I discovered the wines of Laely Heron in 1998 while attending the annual conference for the Society of Wine Educators. Her inexpensive wines were among my top ten wines from that intensive four-day event. And now, thanks to the folks at Google Video, you can spend a few minutes listening to this talented winemaker tell how she got started in the wine business, and about her latest brand, "Sexto" (which isn't as lascivious as it sounds - get your mind out of the gutter!)
This morning, as I was waiting for my Mother In Law's latest walking tour of Whole Foods, I decided to check out her local wine shop. It was an eclectic mix of $7 wines on the same rack with $150 wines, one of which was a wine from Au Bon Climat I'd never seen (right). As I was reverently examining the bottle, the shopper next to me said in disbelief "Over $100 for a wine?? You must be kidding!! I've tried expensive wines before and they're just not worth it. I drink perfectly good wine everyday and never pay more than $10 a bottle!"
Which isn't something you say too this wine merchant without making me wonder "how much of the population feels that way?" There is no way of knowing, of course, but all the way home I kept thinking "Man, I hope it's a diminishing percentage..."
Folks out in the Tracy area (slogan, "The Place to Live Your Future") have reason to celebrate. After a five-year battle, they've been granted the latest AVA - American Viticultural Area - for the Tracy Hills AVA. Such a privilege allows vineyards from that area to, theoretically, earn more for their grapes, since producers can use the appellation on their labels instead of simply "California". The TTB grants AVA status to a region when it proves it has a unique and identifiable characteristic worthy of recognition.
I have to send kudos to the mastermind behind this effort - Jeff Brown of Tulip Hill Winery, who spear-headed and funded the entire effort. The AVA contains four vineyards as well as Tulip Hill, and is the prospective home of its second winery - Windmill Ridge Winery.
And the small size of this appellation brings up some interesting questions about AVAs...
Every industry has its controversy. Sporting events have controversial plays or bad officiating. Politics have their hanging chad. And the wine industry has Clef du Vin (Cley doo Van). While I must confess to an embarrassingly thick and uncooperative tongue when it comes to the French language, I at least know that this phrase translates as "The Wine Key". The developers of this controversial device claim that it speeds the oxidation of wine, thus allowing a buyer to enjoy an aged wine without waiting (instant gratification just isn't fast enough anymore), or to evalutate the wine's age worthiness prior to purchasing and storing the wine.
They claim that each second it touches a wine, its taste reflects what would naturally occur after one additional year in the bottle (1 second of contact = 1 year of aging, 2 seconds = 2 years, etc.) Some months ago I was approached about carrying this product in my online store. A sample arrived and an experiment conducted and the device clearly changed the wine in my glass. But I wondered how ANYBODY could determine whether each second of contact actually WAS equivalent to one additional year in the bottle.
Clef du Vin has some big names behind it, top sommeliers from France (where such a position carries even higher esteem than it does here), but I wanted the opinions of winemakers I knew and respected. Each one I spoke with is normally a jovial sort, the kind of person you'd want at your table. But this topic brought froth to their lips...
While driving the wine road this week I got a call from an astute customer telling me he wanted to order 100 bottles a day in order to be healthier, "just like those fat mice." Huh? As I was about to say "What the...?!", he began to explain the new study burning up the wine-blogosphere.
It seems some scientists thought it a good use of grant money to study mice made obese by a high-fat diet (left). In the Associated Press article, one of the scientists referred to this diet as "A McDonald's diet", but out of respect for the hard working dietitians at Big Mac HQ, I'm not going to make such a reference.
But I digress. Getting back on track - the researchers found a way to allow these porcine mice to enjoy the same health benefits of their much thinner brethren (and, one supposes, sistren). The good news is that they did not improve their health through hours on the treadmill, but rather by simply feeding them huge doses of Resveratrol, a red wine extract. Just think of it - no dieting necessary! The downside?...
I discovered the wines of Laely Heron in 1998 while attending the annual conference for the Society of Wine Educators. Her inexpensive wines were among my top ten wines from tha
t intensive four-day event. And now, thanks to the folks at Google Video, you can spend a few minutes listening to this talented winemaker tell how she got started in the wine business, and about her latest brand, "Sexto" (which isn't as lascivious as it sounds - get your mind out of the gutter!) 
