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The vines don’t know it’s a drought, they got some moisture just as they were waking up. They’ve been ahead of schedule all year and they keep cruising in the warm weather.

Jon Ruel, president of Trefethen Family Vineyards and former president of Napa Valley Grapegrowers, providing a good explanation for why harvest in California appears to be early this year.

I realize this particular story is a few weeks old now, but after continuous news stories about California’s drought and excited tweets from vineyards about their harvest start time (including Hirsch Vineyards, which announced its earliest harvest in 34 years!), it was a good re-read and gave some perspective of what’s happening with the 2014 vintage.

Readings On Wine Study

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Here are a few interesting stories that crossed my twitter feed this weekend:

* New York Women Make Marks as Masters of Wine: Lettie Teague writes about the three MWs living in New York City. She briefly makes mention to how difficult it is for women to be  taken seriously in the wine world – but except for some anecdotes, I wish Teague dove into that topic further. Some interesting facts from the story: All three women are over 40 and had previously high-paying careers unrelated to wine (This gives me hope that I’m not jumping in too late). A scarier realization is that most have spent $40,000 to $80,000 (mostly on wine and travel) just to receive their diplomas (This may put this dream a little more out of reach).

* Drinking At 1,300 FT: A 9/11 Story About Wine and Wisdom: This story is from 2011, but if I read it back then, it would not have had nearly the same impact nor would I have felt a personal connection and understanding. Aside from the fact that this writer was paid to go learn about wine, making me incredibly jealous, it’s his “ending” that he finally discovers (and which I can relate to), which gives him the ability to write the story nearly 10 years later. As we approach another 9/11 anniversary, it’s a good read – but this year, for me, the date gets to take on another meaning: On that Thursday, I start WSET classes. 

Two wineries plan to produce a crowdsourced wine

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What are the chances that two wineries, one in California and one in Washington, come up with an idea to crowdsource a wine and launch within a week of each other?

When I saw Columbia Crest launch their project earlier this week, I had a mixed reaction – part of me laughed and part of me wanted to pay attention. Then a few days later I noticed La Crema doing something very similar. My first impression was maybe there’s a business connection between the two. But here’s proof in this LA Times story that it appears to be a coincidence. Or maybe they hired the same marketing firm who’s keeping mum. 

In my day job we use crowdsourcing for a few reasons – to learn something new from many individuals or get them to provide information we can’t gather on our own, and as a way to engage our audience. But in the world of marketing – especially social media marketing – its primary focus is on engagement.

Wineries are not going to learn something new from those participating – except their customer preferences (aka market research). But they will get customers to engage with their projects, learn about their wines and forge a personal connection to the winery. The outcome is an entire customer base when their new crowdsourced wine is in the bottle and ready for purchase.

It’s a smart marketing gimmick with a measurable ROI that can also help brand recognition. But I worry the old saying “too many cooks spoil the stew” may create something nearly undrinkable (or maybe they’ll get lucky). I just hope there are other strategies in place to convince customers their other bottles are worth purchasing if this one doesn’t turn out too well. Then again, enjoying a bottle of wine is always greatly enhanced when you have a personal connection or positive memory associated to it. In that case, maybe the actual quality isn’t as important.

In the meantime, the projects will be fun to watch. Maybe there’s enough of an audience out there not as cynical about marketing strategies as I can be.

Two wineries plan to produce a crowdsourced wine

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Discovering Italy In Virginia Vines

I finally made my way into Virginia wine country. This is Barboursville. I’ll admit that much of its history was lost on me. After a two-hour drive from Washington through rolling country side, I was relaxed, ready to stretch my legs and try some wine. The grounds are gorgeous. This view is just from the parking lot, but they have 900 acres to roam through. And on a non-humid barely 80-degree day in the middle of August, there’s nothing to complain about.

Barboursville makes a lot of wines! I failed to count, but I’m guessing we tried at least 12. What stood out were the Italian varietals, which are their specialty. After all, the modern winery that’s there now was born from an Italian winemaker. The Sangiovese makes for a nice table wine – juicy and not too overbearing. Medium bodied and well balanced. The Nebbiolo was dark and intense, with meatiness, earthiness and complexity. And while neither put me over the edge to purchase, I did later have a glass of the Nebbiolo during our stop at Early Mountain (which features many other Virginia wines besides their own).

I brought home a single bottle of the Barboursville 2010 Octagon, a Cabernet, Cabernet Franc, Merlot blend with one of the longest finishes I can remember. Funny – because after enjoying the Italian varietals, I chose the one wine I generally avoid (Cabernet and Cabernet blends are often at the bottom of my tasting lists – but that’s a posting for another time).

Salute!

So That’s Why Trader Joe’s Wine Is So Cheap!

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This question originally appeared on Quora. Answer by Chris Knox, Wine Shop Manager, Wine Buyer 

I can’t vouch for a single word this guy says. But I thoroughly enjoyed his closing paragraph for the zeal in which he takes away all of the winemaking majesty. 

So the summary is this – to make $2 wine one must compromise all sense of integrity and quality, own tens of thousands of acres of vineyards in the worst possible wine region possible where land is incredibly cheap and yields are exceptionally high, use machines to execute every part of a homogenized system that substitutes manipulation for hand crafted quality, and own every step of the winemaking process including bottling, packaging and distribution, all while giving the finger to the entire wine industry and plowing down anyone who gets in your way.

So That’s Why Trader Joe’s Wine Is So Cheap!

Realizations From A Blind Tasting

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Two hours and 12 glasses of wine. A bit overwhelming, but amazing nonetheless. Here’s what I learned:

* I’m still a novice when it comes to understanding “acidity” and “minerality.”

* I was pretty good at identifying wines, except when age and an unfamiliar region came into play. Such a fun reminder that wine is a living, breathing organism so heavily impacted by where it came from. And an even better reminder that I need to taste more of those wines.

* Some of the sweeter wines grew on me. I generally prefer dry wines. But so long as it’s well balanced, the off-dry wines were very appealing.

* I’m better at identifying wines through mouthfeel, acidity, taste and how full or light bodied they are, rather than identifying the bouquet.

* I need to be attending more of these classes, so I’ve decided to sign up for WSET classes. I can’t wait!

What We Really Taste When We Drink Wine

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For most of us, a wine’s context—its color, its label, its story—affects us as much as its flavor.

In advance of a blind wine tasting class I’m taking later this week, I found this story of particular interest. Especially this:

In one of the most prominent studies of how expectations can influence taste, Gil Morrot, a wine researcher at the National Institute for Agronomic Research in Montpellier, and his colleagues found that the simple act of adding an odorless red dye to a glass of white wine could fool a panel of tasters (fifty-four students in the University of Bordeaux’s Oenology program) into describing the wine as exhibiting the qualities associated with red wine. The tasters thought they were tasting three wines, but they were actually tasting only two. There was a white Bordeaux, a red blend of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, and the same white Bordeaux colored with a red dye. When Morrot looked at the tasters’ responses, he found that they used similar descriptions in their notes on the red and colored-red wines (chicory, coal, cherry, prune, cedar, and the like), and markedly different ones when describing the white (floral, honey, peach, grapefruit, pear, banana, apple).

What We Really Taste When We Drink Wine