tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4819829113979242722.post7027564582752899217..comments2024-02-28T21:09:17.490-08:00Comments on Samantha Sans Dosage: Wines Of PlaceSamantha Duganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05214278596698698245noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4819829113979242722.post-10373856896230171262012-05-29T08:52:42.291-07:002012-05-29T08:52:42.291-07:00Hi Sam--
Nothing I like better than trying to mat...Hi Sam--<br /><br />Nothing I like better than trying to match food and wine. And the truth is that I have been successful most of the time.<br /><br />Of course, the reason for that success is obvious. Except for disastrous pairings, most wines will find a way to be good with food. Okay, some are better than others, but I kind of like the idea that some of the chef up here in Bay Area espouse for their own pairings. Find a great wine or two and drink it/them with everything. <br /><br />I still prefer individual wines for individual dishes, but the idea of drinking a wine you know to be great throughout a meal is not so bad either. Just different.<br /><br />At that point, the choice has nothing to do with place or even variety. It has to do with greatness.<br /><br />That why this wine business is such fun. We can be right at so many levels because sometimes it is hard to be wrong except when we get too geeky.Charlie Olkenhttp://www.cgcw.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4819829113979242722.post-88973340656847743312012-05-28T08:57:27.722-07:002012-05-28T08:57:27.722-07:00Val,
Man, I do loves me a good Pouilly-Fuisse from...Val,<br />Man, I do loves me a good Pouilly-Fuisse from time to time. Funny how place matters to some and not at all to others, kind of like the with and without food thing. My boss was talking to a lady this weekend that absolutely hated the 3 Chablis we poured for our Chardonnay tasting. He tried to explain place and then mentioned "With certain foods" and this woman's back got all stiff before she snapped at him with, "I don't care about this food with this wine. I just want to drink it". So there are those too and no matter how passionate we are about the things that move us in wine, we need to keep in mind the way others see it as well. Not always easy but...<br /><br />Charlie,<br />If as a friend you were recommending a wine and said it was European in style I would be fine with that, curious to try it even, but if you were trying to sell me a wine for the shop, well that's where I get a little annoyed when things like that are said. Mostly because it's kind of my job to taste and evaluate the wines, something I'm quite good at as it turns out, and I don't care for it when some reps tells me what I should or shouldn't be tasting. Just bugs me and especially when the wines are not at old old world or European in style. Then I think they are either full of shit or have not a clue about wines of place....which is fine, but hesh up and just let me taste. Bit of a sore spot I guess you can tell. Missed you Charlie Baby.Samantha Duganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05214278596698698245noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4819829113979242722.post-91763060983957370792012-05-28T00:59:57.527-07:002012-05-28T00:59:57.527-07:00Tricky business at times, this debate between char...Tricky business at times, this debate between character of place and character of variety. <br /><br />Ron raises an interesting question about the future, but we already know that the wines of today are different from the wines of two and three decades ago, and not just for global warming. Technique and "volition" (thanks, Mr. Kelly) also play huge roles in character.<br /><br />What is BS, however, is the use of words to imply quality by associating place with every wine that comes down the pike. <br /><br />Of course, Sam, if I were trying to sell you CA wine, I would be very tempted to tell you that it had European character because that is what you like. <br /><br />Hopefully, of course, when I told you that my CF was made in a Loire-like style, I would be at least somewhat correct.Charlienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4819829113979242722.post-50639772892525315002012-05-26T20:19:26.950-07:002012-05-26T20:19:26.950-07:00Thought of you last night with my lips on a Puilly...Thought of you last night with my lips on a Puilly-Fuisse & slurping the Chablis sauce out of a plate of the most perfect mussels I've had since Liguria last year (before the food poisoning incident, of course.) <br /><br />Having a moment to sit down & read a blog or two I found myself devouring this piece like a hobo on a ham sandwich. I agree a wine should have a sense of place, that it shouldn't just be "we buy our grapes from CA and ..." get this "... smooth it out with pineapple." Yeah - actually had that conversation with a local winemaker last year. And my friends wonder why I won't have anything to do with that winery or their wines. If I'm going to drink CO, then I want to taste Western Slope and whatever makes it so in my glass. You probably could hear my eyes roll across the Rocky Mountains.Val https://www.blogger.com/profile/17756024122711114873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4819829113979242722.post-13721603143490883542012-05-24T11:49:15.434-07:002012-05-24T11:49:15.434-07:00Oops, make that Martin Ray.Oops, make that Martin Ray.Thomashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07322028233207741737noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4819829113979242722.post-27545195453330532562012-05-24T10:29:08.678-07:002012-05-24T10:29:08.678-07:00Sam,
It's waaay too difficult to remember wha...Sam,<br /><br />It's waaay too difficult to remember what makes each place unique than it is to remember that you once had a Chardonnay and liked it, and so you like Chardonnay. <br /><br />Unfortunately, it takes a long time to explain the place labeling system as opposed to the varietal wine labeling system. <br /><br />I believe that, while the varietal wine labeling system had its purpose in the 50s when, thanks to Marin Ray and to Frank Schoenmaker it began to pick up in California, it also became instrumental in injuring the concept of place in the New World.Thomashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07322028233207741737noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4819829113979242722.post-26717161030605951652012-05-24T08:04:39.991-07:002012-05-24T08:04:39.991-07:00Whoops, left out the part where I asked him, "...Whoops, left out the part where I asked him, "Now before your trip, had you asked me for a glass of Chardonnay and I poured you a Chablis, would you think that I had made some mistake? Would the flavor of that wine be what you expected when thinking about Chardonnay?" and when he shook his head, confirming that he would have had something totally different in mind I said, "That's because it is a wine of place, knowing what it is made from isn't going to tell you much." I swore he was catching on, until the "Bourgogne" comment.Samantha Duganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05214278596698698245noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4819829113979242722.post-73531215861336269862012-05-24T08:00:03.486-07:002012-05-24T08:00:03.486-07:00Thomas,
I shit you not, had a customer come in yes...Thomas,<br />I shit you not, had a customer come in yesterday morning, not an hour after I posted this, telling me that he and his wife had just returned from a trip to Burgundy and had fallen in love with Chablis. I was grinning ear to ear, that was until he asked, "Which California wines are Chablis?" ugh. What happened next, (after I told him I had that very morning written about the subject) amounted to a twenty minute Intro to French Wines class. <br /><br />I briefly explained wines of place to him, can't really launch into the whole deal during an exchange on the sales floor, and in the end he was still confused. "Now we saw lots of bottles that just said, Bourgogne" on them, how are we supposed to know what's in it?"....sigh. Teaching people about a subject that tends to make them inherently nervous, and maybe just a touch suspicious, has never been easy....Samantha Duganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05214278596698698245noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4819829113979242722.post-14833694823505714592012-05-24T06:34:44.445-07:002012-05-24T06:34:44.445-07:00Reminds me of the time I poured my Gewurztraminer ...Reminds me of the time I poured my Gewurztraminer for a potential customer in my tasting room. Since I never, ever, spoke about the wine before someone tasted it, I quietly awaited his response.<br /><br />"It tastes like Alsatian wine," he said.<br /><br />"Thanks," I said, "but I like to think that it tastes like my wine, produced right here in the Finger Lakes, in a style that I like, and that is possible in this place."<br /><br />I've always hated when local wineries marketed their products by using the name of some other place. It's insecure and it's inaccurate.Thomashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07322028233207741737noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4819829113979242722.post-45391509211848269332012-05-23T22:39:09.373-07:002012-05-23T22:39:09.373-07:00Marcia,
Wines of place just works for me. Half the...Marcia,<br />Wines of place just works for me. Half the people I deal with have never heard the word Terroir anyway. Using place seems more honest in a way, not some mystical patch of dirt but there is something that can be smelled and tasted when wines from certain areas are coxed to do their thing. Just my take and I'm the first to admit that don't mean shit....well except to those that have learned from me and give me that most coveted flash of a light going off. Why I do what I do and love it.Samantha Duganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05214278596698698245noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4819829113979242722.post-35379556245188552862012-05-23T21:14:59.822-07:002012-05-23T21:14:59.822-07:00Great post! I hate hearing terroir bandied about. ...Great post! I hate hearing terroir bandied about. I think most using it just think it sounds cool.<br /><br />Wines of place is so much better. It leaves open for more variances.<br /><br />Let's not forget you can still get plonk from 'places' that usually exhibit fine qualities for certain varietals (on specific clones).<br /><br />I won't mention the dreadful RRV Pinot Noir I had that could only be explained as someone made some mistakes post-harvest and had to unload the juice.<br /><br />Keep 'em coming. Great advice for sales reps.Marcia Macomberhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07237764449953259939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4819829113979242722.post-79221433852868501712012-05-23T20:41:09.572-07:002012-05-23T20:41:09.572-07:00ADoC,
Just a tad.
Ron My Love,
Well baby, I can o...ADoC,<br />Just a tad.<br /><br />Ron My Love,<br />Well baby, I can only speak from my French side and remind you that allegiance to terroir is not a mandate. Winemakers in Chablis, Cote Rotie and Vouvray are free to do, plant, and play with whatever they wish....can't always use those place names if you chose to do so though, and I think for those of us that, as you said, buy Chablis with a specific taste in mind find comfort in having at least a vague idea what to expect. That crazy Chablis producer can plant Merlot for all I care but....don't call it Chablis. Fair trade I would say and I often wonder how the domestic consumer feels when grabbing a bottle of something like Pinot Noir from the new world and have no idea what they might be getting into. Yeah, I'm a place person for sure.<br /><br />As to climate change, well we've seen some of that happen already and I guess much like all things wine, we cannot take for granted what's in the bottle. We need to taste, all the time, even from regions we think we know like the back of our hand. Laziness or assumptions lead to things like paying $120 for Caymus Special Select because we once remembered a time when it was something "special". <br /><br />John,<br />Thanks sweetheart and I knew you would be one of the people that would get this post. Mostly because you taught me something about clones by taking me through your wines and how a clipping, from a vine planted in an area that is known for a specific flavor, can be replanted elsewhere and show similar flavors. That was a revelation to me and one I shan't forget.Samantha Duganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05214278596698698245noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4819829113979242722.post-50744801319206536992012-05-23T12:50:41.286-07:002012-05-23T12:50:41.286-07:00I had to dig back through Randall Grahm's twit...I had to dig back through Randall Grahm's twitter feed to find this: "Terroir: 'It's the history of a family interpreting the earth.' ~Joe Mesics, VitLit." <br /><br />Joe was a Healdsburg-area winnegrower who passed away February last year. Alice Feiring wrote about him and his book (Vit Lit) on her Feiring Line on 3/31/12.John M. Kellyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18343670865804216103noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4819829113979242722.post-31597764421629438832012-05-23T12:25:08.255-07:002012-05-23T12:25:08.255-07:00Thanks, Sam - this should be required reading for ...Thanks, Sam - this should be required reading for every loopy who throws <i>terroir</i> around as a synonym for soil & climate conditions. Wines <b>do</b> show a sense of place, that is part soil and climate, but also deeply involves the volition of the grower and winemaker. I think I am going to projectile vomit on the next person who asserts that bioD farming and "natural" winemaking "reveals <i>terroir</i>. Aaaaack.John M. Kellyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18343670865804216103noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4819829113979242722.post-70958486302161807242012-05-23T12:15:18.484-07:002012-05-23T12:15:18.484-07:00My Gorgeous Samantha,
Discussions of terroir alwa...My Gorgeous Samantha,<br /><br />Discussions of terroir always seem to boil down to Justice Potter Stewart's famous line about pornography, "I know it when I see it."<br /><br />I'm certainly one of those who knows terroir when I smell and taste it. But, if anything, I often wonder if allegiance to terroir isn't in some ways limiting. Just wondering. I want my Chablis to remind me of Chablis, that's why I bought it, but what will happen to that notion of terroir as the climate changes? Will Chablis twenty years from now still have the terroir you recognize and love? Does it matter? <br /><br />It's funny how every single buyer and sommelier I've ever spoken to hates when sales reps or winemakers used words like "Burgundian," and yet it persists in the vocabulary of CA. wine. When someone described a wine in that way to me when I was a sommelier I immediately knew it was mediocre wine. Honestly, I can't remember an exception to that. So sales reps reading this--just stop.Ron Washam, HMWhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11238869156614617705noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4819829113979242722.post-34117893756898887042012-05-23T11:21:28.880-07:002012-05-23T11:21:28.880-07:00Feeling a little bit of the RAWR this morning, are...Feeling a little bit of the RAWR this morning, are ya?<br /><br />Also drinking the Kool-Aid...<br /><br />Cheers!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com