[1]

I completely agree with Dan Berger's comments regarding how too many winemakers today manipulate the structure of wines in order to please influential writers. Can you imagine a world in which all food from Italy, for example, looked, smelled, and tasted the same? How boring. Also, I agree with Darrell Corti's decision to stop selling wines over 14.5% alcohol. These wines typically have too much heat in the mouth and a hot, jagged/sharp finish, similar to sensations often associated with swallowing moderately priced brandy. Blah! Last week, my wife and I shared a bottle of 2000 La Dominique, stated alcohol of approximately 13%. The wine was balanced and had finesse. We easily drank the first bottle and were ready to open a second one when I decided to save it for another lazy afternoon.

[2]

Excellent article, hits the nail on the head. Wine drinkers should read this article over and over until they learn enough about the growing process to understand why high alcohol wines are boring.

[3]

Hi, Dan. Well-written article. Just a few points. California sprawl necessitates much wider vineyard spacing. Growers are happy with VSP for several reasons: greater sun exposure to canes means greater fruitfulness for the following year; greater cluster exposure makes spraying more effective and allows clusters to dry faster after rain and fog; harvesting can be by hand (day or night with lights) or by machine; crop estimation is easier and more accurate. Also, although Clark is a great salesman, he and his partner at the founding of the business, Rick Jones, didn't "invent" the process. I believe it dates back to the 1930's or 1940's, probably in Germany. Finally, in reading your newsletter a few weeks ago I was astounded to read that we in California haven't had any really wet vintages since sometime in the 1970's. What about 1982, 1983, and 1989? We who were actually making wine on the North Coast then will never forget those vintages. They are tremendously difficult to manage but are great learning opportunities.

[4]

Dan ... fabulous article summing up the driving factors of this issue. I totally agree with your assessment and much of a similar one by Clark Smith in Appellation American a couple of weeks ago. However, while climate change is not the culprit in any big way, it is the vehicle behind which it can happen. Its simple, the long hang time "to wait for flavors" could not be accomplished in the climate of the 1950-1980s; today's climate allows growers and winemakers to get their flavors and 27-29 brix with leaves still on the vine! While most of this is clearly a result of "new roots, new virus-free scion wood, new trellising" as you describe so well, the style is mostly economics driven, but climate allows it to happen.

Regards,

Greg Jones

[5]

Dan Berger has once again elucidated a complex issue and practice. We should all thank him for this solidly researched, easy-to-grasp commentary.

[6]

Here Here, Dan. The system is partly to blame here since the consumers have allowed the few to determine style for the many. The entire Paradigm needs to change -- and the wine biz is a slow adopter. Fortunately, people like Gary Vaynerchuk are trying to do just that.

[7]

Dan, I really enjoyed reading your article, as I think it is the best yet at your never ending battle against this modern style of wine. But I feel I must offer a dissenting view. I find it hard to believe these consumers who are buying this stuff up like it's going out of style (which I know you wish were true) are "brainwashed". Folks purchase wine for many reasons, one of which is the recommendations of friends, gatekeepers, and critics, of which you are one. Fine. But will they buy the same wine again? Only if they like it. So you're saying that all these people are buying all this rather expensive wine because they're brainwashed? Seriously, that's a stretch. It's just a different style, not evil. Go back far enough, and wines were sweet, and that's how people liked them then, and that's what sold. Wine is a product and is market driven, a beverage like any other. If this style wasn't resonating with the market, it would quickly go away. I happen to like it!

[8]

This was a great series, and it explains a lot of what I have noticed over the last twenty years. Using Dan's wine recommendations I was able to illustrate for my wine group precisely what he has been talking about in these articles. Even the devotees to the new generation monster wines recognized what they are missing when they tasted several wines made in the classically structured style. I just hope that more winemakers get the message and buck the trend to sell out their heritage. Thanks, Dan,

[9]

Margaret is right that I didn't invent reverse osmosis. It's an amusing tale I relate in The Crossflow Comix which occurred just after WWII as a spin-off of atomic energy applications, such as the first sterile filters by Nuclepore. What I patented was the method to distill RO filtrate and recombine the alcohol-free portion back into the wine so we can avoid harming the wine and preserve its integrity (no added foreign water). This invention is now a standard method to adjust alcohol in the wine industry to uncouple wine's final alcohol from brix. It gives us a way to obtain optimum maturity. But we still need to be concerned about excessive hangtime, because balancing the alcohol doesn't remove the jammy aromas or restore the longevity Dan's talking about.

[10]

Thank you for carrying the torch on this, Dan. I'm the wine buyer for our restaurant, and all of the vendors are telling me the same thing: sommeliers buy modern-style Napa Cabs because they sell well (and at a high price), but choose high-acid, low-alcohol, low-oak, traditionally-styled wines for their own personal drinking. Graeser Winery gets it right, at least.