Today was a good day

I talked to a number of my favorite customers and shared with them the good news: their Justice series and Phelps Insignia are on the loose and they can expect delivery of their cases next week. Everyone wants to put the Valley’s best wines sourced by their wine scout in their cellar. Fall is the perfect time to stock up on the goods, and weather is great for shipping. Excitement is already is in the air for the 2010 holiday season - or as some of us call it, the "eating and partying" season. Our customers aren’t the only ones that have it good, though.

It is nearing the end of a long day at work and around 4:30 I hear the sound of over one dozen bottles getting opened. We know that our wine buyers are hard at work tasting hundreds of wines per week and making important decisions. When the tempo cools down a bit, I slip in to the tasting lab and play catch up.

‘This oaked Chard is nice, but the Carneros one is better.'

‘Pinots in this price point are driving the market. I wish more of them tasted this good.'

‘This is one of the best $50 cabs I’ve ever tasted…’

There’s no less than 25 wines on the table from some our favorite producers. Today’s standouts: Waypoint ‘Donum Estate’ Chardonnay, Vineyard 7&8 Estate Cabernet, and Pursuit 'George III' Cabernet. Did someone say there was O’Shaughnessy open? No, that’s tomorrow. Research - it's a dirty job but SOMEONE has to do it.

Ram, Nicolas and I grab the Waypoint Chardonnay and Pursuit 'GIII' and head across the street to the wine bar for some ribs and slaw and share today’s bounty with the rib slingers. Everyone in the wine bar is going crazy over the Pursuit Cabs right now. We rehash the day’s events and talk about the funniest things that happened. One customer bought 10 cases of Streamside Chardonnay because his wife and in laws LOVE the stuff and Bounty Hunter’s biggest Diamond Creek fan bought something besides Diamond Creek for the first time - ever. We learned that he was interested in trying some nice Pinots.

When its time to head our separate ways Nicolas reminds the group that we’ve got dinner at Norman Rose tomorrow and we’re watching the big game. In downtown Napa, life is good.

--Ryan Crosbie, Wine Scout

Cork vs. Screw Cap

Cork vs. Screw cap? We didn't know how hot a topic this was until we posted this question on our Facebook page and received an explosion of responses. What surprised us even more was the approval of screw caps altogether. There was support not only for the snappy wines meant to be consumed young, but for some of the big boys designed to be put down for a few years. As ritualistic and romantic as being served a wine with a cork top, there is nothing worse than the displeasure of having a corked (TCA) wine. TCA stands for 2,4,6-Trichloroanisole, a compound that is responsible for tainting the wine and usually can be detected by giving off an aroma of a moldy newspaper.

The worst type of TCA is when the odor is almost undetectable but the flavors of the wine are still severely distorted. This leads many consumers to thinking that there is nothing wrong with the wine except that it is just plain bad. At Bounty Hunter Rare Wine Co. we have seen many changes in the wine industry and welcome new and exciting ideas such as screw caps. Don't worry, we still love wines with corks, just not corked wines.

Are Celebrations Up In Smoke?

This is the first year, in what seems like a long time, when baseball fever has swept across the Bay area and into wine country. Let’s be honest, in the past five years there has been nothing but disappointment from all sports around here aside from a San Jose Sharks playoff run that fell way short and the “underdog” defeat of Takeru Kobayashi at the International July Fourth Hot Dog Eating Contest by the Bay area’s own Joey Chestnut. Well, this year we get to celebrate! Our beloved SF Giants have just won the N.L. West and they are headed for the playoffs! Whoohoo! Time to bust out the Champagne, crack open your favorite Single Malt Scotch and light up a big fat cigar…uh, wait just a moment.

It seems there is yet another movement to spoil our fun. Just over a week ago, the Cincinnati Reds clinched their division and as with baseball tradition, they broke out in a mildly debaucherous celebration including Champagne showers and a round of Cigars. Well since the boys we’re inside the clubhouse at the time, some folks at home got their panties in a bunch and actually filed a formal complaint with the heath department and now the incident is “under investigation.” At what point did we as a society decide that this was wrong? We’re talking about a group of men that work seven days or more consecutively in an extremely high pressure situations with an infinite amount of critics amplifying any wrong move they make for a six month stretch and when they finally make it to the postseason (something they’ve dreamed about since they were kids and the thing they work so hard for all year) they let loose for night, in their own clubhouse mind you, and are criticized for smoking in an enclosed work environment. Look, I am in no way a fan of lighting up indoors, especially in mixed company, but this is absolutely absurd. You can read more about the incident at yahoo sports.

Well all I can say is, I have several bottles of 2001 S. Anderson Blanc de Noir, a bottle of 1985 Glenrothes Single Malt and a box of Graycliff PG - Robusto cigars in the humidor for my own celebrations (with some luck, maybe even the World Series). Although, my wife might launch formal complaint and send me outside with the stogie…it just might be worth it. Go Giants!!!

--Stefan Matulich, Sales Director

Harvest Is In The Air

This morning, while driving the 30 miles from my home in the Sonoma Valley to my office here in downtown Napa, I was once again reminded of how special this time of year is for those of us lucky enough to live in wine country. For me personally, one of the perks of my job is having the loveliest commute known to man. My route takes me through the back roads and byways of both Sonoma and Napa counties, with most of my route being lined with vineyards, mountain and valley views, and quaint local roadside businesses. My house is just over the ridge from Fisher Vineyards, and about 10 minutes into my drive, I pass under the brow of the hilltop where winemaker Michael McNeil is making Burgundian magic from Sonoma County Chardonnay grapes. Deer, raptors, wild turkeys and the occasional coyote are my usual early morning driving distractions. Driving through the heart of the Carneros region (Spanish for “ram”) I regularly can check on the progress of the vines that eventually produce both the Broken Spur and Pursuit Pinot Noirs and the Pursuit Chardonnay.

But this time of year, the most seductive attention getter is the smell of active fermentation early in the morning, when it is so still the wisps of ground fog still lie in pockets around the “tanks” (irrigation ponds) in the middle of the vineyards and along the marshes surrounding the Napa River basin. Smells like a cross between baking fresh bread and making strawberry jam at the same time. With the sun just barely peeking over Mt. St Helena, there is a lot of traffic for 6 A.M. – farm workers heading to the vineyards they’ve been assigned to begin the long day carefully cutting the clusters from the vines, placing them in 40 pound boxes that are then dumped into large plastic or wood bins to head for their appointed destiny at someone’s crush pad.

While this has been touted locally as “the summer that never was,” the last few days of 100+ heat have helped many of the vineyards catch up on their sugar production, enough so to make a crush pad manager’s life similar to an air traffic controller at O’Hare. The whites are mostly finished up now, and a few early ripening reds are being harvested. The big boys (Cabs, Petit Verdot, Zins – the usual suspects) are still a few weeks out.

This means, I’ve got about a month of heavenly scents to accompany my early morning commute left…

--Craig House, CFO/COO

Well, they're at it again...

Just when you think it’s safe to go online and order your favorite Brunello or Napa Cabernet from an out-of-state resource, your friendly neighborhood wholesaler – in conjunction, of course, with their paid lackeys in Congress – are attempting to further undermine your right as a legal adult to buy a legal product. HB 5034. Protectionism? Of course. Restraint of trade? Absolutely. But this time, they’ve gone one step beyond the norm of legalized monopolies and are veering into the truly vile territory of infringing upon that most fundamental of American rights… the ability to sue whomever we damn well please.

Allow me to provide some context. With the repeal of Prohibition and the establishment of the 21st Amendment, the federal government basically ceded control of any laws regarding alcohol to the states. Whether it was your ability to buy booze in a grocery store or a six-pack on Sunday, it was up to your state government. The Feds wanted out of the conversation. Basically, in order to break up the mobs and bootleggers that ran rampant during Prohibition, the government set up 50 individual fiefdoms to patrol the flow of alcoholic beverages. However laudable the goal may have been at the time, all that changed was that a group of unregulated, illegal rackets became state-approved, legal rackets instead. The wholesale monster was born.

Gangsters had no qualms about paying off politicians to further their own interests. Now wholesalers continue that proud tradition in the form of “campaign contributions”. In order to protect their legally mandated monopoly (and make no mistake, that’s exactly what it is), the checks and handshakes flow like so much Pinot Noir. Usually this comes in the form of keeping the status quo unchanged at the state level. This has always been accepted as fact. Despite its inherent hypocrisy and idiotic nanny state implications, try telling the state of Utah that you should be able to ship a case of wine directly to your vacation home in Park City (it is one of a myriad of baffling examples one could cite). But now, in the case of one political pimp Rep. Delahunt: and his harem of syphilitic legislative prostitutes, there is a legitimate attempt to take a matter of states’ rights to the federal level in the most cynical way: You can’t even call BS on Big Brother and let the courts decide who is in the right. Essentially, you wouldn’t be able to sue your own government for corruption. Because they told you so.

The actual acronym for this bill is CARE. Seriously. Nominally sponsored by the wholesale beer lobby, the net effect is the same for wine lovers… no matter how archaic, asinine or anti-consumer your state’s alcohol laws are, you would effectively be barred from suing them. Charming, isn’t it? They’re tired of spending money against pissed-off consumers bringing suit against a 75-year old legal boondoggle, so they want to make their decisions unimpeachable… while allowing the monetary interests of the wholesalers to pave their way to re-election, of course. It’s absolutely as detestable as it sounds and 85 members of Congress have signed on as co-sponsors.

Write your Congressperson through the form here to express your disdain: Remind them who you are, that you vote and that they can pry your corkscrew from your cold, dead hands. This is America, baby. We drink because we choose to and sue because we can.

Update: Wine Institute issues a formal statement regarding HB 5034

--Rhett Gadke, Wine Director

A taste of Napa's '98 vintage

It’s rare – even for those of us in the business – to taste a large number of older Napa Valley wines in one sitting. One might get the occasional chance to try something with a little age at a restaurant or a winery event, but it’s an infrequent treat to get a look at a broad swath of producers. Given the opportunity, I jumped at the chance to attend the St. Helena Star’s tasting of the ’98 vintage organized in conjunction with the Napa Valley Vintners at the Rudd Center of the Culinary Institute of America. Along with about 20 other winemakers, sommeliers, retailers and journalists, we undertook a 21-wine tasting of the much maligned 1998 vintage to see if really deserved its bad rap.

The vintage was a challenging one, no doubt. It was the year I moved to Napa from the East Coast and I have vivid memories of rain well into late of April and thinking, “this is California weather?” It wasn’t just a sprinkle here and there either. We’re talking days on end of serious storms. Basically, it postponed the start of spring and added another challenge to what would be a cool, wet growing season overall (one tasting panelist recalled seeing grapes on vines with no leaves in early November still trying to fully ripen). Conventional wisdom would point to green, vegetal wines in instances where the farming wasn’t properly managed.

Critics being critics, they saw weakness in Napa and pounced, all but declaring the ’98 wines undrinkable. What we learned, surprisingly, was that underripe fruit wasn’t the issue… but brettanomyces, the yeast present in cellars around the world, certainly was. In minute quantities, it gives a distinctive “funk” to a wine which some wine drinkers find appealing, but most winemakers do everything in their power to drive it out of their cellars and barrels as it is often ruinously destructive. It was apparent that “brett” was a lot more prevalent in Napa cellars a mere 12 years ago than it is today.

Overall, the group felt the wines to be enjoyable if not spectacular. We were nearly unanimous in the belief that most had hit their peak and that further cellaring wouldn’t add much to them. However, this was certainly not the display of liquefied asparagus foretold by the critics – they just tasted like older Napa wines. It demonstrated once again that a “bad” vintage in California is a very relative term.

--Rhett Gadke, Wine Director

Classic Dining in San Francisco

This weekend we took a break from our regular wine outings and headed to San Francisco for the first ever San Francisco Vintners Market. The event was packed with over 150 wineries showing off their latest wines to a roomful of patrons with the opportunity to purchase any of the wines they like. It was the first ever event of it’s kind in San Francisco and it was a huge success. It was great to see some of you face to face and to meet a lot of new folks who, like all of you, are looking for “great stuff” in the world of wine. Since we were all gathered in the city for the weekend, we thought it would be good to visit a restaurant classic that stands as one of the nation’s greatest steakhouses. The House of Prime Rib is everything you could imagine it to be by reading the name alone. It’s old school white table cloth, club service cocktails, waiters in starched white shirts and bow-ties with the simplest fare ever conceived. I mean, the menu is rather unnecessary as the only choice you have to make is how much prime rib do you want, how would you like it cooked, do you want your potatoes baked or mashed and do you want creamed corn or creamed spinach. You may be saying to yourself, really? That’s it? Yes, and how great “it” is! We sat down to our table after a healthy dose of gin at the bar to knock the dust off the palate with fourteen people total on two tables and were graciously catered to by Bartholomew. A man with a young face, an unfortunate name, but a classically trained captain of his profession which is something you see less and less of in restaurants today. From start to finish our meal and service was as impeccable as the wines (2004 Waypoint Weiss Vineyard Cabernet, 2005 Caymus Special Selection and 2007 PlumpJack Estate Cabernet to name a few) and made for one of the better evenings the Bounty Hunter crew has shared in recent memory. It’s almost unimaginable that the same city that is on the forefront of molecular gastronomy, culinary deconstruction, foams, frills and the signature Nike swoosh of vegetable puree also gave birth to this palace of culinary lucidity. Don’t get me wrong, I like all that fancy stuff, but when it’s all said and done the restaurants that survive the test of time are the ones who do something really simple and they do it very well. After this weekends experience the House of Prime Rib has my vote for one of America’s greatest restaurants. What’s your best “classic” restaurant experience in recent memory?

--Stefan Matulich, Sales Director