So you want to own a vineyard.

From time to time, I muse as to what I'd do if I won the lottery. I've got one friend who says he'd buy a vineyard. This article is for him, then. It talks about some of the difficulties of starting up a winery as a retirement venture/hobby: working all day in the vineyard, capital demands, marketing problems.

Would I buy a vineyard? Maybe. If the lottery win were big enough that I could also hire a vineyard manager, and enough other people that I limit myself to doing the fun stuff.

Looking for a peculiar list of presents to give your wine-loving friends?

Then Forbes.com is where you want to go. They've got a right bizarre list of gifts for wine lovers. Some of the suggestions are reasonable, like Riedel glasses or Michael Broadbent's latest book, and some are expensive but appropriate, like a $250 double magnum of Veuve Clicquot or a $600 case of burgundy. But sterling silver labels for your bourbon and gin bottles or a silver martini shaker that costs over $7,000? Well, I suppose you could always pawn them and buy good wine with the proceeds.

2001 Castle Rock Winery, Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.

This cabernet is produced by a California negociant, and is a mighty good $12 cabernet. As evidence of its quality, this cabernet and the Castle Rock Chardonnay have been chosen as Ruth's Chris Steak House's "House wine by the glass," which is a pretty impressive accomplishment. (Sure, there's a marketing component thrown in to that deal, too, but a restaurant of the calibre of Ruth's Chris Steak House isn't going to pick up a crummy wine as their house wine.)

Young, bright ruby-red color. Strong bursts of dark red fruit in the flavor - black cherry and plums - with hints of darker undertones of leather and pepper. Aroma not as intense as I'd expected from the flavor, though. Medium body, not as rich and layered as a $30 cabernet, but nowhere as expensive, either. Young tannins, although not a lot of them. Probably needs another year, or at most two, to mellow out the tannins and make this wine as velvety smooth as it could become. Initially fairly closed, this wine had opened up tremendously when I finished off the last half of the bottle two days after I'd opened it.

Not as full-bodied as a big cabernet, this would go well with red meats and probably okay or better with grilled red meats, but I'd want something a little more substantial for a charcoal-grilled pepper-crusted steak.

Westpark Wine & Beer, Richmond, $11.99.

Wine gimmick of the week.

Here's a new way to separate you from that pesky $49.95 you've got jingling in your pocket: The Wine Clip. It's a magnet (Oooo! A rare earth magnet!) that you clip onto the neck of a wine bottle, and as you pour the wine out, the magnetic field sets up an electrical charge (wine being an electrical conductor, and all, passing through the field) which breaks large molecules into smaller ones. Thus, it breaks up large tannin molecules into small tannin molecules, which makes the wine smoother - or so they claim. They do say that it works equally well with a $10 bottle of merlot and a $300 bottle of cabernet sauvignon, which I can well believe.

It's great fun watching the video of a taste test with this magnet, one of four they supposedly did: "Which of these two glasses of wine we just poured from the same bottle - one with the Wine Clip on the neck of the bottle and one without - tastes better?" and then they turn over the corresponding card. Six of the seven "picked" the glass identified as having been poured through the Clip. The best part is trying to decide whether the individual testers were in on the secret from the beginning, or both glasses had "poured through the Wine Clip" cards so whichever they chose would be the right answer, or this was the only one of the tests they ran where a majority picked the glass poured through the Clip.

Probably the most interesting part of this silly product is that the Strategic Advisor to the Wine Clip is none other than John Sculley, late of Apple and Pepsi.

Why, yes, I do think the Emperor's new clothes are very nice, indeed.

Update (Dec. 11, 2003): Just to be clear, I have not - yet - tried The Wine Clip or done blind taste tests with it. If and when I do, I'll report on what I find - and if I have to eat my words, I'll have better-tasting wine to wash them down with.

2002 House of Nobilo Icon, Marlborough Pinot Noir.

I was a bit disappointed with this New Zealand pinot noir, and I'm not really sure why. It seemed to be missing something, probably some combination of body, complexity, and earthiness.

Bright cherry color, with strawberry and red cherry in the aroma. Strong fruit flavors of red cherry and strawberry, with crisp, almost lemony, acidity. Tannins are present, but a bit overpowered by the fruit and acidity. light- to medium-weight body; not much mouthfeel to it. Medium length finish.

Probably wouldn't want to match this with anything more strongly flavored than fish, chicken, or pasta in a white sauce. By itself would be fine, too.

Private Stock, Richmond, $17.99.

1999 Rosenblum Cellars Russian River Valley Zinfandel, Alegria Vineyard.

Had a nice, rich, fruit-forward zinfandel out at dinner tonight.

Dark red, plummy aroma, rich and intense red-fruit flavors - black cherry, plum jam, touch of smokiness. Decent tannins, enough to stand up to the fruit. Long finish. Very nice. Went well with our steaks.

Buckhead's, Richmond. $52. (Okay, the 2000 vintage is $18 at the winery. What are you going to do? Well, that answer is easier if the person you're out to dinner with is on an expense account.)

Favorite wine shops.

It's a sign of something, I suppose, that I have "favorite" wine shops all over the place. Two or three here in Richmond where I currently live, one or two in Raleigh, NC (discovered when I lived in Durham for a couple of years), one in Charlottesville (where I lived for many, many years, and I even worked part-time at that wine shop), and a couple in Arlington (where I haven't lived since the Carter Administration).

A number of factors need to align before a wine shop makes it onto my Favorites list: a friendly, helpful, approachable staff, who is neither condescending nor obsequious; reasonable prices; frequent tastings (how else to find out whether you might like a wine you've not tried before?), especially ones led by winemakers; a broad selection of wines. And if I'm just browsing, they'll let me wander around to my heart's content.

And speaking of champagne.

Nice long article in Wednesday's NY Times on champagne, especially the small grower-producers, whose wine rarely makes it to the U.S. The article talks about these champagnes as being very food-friendly, unlike those made by the big producers, and gives some food matches, from scallops to rabbit to fried chicken. It also talks about the art of blending the constituent wines from different vintages, to enhance the final product, not to cover up for weaknesses. And the article even has a more in-depth sidebar on a tasting of 25 small-producer champagnes.

Chandon NV California Blanc de Noirs.

One of the things I admire about Australians and their wine-drinking is that they understand that you don't need to wait for a special occasion to have champagne: Any day that ends with a Y is special enough.

This sparkling wine, made in the methode traditionnelle, is made from pinot noir, pinot meunier, and chardonnay, grown in Napa and made by Domaine Chandon. The color was a very light toast, perhaps with a slight tinge of pink. But not much or either color, really. Tiny bubbles of carbonation. Crisp nose, with touches of lemon and strawberry. Crisp flavor, touches of unripe apple and strawberry, easing into a long, creamy finish.

A nice, simple champagne, enjoyable by itself, or with something spicy. Or even with a pasta with a light cream sauce, on a Tuesday night.

$14.99, Richmond, World Market.

Tempest in a wineglass.

Michael Franz has an interesting wine column in the Washington Post today, encouraging people to stop their boycott of French wines. He suggests, reasonably, that the only real effect that the boycott has on the French is on the French farmer who grows the grapes, and that farmer is a poor choice to be hurt by this broad response to actions by the French government. And he notes that an awful lot of Americans are hurt by the mis-aimed boycott: importers, distributors, and merchants. So he recommends a number of French wines for Thanksgiving (among them, burgundy, riesling, and pinot blanc). (He'll also recommend some American wines for Thanksgiving in his next column, in two weeks.)

Not surprisingly, his online wine chat today had a lot of discussion on the topic, from surprise that there are still people boycotting French wines to complaining that he spent too much of his "wine" column as an "op-ed" piece. (I don't think it was inappropriate of him to run this column, as it helps the reader have a better understanding of the boycott's potential impact on the wine industry, and Franz has the background to seriously discuss the history and ramifications of the boycott, as he's a political science professor in real life.)

I wonder whether this column is too late, in the sense that most of those who actually boycotted French wines have ended their boycott, or not especially relevant, as the boycott may not have had much lasting impact. It had an impact at the time, to be sure: I recall distributors talking about not selling a single case of French wine to retailers anywhere in the state over a period of a month. But sales appear to have picked back up, and in the 2002-03 sales year (August 1 to July 31, I think), the volume of Bordeaux wine sales to the U.S. rose 20 percent while the value of Bordeaux sales rose by 77 percent and Americans overtook Germans to become the largest purchasers of Bordeaux wines. While a lot of this was due to the increased demand for the 2000 vintage, it would seem to indicate that the boycott isn't having a whole lot of effect.

Identifying wines by location or by varietal.

Interesting article in the NY Times talking about the labelling of wine by location or by varietal: the history of each, and the strengths and drawbacks. As an oversimplification, with Old World wines, the vineyards have been around long enough that decades or centuries of experimentation have shown that pinot noir and chardonnay are the best wines grown in the region of Burgundy, so labelling a red wine as Burgundy also identifies it as pinot noir; New World vineyards are still experimenting to find out what wines they can grow best, so you can't just label a red wine as "Napa" and have much of an idea of what varietal it is.

1995 Willamette Valley Vineyards Oregon Pinot Noir (Whole Berry Fermented).

Another one of the wines I bought in Oregon seven years ago, and have only now gotten around to opening. The last of the wines from that trip, I believe. The Willamette Valley Vineyards is in, well, the Willamette Valley, near Salem. And not that I'm giving stock advice, but they're listed on NASDAQ.

And, as with the wine I mentioned on Sept. 7, this was a bottle I should have had a couple of years ago.

This wine was fermented completely from uncrushed Pinot Noir grapes, and the theory is that helps retain the fresh, fruity quality of the wine, and allows for its early release. (I bought this wine in October 1996, presumably only 12 or 13 months after its harvest.) The label also recommends that you drink it "now"; their website recommends "within 2 or 3 years" for the current similarly produced wine. Nothing about holding it for 7 years, though, so even they would think that wasn't a great idea.

Slightly oxidized color. Hints of cherry and strawberry in the aroma. Some staleness in the aroma, along with something slightly sulfuric that doesn't blow off. Almost barnyard-like, but not in the normal, earthy pinot noir way. Still some flavor - cherry and banana predominate, with some other red-fruit flavors around, like strawberry. Still some fruity acidity, which with the banana and strawberry remind me of one of my usual choices of yogurt. Soft tannins present, very smooth. I had it with grilled salmon with minimal seasoning; anything with more aggressive flavors would have overwhelmed the wine.

I bet this wine was absolutely dynamite about 4 or 5 years ago, and I wish I'd had it then.

$14 - $18 (?), purchased at winery.

2000 DeLoach Russian River Valley Estate Bottled Zinfandel.

Nice, smooth-drinking zin. Wonderful ripe Russian River valley fruit. Good, basic, hearty zinfandel. DeLoach was named a 2003 "Winery of the Year" by Wine and Spirits magazine, one of four Sonoma and four Napa wineries to be given the award.

Young, red ruby color. Bright burst of red cherry aroma and flavor, with hints of raspberry and pepper. Enough tannin to provide structure to the flavor, without being overpowering. Nice fruit/acid tang, with lingering raspberry in the finish.

Drinking fine now. Usual zinfandel matches: roast fowl, red meat, pasta with red sauce, pizza.

$14.99, Raleigh, Carolina Wine Co.

2003 Monticello Wine and Jazz Festival.

I went to the annual wine festival at the Boar's Head Inn in Charlottesville this past weekend. They've had a festival there each year for 23 years; I've been to 21 of them, and I have good excuses for the other two years.

The festival was okay, although no better than that. They had no idea what they were doing with parking, other than not letting you park in the nearby (and unused) lot where I've parked for the past 10 years. Incredibly disorganized. The awards, as usual, bore no relationship to the actual quality of the wines. A couple of the gold medalling wines were abominable, and the same wines from someone else were wonderful and completely unmedaled.

Barboursville had some new wines out. A malvaxia; first release in 3 years. Pretty good, and I'd realized how much I'd missed it at festivals over the past couple of years. A new cab franc, a new release of Octagon, and a new cabernet sauvignon. The Octagon and cab sauvignon were for sale this weekend only, and then won't be officially released until next spring or summer. I picked some of the cab sauvignon to stick into my cellar for a couple of years.

Cardinal Point's cab franc got a silver medal - one of the deserved medals - and is drinking well. Wintergreen finally released their "Black Rock Red", a Bordeaux blend. Rich and smooth, in large part because it's had another 10 months aging in the bottle beyond what they were expecting, while the BATF (or whoever they are this month) approved the label.

And the music was pretty poor. This wine festival is called the "Monticello Wine and Jazz Festival" and it had one guy with an acoustic guitar, singing 60's era hits. Fine for geezers like me, I suppose, but even I know that wasn't jazz. Still, it's a whole lot better than the bad country singers they've had for the past decade.

Back from the Hurricane.

Hurricane Isabel hit this blog hard. No electricity for ten days, no cable modem for thirteen. And one of the things I discovered while I had no electricity is that I really don't enjoy drinking wine in the dark. (I'm taking this to be a good discovery, indicating a lack of alcoholic tendencies.)

But now I'm back, and ready to start reporting again.

The word from local vineyards is that they weren't all that badly hurt by Isabel. Mostly, they got their whites in before (or just before) the hurricane arrived, and left the red wine grapes on the vines. Those grapes seem to have weathered the storm okay - either they weren't so ripe that they were going to be badly hurt by the rain and wind, or the storm passed quickly through the area, or the grapes had had so much rain all summer long that a few more inches weren't going to make that much of a difference. Bottom line, though, is that they came through the storm okay, and should be in good shape when they're finally harvested.

2002 Palladio Chianti.

100% Sangiovese, grown near Pisa, Sienna, and Florence.

Slight aroma of cherries. Stronger red cherry flavors, some spice/pepper undertones. Nice fruit acidity, long finish. A soft light to medium tannic structure, enough to carry the fruit in the wine, making for a good balance.

Good on its own, or with pasta dishes with red sauce. Drink now.

$9.99, Raleigh, Carolina Wine Company.

1999 Glass Mountain Quarry Chardonnay.

Yes, another wine from the folks who did the syrah I had a couple of days ago. As with that one, the only appellation is "California" and it's the second label from Markham Vineyards.

Minimal oak, if any. Green apple in the nose, with a hint of lemon. Green apple, pear and melon flavors. Creamy finish, with a touch of toastiness. Sharp, crisp finish. No malolactic fermentation. Just the way I like chardonnay to be: not oaky or buttery.

It'd be good on its own, or with chicken pasta dishes, or fish. Drink now.

$9.99, Richmond, Private Stock.

1994 Elkton Valley Wine Cellars, Umpqua Valley Pinot Noir.

This was from a winery that appears to no longer be in business; at least, they have no web presence that I can find, even on the various Oregon wine sites. Only reference I can find is to Alethea Enterprises of Roseburg, Oregon (mentioned on the label as the producer and bottler), on an undated list of wineries. But they must have been around in 1996, because this was in my box of wines purchased during a trip I took to Oregon that year, and I only purchased wines at wineries.

Okay, you know how they say that you should drink most wines while they young and fresh, and that not all wines benefit from aging, especially for a long time? Well, this would be an example that proves that point. I've held onto it just a bit too long, waiting for the "right moment" to open it. It's definitely slid down the far side of when it would have been at its best. I'm sure that a couple of years of aging would have been fine, but nine years since the vintage was a bit too much.

The aroma is stale and oxidized. There are hints of cherry in the flavor, but only hints. It does taste of fruit, just an undifferentiated reddish-fruit flavor. Good acid balance and roundness to it, though, so I'm betting it was pretty good at its prime. Very smooth tannins - you can tell they're present, but they support what flavor is still there. It'd be fine with grilled salmon; Oregon pinot noir is always good with grilled salmon. But you really couldn't have much more than very basic seasonings on the salmon without overwhelming this wine. (Of course, in its prime the wine would have stood up to food with a lot more flavor.)

Well, I'm sorry I didn't get to it sooner. I'd have enjoyed it a lot more about 2 or 3 years ago. I think I have one more pinot noir around from that trip; I'll get to it within the next month or so, I'm sure.

$12 - $16 (?), purchased at winery.

1999 Glass Mountain Quarry Syrah.

From "California"; no further appellation designation than that. Glass Mountain Quarry is a second label from Markham Vineyards of Napa.

Aromas of ripe red cherries and plums, flavors also include blackberry. Medium body, good juicy flavor. 86 points, Wine Spectator. The tannin and spicy notes in it would make the wine good with grilled food, or a good pizza wine, but it'd be good by itself, too.

Good, basic syrah that delivers ripe fruit and enough tannic backbone to carry it. Drink now; don't bother to age it.

$9.99, Richmond, Private Stock.

2000 San Francisco de Mostazal Cabernet Sauvignon Special Reserve.

Known as "Cab in a Sack," the bottle is wrapped in burlap and then labelled. The story is that this is historically how they helped protect the bottle from breaking on its way to market. Well, it's a good story, anyway, even if it turns out to be a marketer's ploy. If so, it's a good ploy, as the bottle stands out on the shelf. (Also makes it difficult to see how much is left in the bottle, should you be interested.) Produced by Vino de Eyzaquirre.

Nice everyday Chilean wine. Decent fruit - cherries predominate. Some fruit in the aroma. Body is a bit thin, although not fatally so. Some tannic structure, but not a whole lot. Enough to let you know that it's there. But not enough to withstand much additional aging, or to absolutely require food to go with it. Nice acid balance, smooth finish.

Very drinkable now.

$9.99, Richmond, Private Stock.

2001 Hidden Mesa Cabernet Franc.

From Monterey. Hidden Mesa Vineyard is apparently a second label for Lockwood Vineyard, and this was pretty much a second label wine. Okay, it was only $8, so you can't give it a whole lot of grief. But there also wasn't all that much positive to say about it.

Young, dark red color. Dark-colored fruit in the aroma; plums, I suppose. Strong tannins; some peppery spice, although not as much as I'm used to from cab franc. It's taken a while to open up, and even when it did, the aromas and flavors aren't especially strong. No complexity.

For eight bucks, it was okay, although for that price I think I prefer the Carneros Ridge Pinot Noir below. Okay with grilled meats, probably pizza. A bit young and harsh to drink by itself. Probably couldn't hurt to let it age for another year and let the tannins smooth out some.

$7.99, Richmond, Westpark Wine & Beer.

1999 Carneros Ridge Pinot Noir.

Very inexpensive pinot noir, from the Carneros region in Napa. Soft body, typical pinot cherry nose and flavor. A bit subdued, perhaps. Certainly more subdued - or subtle, if you prefer - than the NZ pinot I had a couple of days ago. Simple structure with little noticeable tannins. It'd be fine to drink by itself or with light pasta or chicken dishes. Probably would have expected to pay $12 or $15 for this; apparently, it's being pushed to retailers with good deals.

$7.99, Raleigh, Carolina Wine Company.

Obsession. 2002 Ironstone California Symphony.

The symphony grape is a cross between muscat of Alexandria and grenache gris. Don't think I'd seen this one before.

Floral, spicy aroma in this white wine. Some sweetness (I don't know - maybe 1 or 1.5% residual sugar) makes it easy to drink on a summer afternoon on the deck. No oak. Be good with spicy (Thai, Indian, cajun) foods. Pretty decent. Oh, only $7? In that case, pretty good.

$6.99, Richmond, World Market.

2001 Twin Islands Pinot Noir.

From the Marlborough region, New Zealand.

Ripe, red fruit. Cherry in the aroma. Tang of acidity, so there's a reasonably sharp finish. Assertive, bright flavor. Medium body, medium-rosy color. Very drinkable now. In fact, so drinkable that it's now gone, at least from my cellar. Doesn't have the mushroomy earthiness that an Oregon or French pinot noir costing three times as much would have, but a lot better than a lot of $20 pinots I've tried. A really good "beginner's" pinot noir: not complex, and easy to enjoy and appreciate.

Their wine site suggests chicken and pasta as food matches. It's certainly a light red, so those probably work. I'd drink it as an aperitif, but maybe that's me.

$15.99. Richmond, Private Stock.

2001 Kim Crawford Unoaked Chardonnay.

I had the 2001 Kim Crawford Unoaked Chardonnay last night.

OMG, as the young folks say.

I was expecting something like the Madeleine from Breaux, I suppose, clean, crisp and some fruit, nothing overwhelming. Well, I was wrong.

Lots of acidity, and sharply crisp, like a NZ sauvignon blanc. Loads of citrus fruit, lemon predominating. Very much a lemon-acid feeling, not green apple. No hint of malolactic butteryness, although the label says that it's had some ML. Certainly not "butterscotch" as the label claims. No oak; well, no surprise there.

Michael Franz had suggested this as a substitute for French chablis back in May, when idiots were boycotting French products. Can't say I really agree with him, as this is up-front with its lemon and acidity, and not merely crisp. Certainly not subtle and layered, as I recall real chablis being.

Not entirely sure what foods it would be good with. I suppose shellfish, in the same way that sauvignon blanc is good. But I think I'd like sauvignon blanc better for shrimp and oysters. This might be better with lobster. But not with roast chicken or things with cream sauces, perhaps not so surprisingly. Lemon chicken? Well, maybe. Their website suggests white meats and seafood, and "fusion" Pacific rim foods.

$19.99, Richmond. Private Stock.