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Don’t look down! Your nose, that is.

I have been in the wine business for more than 20 years and the sake business for almost 10. One of the things I like about this business is that there is an endless array of products to try, resources such as web sites and wine critics to lend a hand with the decision, and people at the point of purchase who make it their business to know more in order to help the consumer explore and have fun without making endless purchases of things they don’t like.

That was the inclusive kind of business I thought still existed, but more and more, I am finding that sommeliers and retailers who know a LOT about wine and spirits are becoming more exclusive (read elitist). To make things worse, I find that some folks are far more worried about what they like than what their customers may like.

This may sound strange to some people, but even if a wine buyer doesn’t like a particular wine or sake, that doesn’t mean it isn’t good, and it doesn’t mean that their customers (who are most important, after all) won’t like it. I have learned that it is certainly possible for me to taste a wine, not find it to my personal preference, but still acknowledge it as a good wine for someone else who may have a different set of preferences. Do I love ALL my Argentine wine and Japanese sake selections? Nope. Do I think they are all very good examples of their type or style and that many people will like all of them? You bet.

The latest event that brought this reflection to the surface was my company’s decision to add sake2me sparkling sake to our list of great products. (Point of disclosure: I am an investor in sake2me, but did not represent the brand in commerce until recently). A few years ago, it occurred to me, my partner, and a close friend of ours that while Vine Connections was having great success introducing Americans to the delicious artisan sake of Japan, we were still only touching the smallest sliver of people who might want to try sake. After all, our sake are brewed in small quantities, they are fairly expensive, and they really benefit from a bit of knowledge before enjoying (or at least to avoid expensive buying mistakes). So we decided that we should create a sake that EVERYONE could enjoy. Take good quality Japanese junmai sake,  infuse it with interesting and exotic Asian flavors (from real extracts and not too sweet), make it refreshing by adding a light sparkle, put it in a single-serve bottle so people could spend less when trying it the first time, and make it fun (with the sake2me name) so that it could be invited to any occasion. And sake2me was born.

It has been 2 years now since sake2me was introduced, and I am still astounded at the number of snooty looks or comments I get from people I know when I introduce them to sake2me. And why? Because it is an INCLUSIVE product and not something that builds their own self worth due to their mastery of some obscure knowledge. I tell them: hold the bottle, check out the classy label, taste it, and picture how many times your customers would LOVE to have this kind of drink in their hands. And think about how many more people it might appeal to than traditional sake!

And does this middle-aged wine geek like it? I do (though I like some flavors more than others!). Will the customers who rely on the buyers to pick tasty drinks for them? Give them a chance and I think you’ll find that they will thank you for looking out for their tastes.

Vacation there, drink here.

Vacation is always an interesting topic in my house. Do we want an active location or somewhere we can just hang out? If it’s somewhere warm, is it Hawaii, Mexico, or the East Coast beaches like North Carolina’s beautiful Outer Banks? And while the kids still don’t ask this question, the one I always have in the back of my mind is, “Where can I get some good food and wine while I’m on vacation?” It seems sad that you would have to trade a fun location for a decent meal and a bottle of good vino.

Well, I finally made that trade and went to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. I stayed at a beautiful hotel (not sure if it fit the definition of “resort”), which had two restaurants of its own, and a sister hotel next door with two restaurants, one being a pizza place literally overlooking the beach and the amazing nightly sunsets.

How was the food? Amazingly, we ate pretty well. From New Zealand Lamb to Mahi Mahi to Pacific Shrimp prepared many different ways, all of it was much better than expected. And the wine selection? Before I answer that and lest you think I am fixated on drinking wine all the time, I did consume a lot of cerveza and more than my share of tequila and mixed tequila drinks. And I enjoyed them all—even the cans of lightly flavored Mexican beer that would never make it anywhere near my fridge at home (I still couldn’t bring myself to add the limes, though).

Considering the quality of the food was pretty high, there were several occasions to enjoy a good wine to enhance the meal, but that was difficult primarily due to the selection. I’m not sure if it is a matter of import duties—wines from most countries were priced pretty high, save for Spain which I hear gets favorable duties from the Mexican government—or distribution, or the skill of the hotel wine buyer. The Mexican wine selection was weak and prices were high to boot—26% VAT on domestic wines doesn’t exactly help the local producers.

I did manage to eke out some enjoyable selections with my seafood, with a 2007 Muga Rioja Blanco and even a fairly fresh 2008 Errazuriz Sauvignon Blanc. A not so smart (price-wise), but delicious, wine was the 2004 Antinori Toscana Rosso which they had floating around the beachside pizza place!

By mid-week, I had given in to “drinking local”. I even started to enjoy the fancy table-side beer service which was Modelo in a can, on crushed ice in its own cute, silver ice bucket with lime slices on top (I still wouldn’t use them). So I managed to have a great vacation, some decent meals, and a satisfying week of beverages.

But the night after I got home, I couldn’t resist ordering a beautiful, inexpensive bottle of Nero d’Avola at my local pizza place (Pizza Antica) for about one-third the price of the Mexican Antinori. Fun vacation, but good to be home.

“Never Buy a Bad Bottle of Wine Again” – Amen to that!

That was the headline that came across my computer screen last week, and by the time I read the sub-head and the rest of the article, I thought I must be reverse channeling through its author, Mike Steinberger. The sub-head reads, “Slate’s guide to the importers you can count on.” Forget  for a moment the delightful fact that Vine Connections was the only one on the list of the “Wine Importers You Can Trust – Argentina”—I will get back to that.

I have been preaching the gospel of “choose your wine by the importer” for quite some time now. When I had my own retail wine company, Passport Wine Club, back in the 1990’s, I didn’t need to follow this advice myself since I was literally tasting about 3000 wines every year, and had quite a good memory (though my brain is not aging as well as some wines) . I had tasted the wines already, so when I was at a restaurant or in a wine shop, I knew the wines up and down the list and the rows. But that was a while ago, and now I spend most of my time professionally tasting Argentine wine and Japanese sake.

So now I ask myself, “With so many imported wines coming into the U.S., how can I possibly figure out which one to pick?” A wine shop that has 5 different Sancerres can be a nightmare if you know you just want a good Sancerre, IF you don’t have a strategy. Mike hit it on the head—you don’t have to remember thousands of wines, you just have to remember a dozen or so importer names who, if they are doing their jobs correctly, have already filtered out the also-rans and are only bringing in the best stuff. And if they are really spiffy importers, they also have some kind of logo along with their importer name on the back of the bottle. For ours, we have a compass on the back of every bottle of wine or sake that we import—hopefully an icon that sticks with people when they need to “find their way” to great wine or sake in the wine shop. I do the same thing at a restaurant, though this can be a bit trickier. I order the wine and when the waiter brings it to the table, I ask for the bottle, turn it around, and look for the importer name. Hopefully it is one that is on my mental list, and if not, well at least I know I am in uncharted waters before I take the first sip.

Honestly, I don’t know how else one could make an informed choice outside of relying totally on the buyer of the wine shop or the sommelier. I have found that you can have a very high hit rate on buying good wines by focusing on this simple strategy. Every imported wine legally has to have the importer’s name on it—seems like a waste not to use the info to your benefit.

Now to toot our own horn just a bit. When my partner, Nick, and I started Vine Connections, we had the perhaps audacious vision of being “the next Kermit Lynch”, removing the hazy veil that had kept hidden the world’s 5th largest wine-producing country. By working with the top native winemakers and winery owners and clearly and consistently communicating their vision of Argentine winemaking, we figured we could do it. After all, the wines themselves were great. When we started, words like “Torrontes, Bonarda, Malbec” were just words, but through the ceaseless education of the trade and eventually the consumer, we have played some part in putting these delicious wines and this wonderful wine region on the map of U.S. wine lovers.

And to be recognized in the same breathe as some of our industry mentors, icons, and heroes like Kermit Lynch, Becky Wasserman and Terry Theise….well, that is about as happy and proud as two wine guys like us can get.

To read the full article, click here http://www.slate.com/id/2217806/.

Drink me, feel me, write me, heal me

OK, so I’m a classic rock fan, and one of the bands that never seems to leave me without some emotional residue after I hear one of their songs is The Who. When I hear a song from Tommy or Quadrophenia, it stirs me up, it makes me happy and wistful all at the same time. It conjures up old memories that I may never have even had. When was the last time you read a wine review that had the same effect? If you plug into Nilay Gandhi’s “750 mL” blog on a regular basis, I can almost guarantee that you will not so much have a good read as have a great experience. P.S. Nilay and I have no connection at all, save the fact that he one time wrote a review of our La Posta Pizzella Family Vineyard Malbec, and it found its way to my Inbox. But I have been a fan ever since.

Have I lost my mind? Using valuable time to promote another blogger on my own blog?? I don’t think so—I am just rarely struck hard by this kind of talent in the wine writing field. His written expression, and I mean that in the purest sense, may just be the equivalent of a Who line like, “Only love can make it rain, like the sweat of lovers laying in a field.” And that’s the kind of feeling that keeps wine from creeping into the black hole of commoditization and soullessness.

While not all of his blogs are created equal—the muse can be a fickle date—here are two past blogs that I think best illustrate my sense of excitement and generate that slow clap that you find yourself doing at the end of a particularly captivating performance.

Exhibit A – edited excerpts

January 01, 2009

NV Pierre Peters, Champagne a Le Mesnil sur Oger Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs Brut Cuvee de Reserve

This tastes like the sight of fondant, burning candles, and sweet flour–moments before everyone I know gives me something….I would buy empty, sealed bottles of this wine if I could. The liquid’s almost a formality….they’re mesmerizing after you swallow, whisping into a noble finish of baby powder, limeade, rose, cold fennel, smoke, almond milk and, if there were such a thing, crunchy deep-fried Mountain Dew rind. Every day I drink this, I will be born again. And I intend to live forever.

I thought “crunchy deep-fried Mountain Dew rind” was my favorite wine descriptor ever, but then I ran into a more recent post from Nilay:

Exhibit B – edited excerpts

07 Grochau Cellars, Columbia Valley “Z” (“L”) White

If arugula made a wine, this would be it. Which is to say, it takes all that’s light, lovely, and easy about the world, and adds a powerful punch. Fuck you, lettuce…. a sunburn cooking on the bottom of your chin as you sleep. It’s a pain that creeps on and peels off of you, and despite that splotchy, raw texture, reminds you only of the good times. Its lean, tart fruit reminds me of peeling green grapes with my front teeth, eating Granny Smith apples through an open sore in my cheek…. Let’s forget about the great Basque whites. Anything from Spain. We won’t need Loire anymore either. And I’m willing to put Champagne up for review, too.

When was the last time you read, “Fuck you, lettuce.” in a wine review? And it works.

My friends and I used to drink wine this way—the opening of the bottle was not for pride or one-upsmanship, it was a chance to “turn on” your drinking buddies the way that no six-pack could touch. “Check this out…have you had anything like this before…,this stuff is wild..I can hardly even say what makes this wine so good, but it rocks.”—these are the emotions of wine geek friends before they have wives, kids, too much work, and too little time, and all too infrequently these days it seems. Nilay’s blog brings that kind of emotion back to the fore.

Bravo (hands slowly clapping).

http://750ml.blogspot.com/

It’s not just about the wine (gasp!)

Ok, Ok. Coming from someone whose friends call him “the wine guy”, saying that it’s not all about the wine may be a sign of early mental derangement. But let me explain.

It USED to be all about the wine when I was younger. When I was in my mid-20’s, it was all about the big-flavored wines that gave me a “wow” every time I took a sip. Then in my 30s, it was all about the more esoteric wines I got to try when I had my own retail business specializing in fine wines from around the globe. And even in my early 40’s, it was all about the older, mature wines that were a rare treat and offered amazing flavors and aromas from their time resting in the bottle. And of course it was often about the amazing discovery of Malbec in all its various and glorious guises.

But lately, it seems to be about something besides the wine. Like the people I drink with. Like the way the sun’s rays warmly glow against the building as I sit outside and watch the contrails light up the sky as sunset nears. Like the food that takes center stage now and is softly illuminated by the wine rather than the “clear the palate” wine philosophy of my youth.

And, dare I say it, sometimes it’s about the place or the food that the wine has brought me to. On my last trip to Mendoza, and after a long day of wine tasting, I ended up at La Posada del Jamón for a late lunch (delicious btw) which finished with an unusual dessert—a combination of pumpkin-like squashes that had been cooked in a sweet syrup and placed in a bowl with local walnuts, stewed figs, and local medium-hard cheese. Absolutely delicious and so unexpected that it gave me one of those “perfect moments” that writer Spalding Gray spoke of in “Swimming to Cambodia”.

So now that I think about it, I guess it is mostly about the wine.

Get up close and personal with this mouth-watering dessert…  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fP-byEHVtrM

Letting loose in a suit

I am rarely one to believe in cultural stereotypes as there always seem to be enough exceptions to disprove the rule. But my time in Japan over the last 10 years has certainly led me to develop a stereotype of my own—never underestimate the party animal within the Japanese even though they normally wear a suit and tie.

I’ve never quite been clear on the formal dress code adhered to by Japanese business people in general, and our sake brewers in particular. Maybe we Americans are just too far on the other edge of things with our casual dress, informal manners, and shoot-from-the-hip business decisions. But while the Japanese we work with may seem to follow that ages old conservative pattern, that all changes once the sake starts to flow.

The jackets come off, the ties start to loosen, the speech volume increases, and, amazingly, people who didn’t understand much English before are now having no trouble holding a conversation. (I have noticed this strange language phenomenon in other countries as well, where alcohol makes people much more fluent in a foreign language–Rosetta Stone marketing department should take note of the co-promotion possibilities, but I digress).

In the end, a party is a party, and wear what you want. Just don’t make too many assumptions as the sake starts to flow…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXDrUCSLKT0

55 Generations…and not a single bailout

This is not one of those angry diatribes about getting back bonus money from AIG, asking whether we should loan money to car manufacturers or nationalize banks. Instead, it’s a reflection on the nature of time, and when I speak of time, I am speaking in terms of generations, not days, months, or even years.

I just returned from Japan a few weeks ago, and in addition to having a wonderful trip seeing some incredible sights as well as visiting some of the sake breweries we represent, my partner and I had a chance to meet with the “kuramoto” (brewery presidents) of 8 of our breweries—all in the same room. I didn’t add up the total years that these 8 companies have been in business, but my guess is somewhere in the area of 2000 years. Yes, that is the correct number of zeros. 2000 years.

You see, if you are sitting in Mr. Sudo’s chair at the meeting, you represent a brewery (Sudo Honke which makes the sake “Sato no Homare Pride of the Village) that was started in 1141 and are the 55th generation of the family to run the brewery. Dr. Sato, sitting just to his left, is coming up on the 130th anniversary of his Niigata brewery which makes sake Kanbara “Bride of the Fox”. Are their businesses thriving during the current economic crisis? Not really—times are tough in Japan too and ultra-premium sake has taken a hit there as consumers tighten their hold on their remaining yen. But do you hear them complaining that they’re not gonna make it through this crisis, or that something drastic must be done “or else”? Nope. Not from a single President at the meeting.

Instead, they were calm and poised because they will survive. They had not mortgaged their breweries’ futures in order to invest in the stock market. They had not built large new facilities while sales were cranking the last 5 years. Because they have a different sense of time than most folks in the U.S. who consider a company that has a 25th anniversary to be “well-established”. They are thinking about making and selling sake FOREVER, and when I use that word, I mean it.

So maybe all of us in the US are learning a lesson at the moment. Even though the U.S. is only a few hundred years old, we should be looking to restructure our companies and institutions for a much longer period of time. Like forever.

Turning Japanese, I Really Think So – When a culture sneaks up on you like a ninja

If you are of my era, you certainly remember the catchy Vapors tune, “Turning Japanese”. And if you have ever read the lyrics to this song, you would just shake your head in wonder. I’m not sure what it all means, but I do know that this phrase pops into my head more and more as time goes on because I DO find myself turning Japanese across multiple cultural fronts. And it’s not just me. OK, so you could rightfully point out, “Hey Ed, don’t you import premium Japanese Ginjo sake?” And you’d be right. But that doesn’t explain the Tim’s Brand Wasabi-flavored potato chips from Washington State, nor does it explain my kids’ fascination with Pokemon, my wife’s infatuation with sushi, the endless green tea offerings in my grocery store (I won’t even mention the orange soda pop with green tea). Manga, the Japanese comic books/graphic novels, have been the increasing subject of art openings in the SF area. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. When Nick and I first considered importing sake from Japan in 2001, we took a look at the broader trends of restaurants, cooking ingredients (miso, soy, wasabi, ginger), what alcoholic drinks were on the rise—it was obvious to us that the wave was building so we grabbed our boards. After all, both armies and countries travel on their stomachs and this stomach was already eating and drinking Japanese. Well, I ate at a Japanese restaurant last night, ate some wasabi chips with my lunch today, and I head to Tokyo tomorrow for work, where I have to carve out some time to shop for Pokemon figures for my kids. Turning Japanese? I think “turned Japanese” may be more accurate.

What the Hail?

The “Law of Unintended Consequences” Prevails

I’m on my recent trip to Mendoza with a group of wine biz folks my partner Nick and I are traveling with, and we are visiting a vineyard out in Eastern Mendoza whose elegant, manicured rows are also covered in hail nets, and it occurs to me that the “Law of Unintended Consequences” seems to be alive and well in the wine business just as it is in so many aspects of government and personal life where when you do something for one reason, you also get a bunch of other unintended results. Only this time, the other stuff isn’t all bad. Let me explain.

Mendoza must certainly be the ultimate place to consistently grow great wine grapes. Yeah, I hear the harrumphs and throat clearing going on out there. Believe me, I’m a big fan of Rhone wines, Bierzo wines, and even Falanghina wines when I can spell it correctly. But I specified “consistently” great grapes and to do that, you have to have some pretty free reign from Mama Nature. Mendoza has that unique combination of very little rain (less than 10 inches per year and RARELY at harvest time) and plentiful access to irrigation water from snowmelt coming from the Andes. High desert soils have few pests and with little organic material, even weeds are rarely a problem. Hot days and cool nights make sure that the grapes don’t raisin and they don’t lose those valuable acids that keep the ripe wines in balance. And ripeness at sugar levels that result in about 14% alcohol in the final wines means that the wines are fresh and fun to drink. So considering how risky agriculture can be in those other places I mentioned above, Mendoza seems like a solid bet, at least for us wine importers. Except for the hail.

I’m not talking about the tiny ice bits that go “tink, tink, tink” across your windshield—I’m talking about golf ball-sized rocks that put dimples into the metal in your car. Hail claims, on average, 13 percent of the grape crop in Mendoza each year which is a bummer, and individual years can be even worse. It is a significant reason why the notion of using only estate-grown grapes is somewhat unwise since the powerful but localized hailstorms can knock out your entire crop in a matter of minutes. As with most things, there’s no free lunch even in Mendoza.

So these hail nets are put up to protect the vines and grapes from hail, and they do a great job. But folks like Pedro Marchevsky, who makes the BenMarco wines and is a leading viticulturist in Argentina, has discovered that this is not all that is going on. Hail nets also change the amount of sunlight that gets to the vines as well as changing the temperature and humidity levels in the canopy under the nets. In general, the effect is positive since the increased shade makes the grapes mature more slowly and allows the grapes to build more flavor inside; it also prevents sunburn on the grapes in sunny places like Mendoza, and sunburn can lead to bitter flavors in the wine. Pedro has also figured out that nets of different colors (black, white, orange)have different effects due to the amount of light that is reflected. Wow..that one would have passed me by completely.

So I got to thinking about the other times in life where doing one thing results in a whole lot of other unintended things. And I was heartened to see that at least this time, the consequences weren’t bad ones.

To get a better idea of what this hail netting looks like, click on the video link below. No unintended consequences for you. I promise.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CCSZOqbLs4