Category Archives: California

Three Really Great Bottles of Wine

16 Sunday Dec 2012

Posted by in California, Italy, Napa/Sonoma

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It’s time to catch up on a couple of recent bottles of wine I’ve found to be outstanding. Two Italians and one California Cab rate highly in my book.

Ca de Rocchi Montere Ripasso – This 2009 Valpolicella Superiore is fabulous Italian wine. The wine is a blend of three varieties grown in Italy’s north-east. Corvina, and Rondinella are the trio primarily involved in the blend.

The wine is lighter than many Italian choices but the wine drinker is rewarded with big beautiful fruit and a rich smooth finish.

I went back and bought more of this beauty after trying just one bottle. This big heavy bottle of wine comes in around $20. I’m not sure the significance, but this might be the heaviest bottle I’ve ever picked up with 750ml of grape juice inside. Pinot Noir often features big heavy-bottomed bottles, but this one was even heavier than most. Talk among yourselves!

This Ripasso might be my all-time favorite for under $20.

Ca de Rocchi Montere Ripasso, $18.99, Very Highly Recommended

Attems Pinot Grigio – I’ve never been a big fan of Pinot Grigio. It never matches up to Oregon’s Pinot Gris which I like a lot. I find most Pinot Grigio (particularly the Italian version) to often be thin or uninteresting.

I’ve now tasted the exception to that stereotyped characterization. This trade sample Attems had an unusual richness that really set it apart from so many other Grigios in the market. It had apple and pear hints on the palate.

The big difference here for  me was the use of some oak. Plenty of Pinot Grigio, Gris, Blanc, etc are often stainless steel only. And generally, I don’t care for much oak in my white wine, but it really made this wine standout.

The tech sheet for this wine indicated 15 percent of the production spends time in barrels while the rest is done in stainless steel.

Attems 2011 Pinot Grigio, SRP $18, Trade Sample, Highly Recommended.

Franciscan 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon – There are well-known names and a second tier of names when it comes to Napa Cabernet. And, come to think of it, there are probably three or four or six more categories.

Franciscan is name known to most wine lovers because it is widely distributed. I find their wines to be consistent and good wines at the price point.

The 2010 Cab has all of the characteristics of great Cabernet. I decanted this wine and even saved a little for the next night. It’s really good Cab but it needs some time on the wine rack. For me, the wine was just too big with some astringency. But, the more wine you drink the easier it gets to identify what the wine is going to be instead of what it is the day you open it. Did that make sense?

This is going to be a really great Cabernet in another 5-10 years. I liked the herbs, black currant, tobacco, and dark chocolate hints. It had really big tannins, but again – give it some time.

This is a blend with 85 percent Cab, 11 percent Merlot, 3 percent Syrah, and 1 percent Malbec. The wine gets 20 months in oak barrells while 25 percent of that sees new oak. So the tannin structure is huge now but there for great aging potential.

It is a mild 13.5 percent alcohol wine. Franciscan distributes a lot of this wine so you should be able to find it at a good nearby wine shop. For the price point, it’s a great wine to go buy two bottles and experiment a little. Open your first bottle and make sure it gets a good decant. Put the other bottle away and don’t open it for at least five years.

Franciscan consistently scores 90-plus points for its Cabernet. When aged or decanted properly, this is tremendous value for $28.

Franciscan 2010 Cabernet, SRP $28, Trade Sample, Recommended

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Mondavi Carneros Pinot Noir is Surprisingly Good

27 Tuesday Nov 2012

Posted by in California, Napa/Sonoma

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Robert Mondavi = Napa Valley.

Robert Mondavi = Cabernet Sauvignon.

Robert Mondavi = California wine icon.

Now if we were playing a word association game all of those responses would be good ones if you mentioned the name of legendary winemaker and wine ambassador, Robert Mondavi.

But what if we offered this one – Robert Mondavi = Pinot Noir.

Huh? Pinot? Who? What? Why? Pinot Noir? Mondavi?

It might go something like that. Fair or not, Mondavi is associated with Cabernet or maybe his iconic white Fume Blanc (or Sauv Blanc, if you want to get technical.)

So when I received a 2010 Mondavi Pinot Noir sample I wasn’t skeptical, I just didn’t really know what to expect. Fair or not, not many people associate the great Mondavi name with Pinot. When we think of Pinot we think of the Sonoma Coast and the Russian River Valley.

Now, it’s also fair to say the Carneros region in Napa Valley was cool long before Pinot was cool when it comes to Pinot Noir.

I recently popped open the bottle and like, ‘wow dude, (or dudette), this is good Pinot!’

Okay, it has 7 percent Russian River Valley fruit to complement the Carneros but it’s very nice Pinot. The grapes hare hand picked, it sees about one-third new oak barrels, and the wine is still pretty young.

I loved the really nice spicy, soft black fruit flavor. The wine was marvelously balanced and smooth. It had hints of a forest floor and a few fall pumpkin pie spices. It was beautiful wine.

I’ve written before that we take the icons for granted. I tasted five or six $100-plus Mondavi Cabs earlier this year and was really impressed with the consistency and quality. This little $27 Pinot is a welcome brother to the winery’s better known bottles!

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Two Great Glasses (or more) of Awesome Wine

15 Thursday Nov 2012

Posted by in California, Napa/Sonoma, Oregon

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Oregon’s Willamette Valley view from Penner Ash

Is there anything better for those of us who love wine than a really, really great glass of juice?

I do taste a lot of wine at price points up to $100, I’d guess. I buy some wine in the $40-$60 range and just a few a bit higher. I opened two great wines this weekend that just lights the inner fire to share these great labels and names with those who read my wine writing.

Both wines originated in iconic U.S. wine regions – Napa Cab and Oregon Pinot Noir – and they rocked!

Sattui sits at the north end of Napa on Highway 29

V. Sattui 2007 Mt. Veeder Napa Cabernet -This wine comes from one of Napa’s most unique producers. V. Sattui, one of the region’s oldest wineries, only sells its wine from the tasting room or online sales through its website. It is one of the most visited wineries in Napa.

I tasted through several of their wines during a March 2012 visit. The wines were consistently good. I remember liking a Zinfandel quite a bit before we got to the Cabs. The higher end Cabernet was excellent. I narrowed it down to a couple and purchased a bottle of the Mt. Veeder Cab for $48 which is now listed on their website for $53.

The wine is rich and supple with uber smooth tannins, hints of all sorts of dark fruit like cherry and currants. It is a bit softer than many Napa Cabs which is part of its attraction.

Mt Veeder is one of the premier appellations in the region. Here is a great description from weine-searcher.com:

The eponymous Mount Veeder peak is 2700ft (825m) high, and marks the boundary between Napa and Sonoma counties. The appellation’s highest vineyards lie on a south-west-facing slope just below the summit, and stretch up to 2630ft (800m). 

Located five miles (8km) north-west of Sonoma town and half that distance again from Napa town, Mount Veeder lies equidistant from the two valleys which are arguably the most important in the United States.

This young lady appeared as we finished tasting!

The bottom line is absolutely great Cabernet at a half, or less, the price of many premier Napa Cabs. V. Sattui is a good stop for any first time Napa visitor. They have large deli where all sorts of cheese and other foods are available. There is plenty of room outside to have your own picnic. Some snobs turn their collective noses up at places like V. Sattui but it’s perfect for the first time visitor. The staff was very friendly and knowledable during my visit.

They also have a little fun. Plenty of tasting rooms are very welcoming. But many of the upper end wineries certainly can come off as a bit snobbish. The people here depend on tasting room sales and they know. Staffers make the tasting room experience fun.

V. Sattui 2007 Mt. Veeder Napa Cab, $53, Highly Recommended

Penner Ash 2009 Dussin Vineyard Pinot Noir – I love Pinot Noir and have grown very, very fond of Oregon Pinot. I opened this with a good friend who really appreciates Pinot and we were both just blown away.

I picked up this bottle during a summer 2012 visit at the Willamette Valley winery. Lynn Penner-Ash is certainly an icon in Oregon winemaking. This is the top of her line of great wines. They are widely available (including in Indiana.) You might have trouble finding this particular bottle but her other offerings are worth a search.

This is a small production wine with usual production around 500 cases. The 2010 is the only Dussin Vineyard on the Penner Ash website and it’s listed for $60. My memory fails me but I felt like I paid closer to $70 for this bottle. It was worth every hard-earned nickel.

Penner Ash tasting room action.

Wine Spectator gave the wine 92 points and I couldn’t agree more. I might even go a point or two higher. The wine is almost floral with it’s rich and silky dark fruit. It’s very smooth and enjoyable on the palate with the depth and complexity a serious wine drinker would expect at this price point.

The 2008 Oregon vintage was hailed as one of best in years. I tasted the 2009 early after release and was generally unimpressed. But when I tasted the ’09s a summer ago was really taken by the bold fruit and silky qualities.

Frankly, I have several favorite Willamette Valley producers and this bottle added Penner Ash to the list. There are lower entry points for price and they are worth a try. This particular wine is a great example of how you can buy awesome Pinot Noir without paying Burgundy prices.

Penner Ash 2009 Dussin Vineyard Pinot Noir, $60, Very Highly Recommended.

All photos in this post by my friend Drew Casey, who is now a tasting room associate at Chateau St. Jean in California’s Sonoma County.

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A Great White & A Solid Value Cab

04 Sunday Nov 2012

Posted by in California, France, Paso Robles & Mendocino

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Two more wine reviews and I’m caught up on recent bottles for review. If you want an all-purpose white wine great with food or alone, I’ve got one for you. Or, how about an affordable Central Coast California Cabernet?

Domaine du Bourdieu Entre-Deux-Mers 2010 – This Sainte Anne white Bordeaux represents what many people will tell you – white Bordeaux is one of the world’s great value buys.

The wine is Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, and Muscadelle. Then 10 percent of the juice sees a bit of oak. This wine stands alone with its smooth palate feel but has enough body to pair nicely with seafood.

Entre-Deux-Mers is a wonderful region just to the southwest of the city of Bordeaux.

Sainte Anne Entre-Deux-Mers White Bordeaux, these wines generally available under $20, (I bought this bottle as a package buy so don’t have SRP), Highly recommended. If you can’t find this one, try some white Bordeaux.

Clayhouse 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon – Clayhouse is one of the great value labels out of California’s Central Coast. You get the wonderfully bold flavors of Paso Robles for an average of $15.

This is not a smack-you-in-the-face like many California Cabs, but it has real Cab characteristics in the flavor with a smooth feel in the mouth. This wine will be a bit bigger than many Cabs at this price point.

It’s nice dry red wine with the dark fruit, some spice, and moderate tannins. It’s highly drinkable, affordable, and should be easy to find.

Clayhouse 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon, SRP $15, Trade Sample, Recommended.

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An Easy-Drinking Cab and Chianti Red Wine

02 Friday Nov 2012

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Being way behind on wine mentions/reviews, time to catch up.

Here are some thoughts on really easy to find California Cabernet and Italian Chianti. I’d argue these are two wines you should always have on hand. A nice, easy-to-drink Cab for beef and a nice Chianti for pasta of fava beans in case Anthony Hopkins is a dinner guest!

Robert Mondavi Central Coast 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon – This wine is available, most probably, in your supermarket. Frankly, for $11 or less, you can do much worse. This wine does not have strong Cabernet characteristics but its quite drinkable. And after all, isn’t that always the real test?

The wine is 88% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Syrah, 3% Merlot, 2% Petit Verdot, 1% Malbec and 1% Cabernet Franc from California’s Central Coast. It’s soft, It;s red. It tastes pretty good.

I drank this wine with some mildy spicy pasta and then with some chocolate and found it enjoyable. I love wines like this because they are easy to find and easy to drink.

Mondavi has repackaged this line with a focus on Central Coast fruit. The Mondavi Private Selection remains one of the best values for drinkability in the supermarket and elsewhere.

Robert Mondavi Central Coast 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon- SRP $11, (trade sample), Recomended. Try this wine for $9-$11. It works at that price point.

Banfi 2010 Chianti Superiore –  Wine Spectator gave this wine an 87 and that’s about right. This is much like the Mondavi above. Is it a true representative of great Sangiovese, well – not quite. Is it drinkable and enjoyable – well, yes it is!

It has some cherry and a little astringency but a drinkable bottle of wine. If you have some pasta with tomato sauce or tomato based it will work well.

This wine can be found really cheap and in lots of liquor stores and wine shops. There is nothing special about it other than its simple drinkablility without any negatives. For the price, go out and buy it.

Banfi 2010 Chianti Superiore – SRP $11, (trade sample), Recommended Look around and you might find this bottle at $9-$10.

 
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A Pinch of Salt (Oops, Oak) Can Make a Darn Fine Wine

09 Tuesday Oct 2012

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Peters and Miller in the vineyard behind Kokomo Winery
No wine tasting or even a subscription to Wine Spectator can teach wine enthusiasts more than a few hours visit to the vineyard. The ultimate experience is to tour a vineyard and then spend time with the winemaker.
Through four years of writing about wine it’s an opportunity I’ve been afforded on a number of occasions.
Kokomo Vineyard’s Erik Miller was a gracious host earlier this year and put a few things in perspective with his own winemaking thoughts.
After touring a barrel-making plant in Windsor, Calif, Erik talked about his vineyards and the winemaking process. The conversation started where the morning began and that was with oak barrel aging.
“My philsophy on oak is that we use oak like you’d use salt at a meal,” the Kokomo, IN native said. “You want some salt on your meal so it has that seasoning. It would be bland with out it to some degree but you don’t want to taste the salt.”
But wine is more than just the oak its aged in. Great wine comes from the vineyard. “It’s the terrior – the earth, soild, sun exposure, the bench (land),” Miller said. “That has to be first and foremost in the wine and then that oak is more than a storage vessel. The oak adds some tannin, some flavor and some mouth feel.
“We have to know how to use that and not overpower the delicacy or sense of place. Here I am making 12 different varieties of Zin alone and we use five different vineyards. If I put the same oak on all five vineyards I’d have the same Zin. That common thread would give me a house flavor. I never want a house flavor because those vineyards are very different.”
For vineyard manager Randy Peters the success of Miller’s Kokomo Winery gives him input on what he does with the land and vines.
“Now that we have many more small wineries I can see the end product,” Peters said. “My father and grandfather sold to bigger wineries. There were not a lot of small wineries in their time. All the grapes went into a blend with all the other growers. All the Zin went in a 10,000 gallon tank somewhere.
“Now with smaller wineries like Kokomo, it shows us the things we do in the vineyard throughout the year translates into the wine as a finished product. It makes us feel better spending money and doing work to make a better quality product. We can see it in the finished product by having vineyard designate wines.”
Peters isn’t a grower who sells the grapes and disappears to next year. He is a partner with Miller and regularly tastes the wines of all the wineries who buy his fruit. “That’s an important part of the process, especially if they’re going to put a vineyard designate on it. Then it has to meet my quality standards as well,” Peters said.
Peters and Miller agree that when a wine is a vineyard designate bottling its more than Kokomo Winery.”It’s Paulene’s Vineyard on that bottle, or Peter’s Vineyard,” Miller said. “If there was something lacking that Randy doesn’t think met his standards that’s going to hurt his brand of the vineyard. When you give up the fruit all control is not lost here because we’re in partnership with the vineyards because that name is going on the bottle as well.”
The Dry Creek Valley Kokomo Winery is modest but the wines go far beyond the limited releases seen in the midwest. Miller and Peters team for several wines which often don’t make it beyond the winery or California.
Howard’s Picks:
The Kokomo Cab is really pretty easy to find in wine shops and better liquor stores and a great wine for the price point. But for a real treat try some of the winery’s higher end wines. The Kokomo 2009 Timber Creek Zinfandel (vineyard designate) is tremendous wine. The wine had beautiful black pepper and nice acidity and a well balanced feel on the palate for wine of more than 15 percent alcohol. Wine Spectator gave this wine 90 points.
Howard W. Hewitt, Crawfordsville, IN., writes every other week about wine for 20 midwestern newspapers in Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan.

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Two Easy-to-Find. Big-Flavored Red Wines

27 Thursday Sep 2012

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Don’t just walk past those brands you see everywhere, because some are really worth your hard-earned dollars.

Ravenswood Zinfandel has seemingly been around forever. You can seemingly find it in groceries, liquor stores, and most wine shops. Ravenswood has a nice line of value wines and and even better line of vineyard designate and higher priced bottles.

Ravenswood 2009 Sonoma County Old Vine Zinfandel – This is a step up from Ravenswood basic entry level Zin and it’s dynamite wine for the money.

It’s rich, smoky, big fruit and nicely balanced red wine. You’ll get the dark fruit, maybe chocolate, and other rich flavors from this wine. It is like most California Zins in that it will hit you with 14.9 percent alcohol. But the fruit does a nice job holding up on the front of the palate. This $15.99 bottle doesn’t quite have the peppery finish I love of slightly higher priced Zins, but it will be a great pairing with your BBQ or pulled pork.

Ravenswood 2009 Sonoma County Old Vine Zinfandel, $15.99 SRP, trade sample, Recommended.

Kokomo Winery 2007 Cabernet Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma – Indiana native Erik Miller has made a name for himself in Sonoma’s Dry Creek Valley with Cab, Zin, and even his ever-improving white wines.

His 3007 is a nice Cabernet that you will find priced a bit all over the ballpark. I found it ranging from $31 to into the $40s on a net search; but I picked it up on one of the flash internets sites for just under $20 a bottle.

The wine is a big fruity, spicy Cabernet that may not be complex as some but very satisfying. I enjoyed the Cab with a ribeye off the grill and found myself quickly ‘quaffing’ down the Cabernet.

It does have a nice long finish and one you could decant and serve to most wine fans. Serve it with a well-peppered steak and its sure to be a hit.

I liked this wine a lot for what I paid for it and think it’s still a good buy at just over $31.

Kokomo Winery 2007 Cabernet Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma, $32 avg price on net, Highly Recommended as value buy for California Cab.

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Kokomo Native Makes City Name Successful Brand

25 Tuesday Sep 2012

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Growing up in Kokomo, In., and earning a management degree at Purdue University seems an unlikely path to a successful boutique winery in California’s Sonoma Valley.

But Erik Miller has achieved the unlikely career path with the success of Kokomo Wineries, named after his Central Indiana hometown. It’s a story of two Purdue roommates and a fourth generation Sonoma grape grower combining their passion.

“I had a buddy who moved out to Sonoma County when we were at Purdue,” Miller said. “I came out and visited him and just fell in love with the place. It was really weird for a guy from Indiana to come to San Francisco and all you have is public transportation. Then I saw Santa Rosa and thought it would be big enough to support a career and still small enough for me to fit in and be comfortable.”
Erik Miller

Erik Miller

He accepted an offer to do harvest work for a California winery. “That’s how I became passionate about wine,” he said. “I worked with grapes in the outside and watched the winemaker working. I put all my effort then toward that career – being in the wine industry.”

Miller’s love for Kokomo made naming the winery easy. Working with his college roommate Josh Bartels and grape grower Randy Peters gave him a team to direct the winery’s success. He also thinks being a Hoosier has its advantages.
“I think there is one thing we have in the Midwest and it’s this stereotype that we’re hard workers,” Miller said in the modest winery offices. “That has been a connection with me and Randy and some of the other farmers out here that we’re down to earth, salt of the earth kind of people.”
Peters, on the other hand, is a fourth generation farmer. His family produced fruit and wine grapes for decades. “We didn’t have much money growing up,” Peters said. “We were growing fruit and wine grapes but working on a low margin. My dad had a second job.”
Peters credited Miller’s hard work and integrity for their ‘handshake contract’ and shared success. “The honesty and integrity of Midwestern people is true,” he said. “Growing up here I’ve always had a passion for raising the fruit but now I can see the end result.”
Growing up Peters would watch the family harvest be sold off to very large producers and dumped into 10,000 gallon tanks with fruit from all over the region. Now his grapes to go vineyard designate wines that represent his work as well as the winery.

Miller makes wines widely available in the Midwest. His Cabernet Sauvignon is a big fruity but well-balanced wine that can be found in many wine shops.

“Maybe people will try the wine because the name is comforting too them,” Miller said. “We don’t spend extra money on the showboat things, the tasting room and winery but we will not take shortcuts on the equipment it takes to process grapes. We use the best oak we can buy, and make sure we’re sourcing the best possible grapes.”
Miller may have Midwestern industrial roots growing up in Kokomo but his wines have been lauded by the biggest competition in the world, The San Francisco Chronicle’s annual wine contest.
Note: In four years I’ve not done a two-part column. But if you want to learn a lot about wine, talk to a winemaker. Next time Miller will talk about some of his wine-making philosophy.

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Gur-Arieh on Winemaking Style, Sierra Foothills

19 Sunday Aug 2012

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As an old editor I can recall always urging young reporters to gather more material than needed to write a particular story. The longer you’re in the business you learn to multi-purpose an interview as well. This post is an example. I interviewed Chaim Gur-Arieh about his wine delivery system for restaurants and published that column to my 18 newspapers a couple of weeks ago. (That column is posted below.)

Chain Gur-Arieh visiting Indy

But I also talked with the colorful creator of Capt’n Crunch about his win emaking philosophy and other topics. Often times I’ll enter an interview with three or four topics in mind for different pieces I might write.

Gur- Arieh is a colorful, enthusiastic man who’s led a very full life. He got into wine when he met his wife.

“My wife was a ballet dancer and she introduced me to wine,” the Turkey native explained. “I really didn’t know much about whine except what I learned in school. I had a Ph.D in food science, biochemistry engineering.  But all of that is very much involved in winemaking. I met her and we started tasting wine and I got intrigued. This drew me in, and I am a very passionate type of a guy, so I developed a passion for this.”

Though the passions have changed throughout his career, Chaim and his wife have been together 41 years. It was about 12 years ago he left food sciences and  opened G.C. Gur Arie winery in California’s Sierra Foothills.

Here is a video of Chaim talking about the Sierra Foothills – a region even most wine lovers may not be familiar with. You will have to excuse the camera bobble at the beginning of the vid – oops!

“I like wines that you can sip and be able to drink and enjoy even without food,” he said. “I like a wine that is fruit forward. I also like some attributes of an old world wine. I don’t like a lot of alcohol in my wine. I like my wines not to be astringent at all. I like a wine, that when I release it, it’s drinkable.

“I like a wine that has elegance. Before I started making wine, I wrote a profile for the wines I wanted to create and I had a guy I was working with, a consultant and veteran winemaker. We’d get together and drink many different wines from different winemakers. I told him what I liked and I developed a protocol over years.

“There are few things I do in the vineyard, but I’m very meticulous. I like my fruit to ripen evenly and that takes a lot of effort. I like to harvest the fruit when it’s ripe. I don’t look at numbers or sugar levels. I look at how it feels in my mouth.”

Throughout the interview at Pure Eatery in Indy’s Fountain square, Chaim used the word “fussy” a lot when describing how he does things in the winery. So, I teased him a bit about his use of the word.

“Some people tell me don’t be so fussy, be more relaxed. Be relaxed man. Qell, I’m very relaxed. But I like to pay attention to detail. You can’t commit too many sins with wine. You  commit a sin with wine it will show.

“I know these wines are good. They have a lot of depth, a lot of complexity but mainly they don’t have flaws. You can make a wine depending on the grapes, time and effort you want to spend in cellar but at least you should be able to make a wine that is flawless. But making a wine that is flawless takes a lot of effort and  a lot of people don’t want to make the effort.”

The winery produces about 15,000 cases of wine annually and Gur-Arieh knows he needs to produce more to make it more profitable. But he likes making wine the ‘fussy’ way which isn’t inexpensive.

I tasted his Syrah and Zinfandel at the Indy restaurant. Both wines perfectly matched the description of his winemaking style – big, soft fruit and a very understated finish that is good for sipping or with food.

The wines are available throughout Indiana.

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Innovator Trying to Change Restaurant Wine

15 Wednesday Aug 2012

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EDITOR’S NOTE: After posting my most recent newspaper column I realized I had not posted the one before it. Hey, 100 columns and that’s the first time! But here is great story about really good wine and a better restaurant delivery system for our favorite beverage. This column was released to my 18 newspaper Aug. 1

As a life-long creator, innovator, and food scientist, Chaim Gur-Arieh has always sought out new products and better ways of delivering products to customers.
It might be a natural progression that after opening a winery, C.G. Di Arie, in 1998 that he would focus on wine delivery. Small production wineries like Di Arie often rely on restaurant sales. Gur-Arieh found an industry rife with inefficiencies he’s now trying to change.
“To me making wine is easy, quite easy,” he said during a recent Indianapolis visit. “I’ve been in the food business for 35 years, on product development side. I make wine but I’ve got to sell it. Selling it is more of a challenge.
Chaim drawing a pour of Syrah from Pure Eatery in Indy.
“I sell a restaurant a case of wine, it goes onto the wine list but they may have another 100 wines. So I may sell them a case every three months. But the wines that sell the most are the wines by the glass and my wines are little more expensive than most wines by the glass. My wines retail at $18-$35 a bottle”
So Gur-Arieh wanted to develop cost efficiency for the winery and the retailer. “When you open a bottle of wine by the glass, you have a preservation problem. If you don’t sell the bottle, and a bottle is four to five glasses of wine or you don’t sell it that day, it loses quality.”
So Gur-Arieh penchant for development and innovation took over and launched his wine by the tap delivery system. Essentially the system is not unlike others boxed-wine delivery systems. It has wine vacuum sealed in a plastic bag, inside a cardboard “keg” with a draw tap for a restaurant bar or serving area. He developed the seal between the tap and bag which makes his product different than others.
He has the system in place in three Indiana restaurants, including Pure Eatery in Indianapolis’ Fountain Square neighborhood. He has three in Chicago and four in California. But this man doesn’t think small. He hopes to have the system in place in up to 100 restaurants this year and 500 establishments by the end of 2014.
“I can put a quality wine in a keg,” Gur-Arieh said. “I think the retailer has to change his thought process. Right now they want to charge the cost of a glass, same as cost of a bottle. They open a bottle and don’t know if they’re going to cover their cost. They have to change their mentality; they have to think of more modest margins. This system eliminates the risk.”
The Turkey native guarantees his wine for a year until each keg is opened. He extends the warranty for 60 days once each “keg” has been tapped.
Gur-Arieh’s winery is in the Sierra Foothills region of California. He produces a variety of wines including Sauv Blanc, Verdelho, Roussane, Zinfandel, Syrah, Primitivo, Petite Sirah, Grenache, Cab Franc, Petit Verdot, and a number of blends. His winemaking philosophy is for very drinkable fruit-forward wines with great balance and low acidity and tannins. He also thinks it’s important to keep his wines’ alcohol levels in check. A taste of his Syrah and Zinfandel from the keg’s tap mirrored the description.
It’s important to include a little bit of Gur-Arieh’s background as a food product developer. You may or may not have ever tried his wines but the odds are very high you’ve tasted other products he has brought to market. He’s best known as the man behind Cap’n Crunch Cereal but also helped bring Hidden Valley Ranch and Power Bars to market.
C.G. Arie Wines are distributed in Indiana by World ofWines, Indianapolis.

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