2004 TURNING LEAF MERLOT RESERVE

Introduction

It has been a while, so I don’t remember why I chose this wine. I think it was probably because I had not discussed a Merlot, and this seemed to be a good bet and was priced in my range ($13.99 for a 1.5 liter bottle). Despite the infamous disdain for Merlot expressed in the movie “Sideways,” I do like it. It tends to be just slightly lighter than Cabernet Sauvignon.

As you may know, “reserve” wines are generally more expensive and of higher quality than wines from the same vineyard or winery and made from the same species of grapes. There are several reasons for this. For starters, the grapes could be grown in that part of the vineyard with the best soils or other conditions. They also can be from older vines which produce less fruit but whose roots run deeper into the soil producing a higher quality grape. The grapes could be hand-picked in order to take only those that are the absolute peak of ripeness and flavor. They could be aged in higher quality barrels. Most likely, it is a combination of these and other factors.

To my knowledge, there is no rating system in the U.S. as there is in Europe. This is likely due to a lower level of government control over the industry. The closest system we have is of wineries self-selecting portions of their product as “Reserve.” I think this may be another topic for me to look further into and report back at a later date.

Wine Impressions

This wine did live up to its “Reserve” designation. It is a deep purple color. It had a good taste and a medium aroma. The combination of aroma and taste for this wine was very pleasant.

The bottle and label were about average. It came with an artificial cork All in all, I think it was a very good value for reserve wine.

The Company: Turning Leaf

Well, the Turning Leaf web site is not a wealth of information about the company. I actually found two sites. One is apparently an older version that shows a copyright of 2001-2005, while the other shows a copyright of 2006. The 2005 site states that the company offers California and Italian table wines. The 2006 site says that it offers California, German and Italian table wines. The 2005 site also indicates that they have vineyards throughout both the North Coasts (Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino, Lake, Solano, and Marin counties) and Central Coasts. It states that the North Coast areas are well known throughout the world but that the Central Coast is an “emerging wonder.”

The server was having problems while I was checking out the 2006 site so I will need to check it again later. However, as I said, it does not provide information about the history of the company or any unique or interesting qualities. On the other hand, it does offer some interesting information about the vineyard operations during the various seasons of the year. It also does some mention some of the awards its wines have won.

The Region: California North Coast

Since I have already written about the Central Coast, I will limit this discussion to the North Coast. Unfortunately, the Turning Leaf web site does not reveal specifically where its vineyards are or where specific wines come from. Also, as the Turning Leaf site says, the North Coast wine country is well known throughout the world so I will be brief here.

Let’s start with Marin County. Marin County is just north of San Francisco. If you cross the Golden Gate you end up in Marin County. Sausalito is a funky little coastal town on the Bay that has been compared to Provincetown. Most of the County serves as an affluent suburb of San Francisco. Just to the north of Marin is Sonoma County. It stretches north along the Pacific coast and is bisected by the continuation of the 101. One of the cities in Sonoma is Healdsburg, which (along with Modesto) is listed as the home of Turning Leaf). If you continue following the coast and the 101 north, you will enter Mendocino County about 80 or 90 miles of San Francisco.

Just west of Mendocino (and abutting its southern half) is Lake County. Its dominant feature is Clear Lake, which apparently accounts for the county’s name. Clear Lake is the largest fresh water lake in California and is a haven for swimming, boating fishing, water skiing, etc. Continuing in a southerly direction is the very well known Napa County. Napa is located roughly between 101 and I-5 and to the northeast of San Francisco Bay. Just south of Napa is Sonoma County. It is east of San Francisco Bay and west of the Sacramento River. Sonoma County is the home of Travis Air Force Base.

Modesto, the listed home of Turning Leaf, is about 80 miles to the east of San Francisco in Stanislaus County. It is the county seat and has a 2000 population of about 188,000. Modesto is the setting of the movie “American Graffiti” (though the movie set was in Petaluma (Sonoma County). Its major newspaper is the Modesto Bee, which is apparently a popular newspaper name in that part of the country.

2005 ALICE WHITE SHIRAZ

2005 ALICE WHITE SHIRAZ

Introduction

Well, my previous post about the European wine surplus due to competition from newer wine exporters is a good segue into this wine discussion since it is from Australia. I did select it especially because it was from Australia and I do want to discuss (and learn about) wine producing regions all over the world. I paid $12.99 for a 1.5 liter bottle, which right in the middle of my most common range.

Wine Impressions

Being a red wine lover, I did like this wine. It has a nice deep purple color, but with a light aroma. The wine was dry, yet somewhat fruity. I had the wine with beef stew and it seemed to taste sweeter with the stew than when drunk alone.

The wine comes in an average bottle, and with an artificial cork, colored red. There is a kangaroo figure on the label. One interesting feature: the label has an excerpt from “Adventures in a New Land,” and references the company’s web site for more Alice White adventures.

The Company: Alice White

The bottle says that the wine is imported by Alice White, Woodridge, California. The web site says, at least on one page that the wine is imported by Alice White Winery of Gonzales, CA. The introduction to the web site indicates that it is owned by Constellation Brands. The web site also explains that the wine is named after an actual person who moved to Australia in 1848 with her parents. She was very adventurous. The history of the company is a little unclear, but the wines were apparently introduced in 1996. The web site says sales have increased 60% per year since 1998, becoming one of the fastest-growing wine brands in the U.S

There is a Roo Ranch in Australia, which is apparently the home of Alice White wines. Grapes from many parts of South Eastern Australia are used to make the wines. In addition to the Shiraz, Alice White makes Chardonnay, Cabernet-Shiraz, Cabernet-Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Lexia, and Semillon-Chardonnay.

The Region: South Eastern Australia

This region consists of the four smallest states of Australia and the home to three quarters of its people. The states are Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. The island of Tasmania is also part of this region.

Its cities include Sydney (the largest city in Australia) as well as Melbourne, the capital and second largest city. Sydney has more than 4 million people, including many immigrants from the United Kingdom, China and New Zealand. Melbourne has about 3.6 million people. According to Wikipedia, it is ranked among the second tier of “world” cities with such cities as Montreal, Osaka and Prague. It has many international students, behind only London, New York and Paris.

TOO MUCH EUROPEAN WINE?

BG sent me a link to a Los Angeles Times story about a wine surplus in Europe. Apparently newly emerging wine exporters such as Chile and Australia and even the United States are cutting into Europe's business. Many of these wines are cheaper. Earlier this year, thousands of winemakers in Southern France "took to the streets" to demand government help in the face of low demand and tough competition.

The article, which is a Reuters story, states that government subsidies of wine production have artifically increased supply beyond demand resulting in the surplus. The European Union Agriculture Commissioner, Mariann Fischer Boel, is proposing scrapping or simplifying the subsidies in order to reduce production. Apparently one of the largest subsidies (1.2 billion euros or $1.5 billion) is to convert the surplus wine into biofuel or industrial alcohol. It seems to me (without knowing all the facts) that this is a reasonable subsidy, and preferable to paying farmers to NOT grow crops. However, the proposal is to use the money instead to pay producers to dig up their vines in order to cut production. Also, under Europe's strict control over areas and varieties of grapes that can be grown, new vine plantings are currently prohibited until mid-2010. One proposal is to extend that to 2013 and possibly make it permanent.

The article indicates that a formal presentation of these proposals will be made later this year and that the main wine-producing countries of France, Spain and Italy (the top three producers in the world) will not take kindly to these ideas.

I, for one, gladly volunteer to help take some of that surplus off their hands!

Firestone Vineyards

I have been planning to write about a vineyard visit. I thought that would have to wait to until I visited one. However, my wife recently found a paper from our 2004 visit to Firestone Vineyards in the Santa Ynez Valley just north of Santa Barbara, California. The paper was a list of the Firestone wines on which we had written a few notes next to ones we tasted. But first, a few comments about the vineyard tour and some of the things we learned.

Several aspects of the tour impressed me. First, the vineyard has a cork oak tree growing near the winery. If I remember correctly, it is a single tree and is really only symbolic. They don't use it to make corks. However, it serves as a backdrop to a brief discussion of the issue of natural vs. artificial corks. The man giving the tour expressed the opinion that while the artificial corks do not allow the wine to breathe, they are getting better all the time and that he thought they would be suitable substitutes at some point.

The second thing that impressed upon me was the process of making red wine. I had not realized that it is much more difficult to make red wine than white. That is because the red color is derived from the grape skins, not the juice. The skins must be left in with the juice and must be stirred up regularly to transfer the color. There are machines that can do this automatically, but they are expensive and beyond the capability of many boutique wineries, so this process must then be done by hand.

Thirdly, while I had seen how grapes are grown previously, I had not really observed them up close (And, as Yogi Berra says, you can observe a lot just by watching!). After seeing the grape vines strung out along two rows of metal strings, I was inspired to try that at home. I earlier had planted some grape vines next to an arbor, hoping to get them to grow through it. However, I now have planted a single row of vines across the back of my vegetable garden, using some pressure treated posts and wire. The structure is actually L-shaped, as I continued it along the side, as well as the back, of my garden. I do know that the rows are supposed to be parallel to a slope, but, hey, with little room, I figure I need to take what I can get. I do plan to add a second row this fall. Like the single cork oak, my vines are mainly symbolic as they will obviously not produce enough grapes to make even a single bottle of wine! I do hope to get some good tasting grapes though.

The first wine I tasted at Firestone was a 2003 Sauvignon Blanc from the Santa Ynez Valley. It was billed as a white wine for red wine lovers. It had a good light taste. Its price was listed as $12. Next, I tried a 2003 Riesling from the Central Coast. As expected, it was a sweeter wine. Its price was $9.95. Next, I tried a 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon from Santa Ynez Valley. It had a great light taste. It was listed at $18. I then tried the 2001 Syrah from the Santa Ynez Valley. It was a bit heavier than the Cabernet, but very good. It, too, was priced at $18. Finally, I tasted the 2001 Merlot Reserve from Santa Ynez Valley. It was slightly more robust than the Cabernet and was definitely the best of the reds. Its price was $32, so it is not a wine I would likely purchase, other than for a very special occasion, perhaps.

So that summarizes my experience at Firestone. It was a great day, beautifully sunny and comfortable as we were making our way from Ventura up to Arroyo Grande. As part of visiting the winery, we drove north on Route 154 instead of on the 101. It is a spectacular road through the Santa Ynez Mountains and replete with magnificant vistas.

I will write more about the Firestone Winery company history when i discuss a Firestone wine.

New Links

You may have noticed that there are 2 new links on the sidebar of this page. One is called "The Vino By Story Story." This is actually my first posting which explains what this blog is about. It got pushed off the main page after a number of other postings were added so I created a separate page for it so that new readers could find it easily.

The other link is called "Wine Suggestions/Discussion." I had been told that it was not easy to make suggestions for wines for me to try because such suggestions did not always seem appropriate as comments to one of my postings about another wine. This link will provide a single posting for which comments are intended to be either a suggestion for a wine for me to try and then feature on the main page, or a comment from readers about a wine that they have tried. Anybody can then respond to such postings.

I would welcome any comments about these changes or any other suggestions you might have about how to improve the blog.