Home > Wine Openers > Archives > 2008 > August
August 2008
Bursick’s first J vintage a delight
HEALDSBURG, Cal. — There’s something special about meeting someone you’ve always admired from a distance, and so it was in early 2006 when George Bursick, the Sonoma County native who has become a winemaking legend in his own time, was introduced to me at at J Winery.
This was a spring-time press tour, a small one but still the sort of thing where wineries go out of their way to impress the visitors. We saw a winemaker saber a bottle of American methode champenoise sparkling wine, which was pretty entertaining (it’s not that hard if you know a couple of key secrets), tasted some fine wines from new French barrels and even played bocce under a canopy of century-old olive trees.
George Bursick at J Winery, photo by Dave Lansing
Mostly we met some great people who, since it was spring and bud break still was a week or more away, had plenty of time to talk nosy reporters and share a tale and a glass of wine.
So it was at J, where the effervescent Judy Jordan took a couple minutes from her hectic schedule to introduce Bursick, whom she had recently lured out of retirement (or away from Ferrari-Carrano Winery, depending on which story you chose to believe).
Bursick spent 21 years as winemaker at Ferrari-Carrano where he made great white wines and really proved that Sangiovese can make a great California varietal. But it’s Pinot Noir that Bursick is making at J, a varietal that he said excites him because “no one owns it.”
Bursick was upfront and candid during the formal interview and even more so when he guided us on a quick tour of one of Judy Jordan’s vineyards, on a ridge above a sweeping bend of the Russian River.
Noting he spent several years making Pinot Noirs at Ferrari-Carrano, Bursick said, “The grape and the wine are not a mystery to me. I’ve already made all the mistakes.”
A winemaker knows for his attention to detail, he said one reason he was attracted to Jordan’s sophisticated winemaking facilities was because of Judy Jordan’s desire to produce world-class wines.
In an interview last July with Thom Elker of Appellation America, Bursick said, “You can’t lower your standards. That’s my whole approach. Break everything down into the details, and get every detail right.”
He just released his first vintage under the J label and the initial impression is that Bursick nailed every detail. His emphasis on a small-production, single-vineyard Pinot Noir resulted in six different labelings.
I tried the J Russian River Valley Pinot Noir, at $38 the least-expensive of the six (but still well up in the premium price range) and found it full of bright red fruit with a luscious mouthfeel and layers of flavor. At a time when Pinot Noirs are suffering from their popularity, becoming terribly overpriced and under-made and sometimes tasting very un-pinot-like, this is a delicious, well-made wine.
I’m lingering over the bottom of the glass, sorry to see it go. Even I would pay $38 for this.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment |
World of wine gets smaller
I was wandering the aisles of a local wine store last week when I overheard someone complaining about the difficulties of finding Colorado wines in Front Range liquor stores.
That’s not surprising, given the number of liquor stores along the wrong side of the Continental Divide and how long it would take someone to forge their way through all those wine aisles to find what invariably will be a limited selection.
Several reasons are at the root of this lack of visibility for Colorado wines. Most of the wines are in short supply — Plum Creek Winery is the state’s largest winery and they produce about 10,000 cases a year, about an hour’s worth of production from Gallo.
Other wineries produce much less but everyone has to decide how to split their production among which vendors. Retailers may take a case or two but that’s usually hidden among all the facings on the shelf.
Distribution might be the key problem. The state’s three-tier distribution laws add another cost to a producer trying to find a retail outlet, so many Colorado winemakers do their own distribution.
On any given day you might find Nancy Janes of Whitewater Hill Vineyards, Bennett Price of DeBeque Canyon Winery and numerous other West Slope winemakers schlepping their cases of wine to Front Range retailers.
It’s time and energy consuming but to these producers worth all that time and energy. Few big retailers are going to hand-sell small-production wines, unless you’ve won some spectacular award, with the same energy they give the major producers. Distributors make money on turn over, and understandably they’ll push 1,000 cases of Yellowtail shiraz, where the profit margin might be bigger, with more vigor than five cases of DeBeque Canyon wine.
Another drawback for small producers simply is getting lost in the big wine lists carried by major distributors. And now it’s just going to get worse.
A recent article on WineBusiness.com notes the merger of two of the country’s largest distributors of wine and spirits, Southern Wine & Spirits of America, Inc. of Miami, and and Glazer’s Distributors of Dallas. The new company, Southern/Glazer’s Distributors of America, will be the Octopus about which Frank Norris wrote, its tentacles covering 38 states representing more than 80 percent of the total wine and spirits sales in the U.S.
As was noted by Terry Hughes of the blog site Mondasapore , it will be harder for small wineries to compete in the vast ocean of wines for the attention of an over-worked sales force.
“(Y)et, again and again, he brought up against the railroad, that stubborn iron barrier against which his romance shattered itself to froth and disintegrated, flying spume. His heart went out to the people, and his groping hand met that of a slovenly little Dutchman, whom it was impossible to consider seriously. He searched for the True Romance, and, in the end, found grain rates and unjust freight tariffs.” — Frank Norris, “The Octopus”
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment |
No getting past the awards
A recent comment from reader Bob about my column on Dolce Vita getting an Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator magazine got me to thinking about wine awards, wine lists in this town and what both of them mean to the casual wine drinker.
Bob’s contention is that the Wine Spectator award ain’t no big deal because anyone who sends in the money can get that award.
There’s more to it than that, of course, including having a comprehensive and imaginative wine list that pairs with your food. But there is a fee, and if you want your photo accompanying your listing in the magazine, that’s a little extra.
Bob also makes the point there are other great wine lists in this town and evidently those establishments didn’t think it necessary to reach out for the Wine Spectator recognition.
But getting a WS award is more than simply having something to hang on the wall. Along with the recognition there is an economic benefit. Several other WS winners have noted that customers come from out of town to try an Award of Excellence winner. And some travelers make it a point to stop at WS winners, so along with new business there’s the chance of some valuable word-of-mouth advertising.
Bob’s point are well-taken but in my opinion, for someone looking for a wine list that might hold a few surprises (go ahead, be adventurous), a WS Award of Excellence winner is a great place to start. Particularly if you don’t know much about this or any city’s restaurants and are looking for a place to start.
Does this award mean Rick Crippen at Dolce Vita has collected the city’s best wine list? Maybe. Or maybe not, since selecting a “best” wine list would be as subjective as liking every one of the wines Crippen has gathered.
Is there a “best wine list” in Grand Junction? Hard to say, since there are several restaurants with extensive lists and each one is unique. But it sure would be fun to tackle the challenge, wouldn’t it?
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment |
Wine shop brightens downtown
I received a few comments this week about Dolce Vita restaurant earning an Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator magazine and those comments simply substantiated what the award recognized. Rick and Sue Crippen have one of the city’s best wine bars in town thanks in great part to Rick’s never-ending curious nature about wines and to his desire to offer great wines at affordable prices.
A few doors upstream at 420 Main St., Mike Chariton recently opened Planet Wines, the city’s first wine shop. Chariton said he’s been interested in wines for years and about two years ago decided to find a way to blend that personal interest with making a living. Investing all your savings along with some home equity is about as serious as a person can get about melding two diverse worlds, but Chariton seems quite excited about the future of his shop and the sophistication of local wine drinkers.
*Mike Chariton of Planet Wines
“I’ve seen the sophistication level change over the past few years and I really think there’s a place for my store,” said Chariton recently. He said he purposely put his store downtown because of the atmosphere of the downtown and its continuing development.
“I wanted a real neighborhood for the store and I think downtown is about the only real neighborhood we have,” Chariton said. “And with the new construction being planned, we’ll have more restaurants and shops and hopefully that will bring more people downtown.”
Planet Wines (Chariton said the name came to him while he on one of his frequent long-distance runs through the desert) features more than 1,000 selections and each week Chariton offers a special on a country or wine.
“Also, wine is a worldwide phenomena and I want bring some of those great wines to Grand Junction,” Chariton said. The store’s specialty is personalized service, Chariton said.
“I want people to tell me what they want us to carry,” Chariton said. “I think it’s great to explore new wines and try something adventurous.”
Planet Wine hours are 10 a.m.-8 p.m Monday through Wednesday and 10a.m-9 p.m Thursday through Saturday.
