A Wine Story

Wine Job Salaries

... perhaps one of the most shocking things about the wine trade is the salary level. Just read this blog post that frankly discusses the salaries people in the wine trade can make, and it is shockingly low given the education and skills demanded at every level.

Both the Master of Wine and Master Sommelier certifications are five-year programs. A MBA program is typically two or three years, and many (most?) full-time MBA students do not have full-time, or perhaps even part-time, jobs.

Here's a snip from the post.

"For someone who loves wine a career in the wine industry can be a dream come true. The wine industry has an eight-thousand-year old history, rooted in ancient Mesopotamia. The modern wine industry is not only profitable but also global in outlook.

A wine career can be interesting, challenging, and financially attractive. You could make anywhere between $30,000 and $150,000 as a wine maker, wine consultant, vineyard manager, marketing director, wine shop owner, sommelier, writer, or educator. The lowest paid jobs are those of the cellar master, the cellar rat, and the cooper. The owner of a winery is at the highest paid position in the wine industry.

A wine career incorporates opportunities to taste the finest wines, dine in high quality restaurants, meet highly successful and interesting people in the wine business, attend international wine seminars and conferences, and travel all over the globe.

At the same time, a wine career is fraught with several challenges. It is only recently that a well-defined curriculum has been designed to teach and train sommeliers, wine makers, salespeople, and educators. Many wine makers and other successful people in the industry do not have a formal degree in the art of wine making. They are people who have worked their way up by beginning as a cellar rat or cellar master. Most of them will have attended school and secured a degree after many years of experience in the field."

Waiter, there's a lizard in my wine ...

Curious about what's actually in a bottle of wine? We're told the joyful stomp of peasants treading grapes (still practiced in parts of the world) is quite sanitary since any "impurities" are killed off by the alcohol.

But what about that lizard that gets caught in the crusher destemmer down in Australia?

Peer into any Whole Foods market, and you'll see shoppers straining to read the fine print on the back of boxes and jars.

But what about a wine bottle? All we can read is flowery prose, in addition to government-regulated mandates such as volume and alcohol content.

Most average consumers assume that an oaky wine tastes and smells that way because it's been aged in genuine oak.

But at a certain price point, it's probably a cheaper oak chip or a stave.

And hey, what about the additives such as tartaric acid, citric acid, bentonite, and more?

Below is an eye-opening article on potential new government regulations in this area ...

(see more articles in this month's issue of http://www.AWineStory.com

How to organize your wine cellar

So it seems there comes a time in every person's life when the need for a cellar comes into play. If you live in Manhattan, options are usually limited to renting a cellar.

However, even when you manage to solve the problem of space, you still have to deal with the very serious issue of organization.

I found this great article in the UK Independent that takes you step by step into the ABC's of wine cellar organization. Here's  an excerpt:

"Some smaller rules are also in order. One: as soon as the wine starts coming in, get it organised and keep it organised. Keep all the invoices so you know where everything came from; create a cellar book showing what you have and in what quantities; and make a note (in the book) of what you opened, and when, and how you liked it. (If you want to make tasting notes, all the better.) Two: buy the right number of bottles of each wine. For those you plan to keep for many years, 12 is right; for shorter-term keeping, six will probably suffice. You may get a case discount from many merchants, and more important you will be able to follow the wines' progress as they age."

Mysteries of the Marsanne Grape

Mysteries of the Marsanne Grape, by Marisa D'Vari (c) 2006
                                              

     "I find people are shying away from Chardonnay," says sommelier Linda Gerin, co-owner of the restaurant Jean-Louis in Greenwich, CT, "and asking for more unusual wines, such as viognier."

     So true.

     Viognier is the wine of the moment. Yet the corkiest of the wine dorks and Gen XYZ are constantly looking to the future to seek out the more obscure wine grapes to pronounce the next big thing.

     And what is the next big thing?

     Depending on who you ask or which wine writer you read, it could be anything. So for the sake of bringing a somewhat obscure French grape to the limelight, let's take a look at a grape called marsanne.

      Marsanne is one of the classic Rhone varietals, producing a deeply colored, almost amber white wine with an aroma of saffron, almond, and marzipan. It is believed to have originated in the town of Marsanne, near Montelimar in the northern Rhone Valley and is one of the eight white grapes permitted in the Cotes du Rhone appellation.

     (click here to read more)

Que Syrah ... Sirrah ... Shiraz?

Shakespeare said it best ... "a rose by any other name will smell as sweet." Yet the story behind the name of the Syrah grape is alluring in its mystery.

Romantics like to think that the Greeks discovered it in the small poetic town of Shiraz in ancient Persia (today's Iran). According to this article in the Miami Herald by Fred Tasker, "California growers didn't help. When they brought in the grape from both France and Australia in the 1970s, some of them called it syrah while others called it shiraz. In some cases they used the name syrah when they made it in the firmer French style and shiraz when they made it in the riper Aussie style. In other cases they just called it by whichever name they thought would sell faster."

     In the above link, Tasker creates a hysterical scenario of Jerry Springer trying to undcover the "DNA of the grape," in a similar way he does to establish paternity on his TV show.

Check out http://www.AWineStory.com for more articles.

    

Sex Life of Grapes

   

The Sex Life of Grapes

By Marisa D’Vari

                        Question: What is the primary goal of a grape?

            To reproduce, of course.

            Now you may have heard back in the day, feudal lords encouraged young villagers to drink and make merry once the grapes were planted, hoping the resulting drunken coupling would encourage a healthy, fertile harvest and produce a great wine.  Actually, the process is a bit more complicated than that.
            Grapes are hermaphrodites, containing both male and female organs. Reproduction begins in the flowers, which contain both male and female organs. When the anthers (similar to testes) mature, they release pollen (similar to sperm). In the natural world, Pollination occurs when pollen, transported by wind, lands on the stigma of another grape flower and transfers its genetic material via a tube into the ovary. There, it combines with the genetic material contained in the ovules (eggs) in the process of fertilization. The fertilized ovules develop into seeds, and the ovary develops into the surrounding flesh and skin of the grape.
            Yet what happens when pollen from a hearty Zinfandel, just blowing around in the wind, hooks up with the stigma of a Chardonnay flower? Just as a human child inherits traits from both parents and has his or her own genetic code, so does the resulting grape from such a union. This method of reproduction is known in the scientific world as a crossing. Once created, the crossing is a new variety and can only be propagated through cuttings.

            What if you want to play Dr. Frankenstein and control the characteristics of a crossing and influence levels of tannin, acidity, and sugars within the grape? This laborious process of genetic modification is known as hybridization and involves a great deal of trial and error.

            Once a satisfactory hybrid is produced, the next step is to take a cutting, and allow it to grow into a new vine with the same genetic code as its parent. Taking a seed from the newly produced grape won’t work, because the seed will have the genetic code of both parents.

            Though cloning is very accurate, mutations do occur. When the mutations turn out to be satisfactory (Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris are mutations of the Pinot Noir grape) the mutations themselves are cloned and given new names.
            Currently, researchers are looking at genetic modification as a way to defeat Pierce's disease, delivered to the vine by a bug called the glassy winged sharpshooter. Scientists are also using genetic modification to give grapes the necessary characteristics to grow in areas such as the desert of Nevada.
            So is genetic modification of grapes a good thing? Currently it’s a hotly debated issue in the wine world, and forbidden in many countries. Yet consultants are reaping the financial rewards of helping winemakers win medals, score Parker points, and charge higher prices for their wines by modifying the genetic code of their grapes.

            If the future is here, the question is: what’s next?

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Review of Morrell's "Wines of Piedmont" Class

So, do you know your DOC from your DOCG? And hey, what about explaining the difference between a Dolcetto D'Alba and a Barbaresco D'Alba?

NYC has many wine education events. For those of you in NYC who read this blog, I'll be going to more of them this season to give you an insider's view of what the experience is like in terms of educational value, speaker's knowledge, and more.

Morrell's Wine Store, for example, has frequent Free In-Store Tastings. In addition, they offer Wine 101 type classes, as well as educational tastings with a theme. I attended a sake seminar a few months back which brought out the big guns -- the brewers fresh from Japan, two sake wine book authors, and dozens of types of sake to try (in addition to really great sushi).

January 4, 2007 was Piedmont night at this tasting, which is held in the Morrell Wine Store. Piedmont is a region in Italy near the alps famed for its wine for centuries. Currently, the prized wine among aficionados is Barolo ... which can go for several hundred dollars a bottle.

Speaker Kevin Shannon (he also mans the store) is a wine savvy guy who gave a great introduction on how to appreciate wine for the students, who ranged from wine geeks to people just getting interested in wine.

"Look at the color," Kevin said of a lemon yellow Arneis Blange Ceretto Italian White. "It's a good guide to the wine's intensity. Next, inhale the bouquet." This white had notes of minerals and lemon, a great pairing with shellfish.

Next came the big guns ... the Sito Moresco Angelo Gaja 2003 ($53) with its notes of red berries, cherry, and sweet cherry spice.

One of the more interesting tidbits of the evening was when we were poured a Dolcetto D'Alba Conterno Fantino Bricco Bastia 2005 ($20), a light, fruit forward wine, a variety which Kevin said shoppers often ask for by name, confusing it with Barbaresco D'Alba, a deeper, more tannin-rich red wine somewhat similar to Cabernet Sauvignon. (Alba is the specific region)

My favorite of the evening was the Barolo Mauro Molino Gancia 1999 ($35), a deep garnet wine that still seemed as if it needed seven to ten years to age. They are drinkable now, but be sure to decant for a day or so.

After sampling the wines, the guests (16 max) socialized around the delicious cheeses from the Piedmont region. Some (like me!) took advantage of the 10% savings to explore more wine. A very edifying and educational event. You can find out about other classes here

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