The Aurora Borealis of Wine

I know… I have to do better with the title of these blog posts.  I’ve expended my creative energy for a 24-hour period with the title, so I’ll stick to the basics for this post.   Yet another perfect 70 degree evening here in Virginia – sitting on the deck with my wife, eating fish tacos, watching the ducks try to get in on with each other in the lake, enjoying a straight-forward summer wine ideal for just vegging out after a long day.

 Borealis: The Northern Whites from Montinore Estates, located in Oregon’s Willamette Valley.   An interesting blend of 60% Muller-Thurgau, 23% Gewertz, and 17% Pinot Gris.  Now that’s a food friendly, perfect summer blend.  Very fresh nose of peach, green apple and pear.  Lively acidity with a reasonable amount of ‘sweetness’ with flavors of pineapple, apple and peach in the mouth.  Just $13/bottle.

 Montinore, with 230 acres under vine, converted to Biodynamic viticulture in 2005 and received full Demeter Biodynamic Certification and Organic Certification in 2008.

 Muller-Thurgau factoid:     The Muller-Thurgau varietal was developed by Dr. Hermann Muller in 1882 – his intention was to combine the intensity and complexity of Riesling with the early ripening potential of the Silvaner grape.   By the 1970’s, the Muller-Thurgau became Germany’s most-planted grape.   Although plantings have decreased significantly, as of 2006 it was still Germany’s second most planted variety at 14,000 hectares and 13.7% of the total hectares under vine.

Yet another excellent example of awesome wine coming out of the Willamette Valley. I hope to fit in a visit to Montiore in during my upcoming trip to the Willamette Valley.

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Does Twitter Matter?

Admittedly I am a technology dinosaur.  I feel as if this technological paradigm shift we call Social Media is totally passing me by.  On most days I am lucky to remember which airport I’m supposed to be in, much less keep up with Facebook, Digg, Furl, LinkedIn, Twitter and all the other new social media stuff that was just invented today (which makes me even further behind than when I started this article)

Although I am ‘aware’ of these new technologies, I just never seem to get around to using them.  Perhaps because in my day job, utilizing social media is not needed and actually would be frowned upon.   As an amateur wine blogger, I’m not sure what the value-proposition to Twittering is (is that the correct vernacular?), but it seems as if I am the last blogger on the planet without a Twitter account.  

Dale Cruse, the Proprietor of one of my favorite wine blogs, Drinks Are On Me, maintains an exhaustive list of wine bloggers and wine industry folks who Tweet.  I’m amazed at the size of the list and how it seems to grow daily.  A quick informal count covering several of Dale’s posts on winos who Twitter number about 500ish! (and that’s on the low side) 

So… Last Monday, I made the decision that this weekend would be an important milestone in my techno-life… I would purchase my first Mac and I would also open a Twitter account.  The catalyst was an article written by Wine Enthusiast magazine West Coast Editor, Steve Heimoff, called ‘The Power of Twitter .’   Steve’s article wasn’t necessarily the push, but the comments that resulted from his article is what convinced me that I needed to carve out a few minutes of my weekend and sign up for Twitter and peck out this article.

In his article, Steve takes a pragmatic approach to the benefits of Twitter as they relate to wine; however, most other wine writers and wine bloggers hold a more positive view of Twitter.  Wine entreprenuer Courtney Cochran recently wrote a compelling article at Appellation America on the benefits of Twitter.  In her article, Courtney was able to provide an example of one winery owner that has had quantifiable results as a result of using Twitter. 

Of course the Social Media Sommelier, Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library, is a huge proponent of Twitter as well.  In an article that appeared in The Star Ledger, GaryVee, as he’s known on Twitter, cited several respectable examples of how Twitter boosted his sales at Wine Library.   As of this posting, Gary had just over 603,000 Twitter followers!

Although I am leaning to the more pragmatic side with Steve, I am now happily Twittering… 

You can follow my Tweets here,   www.twitter.com/drinkwhatulike 

Twitterific… I guess.

(Editorial Note:  Twitter names are limited to 15 characters.  The name of this site, DrinkWhatYouLike, is 16 characters.  F-word!  So I did the most creative thing I could, I improvised… I changed the word ‘You’ to ‘U’.   I was going to go with Twitter.com/IAmNotVeryCreative but that too was taken.   I welcome any creative insights in to a better Twitter handle. )

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A Screen Porch Wine

Two weeks ago I attended another winemaker tasting a Bon Vivant in Smithfield, VA with guest speaker, Susan Ridley of Hendry Wines.  Sue joined Hendry as a partner in 1995, and currently has the responsibility of developing Hendry’s brand and managing sales and marketing.  Sue provided our group a lot of historical information on the early years of the Hendry family and their vineyards. 

Hendry is a small estate winery located in Napa Valley, between the Carneros and Mt. Veeder viticultural districts.  Their 117 acres currently under vine is divided up in to 50 different vineyard blocks (yep, that’s five zero, fifty), and each of the 50 different vineyard blocks is managed separately.  Now I’m not a farmer, winemaker or viticulturalist, but I can imagine the work that goes in to managing 50 separate vineyards blocks is just a bit demanding.

The land that the Hendry Ranch sits on was purchased by George Whiting Hendry in 1939, and is managed today by his son, George Ott Hendry, who has lived on the property and tended the vines his entire life.   Although I have not yet met George, he appears to be quite an interesting dude.  He received his undergrad and graduate degrees from UC Berkely and divides his time between growing grapes and designing and manufacturing particle accelerators. 

 I find these second and third generation family wineries often provide the most sincere wines, and Hendry is certainly part of that group. 

Hendry Ranch 2008 Rose Wine ($16):    Hendry produced 650 cases of this wine.  This is a busy Rose – a blend of Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Merlot, Malbec and just a tad of Primitivo (the Hendry Primitivo is supa dupa!).  13.5% alcohol.  Bright pink in color, leaning towards salmon.  Strawberry Jolly Rancher jumped out at me on the nose accompanied by a watermelon and slight citrus aroma.  The strawberry Jolly Rancher continued in the mouth and was balanced with a crisp acidity along with flavors of pink grapefruit and apricot.  Near the end of the bottle, I picked up an unusual alcohol taste that lingered on the finish.

I’m looking forward to visiting Hendry for a tour and tasting during my trip to Napa in July to attend the Wine Bloggers Conference.

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Wine Book Club: La Vie En Rose

June marks the 11th month of the virtual Wine Book Club, and the subject of this month’s WBC is ‘La Vie En Rosé – A Very French Adventure Continues’ written by Jamie Ivey, a former London-based attorney turned wine dream chaser living in the south of France.  La Vie En Rosé is published by St. Martin’s Press and can be found at most bookstores or Amazon.com for $24.95.

La Vie En Rosé – literally translates to ‘the life in Rosé,’ also loosely translated as ‘life thru Rose colored glasses’ – is a follow up to Ivey’s first book, Extremely Pale Rosé, which tells the story of Jamie’s previous summer in France in search of the palest Rosé.  Although one doesn’t need to read Extremely Pale Rosé to follow La Vie En Rosé, reading Ivey’s first book will provide added context in to his passion for Rosé and the origins of La Vie En Rosé. 

La Vie En Rosé chronicles the journey of Jamie, his wife Tanya and their friend Peter, as the trio attempts to turn their passion for Rose into a viable business – a wine bar which sells only Rose.  The book provides interesting insights in to the challenges associated with trying to start a business in France (or any foreign country for that matter), attempting to master the nuances of the French language, and dealing with the generally finicky French public.  As with most ‘romantic’ notions of moving to a foreign country to pursue a dream, Jamie’s journey doesn’t begin as well as expected starting on day one.  What was supposed to be the first day of business for La Vie En Rose in the town of Aix, turned out to be a practical joke by a local bar owner who promised space on his terrace for the summer.  From there, the fate of La Vie En Rose was uncertain as the trio moved from one temporary location to another setting up shop on any restaurant or bar terrace that would provide them space.

As the story comes to a close, Jamie reflects on the irony of worrying about the location of La Vie En Rosé throughout the summer.  The trio finds success not in a ‘brick and mortar’ location, but in a small stall in the heart of a French market. (this of course is the prelude to Jamie’s next book, Rosé en Marche)

For me, La Vie En Rosé was not a book about three people roaming around France chasing a romanticized dream of starting a wine bar with a wine list composed exclusively of Roses.  Instead, this is a book about a guy, along with his wife and a friend, who had the courage to dream and take all-out action to make their dream a reality despite imperfect conditions – overcoming fear, uncertainties of the French wine market, and bouts of self doubt along the way.  So many of us have (or had) dreams that lie dormant because of fear – both the fear of failure and the much harder to explain fear of actually succeeding. 

“… we’d fallen in love with France the previous summer and couldn’t shake the idyll of living and working in Provence.  If we didn’t have the courage to do it now, when we were young, then would we ever do it?”     - La Vie En Rosé, p. 20

Given my travel schedule, I have a lot of time in airports and on planes and trains to read, and of the 11 books I’ve read this year, La Vie En Rosé is my favorite.  I have the deepest respect for those who pursue their dreams with singular focus and stay committed despite challenges.  Also because I too harbor similar ‘romantic’ dreams of leaving the grind here to pursue similar endeavors abroad.   

Le Vie En Rosé is a perfect read for summer. 

Where are they now?   Subsequent to the release of La Vie En Rosé, Jamie wrote his third book, Rosé en Marché – Running A Market Stall In Provence, which tells the story of a year spent working in the Provencal markets selling Rose.  Jamie, Tanya and their daughter are currently living in France near the village of Lourmarin, selling Rosé and working on his forth book about missing vintage wine.

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