Wines under $10 take it easy on your wallet

Rising gas prices and other market reactions are playing havoc with household budgets - and the money we spend on a good bottle of wine. This week, let's look at wine bargains that will be sympathetic to your wallet and pleasing to your palate.

Gascon 2006 Malbec

I love Argentina Malbecs - and this example from the high-altitude wine country of Mendoza is classic in style and a real steal at $9.99 (Johnnie Ganem Package Shop). Made from 100 percent Malbec grown in a 50-year-old vineyard, the wine is aged in 30 percent new French oak barrels and 70 percent 2-3 year-old French oak barrels. Don't be afraid of this wine being too tannic - blending results in a well-rounded wine with nice textures.

Gascon Malbec has a concentrated nose of ripe black cherry fruit with notes of vanilla and chocolate.


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Blumenthal lauded for chocolate wine

Michelin-starred techno-chef Heston Blumenthal OBE has won a Conde Nast Traveller Innovation Design Award for his chocolate wine.

Blumenthal was nominated for the gourmet category of the awards, and praised for 'splicing grapes with cocoa beans' at the awards ceremony held earlier this week. The wine, served as a dessert, is made by reducing a bottle of fortified, sweet red Maury wine from southwest France, and blending it with milk and chocolate shavings. Blumenthal, who Sunday Times restaurant critic AA Gill once called ' a combination of Jackass dadaist, Freudian analyst and Frankenstein', is widely known for his unusual dishes. Favourites at his Fat Duck restaurant in Bray, Berkshire, include snail porridge, salmon poached in liquorice gel, and sardine-on-toast sorbet.


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Through fire and wine

What could be better than coming to your favorite restaurant, sitting at the bar and tasting a number of new dishes specially prepared by the chef? Or perhaps it could be just going to that same restaurant and meeting friends there. Every restaurateur is glad to have a circle of regular clients who are already old acquaintances. Some try to expand the circle of regulars with the help of marketing promotions such as Internet updates, birthday cakes delivered to the home and parties at clubs, but restaurant owners who like to host will also mention conversations with customers, shared events and holidays and special requests that are met to the last detail.

The customers, for their part, are happy to find an attentive ear to requests and whims, and primarily a place that is essentially an extension of the living room at home.


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Loveland winery a pioneer in industry

LOVELAND - It doesn't seem that long ago that Tim Merrick and his partners put up their Trail Ridge Winery sign in west Loveland and opened for business, prompting some locals to scratch their heads and wonder if Colorado wine was even possible.

But that was way back in 1994, when Trail Ridge was only the 15th winery in the state.

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http://www.busjrnl.com/article/20080421/BUSINESSJOURNAL/640380328/1220/businessjournal

Uva Enoteca, a sophisticated Italian wine bar with a bicoastal pedigree, opened Thursday in the Lower Haight, immediately drawing capacity crowds.

The cuisine: Italy by way of Emilia-Romagna: Pristine salumi (cured meats) served on a wooden slab; cheeses; salads; and rustic vegetable sides such as cinnamon-tinged eggplant caponata, chard with pancetta, and scallop crudo cured on a block of red salt are perfect for sharing. The second half of the menu focuses on sandwiches - a dozen panini, such as prosciutto, cherries and burrata; crustless tramezzini, Italian tea sandwiches; and foldover piadini - plus bruschetta and two pizzas.

The 75-plus-bottle Italian wine list emphasizes boutique winemakers and is arranged by regions such as the Adriatic Apennines and Alpine Border.


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WINE: Family policies a tool to keep business separate

Amid the tax, estate and strategic planning that goes into helping a family business survive from generation to generation, wine industry families such as the Seghesios of Alexander Valley are increasingly codifying guidelines for relationships between relatives and the business.

In the wake of a jolting 1993 tax audit that led to a generational transfer of the company, the new generation of Seghesios started implementing new company governance, President and CEO Peter Seghesio said at the Business Journal Wine Industry Conference earlier this month.

Key to better governance for the Seghesios was the drafting of a family policy and directives document. Such documents are common with family businesses in other industries but are only starting to garner attention in the wine business, according to Deborah Steinthal of Scion Advisors in Napa.


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Latest Grange release excites buyers' palates

SALES of luxury yachts and Bentleys may be on the slide, but Penfolds is expecting cashed-up wine lovers to snap up the latest vintage of its blockbuster Grange red when it goes on sale today.

Priced at about $550, the 2003 vintage of Australia's most famous wine is a blend of 96.5 per cent shiraz and 3.5 per cent cabernet sauvignon, described by Penfolds' chief winemaker Peter Gago as "solid and stoic".

"In hard times like this, people turn away from gold and buy wine," Mr Gago said.

"You can always rely on Grange."

Demand consistently outstrips annual production of 7000 to 9000 cases, ensuring a brisk trade among collectors.

Mr Gago said there was already talk among wine cognoscente that the 2004 vintage would rival the great 1990 vintage that catapulted Grange to international stardom after being named the greatest red in the world by influential US wine critic Robert Parker.


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Making sense of French wines

French wines have long been the benchmark for winemakers around the world for style, flavour and complexity - but for the rest of us, making sense of the various regions listed on French wine labels and translating them back to wine varieties we recognise, can be a little difficult.

Below are some of the best known French wine regions and the predominate grape varieties grown in each, so next time you pick a bottle off the shelf you don't have to scratch your head to figure out if it's a Chardonnay or a Sauvignon Blanc!

Chablis - This is a region in northern Burgundy well known for Chardonnay. It's a restrained, elegant and minerally style of wine.

Pouilly-Fuissé - Is another style of Chardonnay, from central Burgundy.

Sancerre - Situated in the eastern Loire valley, the wines are mainly Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon.



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Wine, fine arts festival brings on ‘The Bloom’

Winchester — Wine enthusiasts helped to kick off the 81st Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival with cheer.

The Old Town Wine and Fine Arts Festival, the first official event in the city’s 10-day Apple Blossom celebration, brought a thirsty crowd to Winchester’s Loudoun Street Mall on Saturday afternoon.

It also attracted several locals anxious for the start of this week’s Apple Blossom festivities.

"I’m excited for the kick off," said Amy Beall of Winchester, who came to Saturday’s downtown festival dressed in pink and green. "Everyone is having a good time. All of us are ready."

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Wine Vending Machines: State Wants Vendors

State liquor officials are seeking proposals for a contractor to operate up to 100 wine kiosks throughout the state.

The kiosks would be similar to a temperature-controlled vending machine capable of holding 500 bottles of wine. They would be placed in grocery stores and other places. They would offer about a dozen different types of wine.

Wendell Young IV, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776, whose members include state store clerks, was among those briefed on the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board proposal. .


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The Wine Press: Washington wines hold their own against California's

The state of the state of Washington has changed.</p><p>Seattle suburbs are sprouting their own little skyscrapers like there's no recession. The Tri-Cities, which used to remind me of a sleepy agricultural community, now seems like a metropolis in the making, complete with neighborhoods and ethnic enclaves.</p><p>Even Walla Walla is getting into the act of being hip and dynamic or, well, at least it's rapidly growing. Heck, two years ago, Walla Walla might as well have been in Idaho.</p><p>But even if Walla Walla isn't your idea of a teeming city-scape, the vineyards have spread out like greenery on an untended vine, and in every direction, new plantings surround the town.</p><p>Not so long ago people heard Walla Walla and thought onions; now they should think wine.


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A SEA OF WINE

Beaufort Wine and Food Weekend best-in-show recipient Joe Otos from Willowbrook Cellars in Sebastopol, Calif., displays a winning bottle of pinot noir to Raleigh resident Bert Stevick at the grand tasting event Saturday at the N.C. Maritime Museum’s Gallants Channel annex. Below, glasses of wine accentuate the festival’s program. (Dylan Ray photos) .


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San Anselmo firm launches $250M private-equity wine fund

SAN ANSELMO, April 30, 2008 � Private-equity fund manager Vinum Capital Management LLC is forming a $250 million fund devoted solely to acquiring and operating wine properties.

The fund, called Vinum Capital Partners I LP, will focus on high-end wine producers in California, Oregon and Washington making between 20,000 and 150,000 cases per year.

�The focus of this fund is to acquire wine properties efficiently, grow them effectively with expertise and necessary growth capital, and ultimately sell them to strategic and financial acquirers,� said Thomas Thornhill, managing partner for Vinum Capital Management and chairman of the Mendocino Wine Company.

Vinum�s investment partners include former chief operating officer for Ravenswood Justin Faggioli and Scott Setrakian, former director for Golden State Vineyards.


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