Let's save Charles Smith's reputation!

 LOL. Tonight I opened 2014 El Jefe Tempranillo. 95 points Robert Parker and he nailed it, though I predicted (after tasting and before checking scores) 96 points, as Jane is my witness. This is so smooth, so big, and it's in my wheelhouse with lovely non-black-fruit flavors of purple berries and iron and bull's blood. The oak is lovely. Lots of complexity. I'm a fan! This is a $55 wine that is worth it!

Face to face: 2018 Cinder Syrah vs 2015 K Vintners "The Beautiful" Syrah

Wow. Seldom do you have a chance to compare two such different, yet fascinating, Syrahs.

1. In this corner, we have the 2015 K Vintners "The Beautiful" Syrah. 97 points and $60. 

2. In that corner, there is the 2018 Cinder Syrah (Snake River Valley). It's won several awards and is $30.

Charles Smith is easily one of the greatest success stories of Walla Walla wine. He worked his butt off and achieved amazing wine success. Sold for ?$20M? ?$200M? I forget the number. Good for him. On the one hand it was well-deserved, but on the other, I ask... really? This wine came to us during my stint on his mailing list. The wine had a 97 point nose that's for sure. Just angelic. But the palate fell to maybe 91. It was fine, but not earth-shaking. After one day, the nose (formerly purple fruits) had morphed to a GREAT black olive note, but the palate was even more pedestrian. Today, at 5 years old (which is NOT too old for a great Syrah), I'd give the wine 88 points or so. Respectable and fun, but worth $60? No. Effing. Way. We had this with La Bottega's braised pork shoulder (Covid take out). I've had many GREAT GREAT GREAT Charles Smith wines, and this was in that part of the baseball field, but it fell short.

Now, to Cinder. Their wines are fresh, new, and exciting. The winemaker/owner trained at Chat St Michelle, and is really inspired; she makes wonderful wines. The staff at the winery calls this Syrah "Silk, Smoke, and Chai." I get the silk and chai but not the smoke. This one's power is in the palate, not the bouquet. We had this with grass-fed Oregon Valley Farms' beef tenderloin, and slow-sauteed green beans, and mashed potatoes with garlic and au jus gravy. It delivers more satisfaction than Charles' wine, and certainly so in terms of QPR quality-price ratio). But both are quite good. 

We who can try such wines are fortunate. If you are one such person, thank you for taking time out to find ways to help those less fortunate. Lately, we have supported the Chinook Nation, the Clark County Food Bank, OPB (some of the best journalism in the US), and some others.

Unacceptable

 This article describes sexual harassment of women sommeliers by male sommeliers. Their organization is aware of it but has done little. No means no, and aside from that, it is a great management practice not to harass others at work. Oh, and it's also illegal.

Three diverse views of a wine:

 How can this happen? Consider the 2014 Caparzo Brunello:

It sells for about $35 retail. 

Wine Spectator scores it 92 points and sees bright cherry and raspberry, with minerals and peppery greens. Drink 2021-2032.

Wine Enthusiast scores it 88 points and sees strawberry, rose, and herb in the bouquet, and pomegranate and clove on the palate.  Drink now through 2022.

James Suckling scores it 91 points and sees dark fruit and cedar.

Wow! Those are very diverse views of the same wine. Which one should a consumer believe? It may be they're all correct, and the wine was different at different times of tasting. Or it maybe one or more of the reviews was way off.  Or maybe each reviewer was accurate according to their own palate, as palates do vary a lot among wine lovers. But either way, are you willing to risk $35 on a wine that might or might not have a flavor profile you like? 

More importantly, should you buy it if you need to drink it by next year, or can you keep it for twelve more years? 

Would be nice to not see this sort of "review disparity" among wine professionals, but I don't know how to accomplish that.

How Climate Change's Extreme Weather Events Affect Grapes and Wine:

 We (Epona) joined the Porto Protocol a year or two ago; it's a collaboration of grapegrowers and winemakers, worldwide, who are focusing on "Green" issues--sustainability; adaptation to changing climate, etc. To join, they ask you to write a short case study about what you're doing or have done, to be more "Green" (we used our solar-powered, earth-sheltered winery, and our modern varieties of grapes as our "reasons to beg into the group"). Here's a report I wrote to my winery association:

Today, the PP held a discussion of experts from around the world, on "Extreme Weather Events." The panel included Gregory Jones, a research climatologist specializing in the climatology of viticulture. He is the Director of the Evenstad Center for Wine Education, holds the Evenstad Chair in Wine Studies, and is a professor and research climatologist in the Department of Environmental Studies at Linfield University. He conducts applied research for the grape and wine industry in Oregon. I think he was on the smoke taint panel for the WSU event last week?

Major points:

1. In Australia the hotter temps are causing growers to move to the cool sides of hills (KLE: Note: This is being done in Walla Walla), and to stop all leaf removal, and to adopt new canopy styles which shade the fruit.

2. We need to get politics out of the climate change discussion.

3. A number of major insurers have stopped insuring Oregon grapegrowers, due to increased climate-related claims. They are literally leaving the state.

4. Climate extreme events are being seen in every grapegrowing region. 

5. Mendoza, Argentina sees increasing summer hail events due to climate change.

I submitted this comment: "Growers should consider earlier-ripening modern varieties, which spend fewer days on the vine and thus are a bit less exposed to extreme weather events. Such as, avoiding some of the earlier Fall rains here in the US' Pacific Northwest, because they can be harvested before some of those rains." I also told my grapebreeder friends that if smoke is going to be more common, they should consider putting the tenteurier trait (colored juice in red grapes) into their grapes, as that allows a dark red wine to be made even if we press the juice off the skins immediately after harvest, thereby reducing the risk of smoke taint. Many of these guys are/were  research professors and/or very deep into practical science, and one responded that the tenteurier trait is expressed through a single identified gene and should not be too difficult to cross into grapes. At Epona we have three red winegrapes which are tenteurier: Golubok, VB Labelle, and Delicatessen. All of them are earlier-ripening than, say, Pinot Noir.

Each of us will make her/his own decision about what to change, and when and how to change it, in response to growing environmental threats.

Kenton

Wine Country fires are horrible this year

 This article describes the huge, numerous, and threatening wildfires threatening people and grapes. Deaths are already being reported. Huge areas are under evacuation orders.

Epona Farm is presently 17 miles west of the area under an Evacuation Level 2 Order (meaning, "be ready to go if we issue a Level 3 order"), from a large set of fires burning on the west slope of Mt St Helens. The fires themselves are 25-35 miles away from us. The winds, which have brought us so much smoke for 3 days now and at times completely obscured the sun, are about to shift, and by Saturday we should see clear skies again. At times the smoke has been at the "unhealthy" level.

Smoke taint is caused by smoke phenols (from burning wood) attaching to grape skins and binding to sugars. Because the phenols are bound to sugars, they are not detectable in the grape (unless you run a lab test, but the labs are backlogged for weeks and the grapes are ripe now). But once the wine is made, the alcohol splits off the smoke phenol and it re-appears in the wine. At small levels it can add an interesting and nice complexifying element, but at high levels the wine is ruined, and there is no practicable fix for that fault.

Dick Erath, one of Oregon's wine pioneers, just advised me that the Willamette Valley saw more smoke than this, for more days, in a past year, and yet there was no smoke taint in their wines that year. We're in the middle of grape and apple harvest, and we'll find out once the wines are made, whether they have smoke taint. At this moment, I feel fairly confident they will not.

The Willamette Valley (and Napa and Sonoma) are under even denser smoke, so that is a threat to many many high-value commercial wines. The first photo is from Oregon (from the article I've linked here), and the second photo is from our farm (near Woodland WA) yesterday.

Dutch Tulip Mania story is way overhyped

 The Dutch were one of Europe's first modern nations; they had one of the best economies, and trading systems, in that continent. We all think their tulip bulb mania was a huge economic mess, but actually, it wasn't. Bubbles are to be feared, but this wasn't one!

https://theconversation.com/tulip-mania-the-classic-story-of-a-dutch-financial-bubble-is-mostly-wrong-91413