Virginia House Bill 1288 was tabled in legislative action today. Basically, it means the bill is dead.

I missed this on Friday, but the final installment of the Pinot Showdown has been posted to the Grape Radio website.

$95 is normally WAY outside of my price range for wine...but I really wanted to try the Inniskillin Cabernet Franc Ice Wine. Apparently, when you spend that much, you get a box for your wine:



Any suggestions for what dessert would go well with this wine?

Wine: Pillar Box 2004 Red



Review: Dinner tonight consisted of flounder stuffed with crab. I wanted something to go with this, but I didn't want a white wine. My Vintner recommended this wine and I was amazed at how well it complemented the dinner.

Then I did some research and found out that this is, relatively speaking, a limited edition: only 20,000 cases were produced AND it received a 90 from Robert Parker, all this for $12.

The wine is 57% Cabernet Sauvignon, 32% Shiraz and 11% Merlot. The wine is dark, a deep purple color with aromas of blackberry, smoke and spices. It is a strong wine -- although it mellowed quickly, with a cherry flavor and a hint of meat. A fantastic value.

Oh, and did I mention that it has a screw top?

Price: $12

Grade: 90

Bear with me on this post...it is going to be a little long and convoluted, but it is very important for small wineries in the United States, and in particular, Virginia. Let's start with a primer from Tom Wark at Fermentation:

Every state will eventually have to deal with the issue of how wineries sell their wine. The U.S Supreme Court said that sales of wine must be equal for in-state and out of -state wineries. In most states wineries are allowed to sell direct to retailers (method 2), yet out of state wineries are prohibited from doing this. Recently a federal judge in Washington State confirmed that the U.S Supreme Court's 2005 ruling on the need for equality in direct to consumers sales also applies to sales to the trade (retailers and restaurateurs).

That is an excellent summary of the Supreme Court case. Tom also provides a breakdown of the costs involved in the different ways small wineries can get their wine to consumers. Needless to say, selling directly results in significantly higher profits than selling through a distributor.

This is important to this blog, because all of this is coming to head in Virginia this Tuesday with Virginia House Bill 1288. From the article:

Last spring, the Federal District Court in Richmond struck down the right of Virginia wineries to serve as their own distributor and deliver wine in their own vehicles. The constitutional problem stems from allowing the Virginia wineries a right that is unavailable to out-of-state wineries. Approximately 90 percent of Virginia’s farm wineries use self-distribution, even if they also use a wholesaler to get their wines to market.

"Some wineries rely almost totally on this right for their sales," Osl told Ruff. "This is an industry that has been thriving and growing recently. These court rulings are going to negatively impact the industry, and immediately."

Rob Bell, R-Charlottesville, has also introduced winery legislation in the form of House Bill 1353, which would allow Virginia ABC stores to sell in-state and out-of-state wines. This is an important market for Virginia wines, as about 20,000 cases per year were sold through ABC stores before the court case also struck down this practice.

The full text of the bill is here. Summary is below:

Alcoholic beverage control; small wine producer distribution license. Creates a new small producer distribution license that authorizes the licensee to sell and deliver or ship by common carrier the wine produced by the licensee, in accordance with Board regulations, in closed containers, to (i) persons licensed to sell the wine at retail for the purpose of resale, § 4.1-326 notwithstanding, (ii) the Board, and (iii) persons in Virginia to whom alcoholic beverages may be lawfully sold. The bill also provides that shipments of such wine by common carrier to a retail licensee shall be (a) made in containers marked “Contains Alcohol,” (b) paid by the retail licensee in advance of the shipment, and (c) accompanied by an invoice in a form prescribed by the Board and that is available for examination by the common carrier. All deliveries of such wine by the licensee to persons in Virginia to whom alcoholic beverages may be lawfully sold shall be performed by the owner, or any agent, director, shareholder or employee of the licensee. The bill provides that, for purposes of § 4.1-234 and Chapter 6 (§ 58.1-600 et seq.) of Title 58.1, each delivery or shipment of wine by such licensee to a consumer or a retail licensee shall constitute a sale in Virginia. Licensees are required to collect the taxes due to the Commonwealth and remit any excise taxes monthly to the Board and any sales tax to the Department of Taxation. The bill defines "small wine producer" as any winery located outside the Commonwealth and licensed as such in the state where the winery is located and that is eligible for the federal tax credit pursuant to 27 CFR 24.278. The bill also grants these same privileges to certain winery and farm winery licensees. The bill sets the state license tax for this new license and requires the ABC Board to adopt emergency regulations to implement the provisions of the bill.

The new law would allow small wineries, both in state and out of state, to sell wine directly to consumers, wine shops, and restaurants in Virginia. Large wineries would still have to go through distributors, and nothing would prevent small wineries from using distributors if they desire.

On the surface this seems like a no-brainer. But, as Tom also points out in his post, the Virginia Wine Wholesalers Association (no website) doesn't like this, so they have introduced a counter-bill through Representative Daivd Albo.

Fortunately, the Virginia Wineries Association has launched an all out offensive to get people to call their Representatives and encourage them to support HB 1288. Not only have they sent out mail, they have also encouraged Virginia wineries to mail their customers and I also got a message from the Virginia Wine of the Month Club. They also have a fact sheet (PDF) that explains the issues in easy to understand terms.

This is good, whether or not it will be enough to overcome the money the distributors have remains to be seen.

I was very excited to get Fess Parker's 1997 Pinot Noir delivered today. Was being the key word. I always have my wine delivered to the office, and I told a co-worker how excited I was to finally try one of Fess Parker's wine. Her response:

Who is Fess Parker?

A quick survey of my co-workers revealed only one person who knew who Fess Parker was, and he is in his fifties.

I feel old -- but I am still looking forward to drinking the wine.

Normally I get about 20-30 hits a day (thanks mom ;)). Today I got over 100 hits, most of them apparently from people searching for The Cellar Blog on Google.

Odd.

Wine: Bodegas Montecillo 1996 Gran Reserva



Review: More WineBid goodness. I heard about this winery on Grape Radio and was tempted to try out one of their wines. When I came across this one on WineBid, I could not resist.

This wine is made entirely from Tempranillo grapes, which are indigenous to Spain. This is my first experience with Tempranillo and I enjoyed it. The wine was bold out of the bottle with strong overtones of pepper and berries. It mellowed quickly, and had a great flavor with the taste of berries and spices and a hint of vanilla.

The wine is full-bodied, with a long lasting taste that really complemented the Sharp Cheddar on which I was snacking.

Price: $25

Grade: 85

I mentioned this case in passing back in December. The Supreme Court has declined an appeal from "Two Buck Chuck" in the Napa case. From the article:

A California law passed in 2000 requires that if a wine has Napa, or a related name like Rutherford, which is in the Napa Valley, on the label, the wine must be made from at least 75 percent grapes grown in Napa County.

Napa vintners say selling wines labeled Napa but made from cheaper grapes grown elsewhere undercuts the value of their product and their years of working to build Napa's reputation.

Bronco had argued the state law could not trump federal regulations which also carry the 75 percent requirement but exempt brands established before 1986. Bronco also said their labels were not deceptive since the origin of the grapes was spelled out, although in smaller print.

As I noted previously, I fully support this decision.

Dr. Vino is refereeing Wine Blogging Wednesday #18. The theme for this one is "wine shops that feel the love". Which is easy for me, because my local Vintner is fantastic -- I'll give you all a write up over the weekend.

Congratulations to Adler at Vinography for winning the Best Blog Covering Wine, Beer, and Spirits award in the 2005 Food Blogging Awards. Adler does some great writing and the award was certainly deserved.

The Unified Wine & Grape Symposium Trade Show starts on Wednesday. I've been going through some of the exhibitors and I am amazed at the diversity of companies that support the wine industry.

Take a look.

Wine: Sebastiani 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon



Review: The past week has been a bounty of wine deliveries: A couple of deliveries from WineBid for auctions I won in May and November of last year and my Virginia WOMC delivery.

The Sebastiani is one of the wines from WineBid. This wine made the Wine Spectator top 100 list for 2005, which is why it sparked my interest. The Sebastiani winery has roots dating back to 1825 when it was first planted by Franciscan Monks, making it one of the oldest wineries in Sonoma.

The wine was very dark with aromas of blackberry and vanilla. It had a flavor that really matched the color and scent, the blackberries especially shone through, along with a taste of oak and a buttery aftertaste, that I assume was attributable to the vanilla. A very nice wine.

Price: $20

Grade: 90

I like this round up of new releases. There is nothing unique about the review, but I like the honesty of calling out the dregs:

CONSUMER CAUTION: When confronted with dozens of unknown wines in the intimidating $20-$40 range, many consumers are tempted to go for the cheapest wines in the release. That's not always wise. My cheap goodies are reviewed above. Here were my close encounters of the worst kind:

Nice job.

This is been mentioned on other blogs, but it is the first time I have seen a Virginia paper talking about how the new wine shipping laws are a mixed bag for Virginia wineries:


Despite this, there are wineries in the Fredericksburg area that have found the bureaucracy surrounding the shipping process too thick to conquer right now.

Hartwood Winery in Stafford and Oak Crest Vineyard & Winery in King George report excellent on-site sales, and are not shipping wine anywhere, in-state or out.

"Right now, we've been selling out from the winery itself," said Dorothy Brandts, co-owner of Oak Crest Winery, located near State Route 218. "We wanted to let all the dust settle" before shipping, she said.

Hartwood Winery opted not to secure a license for shipping, a requirement in Virginia.

The process is so complicated, it would be "the same thing as starting a new winery," said Dave Barber, a wine educator at Hartwood Winery near U.S. 17.


The article also mentions Prince Michel, which reports that out of state orders comprise 2-3% of its sales. As a consumer, I very much appreciate the benefits of being able to order wines directly from the winery. But, it seems like the state and federal governments are putting too much red tape in the way of small wineries. There needs to be a way to simplify the process, a way to make it easy for both small and large wineries to serve their customers and attract new ones.

Tom at Fermentation links to the San Francisco Chronicle which has switched to using a star-based system for their wine review systems. I have considered doing the same thing on this blog.

I don't know that my palette is refined enough to support the preciseness of a 100 point scale, which is why all of my reviews are rounded to the nearest five, essentially making my rating system a 20 point scale. Even that might be too much.

Going forward I may switch to a system like this, something that, while less precise, provides a more approachable rating system to both readers and myself.

Wine: Pride Mountain Vineyards 1998 Cabernet Franc



Review: I have really been looking forward to drinking this wine. I won this on WineBid back in October and have been eyeing it closely since it arrived in early December.

I was a little disappointed with the amount of sediment in the bottle, I had to make sure I let it settle before drinking. The wine is 75% Cabernet Franc and 25% Cabernet Sauvignon. It had a deep color, in fact it is probably the darkest Cabernet Franc I have ever tried. It had a rich, full body with a strong taste of oak, black fruit and spices. It also had a strong aftertaste, that stayed with me after the glass was finished.

Overall, a good wine.

Price: $50

Grade: 90

Wine: Bender Bissersheimer Held 2002 Riesling Eiswein



Review: Ted at Crooked Timber posted a recipe for Chocolate-Raspberry Gratin on Friday. I had this dessert wine that I have been wanting to try for a while and I had a friend coming over for dessert, so even though it wasn't February 25th, I figured I would give it a try.

This is an edelsuss (noble sweet) wine, it is rich and sweet with a golden color and almost no tannin taste. It was an excellent complement to the chocolate in the gratin, without being so sweet as to take away from the Rasberries. Overall, an excellent wine and an excellent pairing.

Price: $40

Grade: 95

Ice Wine is, by far, my favorite dessert wine and a rare treat (mostly because of its price tag). It is also an example of how grapes can grow in just about any environment, if you fine the right grape.

Laurie Daniel has an excellent article about and some of the regions in which it thrives:

Most Canadian ice wine (in Canada, it's spelled icewine) is made from riesling or vidal, a French-American hybrid grape, although other grapes such as cabernet franc or ehrenfelser are sometimes used. The wines made from white grapes are very intense and sweet, with flavors (depending on the wine) of apricot, lychee, mango and nectarine. The sweetness is balanced by bracing acidity, which keeps the wine from being cloying. The production of Canadian ice wine is strictly regulated by the Vintners Quality Alliance, denoted on the label by the initials VQA.

Although 40 to 50 vintners in Ontario and the Okanagan produce ice wine, only a few wineries export to the United States. The most important export market is Asia. The winery that has gotten the most attention here is Inniskillin, which has vineyards in both the Niagara Peninsula appellation of Ontario and in the Okanagan Valley. But a few other wineries have begun exporting to the States, usually in tiny quantities.

The article is good and reminds me of the excellent Ice Wine description on the Wine Offensive website.

What I did not know is that there are Cabernet Franc Ice Wines -- now I have some sleuthing to do :).

I finally got to listen the latest edition of Grape Radio. As always, it was a good show. The topic of the show was wine dinners. This is an area that I have wanted to get into, but I don't really have any idea where to start.

One of the suggestions made during the show for people like me, who want to delve into wine dinners but are not sure where to start, was to look for a local wine society or wine club. Following their advice I searched for Virginia wine clubs and found one that looks interesting.

Grape Radio #66 is out. Download it!

I came across this article today:

Architect John Gordon designed the cellar in Kiewa St, Albury, to hold 250,000 gallons, the equivalent of more than one million litres in metric measurement.

A team from Murphys Salvage and Demolition led by Clint Spencer has now almost finished stripping the cellar back to the bare stone walls that Gordon created out of the best Black Range granite.

...

A few gratings are also still in place, but nothing remains of the building above ground level.

James Fallon, who operated the Murray Valley Vineyard, built the cellar in 1869, and installed vats holding up to 1000 gallons each.

250,000 nice :). It is kind of sad to see an architectural wonder like that. one that has been around for more than 130 years get demolished. I don't know if it is because of my fascination with wine or the fact that I am getting old, but my interest in tradition and my love of the past has increased.

Wine: Rockbridge Vineyards 2002 DeChiel Merlot



Review: I am not usually a Merlot fan, but this particular vintage was recommended to me by a friend, and it is pretty good. It has a complexity that seems to indicate it is more than just a Merlot -- the bottle doesn't indicate anything other than Merlot, but previous vintages contained 15% Cabernet Sauvignon. The cherry and black fruit are well represented in the aroma, but the flavor is that of spices and oak. This wine has strong tannins, that have not mellowed at this point.

i think this wine will get even better with age, right now it is best drunk with a complementary food.

Price: $19

Grade: 85

Wine: Horton Vineyards 2004 Viognier



Review: This is a lighter Viogner with an aroma of peaches and vanilla. It is a dry wine that is much smoother then its French counterpart, but with a lingering taste. Horton likes to brag that their Viognier can compete with any Viognier in the world; I think he is right. It is an excellent wine.

Price: $16

Grade: 90

This review, and the one that follows it, are a little different. I am reviewing two Viogniers one from France and one from Virginia.

Wine: Domaine De Couron 2004 Viognier



Review: Viognier is one of my favorite whites. This particular wine is darker than most Viogners with a whiff of honey and a very distinct aroma. The wine has hints of honey and peaches with a slightly bitter aftertaste. Overall, a very dry wine with strong flavors.

Price: $19

Grade: 85

Happy New Year to everyone. I spent the New Year with two unremarkable bottles of Champagne (yea, yea, what can I say, I am a slave to French Marketers ;)) and some friends.

On the other hand, I am excited about the new batch of Cabernet Franc I just racked. I am trying something a little different. In addition to aging it with oak, I also blended the Cabernet Franc juice with Blackberries to add flavor.



It needs about another 3 weeks before it can be bottled -- the big question for me is whether I want to order bottles, or a 5 gallon barrel and age it in that.