and community based as technical and flavor based, then rules based entirely on the latter factors will simply alienate Millennials. Give us basic principles to work with that still allow us to develop community and pursue personal discovery? Well, then we’re all for it.
10. We prefer branding as story and not as message.
This is the biggest mistake of marketing to Millennials in the wine world today. Don’t talk down to us, and don’t try to create phony lifestyle branding for your wines. Instead, find (not create) an honest story and tell it with panache. Doing this successfully taps into all the other factors I’ve discussed above, and helps to build a personal connection between your brand and the Millennial customer. We like attention, but we also like freedom and respect. Respect our freedom, but give us something on which to work that freedom and you will start building some pretty loyal customers.
