Wine, Gifts and Wine Clubs

It does for Cupcake Vineyards, the ubiquitous brand that is popping up everywhere.

Cupcake Vineyards is the product of Underdog Wines Spirits – owners of the flipflop and Fisheye wine brands – which launched the label in Soledad, Calif., in 2008. After building their West Coast brand using grapes from the Central Coast, it introduced a sauvignon blanc from New Zealand, then a malbec from Argentina. Today it sells wines under the Cupcake label from such locations as Austria, Australia, Washington state, Germany and Italy.

The company has grown from making 10,000 cases in 2006 to a whopping 1 million cases today.

Serious wine collectors will frown on this concept of a worldwide brand, but there is no disputing its brilliance.

We met with winemaker Adam Richardson, a native Australian, recently with considerable skepticism. But the winemaker and international wine director made a good case.

First, the name Cupcake. Is there anything not to like about it? Richardson said that the name makes you feel good and reminds you of the rewards you got for doing some right as a child. Normally, we would scoff at such market-babble had we not witnessed the theory at a Navy tailgate. A woman brought out a bottle of Cupcake moscato and said, “How can you not like a wine named ‘Cupcake?’” She was attracted to the wine because of the name and the colors on the label.

Cupcake’s growth is a result of it identifying consumer tastes. Adam said the brand is having great success among millennials who are less particular about conventions and more driven to enjoy tasty wine. If they like Cupcake’s California chardonnay, it an easy transition for them to choose Cupcake’s Italian prosecco – just another flavor but the same reliable producer. This is a different concept than that of Gallo, a world-wide producer that represents wines from around the country but sold under different labels.

“People who drink Cupcake are comfortable about moving from one region to the other,” he said.

Richardson says he develops these wines for the American market, but is diplomatically careful about defining the prejudices of the American palate. We’ll do it for him: despite what consumers say, many like their wines a little sweet. The Cupcake chardonnay has some residual sugar, for instance, and a zinfandel-based blend called Red Velvet is as jammy as Smuckers.

In fact, millennials have taken a real liking to sweet wines, a point we’re hearing more often from the younger generation. Producers are seeing double-digit growth of these wines in the South and Midwest. According to the Nielsen Co., the sweet red wine market has grown 247 percent in sales over the last year. E.J. Gallo and Sutter Home launched sweet red wines last year – a sure sign the trend is afoot.

Richardson said the common themes of Cupcake are that the wines are very generous in fruit, user-friendly, flexible with food and made with structure and region identity.

The wines we sampled were all priced at $14.

Cupcake Vineyards Italian Prosecco. We’ve seen this sparkling wine frequently at weddings and receptions this year. The name is a conversation starter and the price is right. Very aromatic, low in alcohol and representative of the region.

Cupcake Vineyards New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc 2011. This was our favorite. The herbaceous and tart personality associated with Kiwi sauvignon blancs were muted. Grapefruit and mineral notes with soft mouthfeel made for an enjoyable wine even if it wasn’t classic New Zealand. Very generous aromas.

Cupcake Vineyards California Chardonnay 2010. Richardson said the objective is to make a creamy textured wine with soft mouthfeel. Nice spice and apple notes. He achieves that from these Central Coast grapes but it’s a generic chardonnay.

Cupcake Vineyards Barossa Shiraz 2010. Very pleasant and forward shiraz with rich, ripe berry flavors that aren’t over the top.

Some of the wines recommended in our column may have been provided for review by their producers. The authors can be reached at tmarquardt@capital gazette.com.

Article source: http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2011/10_12-36/FNW

It is not surprising that the wine made within sight of the famous towers of San Gimignano in Italy’s province of Siena in Tuscany goes well with the local foods. Vernaccia is a low-volume white wine, made from the Vernaccia grape with a small amount of other grape varieties, usually Chardonnay. It was the first wine in Italy to gain the DOC classification back in 1966. In 1993 it was recognized as a DOCG wine, the only white Italian wine to bear this esteemed classification (Denominazione di origine controllata e garantita).

Vernaccia is a full-bodied white wine, golden in colour, crisp and clean, that should be drunk young unless it is a Riserva, which means it will last from three to five years after harvest. Only 10 percent addition of other grape varieties is permitted. San Gimignano was mentioned as early as 1276 and Dante wrote about it in his “Divine Comedy.”

In general, soups, pasta dishes, and chicken and fish dishes go well with Vernaccia di San Gimignano, as well as appetizers and some desserts.

Artichoke antipasto

12 small artichokes
50 mL (1/4 cup) lemon juice
15 mL (1 tbsp) white wine vinegar
375 mL (1 1/2 cups) Vernaccia
2 small bay leaves
2 cloves
3 peppercorns
1/2 lemon, thinly sliced
Olive oil
2 additional bay leaves
2 additional peppercorns

Remove outer leaves and tops of artichokes. Cut off all outer stalks and dip hearts into lemon juice. Mix wine, vinegar, two bay leaves, cloves, peppercorns and lemon slices. Add artichokes and simmer for 10 minutes or so, until artichokes are tender. Drain well and place in glass jar. Cover with olive oil, additional bay leaves, and peppercorns, and let stand for three days. Add more oil if necessary and cover jar. Store in a cool place. This keeps for several months.

Pike with raisins

1 kg (2 lbs) pike
500 mL (2 cups) Vernaccia
1 carrot, sliced
10 mL (2 tsp) minced parsley
1 bay leaf
1 small onion, chopped
1 mL (1/4 tsp) salt
125 mL (1/2 cup) seedless raisins
10 mL (2 tsp) butter

Wash pike. Put it in a deep skillet, add wine, carrot, parsley, bay leaf, onion, and salt and cook for 45 minutes. Remove fish, put on serving dish and keep warm. Strain pan gravy, add raisins and boil gently for 10 or 15 minutes. Add butter, mix well, and pour over the fish. Serves two.

Panforte di Siena

This Tuscan specialty has been famous since the 15th century. The original recipe is secret but this one approximates it. In North America, the cake is usually bought in Italian specialty stores and eaten for Christmas or special occasions. In Siena you can buy a piece and eat it on the way home. It’s excellent with Vernaccia!

125 mL (1/2 cup) blanched almonds
125 mL (1/2 cup) hazelnuts
15 mL (1 tbsp) butter, divided
250 mL (1 cup) candied orange peel
175 mL (3/4 cup) candied lemon peel
175 mL (3/4 cup) flour
250 mL (1 cup) honey
250 mL (1 cup) white sugar
15 mL (1 tbsp) confectioners’ sugar

Toast nuts lightly in a teaspoon of butter. Cut orange and lemon peels finely. Mix all ingredients except for honey and sugars. Pour honey into a large pan, add granulated sugar and cook at low heat, mixing and stirring well until almost at boiling point. Add dry ingredients, stir well and remove from heat. Butter and flour a springform cake pan and pour the mixture in. Bake at 150º C (300º F) for 35 minutes. Serve cold, sprinkled with the confectioners’ sugar.

Susan Hallett is an award-winning writer and editor who has written for The Beaver, The Globe Mail, Wine Tidings and Doctor’s Review among many others. Email: hallett_susan@hotmail.com

Article source: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/life/tuscan-foods-and-vernaccia-the-white-wine-of-san-gimignano-62786.html

Just like our mainstream news and entertainment, or any other relevant area for that matter, the online wine scene has a news cycle and stories that last for a short period of time before interests head elsewhere.  However, one story, recently re-ignited by the fire starters at Hedges Family Estate (HFE), has been darn near interminable – points scoring.

The now legendary 100-point scale popularized by wine criticism’s doyen, Robert Parker, Jr., is receiving a frontal assault in the form of a web site and manifesto called the Score Revolution.

Developed by Hedges Family Estate (who, it should be noted, had received well above average scores for their wines from leading critics in the past before they stopped submitting wine samples for review), they state in their manifesto:

The 100-point rating system is a clumsy and useless tool for examining wine.  If wine is, as we believe, a subjective, subtle, and experiential thing, then by nature it is unquantifiable.  Wine scores are merely a static symbol, an absolute definition based on a singular contact with a wine, and thus completely ineffective when applied to a dynamic, evolving and multifaceted product.

Since launching the manifesto, not only has the Score Revolution received a significant outpouring of support by “signers” of the “revolution,” but Hedges has also been placed in the middle of the points v. anti-points brigade conversation for the last seven weeks as story after story in the wine blogosphere explores the merits for and the negative aspects of wine criticism.  Hedges Family Estate, at the center of the tableau, is a crucial point I’ll address in a moment.

Of course, Hedges is right in their stance on points scoring.  It’s an inarguable fact that rating a wine is, at best, a signifier of a moment in time by a lone, fallible palate.  What Hedges fails to recognize, however, is that critical wine rating has grown in ubiquity on a parallel path with the growth of wines available to the consumer, who mostly, are inundated with a wall of wine and abundance of choice when all they truly want is a lovely bottle of vino for dinner.

Pure and simple, points scoring help relieve buying anxiety in the wine aisle.

And, with wine quality at an exceptionally high-level, wines scores aren’t so much a warning to stay away from bad wines, but rather a decision-making tool when all other things are considered equal.

Absent significantly excellent critical scores, a winery and wine better darn sure have excellent branding while presenting an incredibly powerful and captivating story.

The Score Revolution aside, it’s the “captivating” part where Hedges excels, absent critical review.  Their labels are a marvel of engaging opacity inviting a long loving examination in order to decipher its meaning – part DaVinci Code symbolism, rich in back story, part homage to the Old World with its attendant focus on place instead of varietal.

The lesson I take away from all of this is that if a winery shuns points and leading critics then they better have excellent PR and a gripping story to go alongside it.  The folks at Hedges aren’t dumb, and they’re working both the PR and the “captivating” story angle.

Fortunately, in this impasse between paths of philosophy in wine marketing, the tiebreaker is what’s in the bottle and Hedges wins on that count, as well.

Article source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jefflefevere/2011/09/18/forbes-wine-of-the-week-2009-hedges-family-estate-dld-syrah/?feed=rss_home