Every other week, as regular readers know, Terroirist poses 15 questions to a wine shop owner. This week, we’re featuring John Draney, owner and everyday operator of Omaha Wine Company.

John is a singular character. He’s assertive, convincing, and — I can attest to this from shopping there off and on for the past five years — credible. When it comes to giving bare-knuckle advice on new territory — which for me is typically domestic wine — there are few people I trust more than John.

John is seemingly omnipresent at OWC, but this seems to be the MO at most reputable and passionate shops. That John has been in this business for 17 years, and has done it in the face of a serious and seemingly viral growth of competition, is testament to a man and a business plan focused on the things that matter — families, dedication to the craft, and a whole lot of fun.

Check out our interview with John below the fold. Read the rest of this entry »

Great Soil: La Crau at Dusk

This week marks my final look at Matt Kramer’s provocative installment of Drinking Out Loud, wherein he peels away at the surface of some of wine’s most divisive issues. Over the past month or so, I’ve sought to render my own response to Kramer’s questions, and the feedback has been both insightful and educational.

This final week tackles perhaps one of the more obvious — or so it would seem — issues surrounding wine: Is soil a major or minor contributor to great wine? Perhaps the meat of the question lies in whether great soil is necessary for great wine, and whether mere mediocre soil is more than sufficient for, well, the mediocre stuff.

Without treating the subject too deeply — I think I’m in agreement with Kramer that the subject is effectively a problem solved, a question answered — I still would like to touch on the question of soil from a different perspective, one that never seems to get quite the attention it deserves: rootstock and vine age.

How do these components of viticulture merge to bring focus and substance to the bigger question of soil and its major or minor importance? When the discussion of soil comes up, aren’t we really just discussing the fusion of geology and plant material? Read the rest of this entry »

Uploaded to Flickr by Brett Jordan

Over the last few weeks, I’ve addressed a number of questions posed by Matt Kramer in a recent installment of his column, Drinking Out Loud. Most recently I dealt with the issue of oak and its many uses (and abuses) in modern wine production. It’s definitely a popular issue and unquestionably a divisive one as well. As we continue to reflect on more of these dividing lines, this next topic may prove even more contentious than the last: wine closures.

Is there really something inherently wrong with screw cap wines? Doesn’t it come off a bit cheap to seal a bottle that way? I mean, what about tradition or the nostalgic POP of the bottle that changed your whole perspective on fermented grape juice?

Isn’t there something to be said for good ol’ cork?

These are all valid questions, but I’d like to square off on a few counterpoints. Read the rest of this entry »

Uploaded to flickr by Megan Mallen.

It seemed the lucky streak was bound to hit everyone.

Beaujolais and Burgundy ‘09, Bordeaux ‘10, and now Mosel Riesling in ‘11. Like our wallets needed another pundit shouting “Vintage of the Century” from the rooftops. But it now seems that even Mother Nature has had enough of the ballyhoo.  This past Friday, the middle Mosel suffered from a devastating hail storm that toppled trees, destroyed houses, and even lit barns on fire.

The storm, caught on video here (among many other places), has many wondering what more Mother Nature can heap onto what has already been a dismal year of “Unglueck.” Back in January, Mosel River denizens faced yet another dose of devastating winter watershed, leaving many to wonder whether the water would surpass flood levels reached during the mid-1990s’ catastrophic floods. Who could foresee January as only the wellspring of what now constitutes a series of unfortunate events?

Some sources are estimating storm-related damages at over 300 Million Euro (445 Million USD), a staggering figure that still may not reflect the lost revenue of the Mosel’s much anticipated 2011 harvest (also, here). The storm blasted Grosslage vineyards stretching from Kroev in the northern Nacktarsch into Muelheim and Veldenz’s southern Kurfuerstlay. The names may not mean much to most, but they hedge what is arguably the most hallowed ground for producing the Queen of All Grapes, Riesling. For along the river Mosel between the more established towns of Traben-Trarbach and Bernkastel-Kues lie the the more humble towns of Erden, Zeltingen, Wehlen and Graach, whose vineyards — Erdener Praelat, Wehlener Sonnenuhr, Graacher Domprobst — produce some of the world’s most renowned white wine (the absolute best, in my humble opinion).

Now, estimates suggest that between 70% and 90% of this year’s lauded crop is in jeopardy, if not lost already. Tragedy this close to harvest is almost impossible to recover from, and some may find it more pressing to rebuild their own homes than to attempt rebuilding this year’s shattered harvest.

What exactly remains for this harvest has yet to be accurately reported, and the thought of another outburst from the ever-temperamental Mother Nature can’t be too far from peoples’ minds. We can only hope and pray producers and their families are able to salvage at least a fraction of good juice from these spectacular sites. While Mosel 2011 may not be the Vintage of a Lifetime in terms of superlative quality, it will no doubt be remembered. And for the sake of German Riesling and everything else that’s great about Deutschland, I’ll raise my glass any day, anytime, to the next person I hear proclaiming “Mosel’s Vintage of the Century.”

That is, as long as it’s from a newly minted Mosel rooftop.

(Many thanks to Ronald Wortel, a dear friend, for bringing this sad news to my attention.)

Uploaded to flickr by martinvarsavsky.

In a recent installment of Drinking Out Loud, Matt Kramer put forward five questions that “divide” the wine world.

These questions strike at the heart of the most conflict-ridden issues among oenophiles. Over the last two weeks, I’ve tackled Kramer’s first two questions (“Power or Finesse?” and “Old School or New Wave?”). This week, “it’s Apparent Oak or Stealth Oak?”

This question has irked me for some time. Quite simply, if I taste more of the barrel than the fruit so painstakingly cared for from bud break to harvest, then why on earth am I taking another sip? If I spend hundreds of hours in the vineyard, and then all of a few minutes topping off another brand new heavy toast barrique, then what is my total net worth for all I invested throughout the year? Flavor-wise, basically nil.

I am personally not opposed to the use of oak in elevage; its ability to manage the exchange of oxygen has long been proven to deter reduction and to soften tannin. Read the rest of this entry »

Uploaded to Flickr by Lucia Whittaker.

In a recent installment of Drinking Out Loud, Matt Kramer put forward five questions that “divide” the wine world.

These questions strike at the heart of the most conflict-ridden issues among oenophiles. Last week, I tackled Kramer’s first question: “Power or Finesse?” The week, I’m looking at his second: “Old School or New Wave?”

There are those who believe the wine world will always exist as a dichotomy, even if the borders may at times be blurred. The thinking typically follows this structure: “There will always be the ‘New World Fruit and Alcohol’ paradigm and the ‘Old World Earth and Acid’ one. There will never be a broad acceptance and merging of the two styles into one all-encompassing, ideologically perfect drink that everyone consumes with joy and reverie. That’s whimsical.”

To a certain degree, that thinking isn’t too far off keel. I doubt anyone would embrace the uniformity such a creation would entail. Read the rest of this entry »

In a recent installment of Drinking Out Loud, Matt Kramer put forward five questions that “divide” the wine world.

These questions — which Kramer called “The Great Divide” — strike at the heart of the most conflict-ridden issues among oenophiles. The irony here is not lost — for a drink that brings so much joy and laughter to nearly every occasion, why are we still intent on squabbling over it? It’s a question not posed by Kramer, but it’s surely on his mind and the minds of many wine-lovers, lay and learned alike.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll tackle Kramer’s questions. First up? “Power or Finesse?” Read the rest of this entry »

A detailed map of David Hirsch's terroir laboratory.

If there’s one lesson from all this deficit and debt ceiling talk, it’s that  compromise is compulsory. Over the last few weeks, we probably all  developed passionate feelings on the crisis, but what’s captured me the most in all this is the concept of compromise. In the short time I’ve had the chance to get to know David White, and in the much longer time I’ve had the pleasure of knowing David’s good friend, Tom M., the two of them have shown me it’s time for my own sort of compromise — with wine.

As a guy who cut his teeth on European wines, I’ve begun to wrap my head around something I never thought I would: There really is another world of wine out there, and it’s where I live now: America.

Every day, another winemaker is borne into the American wine scene with universal experience and sensibility. Every day, some intrepid youngster is spending his summers in places from Beaune to the Yarra Valley, discovering what it means to make wine authentically, naturally, responsibly. So what’s standing in the way of my own discoveries? What’s stopping the evolution of my own palate, my own compromise? Nothing at all, really. That realization prompted me to crack two bottles of Pinot Noir. I wanted to chip away at something that’s haunted me for a while, the misguided notion that America might not ever find that perfect confluence of terroir, talent and tradition to match the svelte beauty of most European wines. It’s obvious that a self-deceiving mindset like that is in need of change. Read the rest of this entry »