tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18690214929234924402024-03-05T12:20:00.660-08:00.LOW FLYING ZEPPELINStillman Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691385422597182522noreply@blogger.comBlogger165125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869021492923492440.post-18258575904923167662017-01-14T22:12:00.000-08:002017-01-14T22:12:30.225-08:00Free advice for home winemakers!My Zeppelin brings all the drunks to the bar<br />
And they fight<br />
It's better than yours<br />
Damn right<br />
It's better than yours<br />
I can teach you but you have to sparge<br />
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Having been at times forced or enticed into "enologie sub-garagiste" (that is not to say, using the bomb shelter under my inferior-vintage Citroen-Maserati as a wine cave) I am all too aware of the difficulties involved in making very small amounts of wine: temperature control, oxygen management, free grapes that are worth less than their cost, and discreet disposal when no one wants to drink them. Though my professional career has shown my advice to be worth its weight in dimethyl dicarbonate, I am not unwilling to answer the questions that come from time to time from enophiliacs who dabble in what I am pleased to christen the Sour Science: for a mistake can give the same result as the so-called Sweet, if perhaps not felt until the next morning. <br />
Goddamn, why did I drink that bottle of Two-Buck-Chuck Wepner?<br />
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You do understand what I mean by sparge, right? Recule - j'ai un carbodoseur!<br />
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<br />Stillman Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691385422597182522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869021492923492440.post-7475674077337881082016-05-04T07:45:00.001-07:002016-05-04T07:45:08.398-07:00Really slipping on the new posts, ain't I?Pardon my oak dust, but either I've had nothing to say that exceeds a hundred words since last harvest or my memory has . . . um, wait . . . well anyway, my old posts are still up. And here's a picture of guess who-all from almost twenty years ago, taken in Santa Fe, New Mexico during my dual-nationality winemaking years.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-JsTvB8xuxuxmKXA4jTMtLZ3yuzSxG_nyMfrZGmqEBF_xt7cI3FqAb40nFeTdd3RMg2MlTGTey9idi-SjDZpXfd8pdzIEf5nm85LVlgHrsvhpzyhbEj8HXGrsyCibafGOgs7iscf_qKE/s1600/1997NewMexico.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-JsTvB8xuxuxmKXA4jTMtLZ3yuzSxG_nyMfrZGmqEBF_xt7cI3FqAb40nFeTdd3RMg2MlTGTey9idi-SjDZpXfd8pdzIEf5nm85LVlgHrsvhpzyhbEj8HXGrsyCibafGOgs7iscf_qKE/s320/1997NewMexico.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />Stillman Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691385422597182522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869021492923492440.post-37307766114927034062015-10-25T07:09:00.003-07:002015-11-07T07:04:48.492-08:00GET OFF THE STAGE!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmgx09DVCKVUttvXXSdMOj-_Po2rGJqjJQidPNCbbFNGL1MS1sT3UBglNfaJ5MP4OH8EhrbB-H8lGKR-lPeMiR4w6A9XYR9ZLVjX8ovu8CjrFh6dwLSUTNdhkYzDzmkZpuLlxZq-wlECE/s1600/elvisdiedforyoursinsBAND+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmgx09DVCKVUttvXXSdMOj-_Po2rGJqjJQidPNCbbFNGL1MS1sT3UBglNfaJ5MP4OH8EhrbB-H8lGKR-lPeMiR4w6A9XYR9ZLVjX8ovu8CjrFh6dwLSUTNdhkYzDzmkZpuLlxZq-wlECE/s320/elvisdiedforyoursinsBAND+%25281%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>Band photo courtesy Elvis Died For Your Sins </i></div>
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Of all the reeking, noxious terms left in flaming paper bags on the doorstep of the wine drinker by the hacks and cogs of the industry (i.e. writers, marketers, sales sluts, and the occasional semiliterate sommelier) are there any more posturing, more absurd than "rock star winemaker"?<br />
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I'm not referring to famous musicians who signed off on a marketing program after quickly pounding glasses of the three different blends offered them in an attempt to give the product a bouquet of authenticity, and I'm certainly not referring to winemakers with discernible musical talent.* No, it is the ludicrous claim that the common possession of hair, personality and a microphone make one like the other. It does not. Nor does a bad drug habit, especially if acquired by a bad winemaker.** Working a crowd is the provenance of stand up comedians, motivational speakers, and recently paroled salesmen at seminars; while musicians may do so, it is not their primary activity, unless they suck.*** If a winemaker is like a musician, the comparison should rather be with the serious guitarist working on his masterpiece in the studio for months unto years, not the howling clown deafening a horde of unruly drunks with the same stupid song he's been performing for decades.</div>
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Though when was the last time you heard a winemaker say something original?</div>
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<i>* Among whom I can be numbered, as an audience consisting of my loyal fans quickly discerns that I have almost no talent in the few moments before my "voice" burns out and/or I forget the lyrics. </i></div>
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<i>** We do not confuse Dee Dee Ramone with - well, there used to be two Paso vintners named Shannon. I refer to the forcibly retired one.</i></div>
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<i>*** Something my loyal fans yell at high volume when I'm onstage; to acknowledge the accuracy of their judgement and their saliva, I stage-dive on them. I'm quite good at that, at least.</i></div>
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Stillman Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691385422597182522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869021492923492440.post-19047519755252112662015-09-15T16:56:00.001-07:002016-04-24T19:18:16.367-07:00The third and last of the series: The Corporate Winery<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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"You're from . . . Franzia?"<br />
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To conclude our series, we will examine the type of winery that's responsible for most of the world's swill. CORPORATE OH NO! Skip the addled graduate student's anti-capitalist screed: what passed for Soviet wine was
capable of producing a hangover ten minutes before the initial buzz, and
Hitler's little known attempt to produce a "People's Wine" under the motto "Ein
Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Riesling" wound up overheating the cooling systems of
Panzer tanks. <br />
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Corporate Winery often began as one or more Authentic wineries, became
successful and was purchased: sometimes by Jess' a vain ol' empire builder not
content to have unleashed a tsunami of sweetened Chardonnay upon the cougars of
the world, and sometimes by a multinational marketing company that has
since changed hands so often that key cogs no longer know where some of their
vineyards are. Some retain some authenticity, but at least the winemaker's checks don't bounce.</div>
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Corporate wineries are <i>usually</i> successful at brand-building and Sales! and indeed, the wines
sometimes increase in quality, though this is not the case if the Czar-E-O issues an order that no winemaker will be allowed to set foot in the vineyards without prior permission from the Kendall-Kremlin. (More leaves and more clusters meant more wine and more money went his reasoning.) When they are not successful, it might be found advantageous to their Treasury (ahem) to inter thousands of cases of their wine (some of it excellent) in
landfills because projections were missed and their Mafioso distributors returned the wine. <br />
I did not make that up.</div>
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Stillman Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691385422597182522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869021492923492440.post-30748131345993547382015-08-25T20:00:00.000-07:002015-08-26T14:19:31.095-07:00Part 2 of a series "There are three kinds of wineries in this world, my friend . . ." The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, a.k.a. the Authentic, the Vanity, and the Corporate.<br />
(In Cal-Ital, we call them Il Buono, Il Brutto, y El Nino.)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiP2DUlE82mIoHoc_9P2cTz_OSWJUpfRo7JtJEVIG6cJEazfLfYyhvYixIBYmDgoP2EkMPIOcxkMNMLTUJqg3a2knqTLxufbLQogtuLvKFxLCfC-KeUBkxS4GM8y3m5N5Z0WK1qm6qj2o/s1600/uglygood.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiP2DUlE82mIoHoc_9P2cTz_OSWJUpfRo7JtJEVIG6cJEazfLfYyhvYixIBYmDgoP2EkMPIOcxkMNMLTUJqg3a2knqTLxufbLQogtuLvKFxLCfC-KeUBkxS4GM8y3m5N5Z0WK1qm6qj2o/s320/uglygood.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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In the scene above, the Vanity winery moves in next to the Authentic winery; the guns represent the huge, deep new wells they drill, enabling them to flood their acreage in July in the middle of a drought and plant nursery-started green-growing vines instead of dormant cuttings in spring. They're in a hurry! <br />
Soon afterward, the Authentic winery's wells go dry.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjzvDnpQQaizFGL72CMEWNuQWt0xu1dV6sionxxl5LR6xL_g-Tp3PdJQuh5aPJJJWiygWx0fv-0feqcssx3nQu0f8zhTX9dZfPy2MQAIVUHe7bpJzRdRmcp6QD0qWJqT0xI6eASskKRTA/s1600/drought.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="162" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjzvDnpQQaizFGL72CMEWNuQWt0xu1dV6sionxxl5LR6xL_g-Tp3PdJQuh5aPJJJWiygWx0fv-0feqcssx3nQu0f8zhTX9dZfPy2MQAIVUHe7bpJzRdRmcp6QD0qWJqT0xI6eASskKRTA/s400/drought.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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"Hey, what happened to my vineyard?!?"</div>
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The Vanity Winery's owner got rich doing
something supremely, somnolently boring and/or utterly odious, according to your perspective, dear reader, (real estate development, environmental law, waste disposal, rock band management) and
is heavily motivated to start his winery by the hoped-for purchase of social status and the drowning of nightmares. (There are female examples of the type, but 'exceptio probat regulam'; they are rare and will go unmentioned.) <br />
The tasting room and offices generally represent an
obscenely large fraction of the winery's cost, and there are ostentatious
displays of questionable artworks that have no relation, symbolic or otherwise, to Elvis Presley.<br />
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Perhaps he wears a powerful cologne more expensive than any of his wines, but he almost always has little real knowledge of viticulture or enology; in the worst cases, he pretends to be or actually is the winemaker. (If the latter,
the visitor should be prepared to spit with 99.44% efficiency.) <br />
In extreme cases, the owner will be seen to use horses in place of a tractor in the vineyard when there are cameras present, much as the Hollywood Morgul drives a Prius by day and a Bugatti by night. In Napa, there will frequently be caves, unnatural, if not a Batmobile taking up valuable barrel space.</div>
Stillman Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691385422597182522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869021492923492440.post-91314694653923652162015-08-20T16:06:00.000-07:002015-08-20T17:45:49.110-07:00"You see, in this world there are three kinds of wineries, my friend . . .""The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly."<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnljUaoFzcs0i_1voTqY_VxC-Zk8lHv4_MU0vo36EN_owFjmnXeUcyZ1PHvCduc5ZJlb8GhkG33j-50xoC8Xbm71LNzMUc75xl3VSqE3V90Yo5Fslv_knbW0nxmImbKaT2q-TXtk7NP50/s1600/gbu2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnljUaoFzcs0i_1voTqY_VxC-Zk8lHv4_MU0vo36EN_owFjmnXeUcyZ1PHvCduc5ZJlb8GhkG33j-50xoC8Xbm71LNzMUc75xl3VSqE3V90Yo5Fslv_knbW0nxmImbKaT2q-TXtk7NP50/s320/gbu2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Just kidding - that's a takeoff on Clint Eastwood's line to Eli Wallach at the end of Sergio Leone's marinara masterpiece, and while a loaded (squirt)gun can be useful when confronted with an obnoxious wine writer, digging pomace is killing work.<br />
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Pardon me: that train of thought derailed before it left the station! I'll start over.<br />
The three kinds of wineries are:<br />
"The Authentic, the Vanity, and the Corporate."<br />
(There will be no pseudoscientific Venn diagrams here to tell you that the categories partially overlap - I just did. Other types of wineries we will ignore: e.g. Hopeless Amateur Vinegar Works.)<br />
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The Authentic Winery's owner and winemaker are often the same person; if not, the owner knows how to do some parts of the winemaker's job, not just lying to wine writers. If there is a pristine copy of a book on biodynamic wine somewhere on the property, perhaps hovering in midair or buried in a compost pile of unicorn dung, there is also a much-worn copy of Professor Emile Peynaud's textbook in office or lab. The wines are at least palatable, in proportion to the achievable quality in the region and the experience level of the Authentiste, and for the purposes of authenticity it matters not if the winery is in a garage in Bordeaux or a cement monolith on the edge of Death Valley. I withhold judgement on the winery in downtown Chicago, and no, I did not make that up. <br />
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The next blog post will discuss Vanity wineries, which are a lot funnier. Stay tuned!<br />
<br />Stillman Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691385422597182522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869021492923492440.post-66922006167605453692015-03-28T12:26:00.000-07:002015-04-01T11:24:11.484-07:00Colossal philosophy: thoughts on high-alcohol wines The recent reputational suicide of the critic Robert Parker, known for his love of high-extract, high-alcohol wines, has freed some of us to produce in this style without opening ourselves to charges of pandering to the Noseless Emperor, and I am one of those - though unlike Mr. Parker I didn't spend my college years dropping candy bars into tumblers of Everclear and slamming them down at parties. During my New Mexico enological sideshow in the '90's, I made a few wines under 12% in alcohol, as it seemed what the variety, chemistry, and ripeness required, and most of my best California wines of the last century (!) were under 14% ABV, though primarily Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. <br />
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Upon devoting my overtime oenological energies to California (I'd never stopped making wine here; our New Mexico harvests were in July leaving me free to return west in mid-August) and more importantly, moving to the Central Coast, I noticed that Syrah in particular often did not flavor-ripen until higher potential alcohols were reached, and in the case of the west Paso hills and mountains, the best examples were often over 16%. (Saxum is perhaps the prime example; I can say I was present at their creation while claiming no credit.) The La Mort Du Roi and Colossus wines, which have ranged from 16.1 to 17.5, have I think been in the same league, or ballpark to abuse the metaphor.</div>
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The percentage of alcohol by volume is usually the only scientifically derived number on a bottle of wine, and thus offers an easily misunderstood measure of its other features. The pretentions to expertise of wine writers being what they are, ignorant opinionation on the subject has multiplied like yeast cells in rich must over the last decades, and show no signs of stopping, though some of us smelled the off aromas of bad fermentation a long time ago.<br />
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"As is well known" the alcohol in the bottle is the result of the sugar in the grapes; without intervention the conversion rate is in the .55-.62 range, and so by reading the number on a label we can deduce a general idea of the ripeness of the grapes at harvest, remembering that Buellton is not Barstow nor Sonoma Sacramento, and of course accounting for the variety. The complicating factors make assumptions unreliable, to say the least: in wine as in so many other things, exceptio probat regulam: the exception probes the rule, puts it to the test, it does not prove or confirm it. (A different kind of 'proof' though related.) So to the anti-high-alcohol pontificators, let me offer the following:</div>
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If you're getting too buzzed from a glass or three of 16% alcohol wine, drink a bit less or add an ice cube. I won't judge you - much.</div>
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Some high-alcohol wines are 'flabby' - low in acid, low in tannin if red, and/or low in C02. That's not because of the alcohol. (Repeat.) This goes for other faults as well, all of which can be found in lower alcohol wines. Balance between structural elements is complex!<br />
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High alcohol wines aren't food-friendly? Who has a huge Shiraz with trout? Would you have a dry Rose of Grenache with a BBQ glazed tri-tip? If your sommelier suggested those pairings, he's just a busboy who won't shut the fuck up.<br />
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UPDATE: Several hours after writing this, one of my wines won a 'shootout' tasting at a swanky event in Solvang (Santa Ynez Valley, Santa Barbara) - over two dozen winemakers were asked to bring their 'best' wines, which were then tasted blind with each judge - the aforementioned winemakers, for the most part - being asked to vote for one wine. The winning wine was 17.5% alcohol, and the vote wasn't close. (It was a fraternal twin sister of the Colossus under one of my client's labels, different barrels being the only distinction.)</div>
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Stillman Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691385422597182522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869021492923492440.post-61914494638016989552014-12-21T09:02:00.001-08:002014-12-21T09:02:11.246-08:00SLACKER!Six months since my last post, really? And to think I've spent my pithy wit on the ephemeral FB (I don't Twitter, and Instagram keeps self-deleting on my iPhone). Below, one of my newer creations, though the wine is identical to the Pink Zeppelin with the Swilly Idle label. I couldn't resist.<br />
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Stillman Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691385422597182522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869021492923492440.post-73600458969290961572014-06-28T10:04:00.001-07:002014-06-28T10:04:43.442-07:00One of the ten best red wines I've made in thirty years, but I like it too!<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span class="style291"><span style="font-family: "Californian FB","serif"; font-size: 16pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Estrangelo Edessa"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="style291"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span>Behold, the
amazing 2013 Stillman “Zeppelin” Pinot Noir, San Luis Obispo
County.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Californian FB","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Estrangelo Edessa";"><span style="font-size: small;">100% Clone 777 Pinot Noir, alc. 14.9%, $60 retail – for strangers, which
you are not. (Vastly preferable club price via email, with mention of the Secret Password, at the bottom of this post.) The vineyard is extremely
cool-climate and very low yielding, 1.6
miles from the Pacific, above the town of San Simeon; I've had my eye on it for
several years but only picked twice.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Californian FB","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Estrangelo Edessa";"><span style="font-size: small;">This is a very powerful but balanced style of Pinot Noir, both very ripe
and deliciously tart. Denser and riper
than almost any other example of the variety, with very ripe red cherry,
blackberry and pepper, and a moderate amount of once used French oak. The nose is blatantly Pinot Noir; the
structure is rich, full and balanced with minimal tannins. It’s definitely one of the ten best red wines
I’ve made in my thirty years of enological malpractice. I’d be happy to prattle on and on, and may
write a long blog post about the wine, but it’s time to share it: $209/6 bottles, $399/12 bottles, temperature
controlled shipping included. Orders and questions, email me at StillmanB@aol.com</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Californian FB","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Estrangelo Edessa";"><span style="font-size: small;">The secret password is: lignification</span></span></div>
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Stillman Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691385422597182522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869021492923492440.post-7853903808557421162014-06-09T12:55:00.001-07:002014-06-09T16:25:02.403-07:00Wine competition judges and critics explained by an actual expert?As I thought it might, the 2014 Orange County Fair Commercial Wine Competition gave the 2013 Chateau d'Abalone Verdejo a silver medal; I received the notice by snail mail today. Having judged this California-only event since 1990, and other judgings open to international entries as well, I didn't take it too hard. The OCF is not a consensus judging, where assorted winemakers, chefs, sommeliers and writers bicker and bargain over what to give, say, PN#105 in price class M. The OCF has winemaker-only judges who score wines independently without discussion; numerical scores are crunched in a non-smoke-filled back room and medals are awarded later. At lunch, I overheard a judge on the panel that tasted the Vermentinos admit that she'd never had one before: not exceptional, but unfortunate, as she certainly judged a wine I made for a client who'd entered several. (Just found out that it actually did get a gold medal, so I really shouldn't complain.) <br />
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The Syrahs and Tempranillos I've done for this client have done exceptionally well in the last few years, by the way, and the Syrah, Tempranillo, Counoise and Vermentino did in fact win a gold medal at this same competition - the excellent Viognier only got a bronze despite that category being judged by my panel! If the other three judges gave the Verdejo 92 points and she gave it 82, it gets a silver - in a consensus judging it gets a gold. Oh well...<br />
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I only entered the wine at the direct request of the organizers, who guilted me into it. Making very small amounts of wine means running out, and regretting giving it away for unneeded hype when a customer wants a few bottles and there's none left. Critics ask for fewer bottles than competitions, but they naturally expect you to subscribe to or advertise in their publications, and that adds up too, and some of them are prima donnas who hold grudges against their betters for mocking them. (Some of them are even more arrogant than winemakers.) In the words of the great Rik Mayall (who passed away extremely recently) as Lord Squadron Leader Flashheart in "Black Adder": "Right! Let's dig out your best booze and talk about me till the car comes."Stillman Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691385422597182522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869021492923492440.post-62819631255405781782014-03-22T02:12:00.000-07:002014-05-24T13:29:40.727-07:00A flying V dream of acid rain?Of the great wine varieties*, I have the least knowledge and experience of Riesling in growth and production; learning by osmosis is another matter. In fact, this is only my second, the previous being the softer if not sweeter 2007 Red Zeppelin, also from Monterey. I did not grow or purchase these grapes: the fraction of the wine that was picked and fermented which bears my label was the result of what I am pleased to call consulting; my advice is worth its weight in copper sulfate. (Which was not needed here, should you wonder.) I wound up with barely more than a barrel's worth, though utterly unoaked; those wishing a few more details about the wine should read my email offering it for sale. The wine is acidic, and the vines didn't see a drop of rain from flowering until harvest.<br />
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'Fliegentraum' means 'flight dream' though the Germans don't make a single word of it; considering the language it's a miracle there's only one more letter for the same meaning, instead of a full paragraph. A hallucination would be another basis for the label's artwork, though in fact it started out as a different idea, was modified by a friend of the artist (and mine) after the piece was commissioned, and only named after the art was finished and the wine bottled. If it makes sense to you, please explain it to us.<br />
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The Flying V guitars in the upper right look something like the XB-70 Valkyrie bomber, said by some to be the loudest aircraft of all time; the Flying V guitar in the foreground is modeled after one owned by one of the members of the late great rock band, Meth Leppard.** They were pretty loud, too.<br />
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*I shouldn't have left out Chenin Blanc.<br />
** No relation, cover, or tribute to Def Leppard; Meth Leppard was an outstanding band in their own right, with one of the most outlandish and only partially misleading names since Dread Zeppelin.<br />
<br />Stillman Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691385422597182522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869021492923492440.post-58635167825273932252014-02-01T08:22:00.000-08:002014-02-01T08:26:13.393-08:00Apres moi, le deluge!Perhaps you've heard that California is experiencing a drought, which is true - Paso Robles got less rain last year than Death Valley does in some years. (Parenthetically, I am quite confident that I could make excellent wine there as well, if not on the salt flats.) So you ax, what does drought do to vineyards? <br />
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Generally, not a lot; Vitis Vinifera is quite drought resistant, most vineyards are drip-irrigated to optimize, according to the desires and knowledge of the management, the delivery of water to the vine, and old dry-farmed vines have roots that go deep into soil and rock. We're having a different problem - our water tables are down, and older, shallow wells are drying out.<br />
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One extremely well-financed (vanity) winery on the west side of town dug big new wells and drenched their hillsides with two feet of water last summer (irrigation can be measured in hours applied, and/or depth of the water used if conceived as a horizontal sheet coming down all at once) - though a wine grapevine in this area needs no more than ten or twelve inches a year, these people were in a hurry, wanted to plant new vines in the heat of the summer, and poured on the water to soften up the rocky hillside soils. A neighboring small winery and vineyard, which has been there for decades, saw their well go dry soon afterwards. </div>
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Other vineyards on the east side of town, some very large, are pumping major gallonage to sustain big yields from the vines - more water, more fertilizer, more leaves, more grapes, less flavor, coming to a grocery store near you. First the Flood, then the Ziggurat of stacked cases!</div>
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As this is California, the water lawsuits and politics will go on for decades, with one certain outcome: there will be more attorneys and politicians planting vineyards and building wineries with their cut of the loot. So you need a consultant? Well, let me interview you first.</div>
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Stillman Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691385422597182522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869021492923492440.post-10265120438310327762013-11-22T11:13:00.001-08:002013-11-22T11:13:30.163-08:00No closure on closures - Elvis' wine list?If you don't want to read about corks, skip down to the picture! <div>
A semi-brief technical matter before the entertainment, kids: some of you may have noticed that I have discontinued use of screwcap closures and have been using agglomerate corks of various shades and decorations as closures for the past few years, but not so-called 'natural' one-piece corks (except in one special circumstance which is immaterial to this discussion of materials). I am still supportive of screwcaps despite their physical vulnerability to a 'rim strike' on the bottle, but my mobile bottler has five lines with varying schedules, and only one has a machine that applies screwcaps. <div>
The producers of agglomerate corks have made tremendous progress over the last decade, after some false starts and one persistently flawed product, the "1+1" - identifiable by the relatively large (2-6mm) and irregular cork chunks that make up the bulk of the cork cylinder, and the thin disc of 1-piece cork at either end. The modern agglomerates, on the other hand, consist of small and relatively uniform cork pieces (under 2 mm) that have been carefully washed and purged of TCA and other contaminants. They may look cheap, but they can cost 2-5 times as much as a one piece 'natural' cork. (Of course, there are some very expensive "natural" corks available, and some producers of $100+ wines use them, but as there's no way to wash, purge, or reliably test one piece corks, they're playing Moldy Lotto.) My quality control method is simple - I get a sample bag from a producer whose website says the right things about the specifics of their production technology, and then I bite a cork in half. Sniff. Repeat until I get a bad one, or the bag's empty.</div>
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Something to drink while the King sweats? Chapoutier Tavel Rose, $12. Puligny Montrachet, $22. Two Cold Ducks! Printed only two years before his death; it's a shame he didn't ask a lovely young thing in the front row for one of these. </div>
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"Hey Charlie, get me one bottle of everything on this list, and I'll see what I like best. These damn pills are killin' me."</div>
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Stillman Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691385422597182522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869021492923492440.post-66319915535419937752013-11-17T17:38:00.000-08:002013-11-17T17:47:52.882-08:00Decanting For WankersThe decanter differs from the tastevin in that it is not completely useless; some elderly wines are so sedimentary that the assistance of a sommelier with a candle and an expensive piece of crystal can be entertaining, if not actually helpful. I've used a plastic pitcher for aeration and CO2 dissipation, upon occasion. For aged, dormant or juvenile wines, however, the use of a decanter is hit or miss - it can be a ramp strike.<br />
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Decanting, properly done, excludes most bottle sediments and exposes the wine to oxygen, but it does not replicate the anaerobic aging of wine in the bottle, facts known to all professionals and knowledgeable amateurs. What is less known, if in practice harder to employ, is that what we colloquially call the 'opening up' of a wine and, in the case of red wines, the softening (linking) of its tannins, is often best observed over a period of days, not the minutes or hours usually allowed by the use of a decanter in a restaurant, or at home when you have the best intentions but many an inquiring and parched guest. <br />
So, try this: open a dormant or young wine and pour a glass, then replace the cork. Wait a week. The effects are often far superior to decanting - as a simple test, leave the initial glass to breathe for an hour or so, and memorize it. If the wine is better a week later, well, there you are!<br />
This is a tried, if imperfectly true, test. For what it's worthless, this post was inspired by recent experiences with the "Deep Purple" Petite Sirah, and the "Longboard Ambassador" Pinot Noir, amazing to behold.</div>
Stillman Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691385422597182522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869021492923492440.post-73501254854699522242013-10-18T02:17:00.002-07:002013-10-18T02:17:41.721-07:00Harvest, bottle, harvest!As most of you will know from getting my emails, the 2013 Verdejo is already in the bottle - it went from grape to glass in five weeks, and another three weeks have passed since then; local winemakers with more experience than I (and this is my thirtieth harvest in California) have pretended to be impressed - they might not be, if they knew how much wine I lost in hurrying it along. In the meantime, I've also picked Viognier, Tempranillo, Tannat, an utterly fantastic Pinot Noir, Zinfandel (two clones) and Vermentino; all but the last two have finished fermenting. The Zinfandel 'stuck' at a far higher sugar than I've ever experienced, about 5 brix, leaving me with three options: attempt a referment with nutrients and an allegedly stronger yeast, blend with another wine in such a ratio as to almost guarantee refermentation to dry, or make a port.<br />
Of course I'll do all three - I have three barrels to play with, after all!<br />
The Vermentino isn't finished because it was picked recently; it's foaming along very nicely, with some beautiful exotic aromas. In about five hours, the Syrah 877 pick starts at Gill Vineyard; this is the wine that has produced the Colossus. Because we grafted over some of the miscreant Grenache to Alicante Bouschet last year, with the right blend I can produce, bottle and label another 'La Mort Du Roi' aka Dead Elvis wine (<a href="http://www.dreadzeppelin.com/elvisdiedforyoursins/index.html">elvisdiedforyoursins.com</a>)- as long as nothing changes on the label except the alcohol and the vintage, it need not be resubmitted to the Feds. And there's no sense taking that chance that some bureaucrat will make sense of the label, if indeed it makes sense to anyone but me. For that matter, it seems that Verdejo is not an 'approved variety' for American wine, notwithstanding that I am the third producer in California (but the only coastal one) the other wineries/growers having legally called it White Table Wine on the label and claimed that Verdejo was a 'fanciful name'. As the Chateau d'Abalone label was approved as a varietal Verdejo last year, this means I can't change anything but the vintage and alcohol without exposing myself to a considerable delay, or worse; a shame, as I would like to vineyard designate (Twin Coyote Vineyard).<br />
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<br />Stillman Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691385422597182522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869021492923492440.post-30918624895981334392013-09-19T21:48:00.003-07:002013-09-19T21:48:40.723-07:00Harvest in West Paso: the Colossus of Rhones at Gill.The Syrah leaves turn color before the grapes are ready to pick. The sugar levels, and consequent alcohols, may seem very high, but the acid levels maintain into the high 20s and sometimes higher. Flavors are also not fully developed at 'normal' levels, and the seeds aren't lignified yet. A cool year like 2011 gave us wine with an alcohol of 16.5%, probably as low as we'll see absent the threat of another typhoon!<br />
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Already picked: Verdejo, Viognier, Zinfandel (Dusi and Primitivo clones), Tempranillo, and Tannat, as well as Grenache Blanc and Syrah, Mourvedre, and Grenache for pink.<br />
Still to go: Vermentino, Pinot Noir, Counoise, Alicante Bouschet, Syrah, Petite Sirah, and a surprise or three. Most but not all of these are in West Paso.Stillman Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691385422597182522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869021492923492440.post-13134259439932672172013-07-24T16:48:00.001-07:002013-07-27T07:54:33.582-07:00Mr. Natural Wine<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Cartoonist Robert Crumb's best known character, Mr. Natural, was a cosmic con man, a spouter of acid-overdose aphorisms, a bearded pervert: perhaps the perfect spokesman for the latest wine trend to foam out the bunghole of a diseased barrel and cover the Internet. You've heard of organic wines, sulfite free wines, and biodynamic wines, so you're ready for "Natural" wine. Right?<br />
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To review: "Organic" wine regulations vary by nation, but generally mean no added sulfur in the winery. Because of this, the wines don't last long as a rule; while a small amount of added sulfur was allowed under the original definition, now the US limit is 10 parts per million, a fraction of what's in yogurt and dried fruit. "Biodynamic" means burying a cow horn full of magic crystals in the vineyard, and paying a license fee to a mercenary organization that follows the ravings of a dead Nazi lunatic. <br />
"Natural wine" means all, some, or none of the above, but it does suggest that anyone making wine who doesn't use this term is making "unnatural" wine: Monsanto Merlot, not to be consumed by those not wearing a tinfoil hat.<br />
Might I suggest as the next buzz term "Raw" wine, meaning wine that was never cooked - never left in a hot UPS truck for three hours, or in a warm kitchen for three days. Or it could mean grape juice, to which you are welcome to add pure, organic ethanol.<br />
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Whatever.</div>
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Stillman Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691385422597182522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869021492923492440.post-18757504748248783342013-07-14T14:15:00.000-07:002013-07-14T14:25:45.641-07:00Tasting room closure After almost two years, I've decided to close the Zeppelin Wine Hangar, which was officially the Red Zeppelin Winery tasting room, and unofficially the Stillman tasting room. I will be using a different venue for special wine tasting appointments, but I'm not disclosing the location unless contacted by an existing club member (a friend, family, fan or stalker) or someone vouched for by same.<br />
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<br />Stillman Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691385422597182522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869021492923492440.post-78819503767576551512013-07-07T16:13:00.002-07:002013-07-07T16:13:40.475-07:00Out of the archives: a wine competition judging story from 1997.<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: -1697in 2.-19in; text-align: center; text-align: center;">
<span lang="en-US" style="font-size: 16.0pt; language: en-US;">AN INSUFFICIENTLY SHORT EXCERPT FROM A 1997 EDITION OF <br />MY PRE-WEBSITE NEWSLETTER, “THE THIEF”, ABOUT AN INCIDENT AT A WINE COMPETITION<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">This took place at one of the (then, it's fallen on hard times) larger wine competitions in America, </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US;">the New World International, </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">where </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US;">the late Jerry Mead (although he was alive at the time) had </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">made me chairman of the panel that rate</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US;">d</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> the higher priced classes of Pinot Noir. </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US;">Mastermind, counterpart, and cohort, we</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> unanimously and independently selected an outstanding example of said varietal as the best of the most expensive wines, and picked an excellent wine as the best of the second-costliest class of Pinots. These wines were then forwarded to a “super-panel” made up of the three of us, the three-member panel that tasted the two classes of cheap Pinots, and some guy from Hawaii </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US;">or somewhere </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">that turned out to be a pervert. Our job: select the Number One Pinot Noir. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> We tasted the four wines, and voted as follows: first place wine, one point; second place, two points; etc. Although the outstanding wine got four of seven first-place votes, it came in second, as one of the other panel’s judges voted it last place. This judge, who was from a European country </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US;">not known for viticulture (and tulips make poor wine)</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> argued that the outstanding wine was terrible, that it would not have been considered worthy of an award in any European wine competition, blah, blah</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US;">, blah</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">. </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US;">He seemed to be rather excited. </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">As a run-off vote would have given “our” wine (I was its loudest champion, of course) the prize, this person wanted to settle the matter based upon the initial vote. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US;">We</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> summoned the Chief Judge</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US;">, </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">who</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">ruled in my favor on both wine and procedure</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US;"> despite the fact that the stubborn Dutchman was a buddy of his</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">. The winning wine turned out to be</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">the 1995 Fess Parker Pinot Noir, Reserve. Later, I asked the </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US;">wooden-shoed </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">judge if wine made from Pinot Noir didn’t deserve </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US;">as much or more </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">more stylistic leeway than other wines. I said, “Look at the variation in red Burgundy.” </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US;">He said,</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> “I hate Burgundy.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Stillman Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691385422597182522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869021492923492440.post-58927576977009575942013-06-04T13:11:00.000-07:002013-06-04T13:11:57.913-07:00One wine competition is not like the others . . .<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The oldest major wine competition in California does not allow sommeliers, writers, chefs or other inferior types as judges - only winemakers. That said, some of these guys haven't tripped over a hose in a long time, and another judge on my panel, who boasted that he serves at ten different judgings, had never heard of dimethyl dicarbonate?!?! (I gave him a minute's worth of information, and he continued to draw a blank.) <br />
Still, it's valuable and entertaining, and for two days I sat within ten feet of one of the best Central Coast Chardonnay and Pinot Noir producers, as well as the guy responsible for Two Buck Chuck. The judging format is different from most competitions in that there is no consensus or conference - you taste, write down a score and recommended medal, and move on. <br />
Having judged there since 1990, I'm usually rewarded with some of the more obscure varietals, see above. Stillman Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691385422597182522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869021492923492440.post-61733142176079070942013-05-09T17:53:00.000-07:002013-05-09T17:53:14.457-07:00Elvis' PharmacyAlmost everyone who reads this blog either gets my emailed enological spam, or reads 1-10% of my Facebook posts, which fall into 666 simple categories. So I try to write posts on my blog that are perhaps of more lasting importance than the ephemera I broadcast in those see-em-and-ignore-em manners.<div>
This isn't one of those posts. </div>
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THE PARTY IS ONLY ELEVEN DAYS AWAY? WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?</div>
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Oh yeah, my private jet to pick you up, and the Zeppelin guest house to say in. Maybe next year?</div>
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That oversaid:</div>
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Stillman Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691385422597182522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869021492923492440.post-84330009860898226492013-03-24T09:47:00.000-07:002013-03-24T09:47:02.713-07:00A viticultural obituary, Dr. Keith Patterson, Cal Poly SLO<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A friend, an adviser, a man always ready to set foot in a remote vineyard site or dirtbag party venue. <br />
Critics and winemakers get the wolverine's share of the attention in the wine world, but much of the tremendous innovation in viticulture and enology over the last decades has been driven by academics. Emile Peynaud was my first guide to winemaking, and judging with Davis and Fresno professors has been instructive, but Keith answered my text messages - about clones, pests, impromptu concerts, and sadly, his health just a few weeks ago. He died Thursday.<br />
Above photo taken at Swillapalooza, 10/6/07Stillman Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691385422597182522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869021492923492440.post-63257746945673528632013-03-18T06:35:00.000-07:002013-03-31T23:16:51.437-07:00Deep Purple Stillman Petite Sirah<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Young and powerful, more tannic than the large majority of the reds I've made in almost three decades in almost three states, but it smooths down quickly - well, in three days. Really, assuming you've opened the bottle and poured a third or so out. Numerology? Well, no, and notice the NV - some of the swill is from the last harvest, a third or so press wine and thus somewhat more tannic. Did I say young and powerful?Stillman Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691385422597182522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869021492923492440.post-17926125046605334482013-03-03T09:16:00.003-08:002013-03-03T09:21:15.208-08:00From Elvis Island to Easter Island Graceland<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1sXhqeTy4sfopJ90N9TURUErivWIYGb0e0_l1GAYVSNQKpk6e3e7G-w3mgNP1J1shBeiArSyaAYGuVVTgPU4NyK7EPYUU51Wz8yMgHX3xZ87KoohOgaoloDbw7KF4x-AFApF_7qjU1H8/s1600/easterstreet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1sXhqeTy4sfopJ90N9TURUErivWIYGb0e0_l1GAYVSNQKpk6e3e7G-w3mgNP1J1shBeiArSyaAYGuVVTgPU4NyK7EPYUU51Wz8yMgHX3xZ87KoohOgaoloDbw7KF4x-AFApF_7qjU1H8/s320/easterstreet.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Just moved house from Elvis Island to Easter Island Graceland, not far as the Zeppelin flies, but the new place is in the zone of perpetual surf sound. A lot, lot closer to the beach, so to speak; this is the view from the end of the street, and the end of the street is a hundred feet away. That's the headland above the abalone farm in the distance, the view is to the NW, where the storms come from. Below, view from the front yard:<br />
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<br />Stillman Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691385422597182522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869021492923492440.post-39775818364610607702012-12-04T17:57:00.001-08:002012-12-04T17:57:18.179-08:00Five Pink Zeppelins<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Here's the latest Pink Zeppelin, the fifth I've made; I've been calling it 'Cranberry Chardonnay' to distinguish its style from my previous swill of similar color. I actually didn't make a pink wine until my 20th harvest (not counting New Mexico wines) in 2003, and only a half-barrel; it was a from a very cool climate Syrah from Aptos, and I ruthlessly chaptalized it to over 15% alcohol. Peppery and powerful, it sadly lasted only six or eight months; happily it was almost all gone by then. The next year I overproduced a Grenache/Syrah/Mourvedre blend that was only about 12% alcohol; it won a pack of gold medals and best of classes in competition, but since I'd made four hundred cases of it at the height of the first Pink Wine Hype in the media and trade, it took over a year to sell out. Fortunately (well, and by design) it was both crisper and more stable, and didn't diminish in quality. I took a few years off, and then made another in the same style, which also did very well in competition. Since I made quite a bit less, it didn't burden my conscience and my warehouse bill quite as much. Last year, the inability of the Grenache at the 'Colossus of Rhones' vineyard to ripen enough to make red wine led me to make a very small lot (68 cases) of Grenache dominated pink that was really amazing, though not repeatable - we grafted the block over to Vermentino and Alicante Bouschet, neither of which will find their way into any plausibly pink wine in the future. So I have returned to the mass-market model (ha) by making this wine, 102 cases of Syrah/Mourvedre/Grenache /Cinsault, which is both darker and rounder than all but the first wine. It's pretty sexy, you should have some. Actually, I'll have some right now.Stillman Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691385422597182522noreply@blogger.com