Enobytes Wine Blog

On-premise wine retailers should take notice of the changing tides headed their way. In the near future, the economy on all levels will start to reflect the high fuel prices everywhere including what shows up on your plate at local restaurants. As this happens, it will become necessary for some consumers to decide if they are fortunate enough to enjoy wine with their dinner or will they have water and wait until they get home to have some wine.

Recently I have been surprised with how often a new question regarding a wine choice is being repeated. It goes something like this “Marc, I need your help. Myself and a group of friends are going to dinner and we are meeting at my house first. I need a wine for us to consume before we go.” There is apparently a trend of no longer even purchasing wine by the glass at a restaurant much less bottles at the ridiculously high mark-ups most restaurants are charging these

days not to mention the $20-$35 corkage fees. You might think I am referring to recent college grads who are still paying back college loans but that would not be the case. Most often the group mentioned involves professionals from one of the big two employers in Hillsboro and Beaverton and these folks are closer … Read the rest of this entry »

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Culture is a funny thing and sometimes it seems as far as we have gone we’ve not gone far enough. Our recent outing (Enobytes) to the 17th annual Boston Wine Expo was an eye-opening experience with the trade and the public attending the largest and one of the oldest wine expos in the country.

The drive to impress was intense among the 500 exhibitors. One common buzz among trade associates in retail and wholesale was the search for better quality at lower prices. There was a noticeable difference between attendees at an East Coast wine event and those of a Northwest event with the most apparent difference being that they are focused on decisively different agendas. Read the rest of this entry »

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As I was wandering the wine isles of a local grocery retailer the other day, I was happy that they were now carrying the Echelon label. When this label first came into existence in the late 90’s it represented above average quality wine from respected growing regions at below average prices and their Pinot Noir and the Merlot were standouts. My first instinct was to grab a bottle and check out the information on the label. Much to my surprise, the Pinot Noir lists French fruit but the wine is blended and bottled in California.

Many other American producers seem to be on this ‘source Pinot Noir from anywhere‘ mission. Beringer’s founders reserve Pinot Noir is now made from grapes coming from the Lombardy region of Italy. Pepperwood Grove’s Pinot Noir started this year with French Vin d’ pays grapes then it went to Chilean fruit, changed again to join Beringer bringing it’s grapes from Lombardy, Italy, only to change once again bringing the fruit from Australia.

Grapes from three different continents and four different viticulture regions all with the same label all within one vintage - I hope you Pepperwood Grove drinkers like change.

If you go to the Pepperwood Grove website after reading this article, you might be a little confused because the website lists the appellation as California. I have not seen any of their Pinot Noir from California on the shelf since 2006. Read the rest of this entry »

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The driving question going into 2008 about wine, for me, revolves around integrity. Wine producers have surprised me this year in their ability to market wines that happened by mistake or the cellar rat mixed two tanks. Oreana’s Red Table Wine, from Santa Barbara (available at Trader Joe’s), the label reads mistake or fate, and then they launch into a tale of two tanks being mixed. Wasn’t that the story behind the Non-vintage Chardonnay from the Paso Robles Winery "Eos" (Novella)?

Regardless of the story behind the wine, the bottom line becomes, is it good wine at a price-point that represents value? The value of integrity continues to be challenged regarding consumers and wine producers. It does not only reflect on the producers. Consumers have their own concept of marketing integrity now believing the best quality can be mirrored at any level. A good example would be this scenario; the most asked for wine this year was Rombauer Chardonnay. Well not actually - the question usually goes like this, “My favorite wine is Rombauer Chardonnay”. I always reply, “Regrettably, we do not carry that wine” and most often the customer replies with “what do you have at less than $10 that will taste like Rombauer”? My response is always the same, “nothing", at its current asking price of $30 there is a reason I do not sell anything as good at less than $10. The wine is phenomenal and undervalued. Rombauer continues to make wines that represent integrity year after year.

Hands down, the favorite Cab people ask you to mirror would be Silver Oak “Napa
Valley” Cabernet Sauvignon again at less than $10. Read the rest of this entry »

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It has come to my attention how much wine styles have affected wine tasting by professionals and how little we (wine tasting reviewers) realize that consumers need just the facts. It became evident during a conversation I had recently with a fellow wine tasting colleague. They were second-guessing their own qualifications while reviewing a wine of extremely high caliber that had been produced in a style that this particular producer had not embraced in the past. Read the rest of this entry »

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A while back I was reading the San Jose Mercury newspaper and came across a column about the food that was being served at some of the high profile Silicon Valley employers like Yahoo, Cisco, and Novell. It has been reported that the food was good enough for vendors and contractors to make up excuses to visit these locations around lunchtime. It was an impressive article and it got me to thinking about my own journey through institutional food. Read the rest of this entry »

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I don’t know if you have had the experience of having to return some wine to your local supermarket lately but it seems to fall into two categories. (1) They have the “Wine? You’re trying to return an opened bottle of wine?” I usually reply “Yes, it was corked; so I would like a replacement bottle”. They usually retort with “Of course it was corked; I can see the cork has been pulled out, anyway it’s against the law to give refunds on alcoholic beverages”. Read the rest of this entry »

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After reading a few Citysearch reviews about Bistro Ralph on the square in Healdsburg, it seemed time to write this story. Yeah, I occasionally look at other people’s reviews because I try to offer a unique perspective in my reviews. There seems to be a theme of comments regarding the attitude at the restaurant and I thought it would be a good subject for a column in “I Don’t Buy That”. Read the rest of this entry »

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