What I'm Up To This Week

Got a couple notes over the last little while from folks who wanted to know what a wine maker does this time of year. They figured that thumb twiddling was on top of the list because the harvest was over and none of my clients currently do ice wine so there must be a lot of navel gazing.
On the contrary, my friends.
I've got deadlines! We're working towards some bottling dates at the end of February which means we're into blending, filtering and fining our new whites and any reds from previous vintages that may be scheduled. There's lab trials and owner/winemaker conferences and outside, the vineyards are calling for a haircut. And all those little jobs and projects to make the plant run a little smoother are now beginning to take priority around the cellar. On top of all that, the phone is starting to ring from people who have looked at the calendar and realized they need to get a wine making consultant-type on stream if they want to open the doors on their new venture this year.
So, to summarize, I keep my days full.

Here's a few things that caught my eye in the press:

With Australia having too much wine you'd think prices worldwide would be falling. But oversupply seems to be a localized problem.
This report suggests world wide wine supply numbers are down...

The Toasted Oak down in Oliver is having a New Zealand night on the 31st of Janurary. Tickets are only $25 . Need to know more?

If you can't find your local winery owner or wine maker this week you may want to look here.

Now the wholesalers in Kansas are up to their old tricks

Wine news roundup.

Australian wine is about to get even cheaper. It's got a lot to do with the huge supply of grapes and an equally huge inventory of bulk wine. Looks like Australia is turning into the new Bulgaria - heaps of mediocre wine with a gem here and there amongst the wretched masses. Read more...

Looking for some nice vineyard property? Forget about the inflated North American market and head down under to New Zealand. Read about these two properties . . .

You barely have time to pour a glass of wine before up pops another legal battle over wine sales and distribution down in the Excited States of America. The current hotbed is Illinois where the uber powerful wholesalers are pushing for some new legislation to tighten their stranglehold on the wine ( and other stuff) distribution game. Read this story and if you're a Yank make sure you get hold of the Free the Grapes people.

Good news: more people drink more wine than ever before. Bad news: 42.7 percent of all Americans don't drink at all. That seems somewhat unnatural. What a strange existence.
More stats...

In a Wine World this Big, There's Always A Crisis Somewhere.

When you read the wine blogs it's easy to get the idea that the basic structure of the wine business is steadily heading toward collapse. There always seems to be grave circumstances somewhere that threatens to hamper the business of making wine and getting it to consumers at a fair price.
For instance, this story. It seems the wholesalers are at it again with their giant wallets. Trying to shape legislation to suit their bank accounts.
Could this happen here? At already does to a certain extent. The wholesaler here (the government) adopts a Big Brother attitude about prices and access. Because they know what's good for us.
To keep up on these kind of stories I can always depend on Fermentation. Tom hates it when he sees one group trying to take advantage of another. He's all over the Illinois story.

Okanagan Monday - Wine Work and Wrap-up

Skiing at our local mountain APEX was great this weekend. Lots of local winemakers up there. This time of year I see more on the mountain than I do in the valley.

Good to see one of my favourite wines from down under is getting some good press lately. Click here to check it out. Or here. (scroll down, way down).

Around my world I'm busy getting whites into shape. We plan to do a multi-variety bottling in late February. Scheduling 05 red rackings for analysis post malolactic fermentation. Also working on a late 04 ME/CS blend for bottling after those 05 whites.

Opposite Ends of the Wine World

There's an interesting story here. Has a kind of desperate tone as Aussie grape growers suddenly start getting cranky as Australian wine overproduction finally catches up with them.

I wonder if they'll start to riot like those French fellows.

Here in BC things are opposite. We can't get enough grapes and when we can they get hijacked by folks with bigger bank accounts.

Wine & Vine Hits The Top 100!

Stumbled on this while checking my web page referral thingy down at the bottom of the sidebar.
Thanks to all those who clicked.

The Okanagan Disease at the Capped Quacker

This is related to wine in the fact that often wine is part of the product being sold in the transaction.
Since we arrived in this valley almost 10 years ago, my wife and I have noticed something peculiar that seems to be getting worse. It's what we call the Okanagan Disease.
We both came out of a food & beverage background with some hospitality thrown in for good measure. So we know our way around a hotel, a dining establishment, a bar and a commercial kitchen - more or less.
To this day it seems almost impossible to get consistent, professional service at almost any level from food and beverage outlets in the Okanagan. Primarily I'm directing this at the front of the house.
We can count on a couple hands the number of times we've received top shelf service from any number of restaurants, bars and various mixtures of both.
I can only guess at the reasons for this lack of talent. Probably it's a combination of factors.
Poor training.
No incentive (Okanagan residents are notorious undertippers and 8 months of the year there is a shortage of generous tourists).
Turnover.
In any case, there seems to be a race for the bottom. Anyplace that's merely mediocre has an advantage over the competition so why strive beyond that?
The solution is difficult. A restaurant or other establishment that wants to improve the front of the house has to attract professional staff and hold them. Frankly, that's expensive in a business that almost always starts cost cutting strategies by trimming the labour. Even if you can get and hold good people there's no guarantee the market in this valley will twig to the change and respond with the kind of return and referral business an F&B joint salivates over.
A perfect example of what I'm talking about was an after-shopping meal at the Hooded Merganser just before Christmas this year.
First of all, the room is worth a visit. It's a beautifully designed and decorated space; safe and tested details with nothing that will disturb or provoke controversy. I wouldn't go as far as to say it's dated but it's not pushing the envelope either. As such, it was a very soothing room with lighting that was both efficient and stylish.
There was about 5 tables in progress when we rolled in at about 8:45.
Our server was quickly at our table, explained a few options coherently and left us to make our choices.
So we waited. After awhile we flagged down another server to ask if ours was ever coming back.
When she did return she admitted that she had "completely forgotten about us".
Points not awarded for honesty.
We made our food choices and selected our wine from the balanced and fairly extensive list. As with 90% of the wine lists in this province, the mark-ups were obscene.
Off she went, our requests committed to memory.
She should have used a pencil and paper. Really, kids, it's no big deal to jot down a few clues for yourself. No shame at all.
My wife's wine was as orderedand delivered correctly. She loped back to our table with two bottles of wine for me to look at as she had argued with the bartender about what I wanted. I know, I know - I couldn't figure out what she meant either.
After that was straightened out we waited a short time for our meals. My wife's two appetizers arrived as her meal - just as she ordered them and I received a nice barbecued half chicken. It looked delicious. However, I'd asked for the Lamb Sirloin. Which I eventually got and thoroughly enjoyed. It had a great walnut stuffing. In the meantime we shared my wife's food (a super spinach-based salad and delicious sub-continent inspired buttered chicken) and then shared mine when it arrived.
The rest of the meal continued without any other faux pas. We did have a short and confusing discussion about why the curry flavoured butter chicken was served with sliced French bread instead of na'an or papadum. She noted the kitchen had given up trying to get papadum that would hold together. I didn't say that it was supposed to be brittle when served. She hadn't heard of papadum.
While our server acknowledged the mistakes it was as if she had no control over her own flakiness. It's as if it had started to rain at a tennis match; sorry, but, beyond my control, man!
We tipped her a minimum; about 10%. Why? Part of me felt sympathy for her and part of me thought she might get better. Forgive me if she doesn't and she works your table and fucks things up again should you ever accept an invitation to dine at the Duck in a Hat. Or the Capped Quacker. As for me I think I'll take a seat at the bar next time and enjoy the floorshow.
Think I'm a lone nutbar howling in the wilderness? Click this.

Ok Falls Vineyards

Here's a nice shot of the Okanagan Falls area from the fall. Shot by Joe Kyle one afternoon, the direction is looking northwest from the general area of Blue Mountain vineyards. The mountain is Hawthorne Mountain and in the mid-field are the holdings of Stag's Hollow, Wild Goose and Gidda Bros.

Wine Bloggers Planning Big Wine Offline . . .

There's a party being planned. If you've got a blog you'll probably want to attend or at least see what's up.

Looks like it's going to be held in Oregon. Home to the quirkiest wine makers in North America, Oregon acheived statehood in 1859 but it wasn't until 1954 when the federal government actually told anyone. Pretty wet on the left, not bad in the middle and very dry in the east.

The jawflapping pow wow will be towards the middle.

Wine News Youse Can Use

I get a newsletter from Andy Perdue every week at Wine Press Northwest. It's a great way to stay on top of happenings in the wine world of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and British Columbia.
There's a wine of the week and links to various articles in the print version magazine plus some adverts. I like it because it's honest and concise.
It's almost as good as a blog.

If you're in the market for ICE WINE check out the article here. Gosh, what a surprise, BC kicks ass. Especially Bruce down at the factory (Vincor). I bet Bruce gets so much frozen outlaw he can discard everything but the best. I don't mean discard as in 'throw away'. I mean, dump in another tank. And make it into Entre Lac or whatever box is due for bottling.

Here's yet another chance to name a winery. You can win a case of wine a year for all time!
Of course, if you live in Canada, you'll have to pay some kind of exhorbrant combination of taxes and duties.

I'm sure it's just an oversight but I didn't see my name listed as one the experts attending this event. Please use the PAYPAL donate button at the right so that I may purchase a plane ticket and appropriate black tie garb. Thank-you.

Wicked wine job

Every once in awhile a job comes along that's just plain unfortunate.

One of our fledgling wineries here in the Okanagan just released a 2003 Meritage that had to be pulled off the shelves after only a couple weeks. Customers were complaining about cloudy wine. In fact, there was a pretty dense layer of streaky, swirly goo near the bottom of almost every bottle.

It tasted great. But you can't sell wine with the bottom few inches looking like paint.

Turns out that gelatin (a common fining agent)was added to the wine shortly before bottling and there wasn't sufficient time for clarification. The wine went to bottle unfiltered.

I was asked to help with the "fix".

So it was:
collect wine.
ship wine to undisclosed location.
assemble crew to uncork, empty bottles, wash bottles, do not damage labels.
filter wine/adjust SO2.
filter again enroute to bottling line.

Owner of said wine hopes it will taste the same. Not much chance of that.
It will probably be better.
bottle and palletize
ship back.

Hey this is $uper!

My blog is worth $4,516.32.
How much is your blog worth?