Last week, federal regulators with the TTB approved the controversial proposal to expand the Russian River Valley appellation south to Cotati. This expansion, which was sought by E&J Gallo, was opposed by the Russian River Valley Winegrowers Association. Steve Heimoff is alright with the decision, but W. Blake Gray isn’t happy about it.

Elsewhere at the TTB, regulators are considering tighter wine label definitions, including serving and nutrition facts.

On CNN’s Eater, Dan Greenbaum, the bar manager of The Beagle in New York, offers five reasons why you should drink more Sherry.

Over at Zester Daily, Ruth Tobias sits down with beer expert Joshua M. Bernstein, to discuss his new book — Brewed Awakening — on the craft brew movement. (H/T: Eric Asimov.)

Next week, Thorn Hill Vineyards will become “the first California winery to open a store in the state of Pennsylvania.”

On the Wall Street Journal’s wine blog, Lettie Teague explains why she loves Thanksgiving – and thinks out loud about what she’ll be opening this year.

In Wine Spectator, Mary Ann Worobiec talks food, wine, and hosting tips with Padma Lakshmi.

“As this country’s wine tastes shift away from bombast toward more balanced efforts, let’s imagine we could reduce that trend to a single wine from a single place.” In the Los Angeles Times, Patrick Comiskey explains why for him, “that place, that wine is Beaujolais.”

In Palate Press, W. Blake Gray writes about a recent trip to Bern’s Steak House in Tampa, and why it got him thinking about Robert Parker, ageability, and market forces.

In the Financial Times, Jancis Robinson analyzes the Chinese wine market.

VinTank — the Napa Valley-based research group and new media consulting firm — has announced an extremely impressive board of advisors.

LA Weekly sits down with Ravenswood founder Joel Peterson, and talks about his first Thanksgiving wine, atomic bombs, and Alice Waters.

Andrew Jefford has concluded that “the key axis of terroir… in most parts of the winegrowing world is latitudinal, not longitudinal.”

In the Statesman Journal, an excellent piece on the disastrous impact HR 1161 could have on Oregon’s wine industry.

Wine Spectator releases its complete Top 100 list.

What’s better than drinking wine to raise money for a good cause? While David White attended a charity wine dinner in Washington DC for So Others Might Eat, Rebecca hosted a wine-tasting event in New York to benefit Yorkville Common Pantry. Meanwhile, I just drank some Zinfandel.

See below for a recap of what we tasted!

David White
On Thursday night, I attended Uncorked DC, an annual charity tasting and dinner that raises money for So Others Might Eat. The featured speaker was Washington Post wine writer Dave McIntyre, who gave an excellent speech (his remarks are available online).

Seven different wines were poured. The evening started with a Virginia sparkler – the N.V. Thibaut-Janisson Chardonnay Fizz. A 100% Chardonnay, the wine was a great starter.

For the whites, we had a 2010 Sean Minor Sauvignon Blanc Four Bears; a 2010 Mer Soleil Chardonnay Silver Unoaked; and a 2008 Dunham Cellars Riesling Lewis Vineyard.

The Mer Soleil was the only disappointing wine in the flight – as it came across as too rich for an un-oaked Chardonany. The Sauv Blanc was fun, as it came across as much greener (good green!) than I would have expected for something from Sonoma. The Riesling was excellent. At first, I worried that the wine was too sweet – but once paired with food, it worked perfectly.

For the reds, we had a 2010 Martin Ray Pinot Noir Angeline; a 2008 Kunin Pape Star; and a 2009 Ridge Lytton Springs. The Martin Ray was much bigger than I expected it to be — it tasted more like a Napa Pinot than something from the Russian River. The Kunin Pape was fun — it could have easily passed for a higher priced Côtes du Rhône. The Ridge was stunning. An absolute knockout, and definitely as good as the hype. (Wine Advocate recently awarded 95 points to the wine.)

On Saturday night, I got together in New York City with Terroirist Rebecca Canan and occasional Terroirist contributor Andrew Feldsen, and opened up a bunch of wines with some pizza.

We started with a N.V. Moët & Chandon Champagne Brut Impérial, which far exceeded everyone’s expectations. Wine geeks have become Grower-obsessed, so it was fun to remember that the big houses still know what they’re doing. The wine was delicious.

We then moved onto my current obsession, the 2010 Beaumont Wines Chenin Blanc Hope Marguerite. A word of caution – this wine shows best at “Pinot Noir temperature.” Don’t serve this wine too cold, as you’ll be doing yourself a disservice!

We then moved onto three light-bodied reds: A 1993 Domaine Lucien Boillot et Fils Volnay 1er Cru Les Angles (positively awesome); a 2009 Rhys Pinot Noir Bearwallow Vineyard (delicious – but I won’t be opening my other bottles for several years); and a 2008 Jacques Puffeney Trousseau Arbois Les Berangères (herbal and earthy and floral and so much fun).

We ended with a big red from Virginia – the 2008 RdV Vineyards Rendezvous. The wine, unfortunately, came off as very, very alcoholic. After 2 hours in the decanter, it had settled and improved dramatically. But if you’re thinking about opening this up anytime soon, be sure to decant it for at least half a day. Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks to economic worries, sales at this year’s Hospices de Beaune charity auction were slower than expected.

Dr. Vino hands his blog over to Tim Eustis, who visited six wine shops around Paris on Thursday to sample Beaujolais nouveau.

“Certain wines are so popular it’s practically impossible to remember when they were not. Malbec, for example, was just another discarded French grape long before it became a staple of every wine shop in America—and a veritable synonym for Argentina.” In the Wall Street Journal, Lettie Teague catches up on Malbec – by sampling a couple dozen.

On December 1, viticulturalist Richard Smart will debate biodynamic evangelist Monty Waldin at the London headquarters of the Wine and Spirit Education Trust.

Gallo is forecasting growth in America’s wine industry.

“What do Kosta Browne, Kistler, Gary Farrell, Buccella and Three Sticks have in common? Aside from all being California wineries, they’re all owned, either partly or solely, by Bill Price.” In Wine Specator, a profile of Bill Price, who “has built an impressive portfolio of brands and vineyards over the past 20 years.”

In case you missed them, Wine Spectator has provided detailed harvest reports on California, New York, Oregon, Virginia, and Washington.

If you drink a lot of wine, you don’t need wallpaper. In Margate, New Jersey, a couple has wallpapered most of their house with beer and wine labels.

John Mariani recently attended a tasting of 2009 Bordeaux, and while he’s “very happy” with the wines, he’s decided to “hold [his] exhilaration at bay.” The reason? “The 2009s taste like really good California cabernet blends. That isn’t just because California blends are becoming more complex. Bordeaux winemakers, already troubled by global warming, are making their wines in a far bigger, more forward — dare I say, overripe — style that tends to impress the critics. This is not your father’s Bordeaux.”

In the Wall Street Journal, Will Lyons catches up with Gary Vaynerchuk.

W. Blake Gray visits RdV Vineyards, and becomes a believer in Virginia wines. “All four are striking, serious, over-90-point wines that I would not have been able to place.” Having recently visited RdV myself, I can confirm that the hype is real.

Meanwhile, over on his blog, W. Blake Gray writes about Doug Fabbioli — the former assistant winemaker at Buena Vista Winery in Carneros who now 25-acre vineyard and 4,000 case winery in Loudoun County, Virginia.

Jon Bonné concludes that this year, some Beaujalais Nouveau is arriving “that’s worthy of attention.” The reason? Instead of “cloying banana and candy flavor…  it is real wine, made by small vintners who believe in Nouveau’s original concept: a simple, delicious wine meant to toast the harvest in both city and countryside.”

A small convenience store in Sainte-Croix-du-Mont — a village near Bordeaux with a population or just 900 — has been fined for failing to record the names of sugar purchasers. Regulators grew suspicious after discovering that the store had sold a whopping 157 tons of sugar without invoices over two years. Unsurprisingly, sales spiked around harvest in 2007, a year with dismal weather.

Joe Roberts visits Paso Robles, and concludes that the most defining characteristic of the region is that it’s hot. Not the weather, but the wine.

In a fascinating post, Steve Heimoff explains how he reviews wines.

The Santa Rosa Press-Democrat covers the news that Wine Spectator has named Kosta Browne’s 2009 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir its wine of the year.

A bit late, but huge congrats to two friends of mine — DC sommeliers David and Maria Denton — for winning the first ever Winefuture Awards!

The Drops of God, the Japanese graphic novel (or manga) that took Asia by storm when it was first published in 2004, has finally been released in English.

The book follows the adventures of Shizuku Kanzaki, the rebel son of a wine critic, who must complete a Herculean set of wine-related tasks to secure his inheritance. To complicate matters, Shizuku’s father adopted a second son on his deathbed — a slightly evil superstar wine critic who must compete with Shizuku for the rights to the estate.

What follows is an amusing mix of Japanese kitsch and beautifully rendered wine descriptions. In a sip of 2001 Château Mont Perat, Shizuku finds Freddy Mercury:

“It’s powerful,” he says of the wine, “but it also has a meltingly sweet taste, with an acidic aftertaste that catches you by surprise. It’s like the voice of Queen’s lead vocalist, sweet and husky, enveloped in thick guitar riffs and heavy drums.”

The authors, a brother and sister team writing under the nom de plume Tadashi Agi, endeavor to create links between wine tasting and more familiar experiences. Hyperbole aside, the authors manage to conjure a version of wine that is intensely personal, yet widely comprehensible.

Flowery metaphors are counterbalanced by a fair bit of instruction in technical wine history, vocabulary, and viticulture. For example, one of Shizuku’s adventures traces the legacy of one of Burgundy’s most influential terroirists, Henri Jayer, by mapping the degree of his influence in the wines of his students, relatives, and friends.

It is precisely this balance of imaginative storytelling and technical material that makes “The Drops of God” a refreshing departure from your typical wine reading. It is an accessible, if slightly exhausting story that expertly blends instruction with entertainment.

Although it will likely be less influential in the U.S. wine market than it was in Asia, The Drops of God is a worthwhile read, particularly for those who can enjoy their wine with a grain of salt.

Happy Beaujolais Nouveau Day! Of course, as Will Lyons explains in the Wall Street Journal Europe, “These days… the third Thursday of November passes without so much as a whimper, as the wine drinking world has moved on.”

In the Washington Post, Dave McIntyre reminds us that “There’s more to Beaujolais than nouveau.”

Some exciting news for Burgheads. Scott Paul, a boutique Pinot Noir producer in the Willamette Valley who also imports wine from about 20 small producers in Burgundy and Champagne, is in love with Burgundy’s 2010 vintage. As he explains, “I must tell you now that this is, to me, the most exciting young Burgundy vintage I’ve tasted since I’ve been in the business. Yes, that’s a big statement. No, these are not the 2005s, which are ultimately better wines. These are also not the fleshy, fruity, and broadly appealing 2009s. But if you love those things that make Burgundy special and unique, the 2010s will simply knock your socks off.”

Wine Spectator announces its highly anticipated wine of the year: Kosta Browne’s 2009 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir.

Tom Wark lays out ten ways ways “ to improve the world of wine for consumers.”

Over at Wine Diarist, Mike Steinberger explains why Felix Salmon’s latest Grub Street column “is such a remarkable display of misinformed bluster.”

On a recent trip to Washington DC, Lettie Teague spent some time with Ed Sands, the co-owner of Calvert Woodley. It’s one of Teague’s favorite shops, “not only for its broad, well-priced wine (and cheese!) selection, but also because it feels like an old-fashioned wine shop — teeming with semi-chaotic life.”

For the first time in nearly 50 years, Penfolds has released its Bin 620 Coonawarra Cabernet Shiraz. As one might guess, the launch event was held in Shanghai.

This week’s featured sommelier / wine director is Jean K. Reilly, MW from Morrell Wine Bar & Café. The Morrell family is well-established in the wine industry and in New York City –  Morrell’s Wine Store has been a leading retailer of wine in New York for over 60 years and is next door to the Wine Bar & Café right on Rockefeller Plaza.

Jean tastes countless wines to find the best matches for the café’s American cuisine with Asian accents. I take that back; the wines tasted actually aren’t countless. Jean placed a conversation-piece, “counter” in the wine bar that displays the number of wines tasted and the number selected. For reference, a recent count was 536 tasted, 53 selected. She’s a busy lady.

Read more about Jean’s best efforts to stay out of the wine business, her wine program’s best values, and her most famous patrons (hint: morning TV personalities who LOVE wine) below. Read the rest of this entry »

Looking for wine advice on Thanksgiving? Yesterday, I provided some answers.

Meanwhile, if you’re looking for Thanksgiving drinking advice that doesn’t involve wine, Eric Asimov has some ideas.

Are French wines “increasingly lost on the latest generation of American wine-lovers?” Matt Kramer thinks so, and that worries him.

Is the most “logical and unique” grape for South Africa to claim as its own Pinotage? In Wine Enthusiast, Lauren Buzzeo makes the case. (Her arguments are spot-on, but that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea…)

Biodynamics was invented in 1924 by philosopher Rudolf Steiner. About 75 years later, Demeter-International was created to “certify” biodynamic practices across the world, and in 2006, Demeter’s American branch registered the word “biodynamic” as a certification mark with the U.S. Trademark Office. As you might guess, certification costs money. Lots of money. And as DC-based wine importer First Vine explained yesterday, Demeter will hit you up for money in every way imaginable. (For the record, like Stu Smith, I’m a huge proponent of organic and sustainable farming. I just wish people didn’t conflate those practices with biodynamic viticulture.)

The Wine Economist offers some thoughts on Washington’s move to privatize liquor sales.

Ever wonder about oak diversity? Remy Charest has the details.

On Monday, Wine Spectator provided a detailed report on the 2011 vintage in France. Yesterday, the magazine provided a report on Italy.

California chef Herb Seidel, who must be using a fake name, is making marijuana-infused wine.

Gourmet and savory cookies pair well with wine. Seriously.

As regular readers know, I now write a free, twice monthly wine column that’s distributed to newspapers across the country. All the columns are housed at Wines.com, the fastest growing wine portal on the Internet. If you don’t see my column in your local newspaper, please send an email to your paper’s editor and CC me (David- at -Terroirist.com).

My latest column — the obligatory Thanksgiving piece — went out this morning.

This Thanksgiving, Drink Easy

Turkey Day is notoriously terrifying for the at-home sommelier.

Suppose you’re into food and wine. Should you flaunt your connoisseurship and create precise pairings to wow the palate? Absolutely not. The cousin who only drinks Budweiser will get annoyed, and everyone else will think you’re a snob.

Suppose wine is intimidating. Should you just stock up on Two Buck Chuck and call it a day? Again, the answer is no. That’d be a copout, as there are plenty of wines with character that don’t break the bank.

Just stick to this handful of guideposts. It’s actually quite easy to create a memorable meal with wines that everyone will enjoy.

Check out the full piece at Wines.com!