Colorado tops in beer

A report issued by the Washington, D.C.-based Beer Institute show Colorado produced 23.4 million barrels of beer last year, pushing longtime leader California out of the top spot. Aside from Coors, the nation's No. 3 brewer, Colorado is home to a large brewery in Fort Collins operated by Anheuser-Busch Inc., the nation's No. 1 brewer. Craft-beer makers have been taking on a larger role in Colorado's beer economy. The state has 92 craft brewers and ranks third nationwide in craft-beer production, after California and Oregon. Additionally this new ranking could be due to Coors Brewing Co.'s decision to close its Memphis brewery in September 2006, following its merger with Molson Inc. "With a strong beer culture and a rich brewing history, it's no surprise (Colorado) has become No. 1," Jeff Becker, president of the Beer Institute, said in a statement announcing the results. Perhaps a beer road trip to Colorado should be planned for 2008.

Wine tasting made simple

OregonWines.com recently launched a new service aimed at educating wine enthusiasts about the art of tasting. The new online service leads users through the entire process of recording a wine's information, sight, aromas, flavors, and other details, all in one place.

When creating a Tasting Note, users are taken through a straightforward 7 step process which is:

1. Basics - details of the wine itself like Name, Price, Winery, Country, and Variety.
2. Color - includes a nice color chart as well as menu's for Depth, Clarity and Viscosity.
3. Smell - allows the user to breakdown the bouquet into categories and add specific smells detected.
4. Taste - the Tasting Star system gives users a range on several tastes like Sweetness, Acidity, Finish, Complexity, and Body. Their system also includes notes for carbon dioxide content, mouthfeel and appeal.
5. Pairing - easy check off for food pairs for things like Salad, Fish, Chicken, Beef as well as a free note box for other suggestions.
6. Comments - final thoughts like overall ratings, would you buy again, and is this cellar worthy.
7. Contact - name and email address to "sign" and post your notes. This is used internally in case they select your notes for their online newsletter.

Overall, i really like the structure of the note editor and the easy of use. I would like to see them create a database of wines, especially Oregon labels, which would allow users to select wines from a list instead of enter the wine name and vintage into they system. This would allow better quality control over the major sorting/searching feature of the stored notes and [in the future] correlate reviews on a single wine for a group think rating.

I can't wait to create my new online tasting notes for Montinore Estate 2002 Pinot Noir.

JFK wine bar takes flight

John F. Kennedy International Airport is the newest home to Vino Volo, the airport wine bar. Vino Volo, derived from Italian for wine flight, is a combination of a boutique retail store with a stylish tasting bar that allows guests passing through to taste wines in a comfortable setting. The other item that will really excite visitors is the patented Vino Chart wine tasting system. The Vino Chart makes wine tasting simple and fun for seasoned and novice wine tasters alike.

The JFK location joins a group that already included bars in Baltimore/Washington, Sacramento, Seattle and Washington Dulles airports. The company is planning the roll out of a total of 7-10 new stores for airports in 2007 so it looks like there maybe a wine bar coming to an airport near you soon. Here's to hoping my next trip takes me via Vino Volo enabled airport!

Washington's Whiskey

Founding father, command-in-chief and our first President George Washington was not only a great military and political leader of his time but also a farming and agricultural entrepreneur. In 1797 after retiring from his Presidency, Washington constructed a 2,250 square foot distillery, which was one of the largest in the new republic, housing five copper stills, a boiler and 50 mash tubs. At its peak, two years later, the distillery produced 11,000 gallons of corn and rye whiskey.

Shortly after Washington's death in late 1799, the complex was passed down to a relative. The distillery ceased operating in 1814 when the building burned. In 2000, Mount Vernon began the excavation and restoration of the $2.1 million distillery project with a grant from the distilled spirits industry. In March of 2007, it officially opened to the public and can be toured daily from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.. Visitors to the newly opened Washington Distillery & Gristmill can see costumed distillers demonstrating the distillation process.

The refurbished Distillery is also part of the American Whiskey Trail which includes 14 historic and working whiskey plants [and 2 rum facilities] from New York, Pennsinavia, Kentucky, Tennesee, and Virginia. For whiskey lovers, this could be the road trip of a life time.

Washington Apple

2 ounces Crown Royal Whiskey®
2 ounces DeKuyper Apple Barrel Schnapps®
2 ounces cranberry juice
1 slice apples

In a cocktail shaker, combine whiskey, schnapps, cranberry juice and ice cubes. Shake and strain into a highball, straight up. Add apple slice as garnish. Makes 1 drink.

Good Havens for Electricity

Napa's Havens Wine Cellars yesterday made the switch from convention energy to completely running on solar power. The solar panels were installed by San Francisco-based Sunlight Electric on the roof of their winery.

"Why not use the solar energy instead of just hiding from it," said Michael Havens, founder of Havens Wine Cellars. "After 12 years, I found it obvious that we had a lot of solar energy constantly hitting our winery, and spent thousands of dollars cooling ourselves from its effects. Now, we're just using what's most available, now that our technology has caught up with common sense."

The company also plans to use solar power to fuel its anticipated 60 percent growth over the next four years, ultimately saving as much as US$14,000 per year in energy costs.

I think this is an excellent idea that I hope more northern California wineries adopt in the near future.

Gallo is # 35

The September 17 issue of InformationWeek includes their 19th annual InformationWeek 500 - their annual ranking of the best and brightest business technology innovators. In a list that includes companies like Kimberly-Clark, Getty Images, Wachovia, Google, T-Mobile, Motorola, IBM, Microsoft, HP, Accenture, HP, Sooutwest Airlines, Marriot and the New York Times it also includes just one company from the industry - E.&J. Gallo Winery. The IW 500 is a metric that is designed to identify those companies that implementing innovative technological solutions to their unique problems. The IW rating system includes 21 different technology initiatives and how each company is moving forward, technically.

Gallo continues to remain on the cutting edge of technology as well as with branding [new Stewart and Sebeka Wine labels] and acquisition [William Hill Estate]. This blend of forward thinking will keep Gallo Winery as one of the largest producers in America for years to come. Congratulations to E.&J. Gallo Winery.

Wine + Wiki = ???

Nicolas Ritoux and Evan Prodromou [one of the founders of Wikitravel] have created a new website called Vinismo which where wine knowledge and information meets web 2.0. Using a wiki style of user generated content, Vinismo is intended to be the online wine guide written and edited by everyone for everyone.



Currently the site is a shell of topics ranging from regions and grape varetitals to wine reviews and other sorted projects. However one can see where this site is going and I think, in time, this will be a valuable resource for those seeking wine knowledge. One thing I particually like is the concept of Plunging Forward. In Vinismo's world this is defined as being assertive, experimenting, doing what's OK right now and ignoring authority. Now there's an invitation to play with their new toy so go ahead, plunge forward - You just might enjoy it!

Martha Wine

Martha Stewart has teamed up with Gallo Winery to market a brand of wine called Martha Stewart Vintage. The initial release of 15,000 cases will include 2006 Sonoma County Chardonnay, 2005 Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon and 2006 Sonoma County Merlot. Oddly enough, these wines won't initially be available in California but rather will be offered in Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Denver, Phoenix, and Portland beginning in January 2008.

"As a former caterer and a lifelong hostess, I understand the important role wine can play at a gathering," Stewart is quoted as saying in her company's press release. "The wines were crafted with great care and attention to every detail. This venture is a natural outgrowth of the friendship I've enjoyed with the Gallo family based on our mutual passion for food, wine and entertaining."

Martha has recently been trying a number of new things from magazines like Blue Print to developing branded homes with KB Home to introducing a line of paper-based crafting and storage products and a collection of home products that is being sold exclusively at Macy's. Martha Stewart Vintage is another excellent extension of the Stewart brand and if history is a guide, it is sure to turn out to be a good thing.

wine.com comes to Connecticut

One way to sidestep the state based shipping requirements of wine is to have many, say about 51, locations. San Francisco-based wine.com has taken that kind of step by purchasing East Hampton, Conn.-based wine retailer Chatham Spirits & Fine Wines. Wine.com noted that since wine cannot legally be shipped into Connecticut by out-of-state retailers, the move enables it to ship to its online customers in that state from its new in-state retail and warehouse location. The deal gives wine.com access to the 17th largest state for wine consumption, according to the 2007 Adams Wine Handbook. In all, the company said it ships to 25 states and the District of Columbia, which cumulatively account for 75 percent of U.S. wine consumption. wine.com has been ranked the number 1 online wine seller by the Internet Retailer Magazine for the past three years. Now if they could just gain access to the other 25 states, either through acquisition, licensing agreements or by permit, wine.com could push it's rankings on the food and drug list [13th] and all Internet retailers [199th].

Napa Uncovered

Members of the Napa County Farm Bureau, all men, have stripped for a 2008 "Napa Uncovered" calendar that shows them strategically photographed in very "natural" settings. The calendars, $18 [or $36 with autographs], go on sale next month and proceeds will go to agricultural preservation of Napa County. The Bureau has ordered a 2,000 copy first run and are hoping to sell those and many more to raise money to protect the land that provides a high quality of life for all rural and urban citizens of the County. Perhaps next year they will try a Ladies of Napa Calender for 2009.

Expensive Taste

What is a 1787 Chateau Lafite with Thomas Jefferson's inital's carvered int0 the bottle worth? Or how about fifty Cases of 1982 Chateau Mouton-Rothschild? Or perhaps 6 magnums of 1990 Romanée-Conti, DRC? $160,000, 420,000, and 69,600 respectively. Gift Baskets Lot has put together a list of most expensive wines by category of all time and for a wine lover, it is a fun list to read through. My favorite is the Most Expensive Bottle of Wine Ever Broken - a 1787 Chateau Margaux which was knocked over by a waiter before it was opened. Luckily the bottle was insured and the insurance company paid out $225,000. You have to be careful with the 1787 vintages.

Really fast wine

Jeff Gordon, the current Nextel Cup points leader and 4 time Winston Cup champion, has his own signature-label wine and they are going fast. His label includes a 2004 Napa Valley Merlot ($55), 2004 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon ($75) and a 2005 Carneros Chardonnay ($55). Five additional wines are to be released in the coming months. When asked how he became involved in the wine industry, Gordon stated "Growing up in that area -- Vallejo [Calif.] is close to Napa and Sonoma - we always drove by vineyards when I was a kid, but I didn't get an appreciation for wine until I was in my mid-20s." Buffalo Shipping Post of Napa is the exclusive retailer and the item to get, for racing fans, is the collector's Gift Sets, featuring one bottle of 2005 Jeff Gordon Chardonnay and two genuine Riedel glasses, all in a nice hinged wooden gift box personally signed by Jeff Gordon. Better hurry up before this offer passes you by.

Barbetta Restaurant and Garden

Just a block and a half west of Times Square on 46th Street is an enchanting garden that makes you forget your in the middle of one of the busiest cities in the world. Founded in 1906 by Sebastiano Maioglio, Barbetta Restaurant is the oldest restaurant in New York that still owned by the family that founded it [currently owned by Sebastiano's daughter Laura Maioglio], the oldest Italian restaurant in New York and the oldest restaurant in New York's Theatre District]. The crown jewel of this century old eatery is the back garden which is one of New York's most sought-after sites for summer dining. Surrounded by century-old trees and the patio centers around a fountain accented by beautiful flowers.

The Barbetta menu includes traditional Piemontese dishes such as Agnolotti, Risotto, Polenta, and Bollito. When Laura took over in 1962, she was determined to make Barbetta more Piemontese than ever, adding such typical dishes as Fonduta, Carne Cruda, Bagna Cauda, Bue al Barolo, and introducing white truffles and Piemonte's traditional white truffle dishes. While the Italian cuisine is excellent [and very authentic], the wine list is truly impressive and can be completely overwhelming, in a good way.

The current wine list reflects a decade of work done by Leopoldo Frokic from 1997 to 2004 and from then carried on by Wine Director, Enrico Farello. The current list contains over 1,600 different labels, with extraordinary verticals and rare vintages from the top producers going back to 1961. This remarkable list won Wine Enthusiast’s first prize in February 2005, the Award of Ultimate Distinction. It has also won Wine Spectator’s second prize, the Best of Award of Excellence, every year since 1997. In September 2005, Barbetta won first prize from Santé Magazine.

For a magical dinner away [only steps away mind you] from the hustle and bustle of New York City, stop into the Barbetta Restaurant. For a few relaxing hours, you will actually forget your in the heart of the Big Apple and feel [and taste] a little piece of Italy.

Collective Tasting Rooms

Shared tasting rooms are becoming increasingly popular for wineries that either can't [or don't]have their own tasting room or want to attract new customers. In northern California there are many such rooms like the Cellar Door in Oakville, A Dozen Vintners and Tasting on Main in St. Helena, the Wine Room in Kenwood, Locals in Geyserville and Vintners Collective Wineries in Napa. Last week a new venture in San Francisco was announced that will pair six wineries to share space, called the Press Club, and they hope to open next year - in downtown San Francisco.

This shared space tasting model might be even more successful outside of the California wine regions. For example, Connecticut has 19 wineries that span the entire state - White Slo in the western town of Sherman while Chamard is located on the mid-state coastline in Clinton and Sharpe Hill is home to the northeaster town of Pomfret. Traveling the entire CT Wine Trail is at least a 2 day adventure but what if there was a central tasting room where you could experience several of these vintners at the same time. How does the Connecticut Tasting Room of Hartford sound? This type of shared space for wine tasting would be very popular in many areas such as Rochester NY, Dayton OH, Portland OR, or Richmond VA where a good number of smaller wineries exist and might find it difficult to attract visitors to their property.