The average wine consumer has no idea what it means for a wine to be organic. And when it comes to Biodynamic wines, most wine drinkers have never even heard of them. But that doesn't matter, because an increasing number of the most sought-after, expensive wines in the world are biodynamically produced, which means that biodynamics is one of the most significant modern trends in global winemaking.

The only problem (for those who care) is that biodynamic winemaking involves a maddening, paradoxical mixture of scientifically sound farming practices and utterly ridiculous new-age mysticism. If you want to know just how kooky it can get, you might be interested in a recent feature on biodynamic wine in SF Weekly, which dives into detail on the cow skulls stuffed with oak bark left in a hole; the red deer bladders filled with yarrow flowers buried in compost piles; the proscriptions to burn insects in the vineyards only during certain proper planetary alignment; and the claims that the moon should determine when you put your wine into new barrels.

Of course, if you actually believe in biodynamics, you now hate my guts along with Joe Eskenazi, the author of the aforementioned article which is entitled Voodoo on the Vine.

Joe's angle on biodynamic winemaking will draw criticism for focusing only on the strangest parts of an elaborate farming and winemaking methodology. His (and my) detractors would be justified in complaining at the sensationalism of a few practices, and a few predilections of the methods inventor, while many, even most biodynamic winemaking principles are the same as good old organic farming.

But that is precisely the problem. Most biodynamic farming principles make sense because they are the same as scientifically grounded organic farming (e.g. don't use pesticides; let the sheep take care of the weeds and fertilize the soil; etc.). But then the whole system is undermined by the use of, and rationalization for, special preparations and actions that are not only bizarre in their conception, but explained by the worst kind of pseudo-scientific quasi-religious gobbledygook that you could possible imagine.

You can't imagine how angry this makes me. You see, I love biodynamic wine. Some of my favorite wines in the world; some of the best wines I have ever tasted in my life; some of the wineries that seem to consistently make some of the highest quality wines I have ever experienced are produced biodynamically, and I don't believe this is a coincidence.

This is what Joe Eskenazi did not include in his article, perhaps because he's not fully immersed in the world of wine. While he rightfully points out, with the appropriate level of cynicism, the fact that some wine producers are moving to make biodynamic wine because they think it will sell better, there are many more producers who have been making wine biodynamically for years, even decades without ever telling anyone about it, least of all the people who buy their wine. These winemakers are some of the smartest, most talented folks in the wine industry. The only reason they would possibly be producing wine biodynamically (which Eskenazi's article points out is much more labor, time, and cost intensive than any other farming method) must be that they believe they make better wine that way.

There are two types of people in the world. Those who believe that while science is not perfect, it is the most powerful interpretation that we have found of the world around us, and those who believe that there are better explanations for what we observe in the natural world than science can provide. I am very much a member of the first group. There's a lot we don't know about the world yet, and there are a lot of really interesting interpretations about how things work, but the scientific method produces the most reliable interpretations of what is real and what is true that I know of. I (and pretty much everyone in a first world nation, whether they know it or not) trust my life to that fact nearly every moment of every single day.

And that belief I hold is precisely the source of my unending frustration with biodynamic wine. I think it's good stuff. But I know it's not good for the reasons that the people who make it, and the people who tell them how to make it, say it is. The claims of the philosophy that underlies biodynamic wine growing, and the specific explanations for various prescriptions of the farming and winemaking process are just plain wrong. They can be proved wrong, in some cases simply with a calculator, but in all cases by rigorous scientific enquiry.

Which is why I keep hoping that someone will come up with Biodynamics Lite™: a kinder, gentler form of biodynamic winemaking that throws out all the bullshit, and sticks to the things that science tells us will actually work.

I plan on continuing to drink more and more biodynamic wine, and encourage everyone who loves wine to do so as well. I just hope there is a day when I don't have to roll my eyes a little every time I see the word on a wine label, or bite my fist as a winemaker proudly tells me that the reason I love his wine is due to the fact that he completely avoided the dueling vortices when he mixed his preparation of ground up quartz crystals.

Read the full article in SF Weekly.

My friend Jack at Fork & Bottle has the most complete list of biodynamic wine producers that I know of.

One of the greatest experiences that a wine lover can encounter is a wine that stops them in their tracks. I'll admit that I'm excitable in general, but there's nothing that gets me quite so giddy as a schoolboy as when I stumble across a wine that truly bowls me over. Such wines are the closest I get anymore to the emotions of that first passionate kiss in a new relationship -- they electrify me. While the world slows down to a crawl around me, all I want to do is stick my nose in the glass and inhale slowly.

This is one of those wines. I was minding my own business, tasting away through a public wine tasting in San Francisco. As a matter of course, I marched up to the Guigal table, and tasted through what they had to offer, like I have done before at other tastings. I enjoy Guigal wines a great deal, especially their more exclusive bottlings.

But while I've had Guigal wines that have been great, even exceptional, I've never had one knock me on my ass in quite the same way as this wine did when I put it in my mouth.

Etienne Guigal founded his winery in the tiny Northern Rhone village of Ampuis in 1946. The vineyards he purchased to begin producing wine had been growing grapes for as long as anyone can remember. So long that some of the stone walls in the fields dated back more than 2400 years to Roman times.

The enterprising 32-year-old Guigal was no stranger to the wine business when he bought his first vineyard, having worked as a winemaker for several years before striking out on his own. By the time his blindness forced him to turn operations over to his son in the Sixties, he had personally worked more than 67 vintages.

The estate is now beginning its third generation of family ownership, and is widely recognized as one of the top wine producers in both the region, and the world. From its humble beginnings, the estate has grown to sizable proportions, or what amounts to sizable proportions in the relatively small appellations of the region. The estate now owns vineyards in Côte-Rôtie, Condrieu, Hermitage, Crozes-Hermitage, and Saint-Joseph, and buys a significant amount of fruit from producers all over the region.

I'm not entirely sure of the estate's current production levels but they are somewhere north of 340,000 cases, with the bulk of that being wines made from purchased grapes. The wines are currently made by Philippe Guigal and his father Marcel.

This particular wine is 95% Syrah and 5% Viognier, culled from some of the oldest blocks among 6 of Guigal's vineyards:

Le Clos "Côte Blonde",
La Garde "Côte Blonde",
La Grande Plantée "Côte Blonde",
La Pommière "Côte Brune",
Le Pavillon Rouge "Côte Brune",
Le Moulin "Côte Brune"

Some of these vineyards were planted in the early 16th century. Of course, they have been replanted over the ages, and the average age of the vines now is around 50 years. While the vineyards are not certified, they are essentially farmed organically.

The grapes for the wine are hand harvested, meticulously sorted, destemmed, and then undergo a cold soak for sometimes more than a month before fermentation is allowed to begin in steel tanks. After fermentation, the juice is transferred to the estate's own barrels (since 2003 the estate has run its own cooperage on the property) where it ages for at least 38 months before bottling.

Tasting Notes:
Medium garnet in color, this wine leaps out of the glass, grabs you by the scruff of the neck and drags your ass into a field in the middle of southern France and then stands back laughing as you stumble blissfully among sage, lavender, rosemary, and a small lake of fresh cassis. In the mouth the wine is equally explosive with an incredibly juicy core of cassis that is riddled with crystalline, granitic minerality. Perfectly balanced, with the texture of satin, and tannins that don't grip so much as they caress. And just when you think it can't get any better, the floral notes from the Viognier sweep in like valkyries to carry you away into the finish. Please, sir, may I have another? This is definitely the best current vintage of Côte-Rôtie I have ever tasted.

Food Pairing:
I'd love to drink this with a slow roasted leg of lamb with rosemary.

Overall Score: between 9.5 and 10.

How Much?: $130

This wine is available for purchase on the Internet.

I went to South Africa to learn about South African wine, and the primary way for me to do that is to taste. So taste I did -- probably more than 500 wines by the end of the week -- spending two full days going from booth to booth at the Cape Wine 2008 expo trying to taste a wide cross section of South African wine while at the same time making sure to hit some of the producers I knew were among South Africa's best.

The end result? Scores for more than 350 wines, and a very rapid education indeed. I got a sense of which varietals seemed to shine (Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Bordeaux Blends, and some Syrahs) and which were struggling to find proper expression (Chenin Blanc, Pinotage, Merlot, among others). I also began to get a sense of the various wine growing regions and the range of styles that winemakers were using.

I've provided my detailed conclusions in a previous post, which I encourage you to read if you haven't followed the entire series of my posts from South Africa. But to summarize, South Africa falls somewhere between up-and-coming and world-class. There are some excellent wines being made in the country (along with a lot of just mediocre stuff), but few wines that I found to be knock-my-socks-off good.

Having said that, however, South Africa seems to me to be one of the major sources of wine values left on the planet. As you can see by some of the prices with my notes below, there are some tremendous wines to be had in the $20-30 price range, at a level of quality that would result in prices at least twice that high were the wines from Napa, for instance.

In addition to my usual lineup of scores, I have included tasting notes for some of the wines that I found most interesting or compelling, and provided links to purchase some of my favorites. Many of these wines are sadly not yet imported into the United States, or imported very selectively, so I apologize in advance for any you may get excited about only to find that they are not available to you.

Without further ado, here are my scores and tasting notes for the more than 350 wines I tasted at the Cape Wine 2008 event, which it took me more than a month to write up here. Please note that the price ranges are rough guidelines provided by the producers, not the actual range of pricing for a given wine.

White Wines

WHITE WINES WITH A SCORE AROUND 9.5

2007 Sequillo Cellars White Blend.
Light gold in the glass, this unusual blend of Chenin Blanc, Grenache Blanc, Viognier, and Roussanne has a surprising nose of white peaches, star fruit, and greenish tropical fruit aromas that are tough to pin down. In the mouth the wine is nothing short of gorgeous. Lovely, silky texture carries flavors of peaches and honeysuckle that are balanced perfectly with a mineral acidity so that the whole wine resonates through a long finish that leaves a simple, lowercase, "wow" at the end of my scribbled notes from the day. $35. Where to buy?

2007 Ken Forrester Wines "T Noble Late Harvest" Chenin Blanc.
Amber gold in the glass, this wine has an explosive nose of apricots and honey that you can smell from three feet away. On the tongue it is liquid satin gold, draping itself like a discarded negligee over the palate and oozing flavors of orange blossom, apricots and honey. Oozing might not be the right word, however, as this wine has amazing acidity that puckers the cheeks and juices the tastebuds until they cry out for more. Incredibly limited production means that this is made in quantities approaching 50 cases each year. $55. Where to buy?

WHITE WINES SCORING BETWEEN 9 AND 9.5
2007 Kleinood "Tamboerskloof" Viognier.
Pale gold in the glass, this wine has a very mineral nose of peaches, gold cream and wet granite aromas. In the mouth it is bright and luscious with great acidity and flavors of white peaches crushed minerals and hints of white flowers and citrus zest. Delicious and well balanced with none of the clunky characteristics that are so often found in New World Viognier. $5-7.

2008 Graham Beck Wines "Gamekeeper's Reserve" Chenin Blanc.
Pale gold in the glass this wine has a nose of freshly cut pears and apples. In the mouth it is bright and lean with flavors of pears, caramel apples, and hints of cinnamon. Remarkable and delicious. $30-50.

2007 Ataraxia Wines Chardonnay.
Light green-gold in the glass, this wine has a pungent nose of warm leather and cold cream aromas. In the mouth it is crystalline with acidity which serves up mouth puckering flavors of lemon curd, lemon zest and grapefruit juice -- a concoction of refreshing, delicious flavors that swirls through a long finish. Outstanding. $38. Where to buy?

2007 Vins D'Orrance "Cuvee Anais" Chardonnay.
Light gold in the glass, this wine smells of cold cream and lemon custard, making my mouth water before I even taste it. On the palate it is firm and weighty, smooth and bright with lemon curd, cold cream, and a strong mineral quality that is as surprising as it is delicious. $30. Where to buy?

2007 Sadie Family Wines "Palladius" White Blend.
Light gold in color, this wine has a nose of wet granite, clover honey, and lemon blossom scents. In the mouth it is angular and explosively bright with juicy lemon-flavored acidity and lean mineral qualities that mellow into cold cream and soft texture as the wine finishes lovely and long. $40. Where to buy?

2007 Ken Forrester Wines "The FMC" Chenin Blanc.
Light gold in color, this wine has a gorgeous nose of white flowers, honey, and fresh, ripe pear aromas. In the mouth it is crisp and just slightly off-dry, with lightly sweet flavors of poached pear and flowers that linger in a long, long finish. Likely a beautiful cheese wine. $49. Where to buy?

2007 Ses'fikile Wines "Matriarch" Sauvignon Blanc. $??.
2006 Cape Point Vineyards "Isliedh" Sauvignon Blanc. $30. Where to buy?
2007 Cape Point Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc. $7-14. Where to buy?

WHITE WINES WITH A SCORE AROUND 9
2006 Mulderbosch Vineyards "Barrel Fermented" Chardonnay. $50 or more
2007 Mulderbosch Vineyards "Steen op Hout" Chenin Blanc. $14-30
2006 Simonsig Wine Estate "Kaapse Vonkel" Pinot Noir. $14-30
2008 Avondale Bio-LOGIC & Organic Wines Chenin Blanc. $7-14
2007 Avondale Bio-LOGIC & Organic Wines "The Weir" Chardonnay. $14-30
2008 Painted Wolf Wines "Castle View" Viognier. $30-50
2007 La Motte Chardonnay. $14-30
2006 De Wetshof Estate "Estate Bateleur" Chardonnay. $50 or more
2008 Graham Beck Wines "Pheasants Run" Sauvignon Blanc. $30-50
2003 Graham Beck Wines "Cuvee Clive Sparkling Wine" Chardonnay. $??
2005 Springfield Estate "Wild Yeast" Chardonnay. $14-30
2008 Vergelegen "Reserve" Sauvignon Blanc. $30-50
2008 Franschhoek Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc. $7-14
NV Quando Sauvignon Blanc. $14-30
2007 Hamilton Russell Vineyards Chardonnay. $22
2008 Mischa Estate "Eventide Cellar" Viognier. $14-30
2008 Cederberg Private Cellars Bukettraube. $??
2006 Cederberg Private Cellars "Five Generations" Chenin Blanc. $??
2008 Cederberg Private Cellars "Ghost Corner David Nieuwoudt" Sauvignon Blanc. $??
2008 Beyerskloof Sauvignon Blanc. $??
2007 Hartenberg Estate Sauvignon Blanc. $7-14
2007 Hartenberg Estate Weisser Riesling. $7-14
2007 Paul Cluver Wine Estate Chardonnay. $30-50
2007 The Winery of Good Hope "Black Rock White Blend" Chenin Blanc. $30-50
2004 Cape Point Vineyards Sauvingon Blanc. $??
2005 Cape Point Vineyards "Isliedh" Sauvingon Blanc. $??
2007 L'Avenir Chardonnay. $14-30
2007 L'Avenir Chenin Blanc. $14-30
2008 Ken Forrester Wines Sauvignon Blanc. $14-30

WHITE WINES SCORING BETWEEN 8.5 AND 9
2007 Rudera Wines Chenin Blanc. $??
2005 Mulderbosch Vineyards Chardonnay. $30-50
2007 Mulderbosch Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc. $30-50
2008 Simonsig Wine Estate "Sunbird" Sauvignon Blanc. $14-30
2007 Avondale Bio-LOGIC & Organic Wines "Green Duck - The Dutchess" Chenin Blanc. $14-30
2008 Avondale Bio-LOGIC & Organic Wines Sauvignon Blanc. $7-14
2008 Painted Wolf Wines White Blend. $??
2008 La Motte "Pierneef" Sauvignon Blanc. $30-50
2008 De Wetshof Estate "Danie de Wet Limestone Hill" Chardonnay. $14-30
2005 De Wetshof Estate "D'Honneur" Chardonnay. $30-50
2008 Graham Beck Wines Sauvignon Blanc. $14-30
2005 Graham Beck Wines "Brut Blanc de Blancs Sparkling Wine" Chardonnay. $??
NV Graham Beck Wines "Bliss Demi-Sec Sparkling Wine". $??
2005 Springfield Estate "Methode Ancienne" Chardonnay. $30-50
2008 Springfield Estate "Special Cuvee" Sauvignon Blanc. $14-30
2008 Klein Constantia Estate Sauvignon Blanc. $14-30
2007 Steenberg Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc. $14-30
2007 Barton Vineyards Chenin Blanc. $??
2008 Barton Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc. $??
2007 Uva Mira Vineyards "Single Vineyard" Chardonnay. $30-50
2007 Vergelegen Chardonnay. $14-30
2007 Vergelegen Chardonnay. $30-50
2008 Vergelegen Sauvignon Blanc. $14-30
2007 Vergelegen Semillon. $30-50
2007 Franschhoek Vineyards Chenin Blanc. $7-14
2008 Waterford Estate Sauvignon Blanc. $20
2007 Lammershoek Winery Chenin Blanc. $14-30
2007 Lammershoek Winery "Roulette Blanc" Chenin Blanc. $14-30
NV Iona Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc. $14-30
2008 Southern Right Sauvignon Blanc. $14-30
2007 Bouchard Finlayson "Crocodile's Lair / Kaaimansgat" Chardonnay. $30-50
2008 Cederberg Private Cellars Chenin Blanc. $??
2005 Hartenberg Estate "The Elanor" Chardonnay. $30-50
2008 Ataraxia Wines Sauvignon Blanc. $??
2008 Paul Cluver Wine Estate Gewurztraminer. $14-30
2008 Paul Cluver Wine Estate Sauvignon Blanc. $14-30
2008 The Winery of Good Hope "Land of Hope" Chenin Blanc. $14-30
2006 Cape Point Vineyards Semillon. $14-30
2008 Cape Point Vineyards "Stonehaven" Sauvignon Blanc. $5-7
2008 Ken Forrester Wines "Petit" Chenin Blanc. $5-7
2007 Jordan Winery Chenin Blanc. $14-30
2007 Jordan Winery "Nine Yards" Chardonnay. $30-50

WHITE WINES WITH A SCORE AROUND 8.5
2007 Rudera Wines Chenin Blanc. $??
2007 Simonsig Wine Estate Chardonnay. $14-30
2008 Simonsig Wine Estate Chenin Blanc. $7-14
NV Avondale Bio-LOGIC & Organic Wines "Brut Methode Cap Classique" Chardonnay. $14-30
2008 La Motte Sauvignon Blanc. $14-30
2008 De Wetshof Estate "Lesca" Chardonnay. $14-30
2008 Springfield Estate "Life From Stone" Sauvignon Blanc. $14-30
2007 Klein Constantia Estate "Rhine Riesling" Riesling. $14-30
2007 Steenberg Vineyards Semillon. $30-50
2006 Barton Vineyards Chenin Blanc. $??
2006 Ses'fikile Wines "Rain Song" Chenin Blanc. $??
2008 Uva Mira Vineyards "Cellar Selection" Sauvignon Blanc. $14-30
2008 M'hudi Sauvignon Blanc. $16
2007 Meerlust Estate Chardonnay. $30-50
2007 Dombeya Wines Chardonnay. $7-14
2008 Franschhoek Vineyards Chardonnay. $7-14
2007 Fairview Viognier. $??
2008 Waterford Estate "Pecan Stream" Chenin Blanc. $12
2007 Waterford Estate Chardonnay. $24
2005 Bon Cap Organic Wines "MCC" Chardonnay. $7-14
2007 Jason's Hill Private Cellar Viognier. $5
2007 Iona Vineyards Chardonnay. $14-30
2008 Bouchard Finlayson "Blanc de Mer" Weisser Riesling. $7-14
2007 Bouchard Finlayson "Sans Barrique" Chardonnay. $14-30
2008 Bouchard Finlayson "Walker Bay" Sauvignon Blanc. $14-30
2008 Mischa Estate "Eventide Cellar" Sauvignon Blanc. $14-30
2007 Cederberg Private Cellars "Ghost Corner David Nieuwoudt" Semillon. $??
2007 The Winery of Good Hope "Vinum" Chenin Blanc. $14-30
2007 The Winery of Good Hope" Radford Dale" Viognier. $??
2008 L'Avenir Sauvignon Blanc. $14-30
2008 Ken Forrester Wines "Petit" Chenin Blanc. $14-30
2008 Jordan Winery "Chameleon" Sauvignon Blanc. $14-30
2007 Jordan Winery Chardonnay. $14-30
2008 Jordan Winery Sauvignon Blanc. $14-30

WHITE WINES SCORING BETWEEN 8 AND 8.5
2008 De Wetshof Estate "Estate Bon Vallon" Chardonnay. $14-30
2007 Scali Chenin Blanc. $24
2008 Dombeya Wines Sauvignon Blanc. $5-7
NV Bon Cap Organic Wines "The Ruins" Sauvignon Blanc. $5
NV Quando Chenin Blanc. $14-30
2008 Cederberg Private Cellars Sauvignon Blanc. $??
2008 Beyerskloof Chenin Blanc. $5-7

WHITE WINES WITH A SCORE AROUND 8
2008 RAKA Chenin Blanc. $??

WHITE WINES SCORING BETWEEN 7.5 AND 8
2008 Teddy Hall Wines Chenin Blanc. $?? 7.75
NV Bon Cap Organic Wines "The Ruins" Chardonnay. $5 7.75
2008 Jordan Winery "Bradgate" Sauvignon Blanc. $?? 7.75

WHITE WINES WITH A SCORE UNDER 7.5
2008 Springfield Estate "Firefinch" Sauvignon Blanc. $7-14
2008 Barton Vineyards White Blend. $??
2008 Bon Cap Organic Wines Viognier. $7-14
2008 RAKA Sauvignon Blanc. $14-30
2005 Wedderwill Wine Estate Sauvignon Blanc. $14-30

Pink Wines

PINK WINES SCORING BETWEEN 9 AND 9.5
2008 Glen Carlou Vineyards "Tortoise Hill" Pinotage Rosé. $7-14 Where to buy?

2006 Graham Beck Wines Brut Rosé Sparkling Wine (Pinot Noir).
Pale rose pink in the glass with medium bubbles, this wine has a nose of bright citrus and warm brioche aromas. In the mouth it has a very fine mousse foam with beautiful flavors of rosehips, melon, and floral notes that creep in towards the back of the throat. Delicious. $20. Where to buy?

PINK WINES WITH A SCORE AROUND 9
2008 Beyerskloof Pinotage Rosé.
Pale salmon in color, this wine has a nose of wet leaves, rosehips, and orange peel aromas. In the mouth it is tangy and lively with acidity that wraps around flavors of orange peel, raspberry, and rosehips. Crisp, clean, and delightful, this wine makes me wonder if maybe the destiny of Pinotage is to make pink wines. $10. Where to buy?

PINK WINES SCORING BETWEEN 8.5 AND 9
2008 Graham Beck Wines Malbec Rosé. $7-14
2008 Golden Kaan Limited Pinotage Rosé. $7-14

PINK WINES WITH A SCORE AROUND 8.5
2008 Mulderbosch Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Rosé. $14-30

PINK WINES SCORING BETWEEN 8 AND 8.5
NV Bon Cap Organic Wines "The Ruins" Shiraz Rosé. $5

PINK WINES WITH A SCORE AROUND 8
2008 RAKA Rosé. $7-14
2008 Jordan Winery "Chameleon" Shiraz Rosé. $14-30

Red Wines

RED WINES WITH A SCORE AROUND 9.5
2005 Sequillo Cellars Red Blend.
Inky garnet in color, this blend of Syrah, Grenache and Mourvedre has a beautiful dark nose of mulberry, earth, and cassis aromas. In the mouth it is the wine equivalent of Valentino in his prime -- utterly seductive, dark, and just exotic enough to be mysterious. Rich, textured, complex flavors of cassis, mulberry, and other dark fruits, juicy with great acidity, linger into a long finish where the faintest hint of tannins emerge, but only for those paying close attention. And it's hard to pay attention when all this wine makes you want to do is swallow, swallow, and swallow some more. $35. Where to buy?

2006 Sadie Family Wines "Columella" Red Rhone Blend.
Dark ruby in the glass, this blend of Syrah and Mourvedre has a nose of bright cassis, blackberry, and grape aromas. In the mouth it is...there's no other way to put it....rockin' with flavor: cassis, blackberry, black cherry, and other rich ripe dark fruits swirl in a concoction that is shot through with a dry minerality and deep complex texture that evokes some of the best wines of the Northern Rhone. If I am reading my sloppy tasting note correctly, I believe the finish was described in the moment as "hot damn." $85. Where to buy?

RED WINES SCORING BETWEEN 9 AND 9.5
2007 De Wetshof Estate "Danie de Wet Nature in Concert" Pinot Noir $7-14
Medium garnet in the glass, this wine has a bright nose of pomegranate and cranberry aromas with hints of herbs. In the mouth it is juicy and bright with great acidity that carries flavors of cranberry, cherry, and a woody cedar note that carries through the very long finish. Tasty. $??

2005 Stellekaya Winery "Orion" Cabernet Sauvignon.
Intense, inky ruby in color, this wine has an intruiging nose of piney, savory, almost chewy aromas that include black pepper, dirt, and a hint of green bell pepper. On the palate the wine is classic cherry, cedar, and pipe tobacco flavors, with a nice balance and hints of espresso on the moderate finish. Complex, nuanced, and yummy. $7-14.

2003 Meerlust Estate "Rubicon" Cabernet Sauvignon.
Poured out of a 1.5 liter bottle, this wine is bright medium ruby colored in the glass, with aromas of cedar, cherry, and fresh pine. In the mouth it is beautifully textured, perfectly balanced and juicy with flavors of cherry, sandalwood, plum, and hints of sawdust among the light tannins that emerge as the wine finishes long and lovely. $25. Where to buy?

2005 Lammershoek Winery "Roulette" Shiraz.
Medium garnet in color, this wine has a bright, fruity nose of pure cassis. In the mouth it is beatifully dry and smooth with deep earth, leather, and cassis flavors tinged by herbs. The finish is long, lean and resonant. $21. Where to buy?

2004 Kanonkop Wine Estate Cabernet Sauvignon.
Medium garnet in color, this wine has a nose of cherry, tobacco and espresso aromas. In the mouth it offers primary flavors of espresso, cherry, and tobacco, knt together with fine grained tannins and nice acidity. The wine has an elegance that is exemplified by its long finish. $25.

2005 Kanonkop Wine Estate "Paul Sauer" Cabernet Sauvignon.
Dark garnet in color, this wine has a rich nose of cedar and black cherry aromas. On the tongue it is a velvet caress of black cherry, earth and tobacco flavors. The tannnins are soft and beautifully structured, balanced perfectly with the wines acidity and weight. The overall quality of this wine that sticks in the mind is its smoothness. Outstanding. $40. Where to buy?

2006 Cederberg Private Cellars Shiraz.
Medium to dark garnet in color, this wine has a luscious nose of blackberry fruit with a spicy, meaty undertone that leans the aromas distinctly towards the savory end of the spectrum. In the mouth it is bright and round and full of cassis and blackberry flavors with a hint of leather on the finish. Delicious. $25. Where to buy?

2006 L'Avenir" Grand Vin" Pinotage.
Inky garnet in color, this wine has a very pretty nose of floral and ripe plum aromas. In the mouth it offers rich flavors of cherry, cocoa powder, raspberry and cranberry all swirling around on silk textures. Faint tannins, nice acidit, and a long beautiful finish round out one of the best Pinotages I have ever had. $30-50.

2006 The Winery of Good Hope "Radford Dale" Shiraz. $30-50.
2007 Mischa Estate "Not yet named" Bordeaux Blend. $N/A
2004 Tulbagh Mountain Vineyards Shiraz. $50. Where to buy?
2006 Stark-Condé "Three Pines" Shiraz. $35.

RED WINES WITH A SCORE AROUND 9
2006 Tulbagh Mountain Vineyards "Theta" Shiraz. $50
2005 Kleinood (Tamboerskloof Syrah/Viognier) Shiraz. $7-14
2006 Stark-Condé "Stellenbosch" Cabernet Sauvignon. $25
2006 Stellekaya Winery Shiraz. $7-14
2005 Glen Carlou Vineyards "Grand Classique" Cabernet Sauvignon. $30-50
2006 Glen Carlou Vineyards "Gravel Quarr" Cabernet Sauvignon. $50 or more
2003 Avondale Bio-LOGIC & Organic Wines "Les Pleurs" Shiraz. $30-50
2006 Painted Wolf Wines "Borg Family" Shiraz. $14-30
2007 Painted Wolf Wines "Cape Blend" Shiraz. $14-30
2007 Painted Wolf Wines Pinotage. $14-30
2007 Painted Wolf Wines Shiraz. $??
2004 Morgenster Estate Merlot. $??
2004 Morgenster Estate "Lourens River Valley" Merlot. $??
2006 Morgenster Estate "Tosca" Sangiovese. $??
2002 Springfield Estate "Methode Ancienne" Cabernet Sauvignon. $50 or more
2003 Vergelegen "Red" Cabernet Sauvignon. $50 or more
2004 Vergelegen "V" Cabernet Sauvignon. $50 or more
2004 Meerlust Estate "Rubicon" Cabernet Sauvignon. $30-50
2005 Dombeya Wines "Samara" Cabernet Sauvignon. $14-30
2006 Mvemve Raats "De Compostella" Cabernet Sauvignon. $50 or more
2007 Waboomsrivier Wine Cellar Pinotage. $5
2007 Iona Vineyards Shiraz. $30-50
2006 Kanonkop Wine Estate Pinotage. $14-30
2006 Vins D'Orrance "Cuvee Ameena" Shiraz. $??
2005 Cederberg Private Cellars "Five Generations" Cabernet Sauvignon. $??
2008 Cederberg Private Cellars "Teen Die Hoog - Cape Winemakers Guild" Shiraz. $??
2004 Beyerskloof "Field Blend" Cape Blend. $??
2005 Hartenberg Estate "The Stork" Shiraz. $??
2006 Ataraxia Wines "Serenity" Shiraz. $??
2005 Luddite Wines Shiraz. $??
2006 The Winery of Good Hope "Black Rock Red Blend" Shiraz. $30-50
2008 The Winery of Good Hope "Radford Dale Gravity" Bordeaux Blend. $50 or more
2006 Cape Point Vineyards "Scarborough" Cabernet Sauvignon. $5-7
2006 L'Avenir Pinotage. $14-30
2005 Ken Forrester Wines "The Gypsy" Shiraz. $30-50
2004 Jordan Winery "Cobblers Hill" Cabernet Sauvignon. $30-50

RED WINES SCORING BETWEEN 8.5 AND 9
2007 Tulbagh Mountain Vineyards "The Raptor Post" Shiraz. $50
2005 Rudera Wines Shiraz. $??
2006 Stark-Condé "Stellenbosch" Shiraz. $25
2006 Stark-Condé "Three Pines" Cabernet Sauvignon. $35
2006 Stellekaya Winery "Hercules" Sangiovese. $7-14
2004 Stellekaya Winery "Cape Cross" Merlot. $7-14
2006 Ernie Els Wines "Cirrus" Shiraz. $30-50
2006 Ernie Els Wines "Engelbrecht Els" Cabernet Sauvignon. $30-50
2006 Glen Carlou Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon. $14-30
2007 Avondale Bio-LOGIC & Organic Wines "Jonty's Ducks" Shiraz. $14-30
2007 Painted Wolf Wines "Swartland" Merlot. $30-50
2007 Painted Wolf Wines Rhone Blend. $??
2006 La Motte "Pierneef" Shiraz. $30-50
2007 Graham Beck Wines "Gamekeeper's Reserve" Cabernet Sauvignon. $30-50
2006 Graham Beck Wines "The Joshua" Shiraz. $30-50
2005 Scali Pinotage. $24
2006 Steenberg Vineyards Shiraz. $30-50
2006 Beaumont Wines Mourvedre. $30-50
2006 Beaumont Wines Pinotage. $14-30
2006 Barton Vineyards Shiraz. $??
2005 Uva Mira Vineyards "Vineyard Selection" Cabernet Sauvignon. $30-50
2005 Vergelegen Cabernet Sauvignon. $30-50
2006 Meerlust Estate Pinot Noir. $30-50
2004 Glenelly Cellars "Glenelly Hill" Shiraz. $??
2006 Dombeya Wines Shiraz. $14-30
2007 Franschhoek Vineyards Shiraz. $7-14
2007 Fairview "Caldera" Grenache. $??
2006 Fairview "Cyril Back" Shiraz. $??
2006 Fairview "Eenzaamheid (Solitude)" Shiraz. $??
2007 Fairview "Primo" Pinotage. $??
2005 Waterford Estate "Kevin Arnold" Shiraz. $35
2005 Waterford Estate "The Jem" Cabernet Sauvignon. $100
2006 RAKA "Biography" Shiraz. $30-50
2006 RAKA "Figurehead" Cabernet Sauvignon. $30-50
2004 RAKA "Quinary" Cabernet Sauvignon. $30-50
2005 Iona Vineyards "The Gunnar" Cabernet Sauvignon. $30-50
2007 Hamilton Russell Vineyards Pinot Noir. $25
2007 Southern Right Pinotage. $14-30
2006 Bouchard Finlayson "Hannibal" Sangiovese. $30-50
2006 Mischa Estate Shiraz. $14-30
1983 Delheim" Grand Reserve" Bordeaux Blend. $??
2007 Kanonkop Wine Estate "Kadette" Pinotage. $7-14
2006 Cederberg Private Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon. $??
2005 Beyerskloof "Synergy Cape Blend" Cabernet Sauvignon. $14-30
2005 Hartenberg Estate Shiraz. $30-50
2004 Hartenberg Estate "The Mackenzie" Cabernet Sauvignon. $14-30
2007 Raats Family Wines Cabernet Franc. $30-50
2008 The Winery of Good Hope Pinotage. $7-14
2007 The Winery of Good Hope" Radford Dale" Shiraz. $??
2006 L'Avenir Cabernet Sauvignon. $14-30
2008 L'Avenir" Rosé de Pinotage" Pinotage. $7-14
2006 L'Avenir" Stellenbosch Classic" Bordeaux Blend. $??
2005 Ken Forrester Wines Shiraz. $14-30

RED WINES WITH A SCORE AROUND 8.5
2005 Rudera Wines Cabernet Sauvignon. $??
2006 Rudera Wines "Lola" Syrah. $??
2005 Mulderbosch Vineyards Shiraz. $50 or more
2004 Simonsig Wine Estate "Frans Malan" Pinotage. $14-30
2007 Simonsig Wine Estate "Kaapse Vonkel Brut Rose" Pinotage. $30-50
2004 Simonsig Wine Estate "Labyrinth" Cabernet Sauvignon. $14-30
2005 Simonsig Wine Estate "Merindol" Shiraz. $30-50
2002 Simonsig Wine Estate "Tiara" Cabernet Sauvignon. $30-50
2005 Stellekaya Winery Cabernet Sauvignon. $7-14
2006 Stellekaya Winery Merlot. $7-14
2004 Ernie Els Wines Cabernet Sauvignon. $50 or more
2006 Glen Carlou Vineyards Shiraz. $30-50
2004 Avondale Bio-LOGIC & Organic Wines "Camissa" Shiraz. $14-30
2005 Avondale Bio-LOGIC & Organic Wines "Green Duck - The Duke" Cabernet Franc. $14-30
2007 Avondale Bio-LOGIC & Organic Wines Pinotage. $??
2005 La Motte "Millenium" Cabernet Sauvignon. $14-30
2006 La Motte Shiraz. $14-30
2008 De Wetshof Estate "Danie de Wet Bio Rose" Merlot. $7-14
2003 Graham Beck Wines "The Ridge" Shiraz. $30-50
2005 Graham Beck Wines "The William" Cabernet Sauvignon. $14-30
2006 Horse Mountain Wines Pinotage. $14-30
2005 Scali Shiraz. $35
2003 Springfield Estate "The Work of Time" Merlot. $30-50
2006 Springfield Estate "Whole Berry" Cabernet Sauvignon. $14-30
2006 Steenberg Vineyards Merlot. $30-50
2004 Ses'fikile Wines "Matriarch" Shiraz. $??
2005 Uva Mira Vineyards "Cellar Selection" Merlot. $14-30
2006 M'hudi Merlot. $??
2005 Vergelegen "Mill Race" Cabernet Sauvignon. $14-30
2006 Vergelegen Shiraz. $30-50
2007 Franschhoek Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon. $7-14
2007 Fairview "Pinotage Viognier" Pinotage. $??
2007 Fairview Shiraz. $??
2006 Lammershoek Winery Pinotage. $14-30
2007 RAKA Pinotage. $??
2006 Golden Kaan Limited Pinotage. $7-14
2006 Slanghoek Cellar "Private Selection" Pinotage. $7-14
2007 Bouchard Finlayson "Galpin Peak" Pinot Noir. $30-50
2006 Mischa Estate "Eventide Cellar" Shiraz. $14-30
2005 Mischa Estate Cabernet Sauvignon. $14-30
2006 Muratie Wine Estate Pinot Noir. $??
2006 Cederberg Private Cellars "Cederberger" Merlot. $??
2007 Beyerskloof Pinotage. $7-14
2007 Beyerskloof "Reserve" Pinotage. $14-30
2005 Hartenberg Estate Cabernet Sauvignon. $14-30
2005 Hartenberg Estate Pinotage. $14-30
2005 Hartenberg Estate Merlot. $??
2008 The Winery of Good Hope "Vinum" Cabernet Sauvignon. $14-30
2005 Ken Forrester Wines "The Three Halves" Rhone Blend. $??

RED WINES SCORING BETWEEN 8 AND 8.5
2003 Tulbagh Mountain Vineyards "Theta" Shiraz. $50
2006 Simonsig Wine Estate Cabernet Sauvignon. $7-14
2004 Simonsig Wine Estate Shiraz. $14-30
2006 La Motte Cabernet Sauvignon. $14-30
2006 Morgenster Estate "Nabucco" Nebbiolo. $??
2005 Graham Beck Wines Shiraz. $14-30
2007 Beaumont Wines "Raoul's Old Basket Press" Tinta Barocca. $7-14
2004 Ses'fikile Wines "Matriarch" Cabernet Sauvignon. $??
2005 Vergelegen Merlot. $30-50
2008 Franschhoek Vineyards Merlot. $7-14
2007 Fairview Mourvedre. $??
2006 Waterford Estate "Pecan Stream Pebble Hill" Cabernet Sauvignon. $29
2006 Lammershoek Winery Shiraz. $30-50
2006 Lammershoek Winery Zinfandel. $14-30
2006 Bon Cap Organic Wines Pinotage. $15
2006 Muratie Wine Estate Shiraz. $??
2007 Paul Cluver Wine Estate Pinot Noir. $30-50
2006 Jordan Winery Cabernet Sauvignon. $30-50
2006 Jordan Winery "Bradgate" Syrah. $??

RED WINES WITH A SCORE AROUND 8
2008 Teddy Hall Wines Syrah. $??
2005 Simonsig Wine Estate Pinotage. $14-30
2006 Ayama Wines Pinotage. $??
2005 Meerlust Estate Merlot. $30-50
2007 Fairview Alicante Bouschet. $??
2004 RAKA Merlot. $30-50
2006 RAKA "Spliced" Merlot. $14-30
2006 Mischa Estate "Eventide Cellar" Cabernet Sauvignon. $14-30
2007 Mischa Estate Merlot. $14-30
2005 Hartenberg Estate Cabernet Sauvignon. $7-14
2006 L'Avenir Cabernet Franc. $14-30
2006 L'Avenir Merlot. $14-30
2006 Jordan Winery "Chameleon" Cabernet Sauvignon. $14-30
2006 Jordan Winery Merlot. $30-50

RED WINES SCORING BETWEEN 7.5 AND 8
2004 Mulderbosch Vineyards "Faithful Hound" Cabernet Sauvignon. $30-50
2006 Springfield Estate "Firefinch Ripe Red" Merlot. $7-14
2006 M'hudi Pinotage. $??
2007 Jason's Hill Private Cellar Pinotage. $5
2008 Ken Forrester Wines "Petit" Pinotage. $5-7
2007 Jordan Winery "Bradgate" Bordeaux Blend. $??
2006 Fairview Tannat. $??
2006 Ken Forrester Wines "Petit" Cabernet Sauvignon. $5-7

RED WINES WITH A SCORE UNDER 7.5
2007 Rudera Wines "Lola" Syrah. $??
NV Bon Cap Organic Wines "The Ruins" Shiraz. $5
2006 Bon Cap Organic Wines "Cape Blend" Pinotage. $7-14
2006 Bon Cap Organic Wines Shiraz. $5-7
2006 Bon Cap Organic Wines Cabernet Sauvignon. $5-7

One of the latest e-mail scams going around the Internet appears to be targeted at the wine industry. This scam operates at a slightly more sophisticated level than the now famous Nigerian scam. That scam begins with polite greetings (usually in all capital letters) and ends with with promises to share in a large sum of money if the victim will only help with the transfer of a large sum of money out of [insert country name here].

This latest wine focused scam masquerades as request for a private wine tasting and dinner for a large group from "out of town."

Here is the text of the e-mail recently received by a San Francisco wine retailer:

I am Bernie James.I want to book for a group of 10 persons arriving from London for the month of November.They will all come in your place as from November 17th,18th, and 19th each for wine tasting and dine .if you are available for my date,send me details about what you offer and pricing. Contact us via berniejames101@yahoo.co.uk Best regards, Bernie James +447045752007

Innocuous enough, no? When the retailer in question wrote back with a quote, this is what they received in response:

Hello , Thanks for your reply and assistance so far. Base on trust and confidence, I will make a payment of $2,000.00 to you in advance, this is because I m not sure of what the guests might like to eat and drink as such will cover the cost of their meals, and their transportation arrangement to your place.

Moreover, we were able to make an arrangement with a pre-paid car hiring agent who will supply the guests with vehicles and drivers and other logistics prompting and arrangements for the group, which they will be using in going to your place . So in order not to share the credit card information with a third party, I have decided that only one person will have to handle the credit card information.

More so, the prepaid agent is not yet a credit card merchant therefore cannot charge credit cards. On my own side, i would have sent him his money direct. So once you are in receipt of my credit card details,you are required to charge $8,000.00 in your account then deduct $2,000.00 as initial deposit and transfer $6,000.00 to the prepaid car hire agent whose information I will forward to you once this is confirmed.

NOTE: That the Agent will be providing cars and drivers, purchase of flight ticket and visa, luggage handling, security and other logistics prompting and travel arrangements,
Confirm this message and provide me with your
(1) YOUR FULL NAME
(2) FULL ADDRESS
(3) PHONE NUMBERS for office record.
All checks and balances shall be done with the group leader on the final day.

Get back to me immediately.

Regards,
Bernie James
+447045752007

Luckily the retailer in question smelled a rat and stopped communicating with Mr. Bernie James, but he is no doubt busy sending e-mails to other retailers or wineries each day.

It goes without saying, but any requests to transfer money should be looked upon with great suspicion and under no circumstances should companies or individuals give out their bank account numbers, routing numbers, or credit card numbers to prospective "customers." Even if they do have UK cell phone numbers instead of Nigerian ones.

For more information on how to spot fraudulent e-mails, please see this handy guide provided by Microsoft.

As some of you know, there was a time when I didn't really care for Champagne. But like so many preferences formed early in our lives, it turns out that I just hadn't had the good stuff. Unfortunately for my pocketbook, I eventually did find out what all the fuss was about, and now I enjoy it immensely. That is, as long as it is good.

And good Champagne, invariably means expensive. I run the risk of coming off as snobbish, or at the very least elitist by saying this, but more so than most wines, you really get what you pay for when it comes to Champagne. It's hard to find a really great bottle under $30, and even harder to find an amazing one under $60. I'm not sure about the $200-$300 range -- I've tasted a few, but only recent vintages -- but I do know that if you're willing to pay $100 for a bottle of Champagne, you can get something truly excellent.

Which brings me to this wine.

The house of Perrier-Jouet was formed in 1811 with the marriage of Pierre Nicolas Perrier and Adele Jouet. He came from a family with many generations of grape growing experience, she, from a well-to-do family in Normandy. The Perrier family's vineyard holdings in the region that would later become known as Champagne were as impressive as they were extensive. Some of the vineyards would eventually be classified as Grand Cru, and a few are still owned by the family, more than eight generations later.

Because of Perrier's wealth in land and experience, the couple wouldn't move far to settle down after they were married. They purchased an estate at the address 28 on the main avenue of Epernay, a street that would eventually be known as Avenue de Champagne. In that stone building they built what has become of the wine world's most successful brands (thanks to its latter day owners, which included at one point the larger Champagne house Mumm). The house continues to operate out of the same building, at the very same address.

Perrier-Jouet is certainly not the oldest Champagne house in existence -- it's a young pup compared to some houses that can claim to have been in operation since as early as the 16th century -- but it has several ties to history that make for good stories. One of my favorites being the tale that Oscar Wilde ordered bottles of the 1874 vintage of his favorite Champagne to his prison cell. Presumably because he couldn't bear to drink the inferior stuff they were serving him at the time? Perhaps a more important story would be the fact that in 1854 Perrier-Jouet effectively pioneered the Brut, dry style of Champagne, departing from the sweeter profiles of the times to create a wine that quickly became a standard in the region.

Perrier-Jouet, now a brand in the portfolio of drinks giant Pernot Ricard, currently owns and operates about 161 acres of vineyards in the Champagne region, of which, quite impressively, nearly all are Grand Cru classified. This is an achievement that should not be underestimated, as Champagne is famously fragmented among many, many different farmers, estates, and large Champagne houses.

The estate produces several vintage and non-vintage wines, of which this Cuvee Belle Epoque is their top bottling. Made from 50% Chardonnay and 45% Pinot Noir and 5% Pinot Meunier, it is made through careful blending and barrel selection of the winery's best fruit by winemaker Hervé Deschamps.

It's not often that a wine's label begs to be commented upon. In a world where many wines are indistinguishable from one another at a distance of 10 feet, the Perrier-Jouet bottle makes an immediate, striking impression. Whether it is the most beautiful Champagne bottle in the world I cannot say with authority, having not seen them all, but it is certainly one of the nicest pieces of packaging design that I know of in the wine industry.

The bottle is adorned with an enameled image of anenomes, the work of the artist Emile Gallé in the Art Nouveau style, which he created as a work of art in 1902 for the family, and which has been their signature bottle ever since they put it into production for their top cuvee starting in 1969.

Full disclosure: I received this wine as a press sample.

Tasting Notes:
Bright gold in the glass with very fine bubbles, this wine smells of citrus oil, yeast, and the skin of yellow apples. In the mouth it is sunshine bright with a velvet soft mousse that supports flavors of lemon zest, toasted oats, and freshly baked brioche. Great acidity makes it a joy to drink, as the wine sings the whole way down. Delicious.

Food Pairing:
This wine is quite bright and airy, making it a slam dunk with oysters, goat cheese, or egg dishes of all kinds. I'm not sure I can think of anything I wouldn't drink this with, to be honest.

Overall Score: between 9 and 9.5

How Much?: $130

This wine is available for purchase on the Internet.

Looks like a piece of news slipped by me a couple of months ago. Every year I look forward to a report, which more than any other single piece of news, speaks the truth about the state of wine in America. Restaurant Wine magazine commissions and publishes a report every year on the top 100 wines and top 100 wine brands sold in restaurants around the country, from family diners to fine dining restaurants.

Based on the simple measure of how many cases of each wine were sold at these restaurants, we get a picture of the most important person in America when it comes to wine: the average American wine consumer.

And why is this person so important? Because they are the bread and butter of the wine industry. They are the fuel for the wine engine. They are the bottom 95%, so to speak, whose spending habits make (or break) the market and who make up the pool of wine drinkers from which true wine lovers slowly graduate to more expensive wines and esoteric habits like...reading wine blogs.

I like knowing what the rest of America drinks when it comes to wine. Here at Vinography, here in San Francisco, here in my group of friends, I live in a bubble of unreality when it comes to wine. In this bubble, $40 bottles of really good wine are a steal and most everyone I hang out with knows how to pronounce Viognier ("vee-own-yay"). But that doesn't represent wine drinking America any more than San Francisco represents the political tenor of the rest of the country.

This is what wine drinkers in America drink:

1 Kendall-Jackson Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay USA
2 Beringer Vineyards White Zinfandel USA
3 Cavit Pinot Grigio Italy
4 Sutter Home White Zinfandel USA
5 Inglenook Chablis USA
6 Ecco Domani Pinot Grigio Italy
7 Yellow Tail Chardonnay Australia
8 Copperidge Chardonnay USA
9 Yellow Tail Shiraz Australia
10 Franzia Winetaps Vintner Select White Zinfandel USA

Those are the top 10 wines consumed by Americans (by volume) in 2007.

And here are the top 10 wine brands sold in American restaurants in 2007:

1 Beringer Vineyards, Foster's Wine Estates Americas
2 Kendall-Jackson, USA, Kendall-Jackson Wine Estates
3 Franzia Winetaps, USA, The Wine Group
4 Yellow Tail, Australia, W.J. Deutsch & Sons, Ltd.
5 Sutter Home, USA, Trinchero Family Estates
6 Inglenook, USA, The Wine Group
7 Copperidge, USA, E. & J. Gallo Winery
8 Cavit, Italy, Palm Bay Imports
9 Woodbridge, USA, VineOne (Constellation)
10 Foxhorn Vineyards, USA, The Wine Group

For me and for the wine lovers that I hang out with (and no doubt the folks that read this blog) these are somewhat sobering lists, if only because for most of us, these are wines we generally don't, and wouldn't, consume given the choice. The average retail price of these wines is well below $8 per bottle, and the last time I asked you readers what you spend on average per bottle it was somewhere around $20.

And some of you probably didn't think that you were all that sophisticated when it came to wine, did you? Notice how the top 10 wines only includes a single red wine? If you're a Cabernet drinker you're a member of the wine elite. And I'm only partially kidding.

Here are some additional interesting facts about this year's list:

- White Zinfandel sales are down 15%
- Chardonnay was more popular than Pinot Grigio for the first time
- Pinot Noir sales were up (again) by 89%
- Merlot sales were down (again) by 9%
- Sauvignon Blanc and Sangiovese wines appeared for the first time on the top 100 list (bravo!)

So what to make of all this? I take a number of things away from this list every year. The first is appreciation for how lucky I am to be able to drink the quality of wine that I do regularly. The second is humility -- a reminder that while I may not choose to drink them, these wines, the companies that make them, and the people that drink them are what really make the wine world go 'round. And finally, I always finish my perusal of these numbers with hope. The amount of wine America drinks continues to go up, and slowly, but surely, the diversity of that wine continues to expand.

And that means that we're making progress.

Read more details on the annual Restaurant Wine report.

Perhaps I'm just getting too old, but I can't for the life of me really understand what San Francisco Wine Week is all about.

Here we are living in one of the greatest wine and food cities of the world. We're spoiled rotten when it comes to our wine and food. We expect, and regularly receive great local ingredients in our food, an incredible selection of wines from California and around the world, and completely take for granted the fact that we can bring a bottle of our favorite wine to any restaurant we like.

If there was ever a large city in America that might have a week long celebration of wine, San Francisco would certainly be at the top of the list. And here we are beginning just that sort of celebration, except....

It seems completely, and utterly lame.

As far as I can tell, San Francisco Wine Week is simply six nights of open bars in various venues around the city where you can taste as much wine as you want, no doubt to the soundtrack of thumping electronica.

Come on people. That was the best you could come up with?

Granted, this event is supposedly aimed at the young, urban, hip crowd of Millenials that make up the largest wine drinking population that America has ever seen. But I've got to believe that there's a better way to celebrate what the promoters rightly identified as one of the Bay Area's most defining cultures.

And just to make sure I've exercised my complete curmudgeonly rights, let me just say that the web site and all the marketing material I've seen are horribly unhelpful at getting any sense of what these nightly events will be like. For instance, Wednesday night is the "Sommelier Party" hosted by sommelier Mark Bright.

OK. So what does that mean? If you wanted to find out, say, the difference between that night and Tuesday night, which is the "Import Party" you would be shit out of luck, as they say. Nothing on the web site provides any indication of what is actually going on that night, or any other night, for that matter, other than "wine tastings." Hell, it's not even clear whether there will even be food at these things, except for "San Francisco restauratuers" being mentioned somewhere as some of the sponsors.

And if you want to know what's going to be happening at the ultimate end of week party, the Red Gala, you'll find yourself similarly screwed, except, of course for the dress code, which is supremely, unhelpfully described as "red attire encouraged but not required." So would that be red t-shirts or red ball gowns?

It's quite a shame that a city so steeped in wine and so populated with smart, talented hospitality folks couldn't come up with something better for the first Wine Week than this. As far as I can tell, we've got nothing educational, nothing uniquely Californian, and nothing really fun, except, perhaps if you're a young guy who knows a thing or two about wine and wants to go meet chicks that will be impressed with your knowledge. Sounds more like "party with alcoholics" than it does "celebrate wine culture."

Of course, that may just be the target audience for this whole debacle. The saving grace of which may be that the entire week's events cost a mere $75 bucks. Which means, no matter how bad the event ends up being, a motivated barfly will at least be able to drink their money's worth if they go every night. With only 44 wineries participating, you might also be able to get through every single one over the course of the week. In fairness, it must be noted that some of the wineries pouring at the event are quite good.

I'll leave it to the most adventurous of you readers to go check it out and look forward to happily being proved wrong. But I don't expect to be. San Francisco, you can do better than this.

California's Anderson Valley remains one of its least known and most under-appreciated wine regions. In particular I believe it to be under-appreciated for its Pinot Noir, in particular, and in some cases, its Alsatian varieties of wine. I offer a slight caveat to the latter because while Anderson Valley is certainly known for producing wines in the style and varieties of those found in Alsace, France, in my experience they are mixed in quality.

But when winemakers manage to get things right, Anderson Valley can produce some stunning examples of wines that might, in the right circumstances be mistaken for their Alsatian forbears.

Such is the case with the newest release from a little outfit known as Handley Cellars. Perhaps the best adjective to describe Handley Cellars might be "quaint." This small, family-run operation is located in the heart of the Anderson Valley, just up the road a piece from downtown Philo, at the 19th century Holmes Ranch.

U.C Davis trained winemaker and owner Milla Handley has been making wine since 1982. Handley got her start as a winemaker in the Seventies working at Chateau St. Jean and then later at Edmeades winery when she moved her family to Anderson Valley.

These days, with the help of her family and "co-winemaker" Kristen Barnhisel, who joined Handley in 2004, Handley now produces a modest 14,000 cases a year with fruit from the Anderson Valley estate as well as other sources throughout the valley and further afield. The portfolio includes both a number of Alsatian style wines, Pinot Noir, Sparkling, and dessert wines.

This is the first vintage that Handley has made a Pinot Blanc, however. The fruit is grown on mature vines (planted in the early 90's) in the Hein Vineyard at the northern end of the Anderson Valley.

After harvesting on a cool morning, the grapes for this wine are pressed directly into tanks where it settles for a few days before fermentation begins. After the primary fermentation to dryness, some of the juice (15%) goes into neutral oak barrels, while the rest goes into stainless tanks for about six months. Only a small portion of the wine goes through a secondary, malolactic fermentation before the wine is bottled.

About 400 cases are made.

Full disclosure: I received this wine as a press sample.

Tasting Notes:
Light greenish gold in color, this wine has a nose of cold cream, old paper, and surprisingly, jackfruit. In the mouth, flavors of jackfruit predominate amidst silky textures, nice acidity, and a hint of incense and spiciness on the finish. Utterly lovely.

Food Pairing:
This would be a lovely cheese wine in my opinion, especially with saltier hard cheeses like aged gouda or aged piave.

Overall Score: between 9 and 9.5

How Much?: $20

This wine is available for purchase on the Internet.

If you've read many wine labels, especially those of wines that cost more than $25, you've almost certainly seen on that contains the phrase "fermented with wild yeasts" or "native yeast fermentation." This indication that the winemaker has not used a so-called "commercial" yeast is often a telltale clue as to the overall philosophy of the winemaker. Making wine without commercial yeasts can be more difficult, more unpredictable, and more risky than some are willing to accept. Those who do eschew commercial yeasts often do so because they are committed to making what they believe is a more natural wine, both for its lack of "intervention" by the winemaker, as well as because the yeasts that do end up driving the fermentation are believed to be from the vineyard and part of its ecology.

Without a doubt, making wine without commercial yeasts represents a more traditional method of making wine, but apparently the more we learn about yeasts and winemaking the less it seems that there actually is any such thing as a wild yeast fermentation.

A recent thread on the Mark Squires bulletin board addressed this very topic, and I highly encourage anyone who is interested in the subject to check it out. The discussion ranges across a number of different issues regarding yeasts, often getting quite technical, but the gist of it can be boiled down to a simple set of arguments.

First, it is clear that there are yeasts on the skins of the grapes out in the vineyards, and that when no commercial yeasts are added (and sometimes even when they are) some these yeasts can also be found working away in fermenting grapes in the winery.

However, it is also true that most of the time the yeasts that do the most work in fermenting the grapes in the winery are very different yeasts than are found in the vineyard. Which begs the question where, exactly, did they come from?

The answer, according to a lot of winemakers and researchers, is from within the winery itself. No matter how well a winery is sanitized, it tends to harbor all sorts of biological elements, including complex "cultures" of yeast that breed, mutate, and even evolve in the little ecosystem that is the winery.

If the winery ever has used commercial yeasts, this local culture will most certainly include some of these commercial yeasts. And if it hasn't it will likely include yeasts that were brought into the facility on humans, pets, equipment, insects, and more.

All of which is a long-winded way of saying that the decision to not use commercial yeasts to ferment the wine doesn't really mean that what you're getting instead is some natural cocktail of yeasts that are specific to a vineyard. A native fermentation it may be, but the yeasts that are chowing down on the grapes are much more likely to be native to the winery building than they are the vineyard, and in many cases they may include commercial yeasts as well.

I'm certainly guilty of romanticizing native yeast fermentations as a writer. Along with the decision not to fine or filter the wine, this decision generally says something to me about the quality of the wine. The fact that winemaking yeasts aren't entirely wild doesn't necessarily undermine that meaning, but it certainly does call into question just how much justification there might be for prejudice against commercial yeasts as somehow "unnatural." Biodynamic winemaking, for instance, clearly proscribes use of commercial yeasts as yet another unnatural intervention in winemaking.

The process by which grapes ferment involves sometimes 80 or more different kinds of yeasts, the actions of which are affected by pH, temperature, sugar levels, and thousands of compounds in the grapes, not to mention anything we humans might do. We're still trying to figure out just exactly how it all comes together.

As intrigued and excited as I am about the degree to which science is gradually deepening its understanding of what wine is and how it comes to be, I also love the fact that it's so complex that we've still got a long way to go.

Mystery is a good thing. It means we need to keep drinking.

Read the yeast discussion on the Mark Squires board.

Thanks to Jack at Fork & Bottle for pointing me to the discussion.

I've always privately believed that if everyone just drank a bit more wine, the world would be a better place. Who knows if that's really true, but apparently it's quite likely that if everyone drank more wine, the world would be more democratic.

According to analysis by Jon Bonné, Wine Editor for the San Francisco Chronicle, Obama was elected by The Wine Vote.

What's that, you ask? Wine drinking liberal elitists? Guilty as charged. But get this little statistic:

Amount of wine produced in states that McCain won: 4.3 Million Gallons Amount of wine produced in states that Obama won: 773 Million Gallons Percentage of wine produced in America that comes from states that Obama carried: 98.6

Harper's Index eat your heart out. The whole thing makes me giggle. And while Obama is a big beer lover, it's clear that the White House wine cellar will get a lot more attention starting in January than it has for the last eight years.

Check out Jon's blog post.

Most people faced a with the choice of merely a specific color of wine to drink will consider their stated preference between the options of red, white, or pink. My choice is none of the above. If I had to swear my allegiance to one color of wine, it would be orange.

I have a friend who has seriously suggested that the world ought to acknowledge orange as a legitimate fourth color when it comes to wine. I don't know that I'd go that far, but I would seriously suggest that everyone drink as much of it as they can get their hands on.

Orange wines aren't easy to come by, but to my mind they represent some of the most exciting wines being made on the planet. And this wine is a perfect example.

La Stoppa winery began in 1973 with the vision of Rafael Pantaleoni, who purchased the estate with the hopes of making a small amount of wine and an honest living for his family. The land, which occupies a nook in the Piacenza province of Italy's Emilia-Romagna region, has been planted with vines for well over 100 years. The estate's original owners left Pantaleoni and his daughter, who now runs the winery, a gift of some extremely old vines growing both Italian and French varieties.

With a lot of work, the Pantaleoni family have retained and nurtured some of the oldest vines of the estate, as well as carefully replanting and restructuring the vineyards to include more of the local varieties. The roughly 70 acres of vineyards in the shade of the estate's medieval tower are rather sparsely planted as well as nutrient poor from a soil standpoint. Consequently, those 70 acres don't produce much fruit, but Elena Pantaleoni and her winemaker Giulio Armani make good use of what they get.

And by good use, I mean making wines that speak of a startling vision, of which this wine named Ageno is perhaps the best example.

This wine is made from a combination of three white grape varieties: Malvasia, Trebbiano, and the extremely local variety known as Ortrugo, with the majority of the wine being Malvasia grown on 36-year-old vines. As a blend this is already somewhat unusual, but things get truly wacky as soon as the grapes are picked and destemmed, for instead of being vinified like a white wine, this one is treated like a red, which means chiefly that it is fermented with native yeasts in contact with its skins for more than 30 days. After this it is pressed off into a combination of steel tanks and neutral oak barrels where it ages on its lees (the sediment that settles to the bottom of the barrel) for 12 months before bottling without filtration of any kind.

This is the third vintage of Ageno of which only about 160 cases are made. This small quantity means that it may be difficult to find, but if you can, it is worth all the effort and whatever price you might have to pay, as it represents both a great achievement of artisan winemaking as well as a perfect example of why orange wines kick ass.

Tasting Notes:
A gorgeous medium amber-orange color in the glass, with a distinct haze of cloudiness, this wine has a phenomenal, almost otherworldly nose of exotic flowers, saffron, and orange creamsicle. On the palate it is weighty, with a texture that is almost tannic in quality, gripping the tongue with like a velvet glove. From a flavor standpoint it is nearly indescribable -- brown sugar, honeysuckle, saffron, cream soda, and unbelievably, the distinct flavor of coffee and cream on a finish that can be measured in minutes. Evolves gorgeously in the glass, and I highly recommend decanting for 1-2 hours prior to serving, especially if you can keep it cool while decanting.

Food Pairing:
While the amazing individuality of this wine begs for careful consideration on its own, I enjoyed it with hard Italian cheeses and Jamon Iberico.

Overall Score: between 9.5 and 10

How Much?: $30

This wine is available for purchase on the Internet.

I never tire of looking out an airplane window at the shifting landscape below, mottled with the patchy light of cloud and shadow. The view is always new, fluid and streaming like the same river that we are told we never cross twice.

Wine holds the same fascination for the same reasons, as if that proverbial river was bottled but still moving -- shifting and changing in defiance of its containment. Whenever I have the good fortune to drink older wines, I am reminded that they indeed move and shift in their own time, as if, like dogs and hummingbirds and tortoises, they live at speeds separate and inhuman.

To observe wine, though, is not to gaze upon it from above, studying its topography from afar. Rather, we swim in wine as it swims in us, feeling the currents tug us, feeling the cool liquid in our skins with the aromas that speak memories.

Scent mystifies me. The link between aroma and memory is no more surprising, I guess, than the way that aroma takes the five tastes of the tongue and transforms them into what we know is the difference between orange and mango. Yet when the merest whiff of my glass throws me fifteen years into the past I sometimes reel with astonishment. Nostalgia will certainly always be olfactory to me, even though I haven't read the Proust to prove it.

Writing about wine seems best when it is the most difficult -- when I am gasping at straws to describe something that falls in between a flavor and a feeling. Drinking great wine is the closest I ever get to synesthesia, a feeling that I might describe as experiencing memories that I have yet to acquire -- as if they hang suspended in the space between the wine's swirling surface and the lip of the glass, ready to be plucked.

Each glass holds for me an ephemeral potential for a future memory just as much as it does a concrete and utterly tangible reflection of the past season that created the vintage. These future memories are the tastes and smells of things that I have yet to taste or may never taste. The exotic fruits that ripen uncounted and undiscovered in the rainforest; the spices of a desert people I will never encounter; the perfect combination of sea breeze and tropical flower found only on a certain atoll.

The greatest wines dangle such propositions in front of me, exhilarating even as they are frustratingly hard to pin down. I've spent the last three hours of this plane flight across the country wondering off and on just what that flavor was that I was tasting the other night at a friend's house -- that moment that froze me in a small bubble while the conversation continued around me. It was familiar, while at the same time being exotic and unlike any flavor I had tasted before.

Moments like that, even the memories of them, are more than enough to eclipse moments like the really nice bottle of Chardonnay I brought to dinner with friends on Saturday, only to find it amber-colored and oxidized. They are enough to keep me watching the lightning storm on the horizon from my plane window, thinking about what curiosity tastes like.

As many of you know, I have a thing for sake, after being introduced to the high-end stuff when I was living and working in Japan. I try to review great sakes here on Vinography as often as I can, while at the same time trying to teach those who are unfamiliar with the stuff a bit more about it.

Some readers, either through their questions, or their outright requests, have rightly pointed out that I have skipped over some of the basics when it comes to sake, and these basics aren't exactly as well known among my readers as, say, the basics of how to taste wine.

So without further ado, I bring you:

The Vinography Guide to Drinking, Serving, Storing, and Enjoying Sake

What is Sake?
Let's start with a quick refresher on sake and how it is made. Alcohol made from fermented rice, along with "modern" rice growing techniques, was originally brought to Japan from China in roughly the 3rd century BCE. Like with many things imported from the mainland, over the next few centuries the Japanese adapted and transformed sake into something uniquely theirs. What we know as fine sake today remains a product of rice fermented in spring water with a combination of yeast and a special mold known as koji, which was likely also brought over from the mainland at a later date. Today's sake, however, bears little resemblance to the sake of past centuries.

Modern sake results from many innovations and refinements, but most dramatically from mechanical rice milling equipment, which has given rise to the various grades of sake that are based upon the degree of milling that each rice kernel receives, as well as sterile filtration, which provides us with the crystalline clear brews that are becoming more and more popular around the world.

Premium sake comes in several varieties, the most common of which can be distinguished primarily by the degree to which the rice kernels used to make it have been milled. In short, the more of each rice kernel that has been stripped away, the higher the grade of sake. Daiginjo sakes, the highest grade, are made from rice kernels that has been milled to less than 50% of its former mass. Ginjo sakes are made from rice kernels milled to between 60% and 51% of their former mass. And honzojo sakes are made from rice kernels milled to between 70% and 61% of their former mass. Finally, in addition to the milling of the rice, premium sake can also be distinguished by whether a small amount of alcohol has been added during the brewing process, a step which some brewers believe yields better aromas and flavors. Those sakes to which alcohol has NOT been added carry the added designation of junmai, which usually precedes the quality designation. E.g., junmai daiginjo or junmai ginjo. Confusingly the lowest grade of junmai sake is not called junmai honzojo, it is merely called junmai.

There are several other less common artisan varieties of sake (aged, natural yeast fermented, etc.) as well as the industrial grade stuff that is served hot in most sushi restaurants that don't merit addressing at this point.

Why Drink Sake?
Sake has become increasingly popular in recent years for its subtle, delicate flavors and its ability to pair with similarly subtle flavors in many cuisines, including in particular, Asian foods and seafood. Sake also matches a lot of modern cuisine which increasingly draws on Japanese influences, among other Asian localities. In particular, and not surprisingly, sake is a wonderful match with raw fish (which can easily be overwhelmed by some wines) provided, of course, that the fish hasn't been drowned in soy sauce and wasabi (a common crime).

All of these are simply typical starting points, however. Regular readers know that I don't believe in the "rules" of food and wine pairing, which means I also don't believe in the rules of food and sake pairing. Sake is simply another option for those who enjoy drinking stuff that tastes great along with their food.

Hot Sake Versus Cold Sake
One of the questions that prompted the writing of this article was a reader wanting to know when and what kind of sake to drink cold versus warm. This is an excellent question, and one that many sake beginners have, after having mostly experienced sake in those little warm carafes in sushi bars.

There are two (and a half) factors to consider when warming sake.

The first is the grade or quality of sake. Generally the higher grades of sake (ginjo and daiginjo) are quite delicate in flavor and suffer (rather than benefit) from warming. Lower grades of sake (which can sometimes have rough edges) benefit from warming, which makes them more smooth. Most of the time you'll want to drink your fine sakes cold (at the same temperature as your white wine).

The second factor to consider in the serving temperature of sake is the flavor profile of sake. Sakes with earthier, gamier flavors often benefit from being served at room temperature or slightly warmed (e.g. 5-10 secs in the microwave). Yamahai sakes (those made with some wild yeasts in the mix) which have dried mushroom flavors, are often better warmed, for instance.

The final consideration with regards to warming sake is simply whether you want something warm to drink. When it's cold outside, warm sake is great! Don't be afraid to experiment.

Storing Sake
The most important thing to remember when it comes to storing sake is that most sake isn't meant to be aged like wine. That's not to say you can't do it, but the flavors that most of us are looking for in our fine sake don't tend to last over time. Fine sake is meant to be drunk within several months of purchase, and if you ever happen to come across the unpasteurized variety of sake known as nama sake (also namazake) this more delicate of brews is meant to be drunk within weeks.

This effectively means that there's no such thing as a sake collection. I have a bottle or two on hand at any given time, but mostly when I want to drink sake, I go out and buy it a day or two before the occasion.

All sake should be stored in the refrigerator at all times, both before and after opening the bottle. It will keep there for several weeks, and thanks to most bottles being closed with screwcaps, that means I don't have to worry about not finishing a bottle if I decide to open one with dinner.

Serving and Enjoying Sake
There are two primary ways that I recommend serving sake. The first, and easiest way for wine lovers, is simply to treat it like a white wine -- serve it in any glass that you would use for a Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, or other crisp white wine. I recommend making smaller pours than you would for white wine, simply because sake is generally more alcoholic than wine, and smaller pours get consumed before they can warm up too much. Be sure to keep the bottle cold between serving.

The other enjoyable way of serving sake celebrates sake's role as part of the aesthetic experience of a Japanese meal. Like many aspects of traditional eating and drinking in Japan, sake consumption has its own particular aesthetic and set of specialized serving and drinking vessels.

These range in construction, size, and specific use, but generally are some variation on a pitcher and a small cup. From priceless, century-old handmade pottery to modern handblown glass and everything in between, sake cups and bowls are celebrated (and collected) as a core part of the Japanese experience of drinking sake, especially as part of a formal dining experience like the multi-course kaiseki meal. I've included an image on the right of a particularly nice cup that I had the honor of using at a meal in Tokyo last year.

On occasion (in restaurants mostly) sake can also be served in a square wooden box, with or without a glass sitting inside of it, overflowing with sake. If served in a box (usually for some celebratory reason) the box is simply treated like a cup that is most easily drunk from the corner. If the box contains a glass brimming with sake, that is best sipped without hands until the glass can safely be picked up and used without fear of spilling. Once the glass is empty, the overflow can be drunk from the box.

So Go Drink Some Sake!
Get out there and try some, already! Whole Foods carries some, as do several other gourmet supermarkets, or better yet, visit a wine store or sake store in your neighborhood. Worst case, order some on the Internet. Looking for suggestions on what sake to drink?

If there's anything I didn't cover that you still have questions about, let me know!

I look up to journalists. I really do. They actually get paid for doing what I play at here every day, and most of them are way better at it than I am. But every once in a while someone publishes a story that makes me wonder how we all manage to avoid riding journalists out of town on a rail.

Witness the headlines that are rapidly rocketing their way across the internet: Heavy Metals Found in Wine, Metals in wine may be health danger, and Euro wines carrying potentially dangerous levels of heavy metals.

If this is really true, then most of the people I know are going to start dropping dead any day now. If it is not true, then this is some of the most irresponsible, flagrantly fear-mongering journalism I have seen in a long time.

I have every reason to believe it is the latter.

First, an overview of the story: scientists at Kingston University in London have done some analysis (here's their paper for those inclined to read it) that seems to suggest that wines are much higher in various heavy metals than suspected, and that those levels, according to these researchers, exceed safety thresholds to the point of being a health concern.

But there is more to the story than this. This story originated at the pinnacle of respectable journalism that is WebMD (their top topics this week include penis enlargement). Stamped with the approval of a reviewing doctor, this story is meant to reek of credibility. It certainly reeks, but of something else entirely.

Readers don't find out until the second page of the story that the data these scientists are analyzing isn't their own and it wasn't collected with the purpose of making evaluations about the health implications of trace elements in wine.

The amounts of metals found in these wines are described as being in some cases 300 times those found in fish, but the reporter neglects to mention the fact that the metals in the wine (vanadium, copper, manganese, zinc, nickel, chromium, and lead) are different than those in fish (mainly mercury), and therefore probably have wildly different levels of danger (last time I checked it takes a lot more copper to screw you up than it does mercury).

Throughout the piece the reporter uses the word "contaminate" to describe the presence of the metals in the wine, yet most of those metals are found in nearly everything we eat that comes from a plant and several are found in pretty much every multi-vitamin on the face of the planet.

One of the other highly suspect components of this research, which is not addressed at all by the reporter has to do with the fact that somehow only wines from Italy, Brazil and Argentina have safe levels of metal, meaning they have between 30 and 300 times less of these metals in them than the other wines.

Now I'm not a winemaker or a wine scientist, but other than some basic filtration (which I'm not even sure is capable of removing metals such as these), I'm not aware of any winemaking step or process that specifically removes heavy metals from wine. And as far as I know, grape vines grow in the many of the same types of soil and climate all over the world, and winemaking equipment and processes, while varying from winery to winery, are basically the same around the world in the broadest sence. So how is it exactly that some country's wines are so "contaminated" while others aren't? The fact that this contamination is consistent by country, too, seems utterly preposterous -- as if there's some consistent problem in the entire frigging country?

Take a quick read of the actual research paper, and it's easy to see that the researchers did no testing of wine on their own. Rather, they're using data from a myriad of other studies whose testing methodologies, even they acknowledge, vary widely.

I'll stop my outrage there. Most likely, this is a flawed research study that is being wrongly interpreted by a stupid journalist, and now wine drinkers all over the world are going to be worried that along with their resveratrol, they're getting a Parkinson's inducing dose of heavy metals.

If I had to choose between entrusting my life and health to a glass of good red wine or a hack journalist, I know which one I would choose.

One of my favorite punching bags in the world is the sorry state of California rosé. For some reason, winemakers just don't seem to be able to produce the beautifully dry, crisp, tart rosés that I have come to expect from southern France, southern Italy, and northern Spain. These Mediterranean wines are the benchmark for rosé, and most American wines fall quite short.

Which is why I'm so enthusiastic when I discover pink wines that are made well in this country. And when they're made of exotic grape varieties, so much the better!

If you gave me three guesses as to which winery in northern California would be most likely to grow Touriga Nacional, I'd probably have ended up with York Creek Vineyards before I ran out of guesses.

The York Creek property is one of the largest and most beautiful parcels of land on the crest of Napa's Spring Mountain. One hundred twenty-five acres of vineyards are surrounded by another 575 acres of woods and orchards, hosting 24 varieties of native trees whose silhouettes make an appearance on the York Creek wine label. The property mirrors the variety of trees in its vineyard plantings of over 14 different varietals including Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Sirah, Zinfandel, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc, Pinot Blanc, Carignane, Alicante Bouschet, and Touriga Nacional.

York Creek has been owned since 1968 by Fritz Maytag who purchased the property around the same time he purchased the Anchor Steam Brewing Company here in San Francisco. He always meant to make his own wine there, it just took him a while to get around to it -- about 32 years, to be exact.

Maytag is the prodigal son of the Maytag family who decided that he needed to do something instead of appliances or blue cheese with his life. Not that his family ever had any intention of just letting him run the family business. Maytag was encouraged to find his own way in the world without a sense of entitlement. That way included a stint at Stanford as well as a lot of hanging around in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco, until the day in 1965 when he fell in love with the Anchor Brewing Company, and decided to save it from going out of business by buying a controlling interest "for the price of a used car."

Maytag took to brewing like a fish to water, and in the subsequent decades, he has become the Midas of the beverage world. His beer is world-renown and best-selling; his experiments in whiskey and gin have become quick successes. Maytag is a dabbler, a beverage renaissance man if you like, that seems to get it right. From home grown olive oil, to home grown apple brandy, to grappa and port, and now his own wine, Maytag wouldn't have seemed out of place in the turn of the century village market where farmers eked out an existence from every asset the land provided.

Maytag initially started his winemaking operations in the early Nineties for fun and with the encouragement of his neighbor and friend Cathy Corison, owner and proprietress of Corison Vineyards. In 2000 he moved his operations to a specially designed (by him, of course) winery building across the street from his brewery and made his first commercial vintages. There he continues to serve as winemaker, though now with some help from Tom Holmes, formerly one of the brewers at Anchor Steam who trained as an enologist.

York Creek Vineyards makes a number of excellent wines that I have tasted repeatedly over the years. They are distinctive, well made, unpretentious and often good values. Some of the wines also express what I take to be Maytag's adventurous spirit for experimentation. I'm quite certain this pretty rosé falls into that camp. Who on earth would have thought of making a rosé in California out of Touriga Nacional, one of the primary red grape varieties that goes into Port and the dry red wines of Portugal?

I don't know much about the winemaking for this wine, other than what I can guess from what is in the bottle. The grapes were probably harvested ripe-but-not-too-ripe on a cool morning, destemmed, crushed, and then a portion of the fermenting juice was probably bled off from the tank and put into a separate steel tank to finish fermentation on its own.

One of the first wines I fell in love with as a young wine lover was Mateus, a rosé from Portugal that had two important characteristics: it came in a cool shaped bottle, and it was just slightly sweet, not unlike contemporary White Zinfandels -- perfect for a beginning wine lover. This wine is quite superior in quality and flavor, but it reminds me fondly of the beginnings of my wine adventures.

Tasting Notes:
Brilliant rose pink in the glass, this wine has a nose of crushed stones, hibiscus, and candied orange peel. In the mouth it is light and smooth with flavors of hibiscus, raspberry, watermelon, and a light bitter earthiness that emerges on the finish. Dry, but not tart, the wine has enough acidity to make it refreshing. A unique and pleasurable rose.

Food Pairing:
I had this wine with cornmeal crust goat cheese pizza with tomatoes and basil, as well as a salad of mixed greens with scallions. It was a particularly nice counterpoint to the scallions, which made the wine more floral in character. 140 cases made.

Overall Score: between 8.5 and 9

How Much?: $15

This wine may or may not be difficult to track down. I found it at my local Whole Foods, but it seems like it may not be available for sale online.

A little less than five years ago when I started this blog, I naively thought that I might try to do something different from all those big wine critics. They were only telling part of the story, I said to myself, but I was going to tell the whole thing. I wasn't going to pull the punches that I felt everyone else was avoiding. I decided I was going to write negative wine reviews -- just what the world needed. Or so I thought.

I think my pioneering attitude lasted about six weeks, after which I was left with a (now) blindingly obvious set of revelations:

1. There was so much mediocre wine out there in the world that lukewarm or negative reviews could easily take up the majority of my writing time.

2. Writing negative reviews is about as fun as completing the writing comprehension section of the SAT.

3. People mostly want to know which wines are great much more than they want to know which wines to avoid.

Since those early days, I've developed a more nuanced point of view on the subject, but I hadn't thought about it recently (nor had to defend that point of view) until I was politely "cornered" at the recent Wine Bloggers Conference and asked to publicly state, and defend, my position.

The question of whether negative wine reviews benefit anyone does not clearly resolve into black and white, which means it's something that was certainly worth talking about, and on reflection, writing about.

As readers will probably recognize, I almost never write negative reviews here on Vinography. The few times I have were situations where I felt like there was an honestly useful, even more specifically educational, value in writing such a review. They are few and far between.

I don't write negative reviews of wines because I don't think that they are particularly meaningful or relevant for another set of reasons in addition to those listed above:

a. Many times, I don't necessarily know that the bottle I happen to be reviewing isn't simply just a bit off -- whether from a fault that I am not detecting or identifying or simply due to bottle variation of some sort or another.

b. A bad review is quite damaging, because it is often read as a condemnation of the winery itself (despite any care or attention put to the contrary by the author) even though the particular wine in question could be part of a portfolio of truly stellar wines.

c. Likewise, bad reviews are often read (and written by irresponsible critics) as being absolute and categorical judgements about a winery, when in fact they are mere evaluations of a specific wine in a specific vintage. That particular wine could have been great the year before, or it could get great the next year. But bad reviews hang around in the minds of consumers like skeletons in the closet, much longer than they should.

d. Bad reviews also hang around in the minds of winemakers and winery owners a lot longer than they should. Like it or not, anyone who seriously attempts to write consistently about wine in a critical fashion has a symbiotic (or as Jancis Robinson would put it, a parasitic) relationship with the wine industry. Bad reviews burn bridges in ways that make it difficult for the writer to ply their craft.

As readers know, when I review an individual wine, I spend a lot of time (and words) in the process. To do so, only to pan a wine, would be a waste of my time and the readers for all the reasons stated above.

There are a couple of slight exceptions to this rule, however, when it comes to my coverage of large categories of wine at major public or trade tastings or my reviews of the entire portfolio of wines by a single producer. In those situations I often (but not always) include the scores of the wines that fall the lowest on my scale. In the case of large public tastings, I am not writing tasting notes or any other kinds of notes about the wines, only offering their scores relative to a much larger group of wines. In the case of a producer, I am including that wine in a group that includes wines I think are excellent as well (otherwise I wouldn't write the review), so I believe there is enough context to mitigate my negative assessment of the wine.

These exceptions lead me to the conclusion, however, that if I was going to attempt in any way to offer a comprehensive set of criticisms about any particular category of wine, that I might indeed write negative reviews. For instance, if I ever happened to be able to attend the En Primeur tasting of top Bordeaux Chateaux in the Spring, my goal would be to provide readers with my reviews and scores for every single wine, and that comprehensive coverage would by necessity have to include those wines which I did not care for.

I rarely find myself in a position with the time or the opportunity to be so comprehensive in my coverage of any type or showing of wine, however.

Nonetheless, the fact that such a situation might exist, certainly forces me, in answering the question that titles this post, to not only concede that there certainly could be a point to negative wine reviews in certain situations, but also to admit that my position on the subject isn't quite as strong as I might believe.

For instance, if I ever got into the habit of publishing every tasting note I ever made (hard to imagine given the effort of doing so at the moment) I might consider including the bad ones as well.

But I suppose I'm lucky that I don't have to suffer through that at the moment. Instead, I choose to take the time that I do in order to write carefully and passionately about individual wines that I love. Life is too short to drink bad wine, and it's also too short to write 500 words about a wine only to recommend that no one should buy it.

A strange concept if there ever was one. A gathering of more than 150 wine bloggers in one place. Such a notion conjures a medley of reactions in my brain, but mostly it makes me feel old.

"Why Sonny, I remember when there were only three wine blogs in the world..."

I had planned on attending the entire two-and-a-half day event in Santa Rosa, California, but then my wife Ruth fell ill, and all sorts of things got put on hold. As a result I've driven up today to speak in one of the breakout sessions with my friend Tom Wark and depending on how Ruth is feeling, I may have to head back home, or I may be able to stay and satisfy my curiosity a bit: how many wine bloggers does it take to screw in a lightbulb, and what do some of these people look like in real life?

The topic of the session that I am conducting with Tom is entitled How to Increase Traffic to Your Wine Blog.

Now I'm all about providing value to people, so I'm going to tell them everything they want to know. All the secrets -- 45 minutes of free consulting from a guy that runs a company helping big companies make more money on the Internet. I'll give them the keys to the Google treasure box.

But I'm also going to challenge the crowd of eager, ambitious bloggers that the premise of the session is entirely irrelevant and misguided. I'm not sure how much time we'll have, or how long I'll be able to continue on this tack before I'm pulled from the stage and beaten to a pulp, so I thought I'd put down my thoughts on the subject here. At the very least anyone who wants to revisit my advice can do so while I'm recovering from the mob's attack.

Any wine blogger obsessed with (or even mildly anxious about) increasing the traffic to their blog is both misguided in their thinking and setting themselves up for a lot of disappointment.

Let's get this out of the way for starters: wine blogs, even the most successful of them, don't make much money at all. If you've started a wine blog with the idea that all you have to do is write a blog, get some traffic, sell some ads, and then you can quit your day job, you've drastically misjudged both how much traffic you need to do so (a hell of a lot -- more than any other wine blog out there) and also how much interest there is in advertising on wine blogs (very little -- all the money, what little there is, is focused on print advertising).

Even folks who understand this reality, and those who honestly didn't ever think of their blog as a potential source of revenue, still (wrongly) consider their traffic numbers to be a measure of their success.

Which brings us to the heart of the matter: what constitutes a successful wine blog?

At the end of the day success is a judgement that only we can make, and it is an assessment of how well we have fulfilled our own intentions for an action. Based on this definition, most people suffer from a simple defect in their thinking about the success of their blogs -- namely that they have never defined for themselves what they are trying to achieve. Instead, they adopt the common sense notion that a successful web site is one that gets lots of traffic, and then spend their time fretting about how they don't measure up to this misplaced criterion for success.

Instead of some adopted notion of success, bloggers need to really think about what they are trying to achieve with their blog. There are a lot of answers to this question. Here are the three best ones that I know of:

1. Have a wine blog because you enjoy it. This isn't the reason I started Vinography, but it is the reason I kept writing after the third week, and it is still the reason I keep writing here.

2. Have a wine blog to practice being a writer. Studies (real ones) have shown that in order to master a complex skill and compete at a professional level, it takes about 10,000 hours of practice. This is true for dancers, poker players, and writers. One of the best reasons to have a wine blog is that you haven't hit your 10,000 hours yet.

3. Have a wine blog because you want people to pay you to write about wine someday. In order for folks to pay you to write, you have to prove that you can. A blog is the easiest way to ply your craft as a writer.

So guess what all three of those (and most of the other good reasons for having a blog) have in common? Site traffic has nothing to do with them. No bearing. No effect. None.

Of course, there are those who blog because they seek attention in some form or another. To these folks, traffic numbers might indeed seem like some gratification of their desire to be listened to or paid attention to. While the mainstream media rightly uses such self-indulgent bloggers as reasons to doubt the value of the entire lot of us bloggers, such activity is the reason blogs were invented in the first place. Before anything else, a blog was a place that someone could write instead of in a diary. But even to these folks, who may be looking for nothing more than a little personal validation, I say quality is going to be better for you than quantity. One person commenting on your latest post is better than 100 faceless "hits" delivered like the morning news from your web stats package.

I think deep down in a lot of bloggers' questions about web traffic there is a tiny little question that they are afraid of asking but which underlies much of the talk about traffic:

"How will I know if I'm any good?"

There are two answers to that question, one that is nice, one that is not so nice. The nice one is that we are all good, and all we have to do is go ask our parents and friends to find that out. The not so nice answer to that question goes something like this: if you really are good, then the last thing you have to worry about is finding ways to increase your traffic. If you're good then you will get web traffic because there are millions of web-savvy wine lovers out there looking for something good, and as the old saying goes, they know it when they see it.

So stop worrying about your web traffic and figure out what you really want to achieve. And then go write for it.

I make it my habit to pay attention to new, small wineries. Generally that means seeking them out at public tastings, perking up my ears when I hear the names of wineries I don't know, and approaching each box of unknown wine I get on my doorstep as the potential to be something new and exciting.

Generally, whatever you might like to call these efforts of mine, if they can be described as efforts, tend to be focused on California. This probably comes as no surprise to most, but that has nothing to do with my preferences, so much as it does with where I live, who I know, and who happens to know about Vinography.

Perhaps it's no wonder, then, that when I stumble across a small, brand-new winery from somewhere else that has started to make good wine, I get quite excited.

I must admit, I hardly stumbled across Cadaretta winery. My discovery of their inaugural vintage was quite the opposite of chance -- their wines were literally handed to me by a group of folks from the Washington Wine Commission who happened to be passing through town and asked if they could meet me. My answer to all such requests, which I get pretty much weekly, is a firm "no." No, because the folks asking are usually wineries or PR people that work for wineries. In an effort to maintain my reputation objectivity (I never want anyone to be able to say, "but they took you out to lunch, so of course you gave them a good score") I eschew all such offers.

But in this case, the folks didn't work for a winery, they worked for the State of Washington. Or perhaps more accurately, for every winery in the State of Washington. And they wanted to say hi, find out how much I knew about Washington wines, and like the Jehovah's Witnesses that show up at my door occasionally, offer to expose me to some stuff that I might not have known about before. In the nicest possible way.

Cadaretta winery is a brand new winery in Walla Walla, Washington. They plan to be a proper winery with vineyards and a cellar, and probably a tasting room and all that. But they're just getting started. Meaning they've literally just started planting their vines in the last couple of weeks. They're so new that they got a damn blog before they even got themselves a proper web site. I love it.

Cadaretta fulfills the long held goal (and the entrepreneurial drive) of the Middleton family, a family whose roots in Washington State dig back deep into the 19th century, when they made their fortune, like many others, through an admixture of their sweat, their imagination, and the raw natural resources of the coastal-region-eventually-to-be-known as Washington.

The Anderson & Middleton company, formed in 1898, did what a lot of companies in Washington did back then: they cut down trees, chopped them up, and sent them south to California to be turned into houses like mine. The company was successful enough (and smart enough) to get into the shipping business as well so they didn't have to pay others to sail their lumber down the coast for them. They got themselves a bunch of big boats, and they named one of them Cadaretta.

Four generations later, the company is still at it, albeit more greatly diversified. Twenty years ago they started farming wine grapes in California, and perhaps as a result, Rick Middleton caught the wine bug, and Cadaretta winery became the dream that is currently taking shape in the low sloping hills of the Colombia Valley.

Even though the winery just planted its first vines three months ago, they have recently released their first wines, made from purchased grapes by their winemaker Virginie Bourgue. Bourgue earned a degree in viticulture and another in enology in France, and worked in many French wine regions, including a long stint in Champagne where she worked for Louis Roederer and Bollinger among others. In 2002 she worked the harvest at Chateau St. Michelle in Washington and never left.

Under Bourgue's direction, the estate vineyards are being planted to the primary red and white Bordeaux varietals (Cabernet, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Sauvignon Blanc, and Semillon) with a little Syrah and Chardonnay thrown in for good measure.

I don't know much about the winemaking or grape sources for these two wines, but even with purchased grapes, made in a custom crush facility while the estate winery is being built, they show a lot of promise.

TASTING NOTES:

2007 Cadaretta "SBS" White Blend, Columbia Valley, Washington
Pale gold in the glass, this wine has a nose of warm wheat and citrus juice aromas. In the mouth it is bright with acidity and mouth puckering, with citrus qualities and a hint of something...earthier... on the sides of the mouth. Intriguing and altogether pleasing. Long finish. Score: around 9. Cost: $17. Where to buy?

2006 Cadaretta Syrah, Columbia Valley, Washington
Dark garnet in the glass, this wine has a nose of blackberry, cinnamon, and nutmeg aromas. In the mouth it is soft and velvety with flavors of blackberry, cloves, and cedar. Nice finish. Score: between 8.5 and 9. Cost: $28. Where to buy?

Amidst the tumbling financial markets, rapacious campaigning, and international crises of one form or another, we all need to slow down and have a glass of wine. Moreover, we all need to stop taking life quite so seriously.

I normally don't look to French winegrowers for a source of amusement -- they are a famously unfunny lot -- but apparently desperate times have brought out some humor in some wine producers in the Languedoc.

Faced with low demand for their cooperative produced wines in the face of their region's reputation for producing plonk, a group of winemakers have decided that they might as well meet the consumer's expectation.

So they've produced a wine labeled "Vin de Merde." And for anyone who didn't learn any French swear words when they got the chance in Fifth Grade, that means "Shit Wine." Or as the ever so proper BBC commentator puts it: "Crap wine." The rest of the text on the label says: "The worst signifies the best."

Here's a little piece from the BBC on the brilliant new label, which just happens to be selling faster than they can get it into shops.