Vintage

The federal government has recognized the Lake Chelan area in north-central Washington as the state's 11th distinct wine grape-growing region.

April 28th

Source: Associated Press

The federal government has recognized the Lake Chelan area in north-central Washington as the state's 11th distinct wine grape-growing region.

Ryan Pennington of the Washington Wine Commission said Tuesday that the U.S. Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau has approved the area for appellation status. The approval will be published in the Federal Register on Wednesday and take effect 30 days later.

The government awards appellation status to regions, also known as American Viticultural Areas, to recognize their distinct climate and soil.

The appellation for Lake Chelan, about 112 miles east of Seattle, includes lands adjacent to the southern 12 miles of Lake Chelan, a long, deep glacial lake jutting through the north Cascades. The region already has 15 wineries and 260 acres of planted grapes, with more likely to come.

Source: Bloomberg

April 30th

By Eva von Schaper

Half a glass of wine a day may add five years to your life, a new study suggests. Drink beer, and you'll live only 2 1/2 years longer.

Dutch researchers followed 1,373 men for more than four decades, noting their eating and drinking habits. Men who had about 20 grams of alcohol daily -- equivalent to a half a glass of wine -- had 2 1/2 years added to their life expectancy at age 50, compared with men who didn't drink at all, according to the research published today in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. Men who consumed only wine had twice as much added longevity.

Light alcohol intake was linked to lower cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and overall mortality in the study. Researchers had known that moderate drinking is tied to a lower risk of heart disease, possibly because of an increase in high density lipoprotein or so-called good cholesterol as well as a reduction in platelet clumping, making it more unlikely for clots to form. It is the first study to show that one kind of alcohol is superior to others in prolonging life, the researchers said.

"In this study, 70 percent of all wine consumed was red wine," the researchers, led by Marinette Streppel of the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands, said in the paper. "This suggests that the cardioprotective effect of wine could be due to a protective effect of polyphenol compounds in red wine, but other explanations cannot be ruled out."

Polyphenols are chemical substances found in plants such as tannins and flavonoids.

The research, dubbed Zutphen Study after the Dutch town from which the participants were recruited, followed men born between 1900 and 1920 and examined them several times between 1960 and 2000.

Source: The Seattle Times

April 12th

By Paul Gregutt

ON MY BIRTHDAY last December, I opened a special bottle from my cellar - a 1969 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon from the Robert Mondavi Winery. No man in America did more to further the quality and enjoyment of domestic wines than Robert Mondavi, and this almost-40-year-old bottle captured his spirit and had a story to tell about the early years of his winery.

The back label carried a personal message from Mr. Mondavi: "When I founded the Robert Mondavi Winery, my objective was to build a facility which would give me the flexibility of developing each variety of wine separately through the winemaking process. This is a unique concept, yet necessary if each wine is to attain its maximum character and personality."

This lovely wine, from the winery's fourth vintage, drank beautifully, with frail but elegant, captivating flavors. The winery illustrated on the bottle's front label is the same even on the most recent vintages of Mondavi wines. That seems to be the only relic of the old Mondavi magic. Virtually everything else is different.

The implosion of the Robert Mondavi wine empire has been well-chronicled in Julia Flynn Siler's "The House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty." The financial and family crises that caught up with Mr. Mondavi at the end of his fruitful life ultimately forced the sale of the wines, vineyards, wineries, brands and - most important - the family name.

The purchaser was Constellation Brands, recently listed as the third-largest company in America by Wine Business Monthly. The acquisition of Mondavi was part of a recent buying spree that briefly included Columbia, Covey Run and Ste. Chapelle (all since dumped) and most recently added Hogue and Clos du Bois - an effort that Constellation president José Fernandez has called "premiumization."

Almost four years have passed since the demise of Mondavi as a family-controlled business. Enough time to see what, if anything, remains of its legacy. What has "premiumization" done for what was arguably the winery that invented it?

The lineup has grown into at least five tiers: Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi; Robert Mondavi Private Selection; Solaire by Robert Mondavi; the "regular" Robert Mondavi Winery wines (themselves divided into Napa Valley and District wines); and the reserves. All in all, close to 60 wines carry the Mondavi name on the front label.

Sixteen Woodbridge wines are priced at $8. I tasted two (rather plain) chardonnays, one labeled "lightly oaked"; a rustic, mushroomy cabernet-merlot, and a vapid cabernet. Nothing here that could not be done far better by the similarly priced Columbia Crest Two Vines lineup.

Moving on, it's a short step up to the Private Selection wines, priced at $11. A dozen offerings include a Meritage (Bordeaux blend) sourced from Central Coast vineyards - a pale imitation of a generic Bordeaux, chalky and plain.

Solaire is a new brand extension, designed to "shine a spotlight" on the extensive Central Coast vineyard holdings. The Solaire chardonnay ($15) is soft and peachy, the cabernet sauvignon ($17) the better of the two, yet tannic and stripped of nuance. The actual Mondavi winery brands have been subdivided beyond comprehension. I tasted the Fumé Blanc ($20) and its cousin, the To Kalon vineyard Fumé Reserve ($40). The reserve does begin to display some shape and varietal character, albeit at considerable cost.

Two other wines completed my tasting: a 2006 Chardonnay Reserve ($40) and a 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve ($125). Nice use of oak on the chard, which had a steely core from its Carneros fruit. The flagship Reserve Cab is a sturdy effort (15 percent alcohol!). My survey barely scraped the surface of the Mondavi wines. Perhaps some hidden treasures are out there; I did not find them.

By MICHELLE LOCKE

Source: The Associated Press

Jan 13th

When People magazine reported seeing an unopened bottle of Kendall-Jackson Chardonnay in the Obamas' kitchen, the California winery fired off a couple of cases to No. 44.

Just another gift? Hardly. Winning over the presidential palate is a big deal for the wine industry, leaving vintners - and vinophiles - curious about what's on tap for the next occupants of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

"The one thing that I know about them is that they're quite adventurous in their tastes," said chef Rick Bayless, owner of the upscale Chicago restaurant Topolobampo, where President-elect Barack Obama and wife Michelle have ordered from the well-regarded wine list.

Wine and the White House go back to No. 1, who tried his hand growing vines at his Mount Vernon estate in Virginia.

But it was Jefferson who really embraced enology, building and stocking White House Cellars. He also introduced guests, not always successfully, to fine, dry vintages versus the sweet, fortified wines then in vogue, said John Hailman, author of Thomas Jefferson and Wine and a fellow at the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics at the University of Mississippi.

Getting poured for a president is a thrill that doesn't fade, said Hugh Davies, president of the Schramsberg winery, which moved from relative obscurity to the world stage when President Richard Nixon used its sparkling wine to toast Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in Beijing in 1972.

Davies was about 6 at the time, but he remembers the crackle of activity that followed the call as his older brother drove their dad, late winery founder Jack Davies, and 13 cases of wine from the Napa Valley to a nearby Air Force base.

Since then, Schramsberg has been served at a number of White House events, a tradition Davies hopes continues. In fact, he declared himself willing to accept an inaugural invite - "I'll bring the wine."

Kendall-Jackson hasn't heard back about its shipment, which was sent care of the Democratic National Committee. But Lettie Teague, executive wine editor for the magazine Food & Wine, said K-J Chardonnay seems a good choice for modern times - popular and reasonably priced at around $11 a bottle.

She envisions a bipartisan presidential table graced with blue state reds and red state whites.

"As a New Yorker, I'd like to see some New York wines represented - we were a huge state for him," she said with a laugh, suggesting a Sauvignon Blanc or Cabernet from the North Fork region or a Finger Lakes Riesling. Other picks: a Washington state Merlot, "because I feel they really do that grape well," a hearty California Zinfandel and "to show that he is an all-inclusive sort, I would throw in a Viognier from Texas."

Presidential tastes in wine have ebbed and flowed.

First lady Lucy Hayes was known as "Lemonade Lucy" for the dry spell that was her husband's administration.

Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt disagreed over alcohol. She was teetotaler; he wasn't. They compromised by serving wine at state dinners but refilling the glasses slowly, writes historian William Seale in The President's House: A History.

A policy of serving only U.S. wines goes back to the administration of Lyndon Johnson. That turned out to be a slight problem for French wine fan Richard Nixon, who sometimes wrapped a napkin around his bottles to obscure their origins, Hailman said.

And then there is Jimmy Carter, who didn't serve hard liquor at the White House but did serve wine and went on to practice a family tradition of winemaking.

With a new administration moving in, Bayless expects change and a style of entertaining "much more up to date than it's been in a long time."

After all, the first time he noticed Obama in his restaurant, the then-newly elected Illinois senator had "a really nice bottle of wine on the table," the chef recalled, "and I thought to myself, 'Now this is somebody I want to get to know.'"