Buy Me Some Pinot and Crackerjack

“This is a game to be savored, not gulped. There’s time to discuss everything between pitches or between innings.”
–Bill Veeck, former baseball franchise owner

Every ballpark has its own beer. At Wrigley Field, they slam down Old Style like it’s going out of style. In St. Louis, they drink Bud, Because U Deserve What Every Individual Should Enjoy Regularly. In Milwaukee, it’s always Miller Time. Beer and baseball have a long history as teammates on a glorious afternoon. The question is, “Why?”

I mean, beer makes sense at a football game. Can-crushing fans watch quarterback-crushing defenders, ice-cold longneck meets man with no neck. Football is fast action in spurts, beer-drinking is long slugs interspersed with longer pauses. Football is hot wings and barbecue, foam hands and cheerleaders, and beer is a drink before the war, a burst of cool refreshment slamming into your gut like a Saints defender pounding Brett Favre. But baseball?

Baseball is a day at the park. It’s leisurely, and meant to enjoy. The anticipation before a pitch, the unfolding plays, the drama of a man on third leaning out, ready to go at a moment’s notice. None of this is really built for beer. Baseball is sausage and garlic fries, crack of the bat and seventh inning stretch. It deserves its own drink. And I say: why not wine?

You laugh. Even from here I can feel your laughter. Well, take a breath, there, beer guy, and follow along.

Video: Sommelier Starts a Winery

When I saw this, I had a good laugh, and I just had to share. Campy and rough, it still demonstrates the ridiculous misconception of what being a winemaker (or owning a winery) is all about. Winemakers watching this will snicker if not guffaw. For those that don’t get it, let me tell you that starting a winery means great sacrifice, dedication, hard work, and penny-pinching. Blood, sweat and tears, my friends.

Credit for this hilarious short goes to Greg Harrington of Gramercy Cellars. Great stuff, Greg.

An Afternoon with Olsen Estates at Sip

This winter, we were invited to sit down with the folks from Olsen Estates to sip on their new portfolio of 2007 wines. We jumped at the opportunity, and headed down to the new Sip at the Wine Bar & Restaurant in downtown Seattle to meet Martin Olsen (winery manager) and Robert Johnson (distributor).

Walking into Sip, you feel like you’ve just joined a millionaire’s club. A long strip of terraced seating areas with leather couches and chairs complete with coffee tables and lamps suggests relaxed but swank social situations. (If only you could smoke cigars!) At the top of the ramp, you find a 3/4-circle bar protruding into the restaurant area, and table-seating facing an unlikely outdoor seating arrangement with a lawn. The sun was shining through the windows, tempting us to go outside, but it was still ridiculously cold outside, so we resisted.

The layout of the restaurant caters to any situation; casual cocktail hour, light lunch, or dinner parties. You could easily pass your entire Friday night away with vino and friends, or grab a quick glass and some nosh with your co-workers after the horn blows.

Sitting down with Martin and Robert, we decided to order lunch. Service was friendly and attentive (black-clad and fishnets all), and to complete the something-extra vibe of Sip, Voss water in glass bottles was brought to the table with accompanying goblets. A swank touch.

Why I Shall Remain Loyal to Hooverville Forever

For wine drinkers, there is always a heartbreaking moment when that vintage you love so well runs out, and you realize one of two things: You’re going to save that last bottle for a special occasion that will never come, or you are about to drink the last bottle you’ll ever have, and you will cling to its memory like Glenn Beck longing for those innocent times of yesteryear. This has recently happened in Seattle, with my quest for Rittenhouse Rye.

For quite some time, I would gather with friends at various watering holes around the city, and enjoy a nice glass of this delectable rye whisky, with its subtle hints of Pennsylvania pine and surprising sweetness that disappears faster than federal bailout money. But slowly, we began to see a disturbing trend: Bars were running out, and were unable to find any in Washington (N.B., in the state of Washington, all liquor stores are owned by the government, and only liquors that the state chooses to stock actually get sold here. Rise Up, Drinkers! Let the state know that we want and deserve choices! Call Gallatin, and let’s have another Whiskey Rebellion!). It was within this slightly panicked frame of mind that we first wandered into Hooverville, on First Avenue.

WSU AgWeatherNet: Now for the BlackBerry Farmer

In the olden days, farmers would consult their almanac and stare at the sky to determine when to plow, plant, prune and pick. I’m sure there was also a fair amount of gut-hunch involved, guts no-doubt benefiting from individual experience, generational advice and genetic memory. But gone are the times (mostly) of intuitive agriculture. With choosy consumers, dog-eat-dog marketplace competition, and the need for both revenue and sustained profitability, technology continues to advance and be deployed in farming operations. Better produce, higher yield, lower costs, fewer migraines, what’s not to like about technology?

Enter the Washington State University and the AgWeatherNet project, and three new products to aid farmers.

Bottleology – White Heron Cellars with Cameron Fries

Grape vines have a unique ability to thrive in fairly harsh conditions.  Vineyards are often planted in dry climates to encourage their root systems to plunge deep into the ground in search of essential water and nutrients. It is this struggle and these stressed conditions that are essential in the production of high quality wine grapes, and which allows for greater individuality as a wine in the bottle.  While there is an element of “survival of the fittest” in the vineyard, this element can also be found throughout many aspects of the wine industry.

Cameron Fries, winemaker of White Heron Cellars and his wife Phyllis have met all the challenges of owning their own winery head on since their first vintage in 1986.  It’s the “sink or swim” scenario. It’s about the struggle and the daily demands of the business world that required this husband and wife team to dig deep throughout the growth of their winery from the ground up.  Here’s a bit of what Cameron experienced:

Pride and Prejudice in the Evaluation of Wine?

From the No Shit Dept.

Congratulations to the ardent researcher Barry J. Babin for winning the 2010 Award for Excellence from the Emerald Literati Network. Professor of business and chair of the marketing and analysis department at Louisiana Tech University, Prof. Babin published a research article titled, “Pride and Prejudice in the Evaluation of Wine?” which was coauthored by Julie Guidry, assistant professor of marketing at Louisiana State University as well as William Graziano of the Department of Psychological Sciences at Purdue University and Joel Schneider in the Department of Psychology at Illinois State University.

This all-star team of researchers set up an elaborate experiment, asking participants to blind-taste wines from both France and Texas. Predictably, the tasters overwhelmingly chose the Frenchies as the better of the two, but the joke was on them, because they were drinking the exact same wine. Merely being told that a wine was from France, the Shangri-La of the wine world, was enough cause to praise the superior virtue of the juice, even when it was the same vino being kicked to the curb when told it was from the Lone Star State.

This led Babin to conclude that “psychological affects determine which wines are preferred and purchased more than do the actual physical characteristics of the wine.”

No kidding.

Casey’s Top 10: Wine Songs

“He who loves not wine, women and song remains a fool his whole life long.”
–Martin Luther, German theologian (1483-1546)

Aaaahh, wine and song. Among their many common traits, one has to be that the best wine, like the best song, is one that is shared. Show me a man who has never cracked a bottle with his best friends, and I’ll show you a man that has never strolled down the street, arm in arm with his companions, bellowing “Would You Like to Swing on a Star?” to all passers-by. Given the long history and interweaving of these most extraordinary arts, what, I asked myself, would be the best songs about wine?

I began this mission quite simply: I began drinking. Then I set about establishing rules. I decided that the songs needed to be relatively modern (I’m sure there are some delightful Latin Gregorian Chants regarding wine; they just won’t make my list). The song must be primarily about wine in some way (thus disqualifying songs like “Champagne Supernova” as it only uses a word in a pseudo-creative poetic fashion). And the song cannot suck (which greatly helps avoid the UB40 trap). Finally, it had to be a song I would be excited to share with my friends.

As you read through this, understand that this is my top ten, not yours. So while you may chafe at the omission of Billy Joel’s “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant” (“He even says Bottle of Red, Bottle of White,” I hear you cry in dismay), remember the rules: that song bloooowwsss. Feel free to write me with your disagreements. I’m sure I can muster some degrading sarcasm to heap upon you with my scorn shovel.

Without further ado:

10.) “Gimme That Wine” by Lambert, Hendricks and Ross

This jazz trio released their eponymous album in 1960, and featured this pretty little ditty that was subsequently covered by such luminaries as Bruce Springsteen and Blood, Sweat and Tears. This one is meant for smoking to.

Best Lyric:

Gimme that wine (Unhand that bottle!)
‘Cause I can’t get well without Muscatel
I only drink for medicinal purposes anyway

Listen here: Gimme That Wine

Visit All Seven Bainbridge Island Wineries

March 13, 2010

March 14, 2010

April 10, 2010

April 11, 2010

May 29, 2010

May 30, 2010

May 31, 2010

June 12, 2010

June 13, 2010

July 17, 2010

July 18, 2010

August 14, 2010

August 15, 2010

November 13, 2010

November 14, 2010

December 4, 2010

December 5, 2010

Only on select weekends throughout the year do all seven artisan wineries of Bainbridge Island open their doors and reveal their secrets. Learn from the winemakers themselves. Taste classic wines from Eastern Washington grapes as well as new favorites from island vines. Visit Washington’s newest wine destination, Bainbridge Island.

Participating wineries include Bainbridge Island Vineyards & Winery, Eagle Harbor Wine Company, Eleven, Fletcher Bay Winery, Perennial Vintners, Rolling Bay Winery and Victor Alexander Winery. In addition to great wineries, Bainbridge has many wonderful restaurants, shops, galleries and other attractions. We look forward to meeting you!

Wines of Substance Named a “Hot Small Brand”

Wines of Substance has been given the nod by Wine Business Monthly as Number Two among “Hot Small Brands” for 2009. The annual Top 10 Hot Small Brands list recognizes up-and-coming wineries with annual case production under 150,000. That kind of case production is huge in Washington terms, but not so big when you consider some of the big guns in the world wine industry.

So, how does Wine Business Monthly choose the Hot Small Brands? According to Cyril Penn, they “gravitate toward wineries and brands that represent market trends or innovation, that take a leadership position in their regions, or that make unusual varietals or unexpected wines.” They take marketing strategies and growth into consideration, too, but the wines themselves have to make the grade.

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