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.

Send comment or questions to: hewitthoward@gmail.com

Innovator Trying to Change Restaurant Wine

15 Wednesday Aug 2012

Posted by Howard in California

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Gur-Arieh, Sierra Foothills

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.

Send comment or questions to: hewitthoward@gmail.com