Pinot Briefs
—Newsletter 6.38
Mendo Wine The Mendocino Winegrowers Association presents Mendocino Wine by the Bay on
September 15, from 12-5 PM at the Embarcadero Hyatt Regency in San Francisco. 45 wineries, 200
wines, and food from some of San Francisco’s best restaurants. Proceeds will benefit Friends of the
Children San Francisco and CUESA. Tickets are $35 in advance, $45 at the door. Information - 707-
468-9886.
TCA The Los Angeles Times reported a few months ago a technique for rescuing wines tainted by
TCA. Take a square-foot of Saran Wrap, wad it up, and stuff it into a large glass pitcher. Pour the wine
over the wrap into the pitcher, swirl it around for 10 minutes. The polyethylene in the Saran Wrap will
absorb the TCA and supposedly return the wine to its more natural and palatable condition.
Pinot Country Maps The Map Store in Windsor, California has published
seven maps of the AVAs of Sonoma County under the direction of the Sonoma
County Winegrape Commission. These poster-sized maps are very detailed and
show the location of Sonoma’s towns, wineries and even vineyards. I recently
purchased the Russian River Valley AVA map (which includes Chalk Hill and
Green Valley). I had always wanted a map showing the specific locations of the
vineyards that are referenced in the wine literature and displayed prominently
on wine labels. I had mine mounted on poster board and the total came to about
$85 ($30 for the map only). The Map Store website (www.TheMapStore.com) will
be launching a free WineMap service on the website supplying detailed information
on wineries in the near future.
Wine Beer This new product from small breweries is brewed like beer but made with fruity tastes
and aromas like wine, barrel aged, and usually with alcohol levels between 10% and 15%. Russian
River Brewing produces Supplication, a brown ale aged for a year in Pinot Noir oak barrels with sour
cherries. Delaware’s Dogfish Head Craft Brewery has a wine beer called Red & White which is brewed
with orange peel and Pinot Noir juice. The wine beers are intended to be drunk warmer than beer.
Reconditioned Burgundy John Kapon (Acker Merrill Condit) writing in Vintage Tastings points
out that wines from Domaine Romanee-Conti could be reconditioned at the winery up until 1996.
Aubert de Villiene regrets doing this because he found that although reconditioned wines can be
great, they never achieve the heights of a well-stored original bottling. These reconditioned “Direct
from the Chateau” bottles sometimes demand even more on the secondary market because of their
‘provenance’, yet most of them are less complex wines because they have been reconditioned. One
note: curiously, Domaine Romanee-Conti does not have a website.
Offspring of Pinot Noir The University of Minnesota grape breeding program has released a
hardy descendent of Pinot Noir, Marquette, which is able to withstand temperatures as low as minus
36°F. As reported in Wines & Vines (May 2007), the release comes at an opportune time for there is
increasing interest in viticulture and wine country tourism in colder Northern America regions such as
Vermont, Missouri, Iowa, Colorado and North and South Dakota. It is expected to gradually replace
Frontenac which can withstand temperatures as low as minus 33°F, but is high in acid, low in tannin and
produces a respectable red wine at best.
