Wine Atlas

Napa Winery Grgich Hills Partners With SPG Solar on 170 kW Solar Energy System

SPG Solar announced today the commissioning of Phase II of the 170 kilowatt commercial photovoltaic (solar energy) system for the Grgich Hills winery in Napa Valley, California. Together Phase I, completed in 2005, and Phase II of the Grgich Hills PV installation will produce 170.08 kilowatts DC of electricity during peak production hours. With the completion of Phase II, the PV system is expected to meet 100% of the winery's actual energy needs. The system will pay for itself within five years.

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It doesn't involve climbing into a large vat and stomping your own grapes, but Tom Falash can show you how to make your own wine for about a third of the price you would pay at the wine store.

In June, Falash, 50, opened Wine Corkers in Boise to show people how fun it could be to make their own wine.

For less than $10 a bottle, customers can make wine that Falash said rivals the quality of wines costing more than $30 a bottle. They can customize it with their own private labels.

"When I give you a bottle of this wine, you know it comes from the heart," Falash said at his store, tucked away in a strip mall at 5634 W. State St. "I haven't gone to a store and bought a bottle off the shelf. I've thought about it, customized it and put my personal touch on the gift of wine."

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EUGENE, Ore. - Pinot noirs and chardonnays have put Willamette Valley vineyards on the map. But now a few Oregon wineries are branching out, dabbling in the production of champagne and other sparkling wines.

Vintners say it's a natural fit: Pinot noir and chardonnay grapes, after all, are two of the three varieties used in champagne.

Nationally, sparkling wines accounted for 4.1 percent of all wine purchases in 2005, according to the Wine Institute, an advocacy organization for California's wine producers.

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State sales are up 80 percent over last 8 years

Shawn Walters started in the wine industry as a "cellar rat" more than a decade ago. Now he's responsible for crafting some of Michigan's most popular wines.

Walters works at Leelanau Cellars in Omena and he'll be hard at work this month; grape harvest will find him toiling seven days a week, up to 16 hours a day.

The effort is needed to meet a growing demand for the Leelanau County winery's product, part of a continuing surge both in vineyard acreage and wine production across the state.

"It can be smooth, or it can be very difficult," Walters said of the harvest that in some areas began last week.

Nowhere is the growth of the region's wine industry more evident than at Leelanau Cellars. The 31-year-old winery will open a new tasting room this fall in the former Harbor Bar along M-22 in Omena, and it planted almost 40 acres of new vineyards along M-204 between Suttons Bay and Lake Leelanau.

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CLASSES

ARTHUR'S WINE SHOP, 4400 Sharon Road, in Belk at SouthPark mall. Tuesday: Danny Sanford of Fine Wine Trading Company on new and interesting wines for summer; $10 per person. 704-366-8610, www.arthurs-wine.com or arthurswineshop@bellsouth.net.CAROLINA WINE CLUB, The Wine Shop, 2442 Park Road. 6:15-8 p.m.; $35 or $125 for series of four. Tuesday: A Rose is a Rose -- Pinot Noir, Grenache, Syrah. July 11: Mystery Wine Identification. July 18: Appellation of Origin: Quality Levels. July 25: Sake and Fruit Wines. Reservations: 704-344-8027, info@carolinawineclub.com or www.carolinawineclub.com.

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Since its founding in 1941, Gourmet magazine has understood that wine is as vital to pleasurable dining as food.

In "History in a Glass: Sixty Years of Wine Writing from Gourmet" (Modern Library, 374 pages, $24.95), Gourmet editor in chief Ruth Reichl shares her 43 favorite wine columns from the magazine -- a mix of eclectic pieces by literary icons and keen analyses by wine experts whose perspectives ring true today.

Reichl, who ran the Swallow restaurant in Berkeley in the 1970s before embarking on a food-writing career that took her to the Los Angeles Times, New York Times and Gourmet, writes in her introduction that her favorite wine writer is Frank Schoonmaker, who frequented Gourmet's pages in the 1940s and '50s.

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How do you market one of the most famous wines in the world when one of its equally famous founders has been bounced from the winery?

This is the dilemma of Opus One, an icon of California wine that was founded in 1979 as a joint venture by Robert Mondavi of Napa Valley's Robert Mondavi Winery and the equally illustrious Baron Philippe de Rothschild, owner of Bordeaux's Chateau Mouton- Rothschild. Baron Philippe died in 1988, with his daughter, Baroness Philippine, taking over the family business.

Since its debut, Opus One has been acclaimed as a wine that brought American and French winemaking traditions into harmony. It encouraged California wineries to begin blending cabernet sauvignon with other grapes to achieve more complex, elegant wines. Today Opus One produces 25,000 to 30,000 cases annually, with more than 90 percent of its grapes grown on its own estates. Current vintages sell for about $150 a bottle.

In late 2004, after some of the Mondavi family's ventures into multi-branding and investments in Chile and Italy foundered, Constellation Brands Inc. purchased Robert Mondavi Corp. It assumed 50 percent ownership of Opus One and effectively forced the Mondavis out of their own winery.

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For more than 25 years, I have been following my passion for wine. This passion began with a trip to the Napa Valley in 1979 and has grown to an appreciation of wines and winemaking throughout the world, especially the West Coast of the United States. Here, on the West Coast, vineyard options are plentiful. We see wines made from a single vineyard alongside blends from various vineyards, both similar and diverse. I am often asked about the differences and about how winemakers make their choices.

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ANNAPOLIS, Calif. // In the fog-shrouded forests of California's remote northern coast, winemakers believe they have found the perfect terrain for growing the notoriously fickle pinot noir grape prized by connoisseurs.

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Although wine sales are up more than 30 percent in the past year, I know a lot of people still haven't discovered wines made from the pinot noir grape. If you're among them, make a New Year's resolution to try a great one.

Here are three at varying prices from California's MacMurray Ranch winery. Named for its former owner, the late film and television star Fred MacMurray, the winery is in the Russian River Valley of Sonoma County.

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If you're looking for the perfect wine-related holiday present, consider a grand tour of the world's vineyards -- in a box.

There has never been a better time to give the gift of global wine, as we were reminded recently when talking with Roger Esser, manager of Cyclone Liquors in Ames, Iowa. Just five years ago, he says, his store's shelves were pretty much stocked with wines from the United States and big names like Italy and France. But then, Mr. Esser says, he noticed a dramatic transformation. Wines started coming into the States from emerging wine regions from all around the world. Cyclone underwent a major reorganization then to showcase the wines -- and has undergone two or three more as wines from other regions have become available. Now there are separate areas labeled Greece, Austria, Hungary, New Zealand, Argentina and South Africa. The Spain section has ballooned. "We have a lot of people who come in with an open mind and want to try something new," Mr. Esser explained. "A lot of people have become hooked on gruner veltliner, for example." These wines, he added, "are value-priced, too."

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Napa Valley wine trade mission to China: Planting some seeds

By Alan Goldfarb, WINE EDITOR

When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and a contingent of about 70 people from California visited China on a trade mission recently, there were a quartet of Napa Valley wine people among the group. They were there to introduce the region's wines to the people of China.

Because, as Todd Zapolski of Girard Winery explained, as much as we think our wines are known throughout the world, the wines of France, for instance, may be more familiar in China.

"The Australians now have very attractive price points in China. The Chileans are being very aggressive, and the French offer status and immediate recognition," explained Zapolski.

Along with the Girard executive, also on the trip was Leslie Rudd, the owner of Rudd Estate and his winemaker Charles Thomas; and Mary O'Neil, who represented Silver Oak. Also on the mission was a spokesperson from the Washington, D.C. office of the Wine Institute.

Wine shops in Beijing

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To the novice wine drinker on a budget, no one is more feared than the sommelier at a stylish restaurant. This is the person you expect to frown when you order the least expensive bottle of wine, and the person who will later terrorize you by offering a fraction of a glass of that cheap bottle, while he stands by, ostensibly awaiting your approval. But despite the formal exterior and unpronounceable title, not all sommeliers are creatures of intimidation.

Finn Anson, wine steward for the Emerson at Woodstock, is the kind of person people fall in love with. Single and married women of all ages adore him, as do the men who accompany them. Warm hearted and generous, he welcomes anyone into his wine-drenched world, and makes even a neophyte oenophile feel as if he or she belongs. An Irish citizen who was raised outside London, Anson, 37, recently lived for several years with his wife in the Dordogne region of France, an area that attracts poets, artists, and inspirationists—as well as epicureans who come for its food and wine. A few years ago, an influential member of the wine trade imported Anson to America, and he eventually moved to the Hudson Valley with his wife and two children.

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Greetings from the vine!

Today I bring you a collection of wine terms, tips, trivia and events I call "Wine Wanderings." Without further ado, let the wandering begin!

Quote of the Week: "One barrel of wine can work more miracles than a church full of saints."

- Italian proverb

b Did you know that Champagne is only made in Champagne? Wine-growing in France's Champagne region dates to the end of the third century A.D. Until the 17th century, only still (non bubbly) white, red and rose wines were produced, different than the champagne we know today.

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Fifty years ago, France dominated the wine world. Fifty years ago California's Napa Valley was a sleepy agricultural community, as was Oregon's rain-soaked Willamette Valley. Fifty years ago, American wines were the beverage of choice for hobos and alcoholics, not wine connoisseurs.

A lot has changed in 50 years.

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