There’s still a lot of celebration today about the Supreme Court victory which forced states to open up their doors to direct wine shipments. Philosophically, the victory has been savored by all of us in our over-regulated industry. Realistically, however, we may have… “Won the battle, and lost the war”. This is particularly true of small producers like Stanfield and Stuart Wine Company and artisan labels like Trivium.
The fact is that for many of us, the Supreme Court ruling has made life a lot more difficult. There used to a dozen or so states for which there were few restrictions, no filing requirements, and minimum fees. Those states are gone now, in the wake of the Supreme Court decision. In those and other states, there are now cumbersome filing requirements and expensive regulatory fees. For large wineries, with revenues and a staff that cover those expenses, it’s more of an administrative and financial nuisance. For artisan producers, desperately needing the direct-to-consumer revenue, the effect is much more devastating. Because of our size, small producers can’t keep up with the paperwork and can’t keep track of the new taxes. Not to mention the fact that there are still a dozen or so states whose laws effectively block direct shipments.
We appreciate the efforts of those who fought hard to overturn the discriminatory practices of states in regards to direct wine shipments. We’re delighted to have won that battle. However, we’re still losing the war of truly gaining access to consumers in states outside California.
Stu Harrison, Partner
]]>
All things to all people:
Trivium is one of a growing number of labels in the Napa Valley which reflect an encouraging trend in California wine… the increasing importance of the single wine winery.
Back in the 60’s and 70’s, the notion of a California producer specializing in just one product (or variety) was almost unheard of. In fact, just the opposite was true. Producers, from the ordinary to the extraordinary, rarely produced anything less than a dozen different wines, often from a score of different varieties. In the 70’s Almaden Vineyards (which incidentally was one of the pioneers of California’s varietal movement in the 50’s!) was a good example of the early mindset. At the time, they offered no less than 50 different wines. They produced every variety ‘under the sun’, literally.
The reason was simple. Back in those days, the more wines you produced, the more presence you could command on a retail shelf or a wine list. Even the top producers in the 70’s adopted that shotgun mentality. Both consumers and producers were new enough that the underlying tendency for wineries was to be all things to all people. It wasn’t important back then to be known for something in particular. The priority was simply to be known.
Today, as our industry has matured, quality producers are learning the importance of specialization and focus. Product lines are shrinking, and many new producers like Trivium (and Opus, Dominus, Continuum, etc) are narrowly defining to the consumer who and what they are. Geographic areas are more specific, product lines are smaller and vineyard designations are increasingly important.
Sometimes, if you want to hit the mark, a shotgun is not always your best weapon.
]]>
There’s a lot of controversy today about “scores”, the numerical ratings critics assign individual wines.
For a winery, scores can be a terrifically valuable marketing boost. On the other hand, nothing can be as ego shattering and angst provoking as a fair-to-middling score from one of the major critics. To aggravate matters, consumers have come to rely on a handful of critics for their go-to purchase advice. That puts a lot of influence in the hands (and on the palates) of a very few.
I have a slightly different opinion of ‘scores’ than many of my colleagues. My feeling is that ‘scores’ offer a large potential benefit to individual producers and very little downside. This stems from my belief that the primary influence of ‘scores’ is their ability to mobilize consumers in a positive direction. A wine which receives a “95” from one of the major critics has been given a remarkably powerful endorsement, one that is certain to boost image and fuel demand. A mediocre score has nowhere near the same downward impact. I’ve yet to see a consumer walk into a wine shop with a list of wines that they are not going to buy. The only real effect of a score of “85”, therefore, is its ego deflating capacity. We take the same offense when a teacher delivers a sub-par evaluation regarding one of our children. It’s human nature to be taken aback.
At the end of the day, scores are like medicine. Some are hard to swallow. Some don’t agree with you. Others can make a world of difference.
]]>
The Dirty Secrets of High Alcohol Wines, Part Two
Overlooked in the alcohol debates is the amount of manipulation that is required to make high-alcohol table wines. Any must over 25° or 26° Brix needs help to ferment to dryness. With some winemakers aiming at 28° Brix, grapes sometimes arrive in the cellar with Brixes of 30° or more. These musts need to be diluted with water by as much as 15 percent to be able to ferment completely, and they require additions of various nutrients, such as diammonium phosphate, yeast hulls, and thiamin, as many as two or three times during fermentation.
Troublesome fermenters may stick (stop fermenting) anyway, allowing opportunistic bacteria, such as acetobacter and pediococcus, which produce distinctive off odors and flavors, to grow and compete for nutrients. In such cases, complex apparatuses must be brought in to remove acetic acid or alcohol, which inhibit continued fermentation. Sometimes filtration is required to remove viable bacteria. Then the whole mess has to be reinoculated with alcohol-tolerant yeast and more nutrients. At the end, you may still wind up with a beat-up sweet wine.
Now, it’s true that new rootstocks, new spacing, new clones and new canopy management have changed things in the vineyard since the good old days of AXR-1 and 8-by-12 spacing. It may be that we really do have to pick at slightly higher sugars to get the ripeness we desire without losing the character of the variety. It’s also true that lots of Cabernet and other cultivars are being planted in marginal areas that are not suitable, forcing winemakers to leave fruit on the vine longer to diminish the underripe characters that persist on bad sites. One way to tell whether a site is a good match for a particular variety is that you can achieve fruit ripeness at relatively lower Brix levels.
Even so, it may be that 14.5 is the new 13.2. Good wines at that alcohol level can be enjoyed, but go much higher and you start to get into trouble. Such wines are harsh, they make you tired, you can’t enjoy them throughout a meal, and they overwhelm the food.
—Jack Stuart, Winemaker & Partner
]]>
A few years ago, research showed that pyrazines, the compounds responsible for vegetal aromas and flavors in grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon, could be reduced by extremely late picking. Winemakers who had never tasted classic Cabernet or Bordeaux decided that by harvesting at extraordinarily high Brix levels (a measure of percent sugar), they could avoid green character in their wines. Along the way they lost sight of the fact that attractive herbal and olive notes are desirable in Cabernet and are fundamental components in its flavor profile. If ripe was good, these winemakers concluded, hyperripe was better.
The resulting wines were thick, dark and strong, and often sweet from incomplete fermentation. Worse, they had alcohol levels approaching that of Port. They didn’t taste like classic Cabernet, two glasses made you too drunk to drive, and the wines tended to fall apart in just a few years. Many consumers were seduced by their power alone. Publications which had once preferred graceful, ageworthy wines, encouraged the trend by consistently giving blockbuster wines high scores. Marquee winemakers built their reputations on such scores and carried the techniques everywhere they went. Some members of the trade went along, selling wines on the basis of scores alone.
Overlooked in the alcohol debates is the amount of manipulation that is required to make high-alcohol table wines. Any must over 25° or 26° Brix needs help to ferment to dryness. Musts sometimes arrive in the cellar with Brixes of 28° or 30° or more. The resulting wines are anything but “natural.” Read the details of wines made in the lab, not the vineyard, in our next post.
—Jack Stuart, Winemaker & Partner
]]>
There’s a lot of talk these days about decanting. Traditionally, for the serious wine drinker, decanting was reserved exclusively for older wines. The primary purpose was to remove unsightly (and not particularly tasty) sediment, a byproduct of the aging process. Decanting also helps ‘blow off’ the slightly musty odor and taste that forms as wine ages. Valuable tools to the decanting process include a funnel of some kind, a candle or small flash light, and some sort of straining device.
Interestingly enough, decanting can be an equally valuable exercise for young wines. Our 2006 Trivium drinks nicely when poured directly from the bottle, but it also benefits greatly from a ‘splash’ decanting. A wine doesn’t have to be in the decanter long (particularly important if your guests are thirsty!), as the time it sits in the decanter is not as important as the gentle aeration it receives going in. There’s even a gismo or two available today to bolster the benefits of the decanting process, such as aerating funnels, shallow decanters (more surface area), and dripless pourers. It’s all part of the unique tradition that surrounds wine, at the same time improving its taste and enjoyment.
–Stu Harrison
]]>
The U.S. soccer program got a boost recently at the FIFA Confederations Cup in South Africa. There, the USA soccer team beat Spain, considered by many to be the best soccer team in the world. Coincidentally, the soccer program in the US began to seriously ramp-up about the same time as the fine-wine business. I have been fortunate enough to witness their simultaneous ascent. It has been an exciting run for both.
What do our vinous and soccer successes have in common? At the end of the day, there’s an underlying “pursuit of excellence” in this country that impacts both. It’s present in much of what we do and how we think. Whether on a soccer ‘pitch’ or in the wine cellar, we have a genuine desire to do better, to learn and improve. And don’t overlook the increasing sophistication, enthusiasm and size of our ‘fans’. In both wine and soccer, there’s a wonderful pool of passionate and knowledgeable devotees that did not exist 40 years ago. Without them, we could not have come so far, so fast.
Does the U.S. victory against Spain establish the worldwide dominance of U.S. soccer? Of course not… no more than the outcome at the famous Paris tasting meant that our wines were better than their French counterparts. What it does mean, however, is that we are now contenders, able to hold our own with the best of them. And that’s something to cheer about. ]]>
There’s a lot of talk about “benches” in the Napa Valley. Oakville and Rutherford are perhaps the best known. St. Helena has one and Stag’s Leap has an area that resembles a ‘bench’, but does not use the term. The notation is loosely used in Napa Valley and often misunderstood.In the simplest of terms, a “bench” is a viticultural “sweet spot”, like that spot on your tennis racket where you can’t miss. As a viitcultural descriptor, it’s that ‘elbow’ that forms at the base of both the Myacamas Foothills on the West and the Vaca Foothills in the east. It formed over Millenniums as the soil from those hillsides gradually eroded and merged with the richer, fertile soils of the valley floor. A gentle slope or plateau forms where the two soil types collide. It’s normally a band no more than 400 yards wide. It creates “a best of both worlds” scenario and a no-fault grape growing environment.
The Bench in St. Helena (where grapes for Trivium are grown) is no exception. The Myacamas Foothills drop down onto the edge of the Lewelling Estate Vineyard creating the aforementioned ideal conditions. The soils are rocky and well drained, yielding in the best of years only three to four tons an acre. The tannins from bench land vineyards tend to be softer and the flavors more concentrated. ]]>
Why Should I Care About Ageworthiness?
These days most winedrinkers drink their wines shortly after purchase. What difference does it make whether a wine will age well or not? Laying wines down is what old English guys did a hundred years ago, right? So twentieth century.
Those of us who study wine do so because of its limitless variety and complexity, which is what makes it more interesting than spirits. Well-made wines from good sites fascinate and beguile us with their indescribable aromas, flavors and textures. But many people forget that the best wines change for the better as they age: they become more aromatic, complex and interesting.
Think of wines as you do lifelong friends. When you first meet, something appeals to you immediately. As you get to know them and they mature, they become more interesting and attractive. The relationship deepens. They may go through difficult stages—a serious illness, a divorce—but you stick with them and they recover, better people for what they’ve been through. You remember why you liked them in the first place, but you’re really glad you know them now.
Same with wine. If you buy a sixpack of Trivium, you should like the last bottle better than the first.
–Jack Stuart, Partner & Winemaker ]]>
Got Appellation? It’s a question demanded by more and more consumers of California wine. Despite the fact that we’ve come a long way in the last 30 years, we still have a long way to go.
An appellation is like a set of directions. The more specific, the more likely you are going to end up in the right place. The fact is, the United States, still in ‘appellation infancy’, has only 192 wine appellations. The tiny region of Burgundy has 677. These include regional designations, entire communes and individual vineyards. Equally important, each legally recognized growing area in Burgundy carries a set of regulations whose major purpose is to set standards for quality.
Our Trivium label carries a St. Helena appellation. This designation certainly helps to give consumers an idea of what to expect. But we need to go further. Trivium (along with a number of other labels) is grown exclusively on a very specific ‘bench’ in the southwest corner of the St. Helena appellation. It would be helpful to have a legally defined place name for grapes grown in that local. With increasing prices, consumers have a right to increasingly precise (and reliable) information on ‘place’. We’re definitely headed in that direction. We need to pick up the pace, however, if we want to win over today’s increasingly sophisticated consumer.
]]>