Waltz Vineyards releases its first reserve wine, a Chardonnay

Waltz Vineyards has added an eighth wine to its lineup and its first reserve. Its new Chardonnay spent 10 months in French oak and gives the winery a sophisticated white that foodies will find appealing. It's going for $36/bottle.

The Manheim, Pa., winemaker also just released new vintages of its regular Chardonnay ($25/bottle) and its 2010 Sauvignon Blanc ($28/bottle). Both are delicious whites certainly worth trying if you stop by the winery for a tasting. The tasting notes call out the citrus and melon in the Sauvignon Blanc. What I liked was the dryness and crispness of the varietal that offer as much companionship alone on a summer day as it does on the dinner table. You'll likely also enjoy the fusion, a blend of Semillon, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. More Sauvignon Blanc is on the way, as the winery planted more vines in 2010 and again this year.
Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon serve as the base right now for the four reds that it produces. Its Crow Woods Cabernet is available by bottle only, at $34/bottle.

Jeff Zwick, Waltz's vineyard manager, noted that Waltz continues to find its way into more regional restaurants, one good way for a new winery to get the word out. While it's adding a new wine or two a year, it's business plan seems a closer match to a winery such as Maryland's Black Ankle, where it might wind up landing on a dozen or so wines total, many of them dry. Compare that to any number of regional wineries that have gone a different route and lean more heavily on the semisweet, sweet and fruit wines. Many have wine lists that tops two dozen.

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Calif. wine grape growers suffer a sobering spring

Wild spring weather across California's wine country has been enough to drive a vintner to drink. From killer snow in the Sierra Nevada foothills to dry-season downpours along the coast to a hard freeze in temperate Paso Robles, 2011 is proving a challenging vintage.

"That's what makes this business so damned interesting," said Jim Fiolek, executive director of the Santa Barbara County Vintners' Association. It also can keep winemakers up at night. Jason Haas, general manager of Tablas Creek Vineyard near Paso Robles, said winemaker Neil Collins has experienced many sleepless nights this spring. "These people who envy the winemaker's lifestyle should drive around here with Neil at 3 a.m. when he knows it's freezing and there's nothing he can do about it," Haas said.

Vintners have long joked that the weather is just like last year — different. But people expect to find constants in the nation's premiere grape-growing state. Rain is expected to taper in April and end by May, then not return until November. In those months, balmy temperatures awaken dormant vines from their winter slumber and buds start to break. This year there has been frost and record rain in June. Sustained temperatures over 70 didn't hit until this week in most wine regions.

Now just days before the official start of summer it looks like early spring across California wine country. Buds are just emerging and the fruit is forming far behind schedule. "This weather is causing all kinds of problems, but it's not the first time and not the last," Fiolek said. "Other products have a more ephemeral lifetime, but ours goes on and on and tells the story of the weather pattern."

While rain is good for some crops, late precipitation is not for California's $18.5 billion wine industry. Regulating water controls the intensity of grape flavors — and too much causes mildew. The most recent deluge Sunday and Monday across Napa and Sonoma forced crews back into some fields, where they hope that removing select leaves will fight mildew by increasing airflow. It's snow, not rain, that caused problems in mountainous El Dorado County, where leafing vineyards have been hit by the same spring snow storms that have some ski resorts dreaming of remaining open through July 4. "There's nothing we can do about it, and we don't even know the outcome yet," said Josh Bendick, winemaker at Holly's Hill in the Sierra-Nevada foothills, where 4 inches accumulated May 15 on 6-inch shoots of viognier, an early blooming white wine-grape.

At Tablas Creek this week, Haas checked vines on the rolling 105-acres, where organically grown grapes are used to produce the critically acclaimed Rhone blends. Two all-night freezes in early April, which followed a warm March, wiped out the winery's entire crop of grenache, grenache blanc, viognier and marssane. They're key ingredients in the company's wine blends and 35 percent of its acreage.
"Of the blocks that were out (leafing) we had 100 percent damage," said Haas, adding that only the neighbors with overhead sprinkling systems were spared. Grapes are resilient plants that produce the best-tasting fruit while stressed. They can recover and push new shoots after a freeze, as Tablas Creek and others now are seeing.

But vineyards are tediously pruned each winter to place canes for optimal bunch growth. Now the new shoots are sprouting randomly like unwanted facial hair — in places Haas wishes they weren't.
"It's just weird," Haas said. The cooler weather has left plant development a month behind schedule in some regions, saving some plants but creating the prospect of harvests in late October and early November, even early ripening pinot noir.

Now growers are hoping for a warm fall. "Pinot in November? That's just plain crazy," said winemaker Mike Waller at Calera Wine Company in Hollister. A late harvest could mean chaos at wineries that stagger production by planting both early varieties such as chardonnay and late-ripening varieties such as cabernets. This year Haas expects to harvest all 11 varieties nearly simultaneously, which will strain crews and equipment.

While quantities of some wines might be lower in 2011 — a 2001 freeze cut Tablas Creek production by half to 5,500 cases — quality shouldn't be affected anywhere in the state. "We deal with something every year," said Paul Goldberg of Bettinelli Vineyards in Napa, where last year's challenge was the European grapevine moth. "With good weather on the horizon we're hopeful this will be a good vintage."

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Vineyard sale boosts Brown-Forman 4Q earnings

Brown-Forman Corp.'s fourth-quarter profit spiked from the sale of its California-based Fetzer Vineyards, capping a year that showed strong growth for its flagship Jack Daniel's brand and el Jimador tequila.
The company, whose brands include Southern Comfort and Finlandia vodka, on Thursday reported a 26-cent-per-share gain from the sale of Fetzer to Chilean wine producer Vina Concha y Toro S.A. The $238 million deal closed in April.

Brown-Forman, based in Louisville, Ky., also reported strong yearlong sales for its super-premium brands. For the three months ended April 30, the company reported net income of $165.4 million, or $1.13 per share. That's up from $72.7 million, or 49 cents per share, from a year ago. Excluding gains from the Fetzer sale along with certain one-time tax benefits, the company said its earnings were 80 cents per share.

Revenue rose 8 percent to $791.3 million. Analysts expected earnings of 64 cents a share on revenue of $757 million. The earnings estimates exclude one-time items. For the full year, Brown-Forman reported net income of $571.6 million, or $3.90 per share. That compares with $449.2 million, or $3.02 per share, the year before. Revenue for the year rose 6 percent to $3.4 billion. Excluding the Fetzer sale and tax benefits, the company reported earnings per share of $3.57 for the year, up 18 percent. The company said it expects the Fetzer sale to reduce its earnings by 16 cents per share in the coming year. "I expect us, starting with this fiscal year, to start to recoup some of that lost profitability and then in future years to surpass it," Brown-Forman CEO Paul Varga said in a conference call with industry analysts.

Analysts expected earnings of 64 cents a share on revenue of $757 million. The earnings estimates exclude one-time items. For the full year, Brown-Forman reported net income of $571.6 million, or $3.90 per share. That compares with $449.2 million, or $3.02 per share, the year before. Revenue for the year rose 6 percent to $3.4 billion. Excluding the Fetzer sale and tax benefits, the company reported earnings per share of $3.57 for the year, up 18 percent. The company said it expects the Fetzer sale to reduce its earnings by 16 cents per share in the coming year. "I expect us, starting with this fiscal year, to start to recoup some of that lost profitability and then in future years to surpass it," Brown-Forman CEO Paul Varga said in a conference call with industry analysts.

Brown-Forman said it hopes to build on sales momentum from the last half of the just-ended fiscal year.
The company said it expects strong international growth in the coming year and a better performance in the U.S., where the recession made consumers less inclined to venture out to drink at bars and restaurants. Leading international markets included Australia, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Turkey, Germany and France, Brown-Forman said.

Brown-Forman Chief Financial Officer Don Berg predicted a "slightly improved pricing environment" in the coming year but said the company also will absorb higher costs, including for grain. "We will continue to seek opportunities to increase prices when and where appropriate," he said. The company also is looking to recent brand and packaging introductions to fuel continued growth. Such brand extensions as Jack Daniel's Tennessee Honey, Chambord Vodka and Southern Comfort Lime contributed to sales growth, it said.

The company rolled out new packaging for Southern Comfort, Herradura and Chambord in the past year and recently announced packaging changes for Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey and Finlandia.
The company predicted it will earn between $3.45 and $3.85 per share in the coming year. The company said it expects underlying operating income growth in the mid- to high-single digits in the next year.
Brown-Forman said its Jack Daniel's brands had an 8 percent gain in revenue for the year, on a constant currency basis.

"The broad-based performance of the Jack Daniel's trademark drove the company, most notably in the second half of the year," Varga said. The company's el Jimador products posted a 9 percent gain. Its super-premium brands, which include Chambord, Herradura, Sonoma-Cutrer and Woodford Reserve, had a 13 percent upswing in revenue for the year.

Meanwhile, the company's Finlandia products had a 2 percent revenue drop for the year, while Southern Comfort had a 3 percent drop. Canadian Mist revenue fell 8 percent, while revenue for Korbel Champagne were flat. The company's Class B shares rose $1.40, or 2 percent, to close Thursday at $71.75.

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Qantas launches 'members only' epiQure wine and food club

In an attempt to woo well-heeled travellers, and certainly keep them away from the newly-competitive Virgin Australia, Qantas is launching a $99-per year wine and food club as an add-on to its existing Frequent Flyer program.

Upon joining, members will receive a "welcome gift" from Qantas worth $130 (seems a fairly safe bet that it will be quaffable), and access to the epiQure website. The membership is also available for 13,000 points. Qantas promises the community will allow members to "discover the Qantas cellar’s diverse collection of wine, dine with globally renowned chefs and be part of a community with a shared appreciation of the finer things in life."Qantas CEO Alan Joyce and Neil Perry will host the first epiQure showcase event at Rockpool Bar and Grill in Sydney and Melbourne in July.

Members will earn three points per dollar on purchases of wine and event tickets, and 2,000 bonus points after members buy their first case of wine through Qantas. Delivery of wine is also free to the end of 2012.
There's also the ability to earn four points per dollar at 250 Qantas Frequent Flyer partner restaurants.
Qantas says the epiQure website (which is currently password protected) is designed to "form the centre of a passionate community bringing together wine and food lovers, winemakers, producers, chefs, and industry experts to share knowledge and experiences.""Members will get the first serve of up-and-coming chefs at the top of their game, get the inside scoop on new restaurants and have access to celebrity recipes."

If any other organisation were attempting a paywalled community website, they'd face an uphill battle in getting a critical mass of people enlisted and interacting with each other, but Qantas does already have a memberbase of 7.8 million travellers to mine. Qantas says it has recently launched a “Sommeliers in the Sky” training program for staff to educate cabin crew and lounge staff about the wines they serve.

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Stars of Early American Winemaking: Where Are They Now?

Welcome to Vintage America, our column on the history — and future — of American wine. Every week Talia Baiocchi, author of the Decanted column on Eater NY, will take a look at winemaking from Virginia to Texas to California, to uncover the people, events, and trends that have made America one of the most dynamic countries in the world of wine.

The story of American winegrowing began just one century after Columbus, when French Huguenot settlers arrived in present day Florida. As myth would have it, when Captain John Hawkins arrived in Florida in 1565 — just a year after the settlers — he found them near starvation, unable to grow food, but relatively successful cultivating wine from abundant wild grapes.

This abundance of vine growth is noted by settlers and early pioneers as a symbol of the promise of America as a sort of Eden, where wine and other products would bring those who settled there everlasting prosperity.

But as the story unfolds, America's wild vine, like Eden's forbidden fruit, wasn't all it was cracked up to be. The native varieties — which hugged trees and grew rampant along the coastline, threatening the sea like a verdant tsunami — would prove largely unsuitable for quality wine.

But America's early settlers persisted. Scuppernong — a grape of the muscadine family (or Vitis rotundifolia) native to the Southern United States and likely responsible for the wine the Huguenots first cultivated—eventually gained notoriety and favor in the states.

But America's fighting chance at serious viticulture came courtesy of its native American hybrids. Most were crossbreeds of failed vinifera plantings and native labrusca vines. The first, Alexander, which was discovered in 1740 just outside Philadelphia, was — as almost all the early American hybrids were — a chance breeding. These early discoveries predated any knowledge of plant hybridization and many of the men and women to stumble across these floral love children were convinced they'd simply found a vinifera variety that had managed to adapt.

Catawba--another accidental hybrid which was originally thought to be Hungarian Tokay--went on to become one of the most important western varieties and the base for some of America's most renowned early wines, not least among them: Nicholas Longworth's Ohio sparkling wines.

Stories of America's accidental hybrids and the rare success of native grapes like Scuppernong built the foundation of modern American winemaking before anyone knew about plant breeding or grafting. Most of them faded into obscurity with Prohibition, some resurfaced after as unlikely foundations for modern winemaking out West, and others continue to be relevant in America's lesser-known winegrowing regions. Below is an abbreviated field guide to some of America's most important early grapes and a look at where they are now.

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