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Understanding Liquor Reform: Discretion, Policy and the Law of Liquor in British Columbia

February 2, 2012 By Shea 1 Comment

A wave of discussion about British Columbia’s liquor laws has recently swamped both social media and the traditional media. Much of this discussion has been prompted by a number of high profile issues surrounding the Liquor Control and Licensing Branch’s (the “LCLB”) refusal to grant a special occasion license to a Whistler pride event and a condition the LCLB placed on the Rio Theatre’s license that it cannot show movies at any time while holding the liquor license. Vancouver’s Mayor, Gregor Robertson, has picked up this issue and has signalled that the city supports the Rio and would like the LCLB to reform the rules. Additional pieces by reform stalwarts Mark Hicken (a lawyer in Vancouver) and Kurtis Kolt (a highly respected independent wine consultant) have further catalyzed the debate.

Amongst all the chatter I have noted a continued misstatement or misapprehension of the legal structures that create and give jurisdiction to both the B.C. Liquor Distribution Branch (the “LDB”) and the LCLB. Calls to reform “liquor laws” are imprecise and regularly inaccurate, which is a problem when asking for change to big powerful bureaucracies. As a lawyer I feel that it is my duty to clarify how the system works so that proponents of change can understand what it is exactly they are asking to be changed. This article is thus meant as a primer for those who are interested in the legal structure of these issues and I hope it will contribute to the dialogue by making discussion more accurate and more precise.

The Legal Structure of the Liquor Bureaucracy in British Columbia

Liquor in British Columbia is governed by two entities, the LDB and the LCLB. Each of these entities was created by an act of the legislature of British Columbia. The LDB was created by the Liquor Distribution Act (the “LDA”) and the LCLB was created by the Liquor Control and Licensing Act (the “LCA”). Both the LDB and LCLB operate under the auspices of the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General.

The LDB is responsible for the sale and distribution of alcohol in the Province and the LCLB is responsible for alcohol licensing and enforcement of offences under the LCA along with license conditions.

These acts give the Lieutenant Governor in Council (i.e. the executive branch of government) the authority to pass regulations. The most important regulation is passed pursuant to the LCA and is called the Liquor Control and Licensing Regulation.

And even further down the chain, the LDB and the LCLB have the legal authority to create certain “policies”. Most policies are not publically published, though they must be made publically available on request. However, this is the meat of where most decisions that impact the industry are made.

Policies are subordinate to the regulations and the legislation. This means that LDB and LCLB policies must be consistent with the acts that grant these entities the authority to create such policies. Additionally, there are a number of legal principles that restrict the creation of policies and the manner in which policies are implemented by the LDB and LCLB. This area of law, known as administrative law, is extremely complex but also fundamentally important to understanding what the LDB and LCLB can and cannot do.

The Acts

The Acts are the source of authority for the LDB and the LCLB. These establish the structure of the organizations and grant them the discretion to make decisions with respect to a very wide array of matters pertaining to liquor.

For example, the LCA prohibits any person from selling liquor without a license and requires licensees to purchase all liquor from the Liquor Distribution Branch.

As a further example, the LDA grants government control of all liquor distribution and retailing in the Province. In particular, it requires all liquor sold in the province to go through the LDB, it requires that title to all liquor be surrendered to the government upon entering the Province, and it places all liability for losses, damages or costs upon importers, retailers and other private entities.

The LDA also grants the general manager of the LDB the authority to create specific restrictions on the storage and movement of liquor, including the physical structure, operations and security measures of all facilities storing liquor prior to retailing (i.e. the ability to govern warehousing in the Province).

The Regulations

The most important regulation is the Liquor Control and Licensing Regulation, which was promulgated pursuant to the LCA. It sets out the various restrictions on license types such as liquor primaries, food primaries, agents, retailers and wineries (both commercial and land based).

For example, these restrictions include (at s. 8(2)) barring granting or transfer of a Liquor Primary License to entities that are predominantly by or directed to minors, motion picture theatres, restaurants and video arcades.

The regulations (s. 14(1)) also grant the LCLB the authority to control the sale of food and the consumption of liquor on premises licensed as Liquor Retail Stores.

The Policies

As I mentioned earlier, the policies are the real meat for the majority of issues in the industry. Examples of policies include the restriction on LRS’s not to sell food or coffee, the LDB “mark up” of 123% for wine, use of inefficient forms and methods to sell and order wine, and the ban on corkage.

Policies must be consistent with the legislation that governs the given agency. In other words, there must both be legislative authority to implement a policy and that policy cannot conflict with other parts of the relevant statutes and regulations.

The Legal Basis for Challenge

The various legal bases for challenging decisions of the LDB and LCLB, including challenging policies, are quite vast. I will only outline the basic parameters of the most important administrative law principles and remedies.

The most important concept to understand in the liquor context is “discretion”. The LDA and the LCA grant the LDB and LCLB quite a broad discretion to make decisions. This includes, for example, the LCLB’s discretion to grant licenses and the LDB’s discretion to set prices, grant a direct shipping exemption to B.C. wineries, or appoint agency stores.

However, there are rules that restrict the exercise of this discretion. It is an abuse of discretion, for example, if the LCLB takes into account irrelevant considerations or fails to take into account relevant considerations, if it makes a decision for an ulterior purpose or in bad faith, or if it fetters its discretion.

This idea of “fettering” discretion is especially important with respect to the LDB and LCLB because most of the issues arise from policies that they create. It is a fettering of discretion to rely on an inflexible policy without considering the individual merits of a particular matter. Many of the complaints I have been reading about in the media arise out of these sorts of inflexible policies. If such policies are too inflexible, and decisions are made in reliance on these inflexible policies, then such decisions are susceptible to a “judicial review”, which is a petition to the court to review the decision made by an agency (in this case the LDB and LCLB).

If this petition is successful the court can “quash” the LDB or LCLB decision and return it to the relevant board for reconsideration. Reconsideration must be made in accordance with the reasons provided by the judge. As such, judges can create parameters that restrict the LDB and LCLB decisions in the future. However, judges cannot, in most cases, tell the LDB and LCLB what to decide. Rather, they can only restrict the manner in which the decision must be made. Courts will also sometimes provide comment on what they view to be reasonable. All of this can lead to the LDB or LCLB reversing its decision.

There are other principles such as bias and procedural fairness that restrict the manner in which the LDB and LCLB can make decisions.

The second fundamental way in which to legally challenge an LDB or LCLB decision is by way of a jurisdictional argument. The LDB and LCLB can only make decisions if they are made in accordance with the authority granted to them under the LDA and LCA, respectively.

In the case of the LDB, there is little, if any, direct legislative authority for most of their policies. Rather, the LDB is operating mostly on a discretionary basis. Since policies are essentially the nuts and bolts of how the LDB is run, these nuts and bolts are subject to the general principles discussed above. That is, the discretion to implement these policies must be exercised reasonably. It is unreasonable, for example, to consider something that is entirely irrelevant to the decision being made. Determining whether or not something is relevant can be complex and requires analysis of the wording and the purpose of the legislation, regulations, and policies at issue.

In conclusion, there are quite a few legal avenues by which the actions and decisions of the LDB and LCLB can be challenged. The arguments can be complex and require lawyers, but this is a proven and effective method to challenge certain decisions. However, one cannot change the acts (the LDA or LCA) or the regulations by legal challenge unless they violate the constitution. That said, courts will provide interpretation of statutory provisions that can be beneficial to those who wish to challenge LDB and LCLB decisions.

The Political Basis for Challenge

While all policies must be reasonable and within jurisdiction, any policy that meets the administrative law requirements will be upheld by the court. The only way to challenge these policies is for the LDB or LCLB to change them internally.

Additionally, if change is to be made to the act then these changes must be made by the provincial legislature. Any change to regulations must be made by the executive (i.e. the Ministry).

The incongruity I have been seeing is that many call for the “law” to be reformed without considering whether they are asking the government to change the act, the regulations or LDB and LCLB policies. Each of these requires a completely different mechanism and involves very different stakeholders. It is also important to consider that any changes to the act are likely to still grant the LDB and LCLB considerable discretion. Thus, the question becomes: what changes are most likely to ensure the consistent results I want in the future?

The LDB and LCLB have always slightly modified their policies over time to ensure that no major challenge is made to their overall structure. Those interested in reform must therefore question whether all they want is a change in a policy or whether they want a change to the structure of the organizations. If structural change is desired, then reformers must ask what is the effective mechanism to both achieve this change and to ensure that changes to the governing act and regulations translate into policies that ‘reformers’ want to see and prevent policies that ‘reformers’ want to avoid.

I would also note that most of the complaints about the LCLB pertain to the regulation and policies, while most of the complaints about the LDB pertain both to policies and to the fundamental restrictions on the industry created by the LDA.

I think it is fundamentally important for those discussing reform to aim their hammers at the correct nail and make sure their efforts land squarely on the appropriate entities. Otherwise, such discussions risk diffusion and present opportunities for political misdirection.

*The author practices law in Vancouver. His profile and contact information can be found by clicking here

Filed Under: Building BC's Wine Industry, Features, Wine Law in British Columbia

Domaine Faury Saint Joseph Vielles Vignes 2008

January 31, 2012 By Shea Leave a Comment

This wine is the perfect example of what you should be able to buy in B.C. for $36. It is also an ideal exemplar of thinking more deeply about vintage and following your palate. 2008 is largely bandied in main stream media as a near write-off for the Northern Rhone, not dissimilar (though not quite as bad as) to 2002. Utter nonsense I say.

Trust Your Importer

Kermit Lynch is the great prophet of the Rhone valley in the United States, basically making a market where none existed before for wines like Auguste Clape and Vieux Telegraph.

Philippe Faury is a Lynchian wine-maker. That is, he has incredible attention to detail, respect for the soil and the environment but also pragmatism and a simple, measured clarity of methodology in both the vineyard and the cellar. Hand-picked, pipeage by foot, very gentle pumping over, all come together to make a seamless, consistent wine with great purity and expression. Aging is done in large 600l demi-muids and smaller 220l barrels.

Old Vines, Pure Fruit, and a Little Rant

The vines for this old vine St. Joseph were planted between 1937 and 1976 on a tiny .9ha plot. That means this wine is pretty hard to find, but it also means it is complex and deep even while the 2008 vintage gives it lightness and clarity. This is fresh syrah, made in an extremely classic style by one of St. Joseph’s best proponents, especially since its resurgence via Coursodon and Chave.

Pure aromas of pepper, stone, and crushed blackberries picked seconds ago from the bush. The ferral quality is tamed, but just present enough to make this wine breath the varietal purity of Syrah from the Northern Rhone, as only it can produce.

Of course, such delicacy and purity is only possible with proper shipping and storage conditions. Kermit Lynch guarantees both up until he sells it – something that you cannot be sure of with almost every single importer in B.C.

I am also skeptical that our wines need cost what they do, even with the absurd B.C. 123% tax rate as preliminary research and information has suggested to me that many importers add quite high markups to their wines (but at this point this is unsubstantiated and needs more research).

So, a beautiful Syrah drinking perfectly now or able to sit a few years. I see no reason to hold on to this, though and would love to do a vertical of these if at all possible. If you are down in Seattle or SF I highly recommend picking this up.

Excellent and Highly Recommended Value
$36 at Esquin in Seattle

Filed Under: $30-$40, Excellent, French Wine, Highly Recommended Values, Syrah

Spotlight on Nebbiolo: Giacomo Conterno Langhe Nebbiolo “Cerretta” 2008

January 30, 2012 By Shea Leave a Comment

I feel as though extending this spotlight indefinitely may be the surest path to heaven. Unfortunately, it is time to move on to something new (while stacking my cellar with Nebbiolo for the future). Perhaps the best way to conclude this profile with a wine by a producer who is arguable the greatest in Piedmont and maybe even all of Italy: Giacomo Conterno.

Of Conterno

The Conterno family was the first ever to bottle Barolo rather than selling it as jug wine. This focus became an ultimate adherence to tradition, to the point where the two sons of tradition had disagreement even within their traditionalism. Giacommo’s two sons – Aldo and Giovanni – while agreeing that short maceration and barrique aging is wrong for Nebbiolo, still yet disagreed on other methodologies. Giovanni, the stark traditionalist, only wanted to use very long macerations and aging in huge very old oak casks. Aldo, on the other hand, likes to let his fruit hang a little longer and gain more ripeness. He also tends to ferment in steel as well as old oak, to add youth and freshness to the wine.

This led to Aldo leaving the Conterno family winery and starting his own winery, which is now also considered one of the very best in Piedmont. These days, the original Conterno winery is run by Giovanni’s son Roberto, who maintains his father’s and grandfather’s extreme traditionalism.

Old and New

The Giacommo Conterno Estate now comprises a single site in Monforte d’Alba from which they make both a ‘normale’ and ‘riserva’ Barolo that are not labelled as such but rather as the Cascina Francia and Monfortino bottlings, respectively.

This Nebbiolo is actually a sign of the changes happening to Giacomo Conterno after Roberto’s take over. The wine is made from new holdings in the Ceretta vineyard in Seralunga d’Alba that were purchased in 2008. In fact, this wine is the very first to be made from that vineyard, one which gives rise to such great wines as Bruno Giacosa’s Barolo.

I found this new wine surprisingly forward and accessible for this extreme traditionalist estate. But it keeps the style of Conterno while giving those who can’t pony up the serious cash for the Barolos a glimpse of the house’s greatness.

Inimitable Elegance

Many people make the mistake that “traditional” Nebbiolo-based wines are somehow inaccessible or require a ‘refined’ palate. The opposite is often true, particularly amongst the best ‘traditionalists’. This Nebbiolo is a perfect example: it puts Barolos at the same price to shame with its seamless elegance, easy accessibility, purity and immediate deliciousness.

However, the wine also possesses tremendous complexity and depth, and even the heft to age for a number of years. The underlying fruit quality is extremely pure and this may be amongst the most elegant Nebbiolo’s I’ve ever tasted. The nose is all rose petals, herbs, light red cherries, and endless savory, forest floor complexity. A wine with a structure that is as one and with nothing heavy, overly austere, or off-puttingly rich. In fact, it may be the best Nebbiolo out there for the price.

Excellent+
$65 at Esquin Wine in Seattle

Spotlight Conclusions

It is impossible to capture all of the nuances of terroir in Piedmont in a simple spotlight series on Nebbiolo. Rather, I attempted to show the grape’s breadth, despite its geographic restrictions, and highlight the fact that these are some of the greatest wines in the world while also costing a mere fraction of most of the world’s other “great” wines.

Nebbiolo is a paradox: a heavy, highly tannic grape that seems impenetrable at first, it becomes the source of the most haunting aromas in the world of wine. Power and finesses play easily together with great examples of Nebbiolo and they possess a level of singularity only found with Riesling and Burgundy Pinot Noir. However, Piedmont’s last 12 years have been almost uniformly superb, meaning that the sheer consistency amongst these wines is astounding – something to take advantage of while it lasts.

I am not quite sure what my next focus will be, but whatever I choose will have a hard time following behind some of the great wines I’ve tasted in this spotlight.

Filed Under: $60+, Excellent, Italian Wine, Nebbiolo, Nebbiolo

Dal Forno Romano Valpolicella Ripasso 2005

January 23, 2012 By Shea Leave a Comment

Dal Forno is one of those names that immediately produces excitement but also a sense of extreme exclusivity. These wines, from the protege of the recently deceased Giuseppe Quintarelli, are both made in very tiny quantities and generally cost a fortune. How lucky I was, then, to find a seemingly mispriced bottle in San Francisco. It was time to put the hype to the test.

On the Ripasso Method

In drinking wines like these you have to remember that the Ripasso method is unlike much of anything else when it comes to making dry wines. The juice of the grapes sits on their raisinated skins for a period of time in order to provide additional extract and intensity. This technique means that these wines are generally much bigger and more alcoholic than other dry reds.

In my opinion most Valpol Ripassos and Amarones are usually uninteresting wines for the price. They are generally over-extracted and aggressive. The best can age forever and it is true that very old wines from producers like Bertani and Quintarelli are completely different from the norm, offering far more elegance. These wines nonetheless often bear resemblance to port in their pruney fruit and leather stewed compote flavours. But here we have something different.

Dal Forno Loves Oak

The Dal Forno does not shy away from extreme extraction and high alcohol. In fact, the alcohol is so high that it is reasonably astringent at this point in its development. The oak is also quite overt making this an extremely aggressive wine.

However, the fruit here is very much unlike most Ripasso method wines I’ve tasted, being much fresher and peppier than I would have expected. I suppose this is needed given the extremities of oak in this wine, but in any case if you enjoy extract and oak but do not generally like the stewed fruit flavours, this is a wine to check out. I would be curious to see if this calmed down with 5 more years in the cellar, though I’m not sure the Oak will ever be shy or subtle here. I also worry about the high alcohol drying out the fruit with too much age – but I do not have enough experience with this wine to say for sure.

In summary, this is a good wine, but not necessarily my style. I also can’t fathom the usual price.

Very Good
$45 at Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant (~$250 CDN at Kits Wine)

Filed Under: $60+, Italian Wine, Valpolicella, Very Good

Spotlight on Nebbiolo: La Spinona Barbaresco Bricco Faset 2000

January 20, 2012 By Shea Leave a Comment

Tiny Barbaresco, the often neglected side-kick of Barolo (except, of course, for Gaja). The generally earlier ripening Nebbiolo here still produces some brilliant wines, mostly because the calcerous soils couple accessibility with the ethereal.

La Spinona

This is a small winery that is a hybrid of traditional and modern. While they use the traditional Slovenian oak they also ferment under temperature control in cement vats. The Bricco Faset vineyard is located in the Barbaresco DOCG and is one of the two top sources of Nebbiolo from La Spinona

The Wine

This is a heavier, more compressed Nebbiolo based wine. While offering the depth of a good wine, it lacks finesse and the tannins remain fierce. I expected a bit more easy drinking wine at this stage in its development, but there are some rough edges to work through that make this relatively difficult to consume without food. It lacks in the fundamental aromatic complexity that makes great Nebbiolo so great.

However, this Barbaresco is still tasty wine, and its lack of subtle complexity makes it an ideal partner for richer, aromatic foods (such as osso buco braised in a lemon garlic sauce) because you do not lose the beauty of the wine’s aromas with the intense food pairings. Other wines, such as the Elio Grasso Barolo in the previous post, call more for a steak with less intense aromatics so as not to overwhelm the wine.

In conclusion, this is a good wine with food, but I would not recommend it compared to similar examples at a similar price point.

Very Good
$50 at Liberty Wine Merchants

Filed Under: $40-$60, Italian Wine, Nebbiolo, Nebbiolo, Very Good

Spotlight on Nebbiolo: Elio Grasso “Ginestra Casa Mate” Barolo 2005

January 13, 2012 By Shea 2 Comments

With each bottle of Nebbiolo I consume I am slowly being introduced to real obsession. Add to that the majesty of Barolo and I am afraid that my future wine budget has been entirely allocated to these seemingly unaffordable bottles. Then again, when you compare Nebbiolo to Bordeaux, Burgundy and cult Calfornia Cabernet, it is a complete steal.

Nebbiolo Elegance

Elio Grasso is a somewhat modernist. These are middle aged vines (20-25 years for the Barolos), but they are oh so elegant. Near Alba, the clayey, calcerous soils give rise to wines of great elegance and the Grosso is an excellent example of the truly whispy, ethereal nature of Nebbiolo grown in these soils.

Though modernist in their shorter macerations and occasional use of oak barriques, Grasso does generally use Slavonian oak and his wines can best be described as modern elegance coupled with traditional sophistication.

A Feminine Barolo

This 2005, grown in the south-facing Casa Mate vineyard at 300 metres above sea level, presents that vintage’s lighter berry fruits and aromatic elegance. It is surprising that a wine this young can offer so much at this point, but the combination of increasing efforts to use modern techniques to tame the Nebbiolo grape and the basic reality that so-called “lesser” vintages often offer up much more readily drinkable wines than “great” vintages, make this wine an absolute standout amongst current vintages.

The tannins are still firm, though integrated, and while the oak is still just peeking through, this wine is unmistakably Barolo and unmistakably entrancing in its aromatics. I find it quite elegant and finessed and even somewhat feminine on the palate. This is beautiful, entirely seamless silky Barolo for those who like a touch of modernity and plenty of delicious elegance. This is wonderful wine for drinking now and for the next 3-4 years.

So, I have to now revise my favourite wines in the world to: Northern Rhone Syrah, Alsatian Riesling, Chablis, and Piedmontese Nebbiolo.

Excellent
$116 at Kits Wine

Filed Under: $60+, Excellent, Italian Wine, Nebbiolo, Nebbiolo

COS Frappato 2010

January 11, 2012 By Shea 2 Comments

A brief note for a wine that you can drink by the bucketful. Extremely pretty aromatics, long and light on the palate, but versatile with food. And, even though the Sicilian COS is a naturalist producer, here we have a perfectly clean and correct example of the Frappato grape. Absolutely delicious.

What is Frappato? It is generally considered an unimportant low-tannin grape native to Sicily. COS turns it into something special. The 2010 vintage particularly highlights their prowess with the grape.

Excellent
$33 at BCLDB and Highly Recommended Value

Filed Under: $30-$40, Excellent, Frappato, Highly Recommended Values, Italian Wine

Spotlight on Nebbiolo: Luigi Ferrando Carema “Etichetta Nera” 2006

January 7, 2012 By Shea Leave a Comment

Sub-Alpine hills and Italian wine: strange bedfellows. And yet it is with the climatically picky Nebbiolo that these two opposites chime in unison. The Carema DOC in northern Piedmont sits well above the Po river in the mists of the foothills of the Alps. Amazingly, dispite a few growers and a co-operative, Luigi Ferrando is the only independent producer in these parts. Making wine grown on terraced plots in this northern region is a challenge but Ferrando makes one of the most idiosyncratic and exciting Nebbiolo’s I’ve yet tasted.

Farming and Vinification

The Ferrando winery was founded in 1890 and is still owned by the same family. Everything is hand harvested here and the farming is extremely “bio-sensitive” without actually trying to be officially organic or biodynamic. All the wines are stainless steel fermented and then aged in oak. While most of the wines see only more neutral large oak barrels, this wine, his top “Black Label” reserve, does see some new oak, though I’d say they know what they’re doing.

The Alps in Italy

With such a northerly climate, you would expect harsher tannins and higher acid. And these properties can indeed be present in some wines from the North. Ferrando’s wines, however, have none of these detriments, instead being impeccably smooth and balanced. With the cooler climate, though, he manages to coax out even more ethereal aromas than are the norm for Nebbiolo.

Floral and lively on the nose, the higher acids and firmer tannins integrated perfectly with about 1 hour of decanting. The lift is astounding and the aromas, almost herbal like thyme flowers and mountain pollens, remind me more of Alpine grasses and air than anything I traditionally associate with Italy.

A fascinating, stunning Nebbiolo that is more lifted and elegant than Barolo and seems brighter and clearer than most of the more southerly Piedmontese examples. There is a lot of fruit to the wine as well, but it is the wine’s textural seamlessness and tremendous aromatic lift, particularly at this young age, that make it a very special wine. One of the most exciting Nebbiolos I’ve tasted in this spotlight and at a killer price for such legendary quality.

Excellent to Excellent+
~$60 USD at Arlequin Wine in SF

Filed Under: $60+, Excellent, Italian Wine, Nebbiolo, Nebbiolo

Domaine Clape: On The Essential Meaning of Cornas

January 2, 2012 By Shea Leave a Comment

Wine is a privilege. Sometimes I like to hope that it can be more, that if approached with humility those of us who enjoy its privilege can learn something greater.

An (Ir)relevant Digression

A recent piece in the New York Times by writer Pico Iyer eloquently defended the virtue of quiet. Stillness is a font for focus, understanding and creativity. In a world filled with technologically facilitated distractions, it is increasingly common to operate in a state of numb overload – unable to process the volume and speed of information thrust before us. In this environment, the quantity of our contributions and communications may be increasing, but their quality is decreasing. We are losing the ability to determine what matters.

I also recently learned of Erez Lieberman Aiden, a “scientist” who defies the dominant forms of thinking that the modern world has imputed on thinkers and professionals. Specialization, the narrow concentration on a small, particular area of thought, predominates in the modern world. In my profession, law, the trend has been toward lawyers who work only in limited areas like bankruptcy, insurance, or family law. In medicine the trend is the same: the greatest rewards go to those who become experts in very small regions of health and anatomy. This approach can make sense. We might never reach the same depth of understanding if we had to understand everything rather than one really small thing. On the other hand, specialists lose the ability to see problems from an outside perspective.

Erez’s work, which has focused on using pan-disciplinary approaches to solving difficult problems in science and the humanities has produced some stunning results. With no prior expertise in the field Erez solved the problem of creating a 3D model of the human genome. In the humanities, Erez has started providing some unique insights in English grammar and usage (that verbs regularize in inverse proportion to the frequency of their use).

While the grammatical discovery may not seem overly important to most, Erez is trying to show that the traditional mode of approaching problems by specializing in a very small area (e.g. reading a small number of books very carefully) limits what we can learn. By using mathematical models and Google books, Erez was able to take a broad but less in depth view of the English language by looking at 4% of all books written from the Middle English period to today and then extracting grammatical use patterns from that information. This approach has never been tried in the humanities before, but it produced a fascinating and important insight into English grammar usage.

These two seemingly unrelated stories share in common the tendency of modern thought and communication towards contradictory extremes. While we have less and less time to concentrate, the ways in which we think are becoming increasingly compartmentalized. Even as we spend more and more time looking in depth at discrete ideas, our knowledge is becoming less important, less insightful, less reflective.

Without both time to be quiet and the openness to see from multiple perspectives, we become less effective problem solvers.

And Into Wine

So what of wine? The privilege of drinking ‘great’ bottles becomes increasingly meaningless in its privileged aceticism. Every day drinking wines are often discussed in the North American press as some sort of profound basis of community that the Europeans have long understood but that we are only beginning to appreciate. Of course, this refrain ignores the basic reality that wine in Europe is largely inflected by culture and nationalism and is not just an innocent marker of friendly community. Even in Europe, for most people wine is just something to drink with food, and much of the everyday stuff that most consume is pretty poor quality.

So, once again, good wine? It’s about privilege. It is lifestyle, hedonism, romanticism. But occasionally it can teach us more than just about the good life.

The Story of Clape

Across a mundane, concrete-grey road – a doorbell. Adjacent to the ringer, on plain white paper, the word “Clape”. A calm older man opens the door. “Bonjour. Nous avon un rendez-vous”.

During harvest, the Rhone Valley is as quiet and desolate as it is, cliche-like, “humming with activity”. Ringing the bell at Clape prompted a few rare human moments as the old man (whom I later deduced was Auguste), unceremoniously escorted me across the street from the nondescript warehouse front to a small structure erected across the street to meet with his grandson Olivier, who was busy pumping over.

Nothing at Clape is glamorous. Olivier looked stressed. Harvest is a time of endless deadlines and overwhelming long hours. Only 3 people work full time in the cellar at Clape – Olivier, his father Pierre-Marie, and a cellar hand – with the semi-retired Auguste lending his forceful opinion to the final blend (all three Clapes must agree before the Cornas is bottled).

But Clape is much more than a “family” winery. It is an expression of generational differences not in conflict but rather as working to produce something greater than any of them individually.

Clape is one of the very few wineries left in Cornas that makes only one Cornas wine, choosing not to bottle single vineyards like their neighbours Domaine Courbis or Thierry Allemande. This allows them to whittle down the messages to one meangingful expression.

The Clapes’ lack of pretension and their focus on the single question “What is Cornas?” has given them a sense of wine as more than privilege. Wine is the interweaving of the various generations of their family and of Cornas itself. Theirs is a question of expression rather than pleasure. They are thus careful that this focus on expression avoids the risk of dilution. With 5.5 hectares of vineyards in Cornas, they have no plans to expand in size. They have also not increased their prices to obscene levels despite being one of the most important and respected wineries in France.

The Interdisciplinarity of Generations

I rode down the Domaine’s rickety industrial elevator with Olivier into the dank mold infested cellar that is not much bigger than a walk-in closet. This dark cellar houses all the barrels of each of Clape’s vineyards. Each vineyard is aged separately and then blended into the final wine according to the dictates of the tri-generational counsel of Clapes. Clape belies such details as their holdings of perhaps the greatest Cornas vineyard “Sarbrotte” (purchased from a retired Noel Verset) and other of the best sites in the region by announcing none of these details on the bottle.

The Clape Cornas is made without destemming and, as such, the grapes are hand sorted in the vineyard. The granite soils and warmth of Cornas make the wines denser and richer than many in the Northern Rhone. However, uniquely, Clape uses 40-60 year old Foudres from Alsace to age the wine, which allows the fruit and soils to push out without much of any influence from the oak.

Domaine Clape has no website and so seems to live in an informational vacuum. But this choice, and it is a choice, is not about remaining obscure. Rather, it is about quiet. About focus. The Clapes’ communication has been refined into a series of decisions that once a year becomes “Domaine A. Clape Cornas”. The rest of the time they listen, reflect and remain in quiet.

Yet, both Pierre-Marie and Olivier have international experience. Olivier has worked in both Australia and California and he told me it was challenging coming home not because of all the new ideas he wanted to bring into the mix, but rather because of the pressure on him to have the same skill at listening and understanding Cornas and keeping the Clape bottling one of the most distinctive and true in France. Because of this, the Clapes are interdisciplinary wine makers, even though they make only one “Cornas” (the second Renaissance bottling is of younger vines).

It takes guts to jump into wine making techniques all over the world and to come home still humbled by what already was. By way of example, Olivier slyly commented to me that his compatriot Maxime Graillot, by distinction, is trying to do too much, making too many styles and wines with too much land. He was, in other words, overloading on communication rather than pulling back and making more precise decisions about what matters.

On Stripping Away

That same dark cellar in Cornas also houses the entire stock of Clape’s old wines, going back to Auguste’s first bottlings in the early 20th century. The mould-infested creatures sat as comfortably as rock in that cellar. They were as poems housed silently in an old, nearly forgotten library.

My visit to Clape was, like a great poem, a stripping away. The privilege of wine there was not lifestyle – it was voice. Not many people find voice, whether their own or others. A wine like Clape’s Cornas is an embodiment of voice that only a very few will ever have the chance to experience. And it speaks with a clarity nearly impossible to find in the world of wine.

Clape is also a reminder of the importance of voice and of how to find it. Sometimes we must keep ourselves clear of the many interferences around us to come close to what is essential in our lives and to understand how we can add meaning through our choices. Everything else is the white noise in which we inevitably must make decisions. But, without time for reflection how can we know what choices to make and which are better than others?

The privilege I now feel when drinking a bottle of Clape’s singular Cornas is that this wine has become a rare reminder that, in order to stay in touch with one’s voice, one must take a moment of quiet to reflect, reformulate, and reinvigorate – to figure out how to make one’s contribution matter. This particular privilege thus reminds me that such moments carry with them a concordant responsibility. Deciding how to act on that responsibility is one of the great questions of life.

The Voice of Cornas


2009 Renaissance Cornas: Big and fruity nose right now with a jammy fruit palate. The acid is fresh and the wine has amazing balance. Huge, fresh and delicious. Excellent.

2009 Cornas: Very very young, but utterly complex. Dark flowers, cherries, plums, meat and minerals. Structured for millenial aging. Extremely serious wine compacted to the point of near incomprehensibility. Once this gradually releases from its primordial density, it will be epic. Excellent+.

1996 Cornas: A ‘lesser’ vintage. Storied wine. Each sip requires contemplation. A fully open and resolved wine. Tremendous florals and perhaps the most intricately delicate Syrah I’ve ever smelled and with Grand Cru Burgundy-like elegance. Excellent+.

Filed Under: Features, France 2011

Spotlight on Nebbiolo: Paolo Scavino Carobric Barolo 2001

December 30, 2011 By Shea Leave a Comment

I hate to compare the great wines of the world. It seems facile and entirely subjective. Yet, I can’t help but love the Nebbiolo based wines of Barolo more than most others. For me, these are at the very top of the mountain and though perhaps sitting in the mists for many, once you get hooked you can’t help the compulsion.

Of Soils and Vineyards

So let’s talk about soils. Calcerous marl – a fertile soil that produces softer more delicate Nebbiolo. In the east, the older and poorer soils of marl and sandstone provide deeper more intense wines. However, as discussed in the brilliant Vino Italiano by Joseph Bastianich and David Lynch (no not that Lynch), soil differences are supplemented by cellar technique and the intenser soil profiles can be softened or the more elegant ones can present more hardly simply based on the length of maceration and the use of oak barrels.

The Scavino Carobric creates an even greater enigma, being a blend of the Rocche di Castiglione, Fiasco and Cannubi vineyards in Castiglione Falletto and Barolo respectively. Paolo Scavino reports that the two vineyards in Castiglione do not tend to make great wines on their own but require blending. I suppose the addition of the legendary Canubi vineyard likely adds elegance and power, the Rocche di Castiglione adds aromatics and the Fiasco structure.

2000 vs. 2001

Vintage is important in Piedmont. Not just because “great” vintages make ‘better’ wines but because most Barolos truly do reflect vintage character. Structure and perfume differ considerably between vintages. Let’s take 2000 versus 2001. In 2000 you get greater power but also greater approachability with certain wines. 2000 had enough heat and concentration that the given the fruitiness of the Nebbiolo in that year, the fierce tannins of the grape wer possible to tame earlier using modernist techniques. 2001, in contrast, is a much more structured and tannic vintage. Still warm, it yet tended to produce wines with greater tannin and higher acid than 2000. And we’re not talking such differences that make the wines any less good. Rather, it is a question of style, preference and age. The 2001’s seem to require more age than 2000 for both modernists and traditionalists. In 2000, however, my experiences have suggested that the modernists managed to tame the Nebbiolo beast at an earlier aging curve than the traditionalists, whose wines are still atom-dense. Yet a further testament to the complexity of great Nebbiolo.

Love or Love?

A wine with stunning perfume, I found this 2001 Carobric extremely expressive and deep and in a very good place aromatically. Only Nebbiolo can smell like this and these “haunting aromas” as Oz Clarke describes, are unlike any other wine in the world.

The palate is denser, tighter and slightly darker than other Barolos of the vintage. The fruit begins slightly pruney, but opens to more elegance with air, which suggests to me that with age this wine will transform considerably. I’d say this ultimately needs time to soften and unwind if you’re into wines at full maturity. However, it is also incredibly delicious right now. So, drink now with joy or in 10 years, also with joy. A hard wine not to love.

Excellent to Excellent+
~$160 at Kits Wine Cellar

Filed Under: $60+, Excellent, Italian Wine, Nebbiolo, Nebbiolo
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