It's Not About the Drinking Age

It's not really about a mandated age, or designated drivers or MADD or the disingenuous Please Drink Responsibly message at the end of beer and liquor commercials. It's much more fundamental than that.

It's really about teaching children what responsible drinking behavior looks and feels like. I am sure that there have been people injured or killed driving after drinking too much wine, but I would be willing to bet that the number is incredibly low compared to those killed after binging on hard alcohol. Wine is the perfect beverage with which to instill the idea of healthy moderation.
It stands to reason that a thoughtful introduction to children of wine, its affinity to food, and its role at the family table will result in more knowledge and understanding of wine's beauty, uses and effects. It also will go a long way to putting the drinking of alcohol into a context that is healthy, respectful, and effective.

Recently a group of College Presidents, called the Amethyst Group have questioned the reasonableness and efficacy of the current drinking age. They contend that prohibiting 18 and 19-year old college students from buying alcohol legally results in significantly more dangerous behavior than would ensue if the drinking age were lower. This group has its agenda...one that is of a piece with ameliorating the EFFECTS of alcohol abuse on campus and not necessarily with creating the right context for alcohol. And of course, the prohibitionists just want to proscribe behavior regardless of the reality of the rationale for their arguments (subscription required).


Tom Wark at the Fermentation blog has posted passionately about this issue. And I agree generally with his points; for me, however, it fundamentally comes down to this: when Americans can regard their daily glass of wine as a natural part of a moderate and healthy life, the drinking age question will have answered itself.

PS: Here are some other links of interest: A researcher at Indiana University has this take on the debate. A FoxNews writer opines.

Tasting the 2006 Pinot Noir - Paraiso Vineyard

The 2006 Pinot Noir - Paraiso Vineyard, Santa Lucia Highlands has just been released exclusively to members of our Pinot Noir Program. A favorite of La Rochelle guests last year, this new vintage triumphantly carries on the where the 05 left off. Chock full of bright cherry fruit and elegance (hear more detail in our video tasting note below) this wine will be gone very soon.

To be one of the few who will enjoy this gorgeous wine, click here for more information about joining our club.

Click below to hear more.

Some Things I Like Right Now

In the last two weeks, I like:

• The Dark Knight. Visually stunning, great acting by Heath Ledger...a legitimately scary villain. Must be seen on the big screen.
  

• The House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty by Julia Flynn Siler. Though some of her comments regarding the wine business, especially the marketing and sales aspects, betray her lack of understanding, the book is well researched and a cautionary tale for any family-owned business.
  

• Simply Fondue Restaurant in Livermore. Who knew that paying a restaurant to cook your own food could be so fun. Owners, Ivy and Alden Faught and their staff, have done a wonderful job filling out their wine list with an extensive selection of Livermore wines...and the Bananas Foster dessert fondue is ridiculous!

• Mera Vino Wine Boutique & Lounge in Livermore. This new, upscale wine shop/wine bar is elegant, with a growing collection of Livermore wines, and the small-plate style menu looks fabulous. Good luck Raj, Karaminder and Mary Lynn.

• Bollinger Champagne, gin martinis (hold the vermouth), everything from Manresa restaurant, the Livermore Hills in spring and summer, the Tasting Room staffs at Steven Kent and La Rochelle (the best in the valley...knowledgeable, fun, passionate about wine), and teaching my kid to drive.
  

We are Innovatively Delicious!

A couple of weeks ago, La Rochelle Winery's 2006 Pinot Noir - Classic Clones, Arroyo Seco was paired with a Squash Blossom Tamale created by the talented folks at Campo di Bocce restaurant in Livermore...and came away with the most innovative pairing award at the annual Taste of Terroir.

(Photo of La Rochelle's Tracey Morretta and Steven Mirassou courtesy of Vanessa Pelletier)

A blend of older clones from several Arroyo Seco vineyards, including the Mission Ranch, this new release is brimming with dark cherry, plum, and coffee notes. In the mouth, the wine is all silk and power...easily capable of aging 7-10 years.

The tamale, with its squash blossom shell, was stuffed with pinot noir-braised lamb, ricotta polenta, and fresh zucchini, brought out the wonderful fruit notes in the Pinot; the wine, in turn, highlighted the earthiness of the dish.

The Taste of Terroir is an annual event that brings together the talented vintners and restaurateurs of the Valley to give nearly 500 guests a hedonistic view of the progress of our ever-improving wine region.

And the wine's are improving dramatically: from Deer Ridge Winery's Moonstruck to Karl Wente's Nth Degree Merlot, our wines are showing more complexity, more classic structure, and even more value.

Not all the entries were equally successful, but if the pace of recent progress continues in Livermore, if more growers, producers, and consumers understand how capable were are of making world-class wines, it won't be long before the wine world as a whole embraces our appellation.

Creating Depth and Breadth

One of the most fun things about La Rochelle from a wine-making standpoint is the sheer number of different Pinots there are to make and drink. Pinot Noir is perhaps the best argument for the French notion of terroir, that hazily-understood notion that says that all aspects of the vineyard site (temperature, soil type, sun exposure, wind, rainfall, etc) have a significant and unduplicate-able effect on the final outcome of the wine. Each of our Pinots is a physical manifestation of the vineyard site, vineyard practice, winemaking philosophy, and vintage.

La Rochelle was founded on a passion for Pinot Noir and with a mission to show as many of the facets, beautiful and idiosyncratic, of this noble variety. Consequently, the search for great vineyard sites in as many of the great growing areas in California and Oregon as possible consumes a lot of our time. Currently, we have sourced fruit from nine different appellations:

• Monterey
• Santa Lucia Highlands
• Arroyo Seco
• Santa Cruz Mountains
• Chalone
• Russian River Valley
• Sonoma Coast
• Anderson Valley
• Umpqua Valley of Oregon

The first releases of wines from Chalone, Sonoma Coast, and Anderson Valley will be in 2009/10. There are still a number of appellations that we are on the prowl for: Willamette Valley, Santa Rita Hills, and Santa Maria Valley.

We will never (at least I can't conceive of doing this) produce large lots of Pinot Noir. We want to continue to scour the landscape for great vineyard sites farmed by people as passionate about growing Pinot as we are in making it. This is the only way have to guarantee that our wines have the quality we expect of them.

A Family Connection to Robert Mondavi

On May 16, 2008 Robert Mondavi passed away at the age of 94. Obviously, his contribution to the wine industry in America cannot be overestimated. I don't think it is overstating the case to say that, without his influence, we would not be talking about the Livermore Valley or Monterey County's potential to make world-class wines.

My family goes back a long way with Mondavi. In 1966, Robert served as a consultant to my father and the other 4 fifth-generation members of the family as they began to transition from selling bulk to premium wine. In fact, my father, whose passion for wine was passed on to me, remembers Mondavi bringing 1959 first-growth Bordeaux to a biweekly meeting to show these young guys (all in their mid-twenties) what wine could be like. My father's "religious experience" was one of the conversation points that ultimately led to the creation of the Steven Kent Winery in the Livermore Valley.

In Julia Flynn Siler's book The House of Mondavi, she recounts Mondavi's quest to build his own winery after he was kicked out of the family business. My grandfather and great-uncle co-signed a loan for $100,000 that amounted to half of the initial investment in the Robert Mondavi Winery. In retrospect it would have been nice if they had loaned money in exchange for part of the business, but, alas...

Robert Mondavi has served as a model for me, too. His emphasis on producing outstanding wine and understanding the role that wine plays in a full, family-oriented life, resonate with my own sense of the importance of what we do. While his mistaken belief that his name was enough to overcome the lack of quality in his wines from Lodi and the like, led to an unfortunately ignominious end, all the energy he put into leading in the creation of the modern California wine business cannot be calculated. He will forever be among the giants of our industry.

Art & Commerce: Emotion & Money

I find myself linking to Steven Heimoff's stuff quite a lot. Steve, writer for Wine Enthusiast magazine is one of the best wine writers out there. Especially on his blog, he is not afraid to emotionally invest.
In his latest post, he reacts quite eloquently to the dynamic of critic being criticized for expressing a controversial viewpoint. He wasn't the critic in question...it was the art critic for the SF Chronicle who got enough negative mail from readers regarding his remarks about Dale Chihuly's work that he felt a need to explain himself.
If the world were perfect, we wouldn't need a mediator to tell or explain or reveal. We would (if we were so inclined) devote enough attention to something to come to some kind of rational and humble conclusion of our own about the worth of a piece of blown glass or a Santa Lucia Pinot Noir, for example. It would become obvious to us that only our own reaction to a piece of art or to a product is valid, that we cannot ever "know" what the artist or craftsman was trying to accomplish, but that his work was a gift given to us...and we are to say to it, either yes or no.
We know that we could never have made that thing, and that the artist's conception of it is different than ours and only the artist's. Our conception is only truly meaningful to ourselves given that we all experience the world differently.
The hardest thing though, sometimes, is to acknowledge our own lack of experience with something and to be careful how loudly we trumpet our opinion. It isn't a perfect world, and wine critics serve a useful purpose for those who aren't yet ready to make their wine buying decisions completely on their own. It is important to remember, however, that the critic is paid to form an opinion; he does not speak for us...he speaks only for himself; and his opinion, in the end, can only be valid for him.

Special Occasions

Today in the La Rochelle Tasting Room, two of our guests celebrated their birthdays with us. While these kinds of celebrations happen more frequently in our tasting room than they use to, I never stop being humbled and honored by them.

A winery tasting room is like a Jiffy Lube for relationships. We don't sell wine; we help to grease the gears of memory production; of getting close to your friends and family. With so much competition for one's urgent but not important time, finding even a moment for what is important is difficult enough. And even when that small slice is found for re-creation, there are things to do, un-numberable.

Thank you for choosing us...and Happy Birthday!