BRAMBLES: Storied Wine

"Wine for lunch?"  It was just a simple, Cal-Provencal chicken breast and salad with feta, but the early summer day quietly demanded a lazy, unpretentious quaff.  "But, we have nothing chilled", she may have said.  No problem.  Just grab a bottle of light bodied, high acid juice from the dark, cool space below and prepare it for the quick chill.  Ten minutes is all that it will take, because we are going to crisp-change the temperature of a cellar-ed bottle, a cool survivor that is still found in the 60+/- degree range even on this summer day.  A Portuguese vino verde gets wrapped in wet paper towel, slipped into a plastic bag(so it doesn't attach to anything else), and laid in the freezer.  As the wet paper quickly chills, it directly transfers cold to the bottles liquid, and within a few minutes it's near perfection for this particular lazy day dejeuner.  It could have been any bottle(sparkling demands even cooler temps), but chilling improved the presentation, focused the physical properties and the bright character of this particular modest bottle of imported white wine.  We could almost imagine the warm and gentile breezes of  a Lisbon seaside cafe.

A sea of familiar brands or a wine adventure?

 Current domestic commercial reports indicate a slow down of overall wine sales, but that is not the case with wines produced in the golden state of California.  Even with import selections increasing daily, this nation's top wine producing state still dominates from a position of strength, with wine shipments increasing by 3% over the previous year. More direct to consumer markets are open in more states than ever before, and wine trends in restaurants continue to bolster the national sales. Another constant that remains is that the most widely popular brands, those comfortably priced, widely available selections, are still mostly produced by large, industrial beverage corporations.  Fans of venerable Louis M. Martini, or MacMurray Estate or J Vineyards may be surprised to learn that these labels are owned and operated by the largest wine company on the planet, E & J Gallo, of Modesto.  Perhaps your 'go-to' is great value ne'gociant  Cameron Hughes, or a Girard, or Tamarack Cellars; they are all popular labels of Sonoma Counties' own, Vintage Wine Estates.  Even that convenient Bota Box wine, or widely dispersed Gnarly Head zinfandel are products of long established Delicato Family wines of Manteca.

 Distinguished brands that are pillars of the state's Napa wine history, Beaulieu Vineyards, Beringer, Chateau St. Jean, and Stags' Leap Winery are today all Treasury Wine Estates of Australia properties.  And that popular Meiomi Pinot Noir, as well as iconic, Robert Mondavi Winery are currently part of the largest imported beer company in the U.S., Constellation Brands.  Bottles such as these and countless others are effectively commodity brands, guided by investors who may have never touched its soil or fruit. Mostly, they can generate standardized industrial products, striving for consistency and market-share that's utilizing a shrinking distributor(wholesale) market. But, another thing they may share today is that at one time in the not too distant past, just about all of these brands were a single artisan's dream; regularly producing a genuine and honest reflection of a unique place and time(it was a good year!).

Cheers to another great story!

 Today there are over 685 bonded wineries in Sonoma county, the vast majority being very small producers, those holding on to that artisan's dream from vineyard to cellar. Way back in the late 60's the region had supported fewer than 60 federal licenses. Over these past decades many artisans have been drawn to the songs of local vineyards and its winemaking, many of them found just down the road. They may have names not seen on our favorite retail wine shelves or home town wine lists, but there is a good chance that here is where a wine lover or adventurer can find that summer California dream.  Should you pick up an honest bottle or two, you may find authenticity using the quick chill method back at the yurt or the lodge, and have a story to tell.

Raising a glass here for more than a decade;
 and Salute!

WineLinks:
  https://discovercaliforniawines.com/
  https://sonomawinegrape.org/