Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2003 4:20
PM
Subject: Wine at Orangewood Consulting - 33
To our Wine Aficionados,
Introduction
Well, it has been an
eventful February. This newsletter is far too long - sorry about
that. I won’t charge extra. In addition to the usual new locations
and ramblings, there is event notification, multiple event feedback and
response to a question about “The Wine Glut”.
Summary (Box Score)
Mario Day approaches
2003 Sales picked up in February -
a record month
New outlet - AJ’s at 7141 West Ray
Road, Chandler
New restaurants - Nello’s in Mesa
and Ahwatukee
Content
Outline for the remainder of this
newsletter
Event Notification – Mario Day –
Chateau Benoit introduction
Event Feedback – Noceto at House
of Tricks
Event Feedback – Marinda Park Week
Remaining Nello’s restaurants sign
up
New retail outlet at AJ’s in
Chandler
The Wine Glut – Part 1
Rambling Delivery Guy
Feedback
Event Notification – Mario Day – Chateau Benoit introduction
Mario Day is March
10th every year. This year it falls on a Monday. Mario day is so
called because the abbreviation for the date (MAR10) could be confused with the
name Mario. This year, for want of a better excuse, I thought that it
would be good for a tasting of the new wines that we are carrying from Chateau
Benoit. We brought these wines into Arizona in response to a special
request from Jim Gallen, the Operations Manager and Wine Guy at Barmouche and
Tarbell’s.
Time:
4:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. or until I ask you to leave!
Location: Our offices and home at 7334
North Central Avenue
Wines:
Chateau Benoit Wines
Muller-Thurgau
White Riesling
Pinot Gris
Pinot Noir
Other wines may be opened if necessary
Food:
Munchies to enhance the wine tasting experience (whoa!)
RSVP: Please
email me to let me know if you intend to come along.
Event Feedback – House of Tricks
Well, those of you who missed this
event missed a treat: Sangiovese from Vino Noceto. We tasted five
different bottles of 100% Sangiovese, with commentary by Vino Noceto owner, Jim
Gullett. We worked our way through the 1999 and 2000 Normale, the 1998
and 1999 Riserva and the 1999 Dos Oakies. It became clear that each
vintage shows improvement compared to the previous year. The Dos Oakies
is what I refer to as a “single malt” Sangiovese. It comes from a
specific Sangiovese clone in a particular area of the vineyard adjacent to two
Oak trees. It is used in the Riserva as well as standing alone.
This wine is only available at the tasting room in Amador County,
California. Add it to your “must do” list.
Event Feedback - Marinda Park winery owner visit
I first met Mark Rodman as he climbed out of his rental car at the completion of his 23 hour journey from Melbourne, Australia. The last 6 hours were his drive from LAX. Without much ceremony, we shook hands and took off to a Pinot Noir tasting. Mark had said that he was willing to work during his visit, so I had 5 public events and several sales calls scheduled. For the events, traffic helicopters swarmed overhead to help the overworked policemen deal with the gridlock caused by the hordes of wine enthusiasts converging on the events. Actually, attendance was not at the levels I had hoped, but this was offset by our logistical problems. Me forgetting wine, Tarbell’s forgetting they had another event (so changing the location to Barmouche), AZ Wine shipping the wine off to their new location, Dick getting stuck in the airport security check traffic - how much fun is a visitor allowed?
At Barmouche we had
two guests (Thanks Lisa and Mark). They kept us company while we looked
for drinkers and diners who might be susceptible to sampling wine. At AZ
Wine, the absence of wine was offset by the lack of customers. At
Epicurean Wine we had a modest crowd - except for one guy who was less
modest. Here we were sampling 4 wines. The Sauvignon Blanc is arriving
in March, so this was a preview. The Merlot is still some months away
from release but is showing a lot of promise after serious decanting. At
the Duck and Decanter Sam, Judy and Karen were waiting for us (thank
you). We set up outside to catch the last of the sun and enjoyed
conversation with quite a few of the regulars. Saturday was a change of
pace - perhaps due to the pitcher of margaritas we drank following the Duck
event. We hung around AJ’s in Chandler offering to sign bottles of
Marinda Park chardonnay.
Our goals for introducing Marinda
Park wines fell short of our hopes, but the benefit to us was the opportunity
to exchange views with the owners, wine professionals and staff. Mark
Rodman, in spite of lack of sleep, kept his sense of humor throughout the tour.
Expansion to Nello’s 2 and 4
Dick has been hustling at the
Nello’s restaurants and the final two succumbed to his charms. Visit
Nello’s 2 just south of Guadalupe at 7390 South Alma School in Mesa or Nello’s
4 on Warner Road a mile west of I-10. The four Nello’s have similar
styles: a stripe on the windows, a range of beers on tap, great wine and
closed on Monday’s. Good work Dick. Talking of good work, Nello’s 3
on Shea and the 101 has been ordering wine every week. I think Dick has a
thing going with the wine buyer there!
AJ’s, Ray Road
Clyde, the Cellar Master at the
Chandler AJ’s, has started stocking the Noceto Sangiovese and Marinda Park
Chardonnay. Clyde and his staff are very knowledgeable, friendly and
helpful - as are all the staffs of all the places that sell our wine.
Barmouche
As a result of the scheduling error during the Marinda Park tour, Barmouche now carries both of the Marinda Park wines. Barmouche is a second restaurant owned by Mark Tarbell. It has the fine food and wines that you would expect from Mark. I go there quite a bit for lunch. Business has picked up in the 18 months that it has been open. Try it, it’s fun.
Rambling Delivery Guy
I’m heading down to deliver wine to the Four Peaks Brewery. The people who make Eighth Street Ale are actually located on 8th Street. I intend to head South on Scottsdale Road (AKA Rural Road) and head east on 8th St. I miss the exit and take Hayden (AKA McClintock). It’s only a little longer and I get a view of the east bound 202 parking lot. Four Peaks finally has gone through the Noceto Frivolo that Dick sold them last year. Now I’m heading up to Nello’s 3, where the customers are acquiring a taste for the Noceto Sangiovese (Normale), Laurie delivered here last week. On the way I head north up McClintock avoiding the freeway for a mile in case the traffic is backed up into 101. I’m listening to Ringo singing Octopus’s Garden from the Abbey Road album. I see Minderbender’s on the right, which I haven’t seen for many years. I think it’s named after Milo Minderbender in Catch 22 and my mind wanders to Yossarian sitting in a tree being bored as his approach to long life; and to the soldier in white and the change of the bottles each day. On my left now is Big Surf. A major attraction when I first moved to the Valley of the Sun. Using a principle similar to that of a flushing toilet, 4 foot waves are projected across a lagoon every couple of minutes or so. I remember swimming there 25 years ago. I wonder if they changed the water since then. George is singing “Here Comes the Sun”. For me it’s already here - predicted high today, this penultimate day of January, is 80 degrees. On my right is a complex of 6 drive-in movie screens. I didn’t realize that the world still had any of these. I head to the 101 on McDowell. After delivery I head off to see Jazzy, our not so little foal. Now 9 months old, officially a yearling, she has been moved to boot camp for a little discipline and to get her in shape for the May Arabian horse show. She is a half Arabian (actually 3/4). She is also a Pinto which means that she is white with big brown patches. See http://richard.corles.home.att.net/ for recent pictures and old video clips. Jazzy is pleased to see me. I scratch her neck and she does that cute lip twitching thing. The rambling delivery guy rambles on to the tune of “Mean Mr. Mustard” - you know the guy with a ten bob note up his nose.
The Wine Glut - Richard the Pundit
I got some feedback (from Frank)
asking that I comment on the wine glut that we are hearing so much about.
Here’s my take on what is happening.
Over the last 10 years or so a lot
of people saw the increase in wine consumption and thought that selling grapes
would be a profitable enterprise. Prices 10 years ago were pretty
good. So with lots of planting and some good weather in the last couple
of years, there became an oversupply of grapes. What does this
mean? Well, large wineries buy grapes from wherever they can and take
advantage of the increased supply by getting grapes at reduced prices, getting
better quality grapes or a combination of both. This is tempered to some
extent by contracts they may have with particular suppliers, but even so, we
might expect to see improved quality wines at the low end.
Adding to the glut of grapes is
the oversupply of bulk wine. Someone making wine does not actually need
to have a winery. They can buy wine in bulk, blend it to their preferred
taste, label it and sell it. The spot market for such bulk wines has also
dropped. For example, Vino Noceto used to sell off the Sangiovese wine
that didn’t make the cut for its own wines. The return for selling it in
bulk became so low they decided to blend a little something in and have their
own low cost entry wine. A year ago they blended in a lot of Zinfandel,
this year they tried 1% Syrah.
Another example is “Two Buck
Chuck”, a wine that is getting a lot of coverage in the trade press. It’s
actually called “Charles Shaw wine” and is available at Trader Joe’s for $2 in
California and $3 in Arizona. Apparently people are lining up outside
TJ’s each morning and 1000’s of cases are being sold. There is a certain
mystique about where this wine comes from, but my assessment is that it is
being blended every day from whatever bulk wines are available for next to
nothing. (Next month’s newsletter will have a review of these wines.)
What is the impact of the glut on
the wine business? It is bad news for grape growers and bad news for
makers of bulk wines. Both are getting less money for their efforts than
before. It is good news for the Gallo’s and Kendall Jackson’s unless they
had a lot of long term contracts with grape growers. They get cheaper and/or
better grapes and can take extra profit, pass along improved quality or do cute
TV advertising - or a combination. It’s good news for consumers of low
end wines, too. Next month I will try to give some insight into the
impact on the wineries we represent. (Wineries, this is a hint to give me
some feedback!) So much for the punditry. There are lots of facts
and figures now available from the government at: www.nass.usda.gov/ca. A summary from the Napa News included the following:
Ø The 2002
grape crush in California totaled 3.8 million tons, up 12 percent from the 2001
crush of 3.4 million tons.
Ø Red wine
varieties account for the largest share of all grapes crushed in California, at
1.8 million tons, up 6 percent from 2001.
Ø The 2002
white wine variety crush totaled 1.3 million tons, down 1 percent from the
previous harvest.
Ø
The average price paid for all grapes in California
-- including wine grapes, table grapes and raisin grapes -- is $460 per ton,
down 17 percent from 2001. The statewide average for red wine grapes was $613,
down 10 percent from 2001; and $428 for white wine grapes, a drop of 13 percent
from 2001.
The full article is at:
My conclusion from these extracts is that we are not seeing
massive price or production changes.
Feedback
Uptown 713
I got some feedback from Jay -
thank you. He said “The Uptown is an especially great place to
visit for jazz and a few adult beverages.”
I also stopped by Uptown
713. Phil told me that he had some diners there who said that they heard
about it from “Richard’s Newsletter”. I had also sent him a copy, so he
knew what was said. Thank you for your support - whoever you are - maybe
it was Jay.
I also heard from Robert (thank
you, too) who took some neighbors down to Uptown and said “All of us enjoyed the dinner and
wine. We had Noceto Sangiovese.”
Kay told us that she served this
wine with Apple Tart with Almonds to wild acclaim. You will need to wait until
next month for the recipe, since this newsletter is already far too long!
Cin-cin, alla salute!
Richard and Laurie