There are many Indiana wineries, and retail shops, not up to speed on social media and all things 2010!

But the Indiana Wine Grape Council is helping things along rolling out a new iPhone application for Indiana Wineries.

I caught the announcement today on Inside Indiana Business. Gerry Dick’s site is always a good spot for things happening in the Indiana business world. You can read the story here.

If you plan to visit any of Indiana’s 46 wineries and have an iPhone, it’s a must. And even better news, it’s a free download from iTunes!

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Note: This is my latest newspaper column. It appears in 11 Indiana newspapers. All past columns can be seen at Grape Sense, the link appears in the right hand column.

If you love summer grilling and struggle with a good wine pairing you’re not alone. Too many people fall back to the classic Cabernet Sauvignon or maybe Merlot when there’s beef on the barbeque.

I love a powerful Cabernet with a charred piece of beef tenderloin anytime of the year but many palates aren’t accustomed to the tannins and dryness of a big Cab. Perhaps you’re trying something new on the grill or just want something different.

There are lots of options and it’s fun to pair a familiar food like steak to a new wine. I think that’s a great way to find something you’ll really like.

Argentina is the great beef-producing country and if you have a steak there you’ll be served Malbec. I think Malbecs are a logical match for about any grilled steak. Malbec is almost always lower in alcohol than Cabernet too. The Malbec is going to be smoother, probably less tannic, and a great match for most beef.

How about thinking outside the box with tonight’s steak? If dinner was going to be a red-sauce pasta dish you’d probably reach for an Italian Chianti. If you’re putting a red barbeque sauce on beef ribs why not pair it with the Italian classic wine?

If you like to really coat your grilled beef with cracked black pepper and make a spicy steak, then a peppery California Zinfandel makes a lot of sense with its big fruit forward characteristics and spicy finish. Another alternative for those who shy away from big wines would be a jammy Australian Shiraz.

If the steak flavor is big, try an earthy Cotes du Rhone wine from France. If it’s a special occasion and your budget allows, go all out and serve an earthy but bigger Chateanuneuf-du-Pape from the Rhone. CdP wines were all the rage a few years ago but they’re not cheap. Entry point for a good one will start in the $35 range.

But there are lots of great Cotes du Rhone wines at reasonable prices. My top wine of 2009 was a $12 Patric Lesec Bouquet bottling from the Cotes du Rhone region that would be really good with grilled beef.

If your dinner guests are big Pinot Noir fans, yes Pinot can work with beef, use a Pinot Noir you know. The California Russian River Valley Pinots and some from the Monterrey area tend to be big wines that will hold up.

Traditional Burgundy and Oregon Pinot Noir made in a more delicate style are probably going to be a better pairing for a lighter grilled meat – think lamb!

And if your beef is hamburger don’t think the beverage has to be beer. Frankly, a grilled burger may give you the greatest flexibility to match a great wine. Hamburger and Cabernet will work just fine! A mild Italian Valpolicella would make great sense with a burger. If you want something even lighter, especially if you don’t know your guests’ tastes, try a French Beaujolais or South Africa’s Pinotage.

Howard’s Picks:
Alamos 2007 Seleccion Malbec – This is one of the best Malbecs I’ve had under $20. It has rich flavor and intensity you just don’t get in most value wines. It’s deep purple with hints of caramel and cherry. You can find it in bigger wine retail outlets for $16-$20.

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I’ve been very fortunate in recent years to travel for my employer. On two occasions I’ve traveled to California and Oregon/Washington state to visit College alumni.

Both of those trips gave me the chance to tack on some extra days, at my own expense, to visit those area’s famous vineyards and wineries.

This summer it sort of happened the other way around. Last year I took two days to drive along the Ohio River in Southern Indiana and ended up visiting nine Indiana wineries. I blogged each of the two days and you can read those entries here and here.

So this summer I wasn’t so sure I could pull off something similar. I’ve never traveled Michigan much and certainly never north of Grand Rapids. I was putting together a two-day trip into Michigan when our College magazine editor learned of my plans. It turns out there is an alum near Grand Rapids the editor wanted to profile for an upcoming issue. Additionally, one of the wineries I planned to visit has a general manager/alum from our little liberal arts school.

So long story made short, I have another work/wine week coming up starting July 13. I’ll be mixinig work with several winery stops.

Michigan’s wine story is really an interesting one. The state has more than 70 wineries and ideal climate conditions for cool weather grapes. I’ll be visiting wineries in Central Michigan up through Leelanau County and peninsula area.

I’ll be spending a night in Traverse City which has become quite the stop for foodies. I have already confirmed visits with three important Michigan winery owners and winemakers and working on a couple of more.

Riesling is the key grape in most of Michigan. The wineries are also producing a lot of Cab Franc. Most fascinating for me is the upper state Pinot Noir. The 45th parallel runs through northern Michigan. The 45th also runs through Willammette Valley in Oregon and Burgundy in France.

My main story will be about the emergence of Michigan wines for Palate Press. But I’ll also be doing a newspaper column or two, blog entries here, and as noted in the headline blogging about the trip here as it happens. Hopefully, I’ll be able to put up photo albums and maybe some videos each day from the stops.

I have to thank the Michigan Wine and Grape Council for some great suggestions on who to visit and an additional shout out for a great press kit.

I’ll post another reminder before departure, but follow along here for a look at Michigan wineries. A few weeks after the trip, my piece should be up on the national online wine magazine Palate Press. For my Hoosier readers, the newspaper column will probably be late July or early August.

All of this about wine and work and I haven’t even mentioned how the upper Michigan area captivates visitors with its beauty.

It should be some trip!

I know I’ll be visiting wineries and writing each night July 13, 14, and 15th. You can join me on the trip here on Grape Sense!

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Great wine – red or white – doesn’t always have to scream in your face or palate to be good wine. Dancing Coyote is a smaller operation than many of its California counterparts but its making a name with unusual white wine grapes.

Several weeks ago I received trade samples of Dancing Coyote’s Chenin Blanc, Albarino, and Gruner Veltliner. I read a little of the accompany material and put off tasting the wines. I loved the fact they are making these sometimes-hard-to-find varietals. I also loved they were making the wines in small batches.

I really, really wanted to like these wines. Now, we’ll pause because it seems more often than not when you fall in love with an idea instead of a product you’re often disappointed.

So my glee was off the charts when the 2009 Chenin Blanc hit me as the best I’ve had out of California. If you follow this blog at all, or not, I went through a big Chenin Blanc phase a few months ago. I love nice French Vouvray or Samur, was unimpressed with the South African Chenin I tried, and generally very disappointed with the 2-3 California Chenin Blancs I could find.

I loved this wine!

The very first thing I noticed is that it’s a much lighter style than the other Califnornia Chenin Blancs I tried. It has tart citrus, a very well-balanced acidity and a longer finish than I ever expected.

The wine retails around $11 but you could have trouble finding it. They made only 218 cases of the 2009.

The winery is family owned and operated and located in California’s Clarksburg area. They have about 600 acres of vineyard.

Now what I find interesting is most of the wine press I read and received on Dancing Coyote was on its Albarino and Gruner Veltliner. I have those two bottles in the rack and I’m going to try them soon. I really enjoy both of those grapes. I have never had either from a California producer.

This was a trade sample, but I’d buy Dancing Coyote white in a minute. I’ve had a couple of trade sample wines recently that I sure couldn’t say the same about.

I often link up winery websites here and have included a link to Dancing Coyote. They have a great story. Take a few moments to learn more.

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Should I post a blog to state the obvious? Well, I’m the type of guy who does such things.

I have changed the look of the blog about once a year. Perhaps, it’s so I don’t get bored looking at it. But I like the new look. You’ll find the same items in the right column here that used to be in the left column.

So I’m going to try this look for a few weeks and see how I like it. The URL doesn’t change, nothing else changes, so let’s run with it!

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I’ve written here a number of times and taken up the cause of Bonarda as a personal mission.

Okay, maybe that’s a bit of hyperbole but I love good Bonarda. The grape was the most widely grown wine grape in Argentina before the explosion of Malbec.

It’s hard to find 100 percent Bonarda and when I do find one I buy it. I found a good one at Vine & Table in Carmel a few weeks back that I opened tonight.

I opened Durigutti 2007 Bonarda and really enjoyed it with a somewhat spicy pork chop. Yummy!

The wine has a nice, big, and earthy nose. The nose and initial feel on the palate is one of plum, pepper, and an astringency that I like in a nice big red wine.

This was a big flavored wine with very smooth tannins and finish. Additionally, its made by the Durigutti brothers – Pablo and Hector – who have quite a renowned reputation. The brothers started getting real attention working for Altos Las Hormigas winery which produces one of the best value Malbecs I’ve ever enjoyed.

This wine is a classic Bonarda with a smoky feel you’re going to love. If you like Malbec, you need to try Bonarda. It’s got a little more going on than many Malbecs but it’s a food-friendly wine that many will enjoy.

This wine consistently scores in the very high 80s and can be found around $10.

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Note: I’ve decided to start posting my newspaper columns to the regular blog. I write these every other week for 11 Indiana newspapers, reaching about 200,000 homes. I post every newspaper column to a separate blog as an archive. The past columns can be accessed there under Grape Sense, in the left hand column of this blog.

Sports have long been a catalyst for economic development. You don’t have to look any farther than Indianapolis. Indy city leaders built the RCA Dome, Conseco Fieldhouse, and now Lucas Oil Stadium not just for the sports teams but to lure business, improve the economic climate downtown and create new business.

As the eyes of the soccer world look to South Africa, the South African wine industry is trying to capitalize on all of the attention.

Wine production dates back to at least the 1600s but the years of apartheid stymied any international expansion. Right now South African wines are one of the “hottest things” in the wine world.

The World Cup has been the necessary impetus to build the wine brand in South Africa and around the world. Project Laduma started in 2008 aiming to create 2010 wine stewards by this summer’s World Cup. The wine industry’s marketing arm, Wines of South Africa, came up with the job-creating idea to welcome World Cup guests.
WSA funded the drive by having members create specific red wines to be sold to finance the steward training. The red wines sold to the consumer at the $15-$20 price point. About half of the 2,000 workers were identified as restaurant workers but the other half came from the nation’s unemployed.

But the country hasn’t been looking inward only. South Africa exports more than 10 million gallons of wine annually. Nearly 300,000 people are employed in the wine industry. The country produces less than four percent of the world’s wine, ranking it eighth in overall volume.

The country has nine wine regions with the most recognized being Stellenbosch, Paarl, and Constantia. The country grows a lot of Cabernet, Shiraz, and Pinot Noir. Riesling, Chardonnay, and Chenin Blanc are also plentiful. Chenin Blanc, sometimes called Steen, is the most widely grown grape in the Cape region. It is often cited as South Africa’s best white.

South Africa’s signature grape is Pinotage. It’s one wine many people have heard of and perhaps never tried. It is a cross between Pinot Noir and Cinsaut. The Cinsaut grape normally adds a certain softness and fragrant nose to wine. Pinotage dates back to 1925 and has had its ups and downs. It’s not the most widely planted grape but it is South African’s best known original.

The wine has smoky, earthy, tones that are usually quite smooth. As a point of reference, I’d compare the taste of Pinotage to France’s Gamay grape. Gamay is the grape behind Beaujolais wines.

Now a bit of advice before you rush off to the wine shop, ask for advice. I had not purchased much South African wine before preparing to write this column. My purchases were hit and miss. Fairview is a big and consistent producer. Other names to look for are Neil Ellis, Nederburg, Ken Forrester, Kanonkop, and De Wetshof Estate. Those are just a very few.

Howard’s Pick:
Nederburg 2007 Pinotage: A beautiful, deep purple wine that has great dark fruit on the front of the palate, a solid mid plate that will keep you interested, and a little bit of oak on the finish for a well-balanced wine! Nederburg makes a very drinkable introduction to South African wines. You can find this bottling at many places in Indiana at $10-$14 a bottle.

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I just love trying something new.

This past week I picked up a bottle of Masserie Pisari 2007 Negroamaro from Italy. It caught my eye, in part, because International Wine Cellar’s Stephen Tanzer gave it 91 points.

I was looking for an Italian wine and thought, why not?

The wine didn’t disappoint. Negroamaro is grown in the Puglia region of Italy, or for most of us think of it as the heel in the boot of Italy.

There is a really strong berry component to this wine and a certain freshness. The grapes are largely from old vine vineyards. It’s spicy and has a certain pungency that I really, really liked. There was enough tannin structure to keep the wine from being called fruity.

I really loved this bottle of wine and will by more.

I picked this one up for $13.99 at Cork & Cracker in Indianapolis. You can find the wine online for slightly less.

This was one great food wine!
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This is a posting just for those in the Crawfordsville area where I live. I’m using the blog because I’m out of other ideas.

My name was in a newspaper advertisment on several occasions over the past week or so about a wine tasting event Saturday evening, June 27, in Ladoga, just south of Crawfordsville.

Though I had initially agreed to do the event, circumstances beyond my control have led me to withdraw.

I hope that doesn’t create any inconvenience.

I am looking at putting together some sort of public tasting locally, stay tuned.

Send comment or questions to: hewitthoward@gmail.com