Wine Corkage Fee's

The History of Corkage Corkage Fee $30

Originally "corkage" was intended for that unusual rare collector's bottle that was not only "special" but also an equivalent was not available on the restaurant's wine list.  As of late, the understanding has taken a change and guests at times bring, while they might definitely are of good quality, nonetheless a very similar wine that is already available on the restaurant's wine list.  While we can only guess about the intent, we feel that is not truly fair to the restaurant and ultimately the restaurant will only survive by raising its prices.  A final thought, would you bring your own food to a restaurant? 

Printed at the bottom of the menu at Louie's By the Bay, Newport Beach, California

All fair comments to be sure.  Restaurants live on a thin margin and if everyone brings their own food and wine what's the point.  In order to have any wine program at all the restaurants have to have temperature-controlled rooms or cellars to store the wine, carry a fairly high inventory, rotate the inventory, and then maintain the wine room and periodically have to repair or replace the cooling systems all at a high cost.  I get it.

I also get that because of the above I can expect to pay a premium price to drink the restaurant's wine.  But not at 700% normal retail.  I actually have been to places where the restaurant's price was 700% over retail which is highway robbery.  Years ago I had dinner at the Blue Door in Miami Beach where wines were marked up on average 1.5 times retail and never over 2X.  For years and years, the industry-standard has been 2X which for most wine is OK.  When I spoke to the manager at the Blue Door he told me they priced their wines lower because they wanted customers to have wine with their food and yes they still made a little money because they purchased the wine wholesale, though in Florida at least the wholesale price is not that much lower than retail.  I had a similar discussion with the wine manager at La Bernadine in NYC last October where their wine prices were ridiculous.  He told me they priced their wines to match Hong Kong auction prices.  I advised him that was crazy.  Just because some rich Chinese person pays $500,000 for a bottle of wine to show off to his friends doesn't mean that is a reasonable price to sell wine at the restaurant.  I told him if that is all you care about pack up the wine and ship it to Hong Kong.  

Too many places today have gone away from the Blue Door's example and pursued the La Bernadine model which I blame on Harvard Business Schools recent Business model which is charge whatever the market will bear as opposed to the old great American Business Model, the Henry Ford Model, provide the best product at the lowest price.  I agree with Louis's in that you should take a special bottle of wine and it should be something they don't have and it should not be a $10 or $20 bottle.  We took a Le Montrachet for dinner, the top white wine in the world and no it was not on the menu or anything even close.  Sometimes I will take a special bottle and halfway through the dinner if appropriate I will purchase a bottle of the restaurant's wine list.  Many times if you do this they will waive the corkage fee.

One advantage of having spent your life learning about wine is that there is nowhere I can go and not find a reasonably priced good wine on anyone's wine list.  At Louis's, there were many great value Pinot Noirs.  There may only be one or two but there has always been at least one.  But if restaurants want me to come and drink mostly their wine then they need to bring their prices down to reasonable levels.  I consider 3X or higher robbery.  They also need to stock a sufficient number of quality wines and not just the wines that the distributors pump and dump on them.  On some occasions, I have been places where the wine list is embarrassing.  We had dinner at a swanky place in Lake Tahoe years ago and no kidding the wine list had Boone's Farm and Ripple on the list.  I was appalled and complained to the server.  He informed me we don't put good wines on the list because no one orders them.  Maybe because the prices are ridiculous I said.  He then asks me well we do keep some better bottles in the back for our better customers, what would you like?  I said "Kistler Chardonnay" and damned if he didn't come out with a "Kistler Chardonnay".  I say again to restaurants if you want us to order off your list start pricing your wines at a reasonable level.

Biodynamic and Organic Wine Making

Welcome back to Wine, Travel, and Food(WTF) with Ross

I had a request to write something on biodynamic winemaking. Biodynamics has much in common with other organic approaches – it emphasizes the use of manures and composts and excludes the use of artificial chemicals on soil and plants. Methods unique to the biodynamic approach include its treatment of animals, crops, and soil as a single system, an emphasis from its beginnings on local production and distribution systems, its use of traditional and development of new local breeds and varieties. Some methods use an astrological sowing and planting calendar. Biodynamic agriculture uses various herbal and mineral additives for compost additives and field sprays; these are prepared using methods that are more akin to sympathetic magic than agronomy, such as burying ground quartz stuffed into the horn of a cow, which are said to harvest "cosmic forces in the soil."Biodynamic was the first modern organic agriculture. Its development began in 1924 with a series of eight lectures on agriculture given by philosopher Rudolf Steiner at Schloss Koberwitz in Silesia, Germany (now Kobierzyce in Poland). These lectures, the first known presentation of organic agriculture, were held in response to a request by farmers who noticed degraded soil conditions and a deterioration in the health and quality of crops and livestock resulting from the use of chemical fertilizers. 

It has always been my understanding that the main underpinning of biodynamic was the minimization of artificial chemicals in the growing of plants. As mentioned the movement started when farmers noted degraded soil conditions. Ever since agriculture was invented even common everyday people understand the need to rotate crops and give some plots a year or two of rest. I visit Georgia farm country to hunt every year and every year the farmers have a different crop planted. Soybeans this year, corn next year. The whole purpose is if you grow large numbers of plants year after year any natural minerals and nutrients in the ground will eventually be depleted so that no more plants can grow there. Just makes sense. One big problem with vineyards is that grape vines cannot be rotated and many vineyards have vines over 50 years old which many consider an asset. When a vineyard is no longer producing as it should most vineyards pull up the old vines and plant new ones. Chemicals were invented to increase crop yields by stimulating crop growth, controlling insects that destroyed crops, and in some cases actually replenish the soil. Fertilizer and manure simply replace nitrogen into the soil which is one of the main nutrients needed to grow stuff. Throw some nitrogen on a yard and see what happens. The problem as I see it over the years those chemicals were no longer pure. When you buy an artificial bag of fertilizer today it probably has over 100 different chemicals in it for preservatives and other reasons some of which can be harmful and some that have been related to cancer development in humans. So you are not putting a pure compound on the ground and to me biodynamic was invented to get away from that. 

In the end, I am a scientist which means to prove something scientific results and facts have to be demonstrated reproducibly by multiple researchers prior to it being fact. The problem is No difference in beneficial outcomes has been scientifically established between certified biodynamic agricultural techniques and similar organic and integrated farming practices. Biodynamic agriculture lacks strong scientific evidence for its efficacy and has been labeled a pseudoscience because of it's over-reliance upon esoteric knowledge and mystical beliefs(translation, snake oil). Research into biodynamic farming has been complicated by the difficulty of isolating the distinctively biodynamic aspects when conducting comparative trials. Consequently, there is no strong body of material that provides evidence of any specific effect. Since biodynamic farming is a form of organic farming, it can be generally assumed to share its characteristics, including "less stressed soils and thus diverse and highly interrelated soil communities".  A 2009/2011 review found that biodynamically cultivated fields had lower absolute yields than conventional farms, but achieved better efficiency of production relative to the amount of energy used and had greater earthworm populations and biomass than conventional farms. But both factors were similar to the result in organically cultivated fields. 

I understand that nature has its own biorhythms that you cannot ignore. As a hunter I have known for years you don't hunt deer after a full moon. It's not science but it's common sense the deer ate at night because they could see so they are not hungry the next day and are taking a nap and not moving around and you should take a nap as opposed to sitting in a tree stand all day looking at the grass. But to say you are going to make better wine and a 100 point wine because you planted or harvested based on some astrological calendar as an example is baloney to me. I am convinced that the number one factor that determines the greatness of wine is basically one-word "drainage". The worlds greatest vineyards sit on a moderate slope halfway up a hill. That way when it rains just the right amount of water gets to the roots. If the incline is too steep the water runs off. If there is no slope the water pools and the roots are saturated diluting the wine. The roots need to struggle a little. When they struggle they concentrate the flavors in the wine. You want to see vines struggle go to the Rhone. You have to see it to believe it but the Rhone vineyards have NO soil. The vines grow out of ROCK pebbles. The soil is 15 feet deep and the roots go down 15 feet. 

With organic and biodynamic farming GMO seeds and chemicals are not supposed to be used. Organic is supposedly better because it is more "natural" hence good for you. But consider this. Many medicines we use today are just carefully formulated and "pure" forms of herbs and spices that were used by Shaman's and Witch Doctors eons ago and man has just refined them. Nightshade contains digoxin which is used to treat heart disease. The difference between Nightshade and Digoxin is when you take a Digoxin pill you are getting an exact dose that has been determined to be therapeutic and safe. When you chew on a bunch of Nightshade who knows what dose you get. Let's face it science help improve nature. I agree one problem is chemical makers add a bunch of additives for long term preservation but do we really need all of those additives in our chemicals and drugs and fertilizers? 

Winemakers like all farmers have used fertilizers and chemicals since the beginning of time for one purpose, increased yield and production to make more money. In farming, we have increased the yields where famine, at least in industrialized countries, is nonexistent. Winemakers need increased production to offset lower yield years so they can stay in business. So using science helps winemaking and going back to using less science to me may not be in the best interests in the wine world. And the main problem with Biodynamic is that it depends too much on those esoteric ideas like astrology to be a determining factor in wine production. I accept there are biorhythms of the earth that we should be sensitive to, but when it comes to wine as far as I am concerned wines struggling mid-slope with an ideal amount of water and good weather to enhance the best maturation are what is important and biodynamic is just another word for witchcraft and snake oil. 

California Dreaming

Just back from a friend and family visit to Southern California where I was honored and selected to be the sommelier for a great friends birthday party for over 100 people. Initially, my host gave me a budget of up to $100 a bottle which I told him was way too high. Understanding many wine experts from California would be at the party I emphasized that great wine does not have to cost that much. I have reviewed here for you along with professional writers the 5 wines served at the party all of which were well received and enjoyed along with the professional notes and price.  Most were rated right at 90 points by most professional writers.  A fair number of people came up to me and thanked me for the selection of the wines and many said they could not believe the inexpensive price of the wines.  There are plenty of great wines under $20 a bottle out there.

Chene Bleu Rose 2017 $26 Bt available from Hi-Times Orange County 

I consider this to be one of the best French Rose's in the world and I am biased. Clark and I spent a day at the vineyard a few years ago and loved the place. At the time it was the highest priced Rose in the World but the price is now down to reasonable levels. It is an interesting story. Years ago the family bought this broken down Medieval Castle on top of a mountain in the Southern Rhone Valley and renovated it at a cost of millions. It was surrounded by old dead vineyards and they decided to make wine. One problem. No one knew how to make wine. So they sent a brother to California at Davis to learn how to make wine and he came home after 4 years planted some vines and the rest is history. They didn't have a name but there was an old dead tree at the front of the property so they painted it bright blue and called the vineyard Chene Bleu or "blue tree". You can spend the night at the property they have 6 bedrooms and a full gourmet kitchen with a chef. We had a great lunch and tasting there. The wine is easily obtainable from Hi-Times Wine in Orange County, CA. I served it recently at a party at our house as well as the birthday party. Both times it was raved about and most bottles were consumed. It is a very light tasty smooth wine with no hard edges. Moderate acidity that goes well with food and very light oak that does not overpower. Just a lush elegant wine. 

Winemaker Notes 

Chêne Bleu means blue oak tree which forms the centerpiece of the label and which stands guard over the vines in real life (a centuries-old oak tree that died during a drought and has now been painted with Bordeaux Mixture and sculpted into a beautiful shape. The picture on the label surrounding it is filled with many of the elements that make the wine and the project unique.

Rich and fresh. Notes of citrus, small red fruit, and delicate touches of rose. Very fine hints of brioche.

Critical Acclaim JD91 Jeb Dunnuck RP91 WS91

The 2017 IGP Vaucluse Rosé is a Provençal beauty that offers fabulous notes of strawberries, spice, and salty minerality. It's clean, pure and elegant, with bright acidity.

Martín Códax 2016 Albariño (Rías Baixas) WE 89 JS93 D92 $14

This is a great wine for the Anything But Chardonnay(ABC) crowd.  It is a bright crisp acidy wine similar to a Sauvignon Blanc but is an entirely different grape.  Easy to drink and light goes well with shellfish and oysters.

Winemaker Notes

A refreshing food friendly white wine, Albariño is crisp, elegant and dry and has aromas and flavors of pear, passion fruit, and apple with bright acidity.

Critical Acclaim WW90 Wilfred Wong of Wine.com WE89 WS90

Since the late 1990s, I have enjoyed many bottles of the Martín Códax Albariños, and the wines have always been spot-on fresh, clean, and crisp. The 2017 vintage is just as I remembered it. TASTING NOTES: This wine is bright and alive. Its aromas and flavors of lime zest and mineral invite a pairing with simply prepared shellfish. (Tasted: December 10, 2018, San Francisco, CA)

Lemon and apple aromas are fresh and zippy on the nose. An alert, agile palate is citrusy but not sharp. Flavors of apple, nectarine and apricot finish with length, clarity, and brightness. Drink now. 

Cambria Katherine's Vineyard Chardonnay 2015 WA87 $15

This has always been a great go-to Chardonnay that Clark and I have enjoyed over the years.  Lots of fruit flavors and moderate oak and balanced acidity.  Was received well at the party.

Winemaker Notes 

Ripe fruit, floral and spice aromas dominate the nose of the 2015 Katherine's Vineyard Chardonnay. Pink grapefruit, tangerine, pineapple, white peach, citrus blossom, and apple flavors are balanced by a bit of wet stone, subtle oak spice and bright acid 

Critical Acclaim WA87

The 2015 Chardonnay Katherine's Vineyard reveals an attractive nose of lemon rind, toast, and buttered apples. On the palate, the wine is medium-bodied, fresh and open-knit, with less texture and weight than the considerably more expensive Signature Collection bottling, but marginally greater freshness.  William Kelley, April 27, 2018 

Louis Jadot Pinot Noir 2015 WS90 $15

I had a fair amount of discussion with my host as to what red wines to serve.  We "assumed" the crowd would be a California Cab crowd but after thought and discussion decided that most likely was incorrect and lighter "summer" wines might be more appropriate.  The party was held outside one of the art festivals in Laguna Beach and believe me the Laguna Beach crowd is a little artsier and laid back.  So with that in mind, I picked a light French Pinot Noir with a good pedigree.  The Jadot Pinot Noir is a light fruity red wine with lots of cherries and plums with moderate to low oak.  It drinks smooth and has a nice long finish.  Balanced with nothing out of balance.  Just a great lighter red wine for a summer day. Of interest, the wine was #68 Wine Spectator Top 100 of 2018.

Winemaker's notes: 

This medium-bodied wine is harmonious, with forward, plump fruit and a silky texture balanced by gentle tannins and elegant structure. The very typical Pinot aromas and flavors of red cherries and wild strawberries are complemented by a delicious, lingering finish.  Pairs with red meats, roasts, pork tenderloin, and soft cheeses.

Critical Acclaim WS90

Infused with graphite and cherry aromas and flavors, this red is expressive and silky, with a good underlying structure for balance. Drink now through 2023.

Antinori Toscana 2015 JS93 D93 $15

Despite the reluctance to serve a too heavy red wine we still felt a bolder red would be appreciated by many of the guest, especially those who tell all the time "I never drink white wine".  Drinking white wine is like kissing your sister.  White wine is red wine that didn't make it.  I know I have heard all the jokes.  Forgive them as they don't know better.  We looked around for at least an hour and nothing inspired us until I found this wine.  Antinori always makes great wine and really usually nothing beats a great Sangiovese.  Besides a red wine rated 93 points at $15, how could we go wrong and boy were we right.  This is a tremendously balanced lush elegant wine with nothing off.  Perfect moderate acidity, mild tannins, and a soft long finish.  Just a great wine for the price.

Winemaker Notes 

Ruby red in color, this wine shows intense and complex aromas of ripe, red fruit, sweet spices and dried fruit and nuts. Firm bodied, it is round and supple with velvety tannins and a long, savory finish. 

Critical Acclaim 

JS93 James Suckling 

A focused nose that shows red cherries, red and dark plums, as well as cedar and nutmeg. The palate’s so lithe and elegant with firm tannins, tangy acidity, and a mineral finish. 

D92 Decanter 

With a wine history dating to 1385, Antinori has made this reliable Sangiovese and Bordeaux red blend since 1927, so its pedigree is not in question! Toasty oak melds into succulent cherry-berry fruit, with fine tannins and bright acidity to age well. Excellent value, even at the usual £15.99. 

Oregon Wine Country 2011 to 2018 The Seven Year Itch

In 2011 I traveled to the Willamette Valley to learn about and taste Oregon wines. My preconceived idea was that these were great wines. Everyone has heard how great their Pinot Noirs are right? So, in general, I expected to find great wines and an area that would compare to Napa Valley and France. However, it was not quite that experience. My observations and recommendations are as follows with a follow up on a tasting in 2018.

1. Oregon's Willamette Valley is a farming country more than it is wine country. When you go to Napa or France all you see are vineyards to the horizon. Not in Oregon. The vineyards are small and surrounded by orchards, grass fields, etc. To me, the area probably looks like Napa did 20 or 30 years ago so Oregon wine is still in its infancy.

2. Very few vineyards were in existence a few years ago. After a time there were about 150 but over the past 3-4 years, there are now over 450 vineyards and today it is 725. 500% growth literally overnight. A few people made some good wine, the land was cheap, and everyone and his brother who wanted to make wine and Pinot Noir moved to Oregon to try their hand at winemaking. As you can guess it would be unusual for 450 vineyards to all make outstanding wines. Somewhere along the way, things get diluted.

3. The party line is that the weather and soil in Oregon are ideal for making Pinot Noir. I am not so sure. The weather is rainy most of the time. The temperature fluctuates a lot and from year to year there are vast differences in weather and temperature that challenges even the best vineyards. 2007 was dry and hot, 2008 was considered ideal weather, etc. Vast differences year to year. I examined the soil and it is not like Napa or France. To me, it was more suited to grass than grapes. The area is, in fact, a rain forest and to me, that kind of soil is not that great for grapes.

4. 90% of the Pinots I tasted were extremely Tannic and unapproachable until last year.   All the wines were "Good". No one makes "bad" wine anymore so it is more a question of style than anything else. But I really had a problem appreciating the fruit in these wines due to the overwhelming tannins. Most of them were also high alcohol, greater than 14% and had a slight amount of bitterness to them. At least one vineyard we went too, Stoller, recognized this in that they were "experimenting" by adding some type of powdered additional "tannin" which they never explained which they said would soften the tannins and soften the wine. But the bottom line to me was instead of just making the wine better they were manipulating the wine to make it sellable.

5. To me, the whites were much better. The Pinot Gris was some of the best I have had. In addition, there were a couple of world-class Chardonnays that clearly were Burgundian in style and you could put them up against French White Burgundy and you could not tell the difference.

6. There is a huge commercial push to selling these wines direct from the vineyard. At every vineyard, the push was to join their mailing list and get 2 cases of wine shipped directly to you a year. Seems to me the vineyards were very dependent on this manner of selling their wines to stay in business. To me, it means there is, in fact, no demand for their wines to speak of so without their "Cellar Clubs" they would be out of business. However "Cellar Clubs" have grown exponentially and lots of vineyards are now using this business model the world over.

7. There are almost no good places to stay and eat in the Willamette Valley at least not compared to Napa. The Allison Inn is the premier and best place but has only been there for 2 years. There are excellent restaurants but not many. Again it is primarily a farming country. Interestingly I found the cost of living to be very reasonable. In general, prices were about 30% less than elsewhere.

8. The absolute best vineyard and has been for years is Domaine Serene and it lives up to its reputation. Their basic Pinot and Chardonnay are world class, balanced, smooth and a joy to drink. But even Domaine Serene is on this kick to produce "single vineyard" "library" wines so they have expanded and are now making limited production of this kind of wines but the ones I tasted were again over tannic and higher in alcohol and not as good as their flagship wines.

The best wines we tasted and vineyards visited are listed here.

Lachini Pinot Gris

Lachini Pinot Noir Family Estate

Lachini Chardonnay Al di la Willamette Valley

Domaine Serene Evenstad Reserve Pinot Noir

Domaine Serene Chardonnay

Bergstrom Old Stone Chardonnay

Chehalem Ian's Reserve Chardonnay

Beaux Freres

Bethel Heights

Recommended Restaurants are Painted Lady and Dundee Bistro

I enjoyed most wines from Beaux Freres and Bethel Heights

Oregan Pinot Noirs revisited in 2018

I am happy to report that the 2015 Oregan Pinot Noirs tasted below last October were all very approachable. They were more balanced, had lower alcohol, and better fruit and I did not detect the bitterness I did in 2011. They clearly have improved.  Recommended wines are as follows:

Big Table Farm Pinot Noir Willamette Valley Sunnyside Vineyard 2015 WS93 $60 

Starts with an earthy grassy nose which follows over to the taste with a slight grassy character. Tannins are balanced and do no offset the fruit which is a nice cherry flavor. It also has a nice long finish. Overall a well balanced good Pinot 

Chapter 24 Pinot Noir Willamette Valley Last Chapter 2015 WS91 $80

Starts out with a smoky nose but the mouthfeel was pure velvet and the wine is well balanced. Tannins to me were soft and sweet and the wine had a long finish. Plenty of cherry and berry fruit to taste. Not over oaked. 

Lingua Franca Pinot Noir Eola-Amity Hills Mimi's Mind 2015 WS94 $60

An interesting nose. When you first smell it, it is like smelling pure alcohol but that all goes away immediately upon tasting where a good strong showing of fruit to include cherry and here blackberry come in. Tannins are again soft and balanced with everything else. The finish is long and complex. I felt this was the best of the 4 in general. 

Resonance Pinot Noir Yamhill-Carlton District Resonance Vineyard 2015 WS91 $35

Starts off with a smoky earthy nose but once on the palate lots of sweet fruit. It has a lighter body and seems to be a brighter wine. Has a great mouthfeel and the finish is long and pleasant. Had the best QPR of the bunch and at $35 you cannot beat it.