Between The Wines Between The Wines march march 2023 2023
Hidden Hidden Treasures Treasures
It might be incongruous to cite this winery under the heading of ‘Hidden Treasures’ since we sell thousands of cases of their wines a year However, Hope Family Wines like most successful wine companies sells a range of wines/brands and Hope Family Wines happens to also sell the long successful value brand Liberty School (which readers may not know was a sortof joint venture with the Wagner Family of Caymus). Liberty School Cabernet way overperforms in its price range, and customers are smart so we sell tons. But there are a few other brands under their umbrella which also over-deliver: Treana, Quest, Troublemaker and Austin Hope.
A close 2nd in the values from this family is Troublemaker: a nonvintage kitchen-sink blend of things like Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre, Zin, & Petite Sirah.
We have had much success with their Treana brand as well: the super-delicious red is a blend of Cabernet and Syrah and it too is a value in its category. Then there is Quest, a Cabernet-Cab Franc blend that blows away all comers in its price range (about $25 retail). And finally, is the Austin Hope brand (Austin being the current President of the winery as well as head winemaker, overseeing all wine production). This is the brand that many of our customers are missing out on. Though Paso Robles was originally recognized as a place to grow value-type grapes when the Hopes started growing grapes there back in the 70’s, its quality reputation has grown way, way beyond that and Paso’s best can compete with the best from anywhere in California (and they are still values in their class).
hidden Treasures
Trends & observations
What's New
Quotation of the Month: “Find something you’re passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it ”
Julia Child
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Hidden Hidden Treasures Treasures
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Since the operation crushes tons and tons of grapes each harvest, it allows the winemaking team to triage the fruit so to speak, cherrypicking the best fruit to steer towards their top range Austin Hope where they produce a Cabernet, a Cabernet Reserve (and a bit of Grenache). The wines are pretty close to extraordinary, and when you consider the pricing (around $70 retail for the Cabernet Sauvignon), well, they are extraordinary. Do yourself and your customers a favor next time you need a special wine: Buy Austin Hope!
Quotation of the Month:
Julia Child
Between The Wines Between
The Wines March March 2023 2023
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“Find something you’re passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it.”
Thoughts & Thoughts & Observations Observations
Is The Biodynamic WineDrinking Calendar for Real?
Most reading this likely have at least heard of Biodynamics For those that haven’t, the short version is that it is a holistic, ecological, alternative to traditional farming. Some pseudo-science and esoteric practices that follow the phases of the moon. Developed by Rudolph Steiner in the 1920’s it was partially inspired to counter the rising ‘industrialization’ of farming, including fertilizers. Some people think its right up there with horoscopes and Ouija Boards (its protocols include burying a cow horn full of dung during a full moon after all) but there are many, many (hundreds, maybe thousands) of top-flight wineries around the world that follow the practice: Michel Chapoutier, Tony Soter, Domaine Huet, and even the Domaine de La Romanee-Conti among them. These leaders cannot all be wrong.
But apparently the Biodynamic calendar doesn’t apply only to the cycle of the vine; once bottled, wines too ebb & flow with the cycles of the moon, at least some say. Maria Thun was a researcher and an authority on biodynamics. At one point, she decided to combine what she knew of biodynamics with a very highly regarded planting calendar (called the Rulni Calendar) and the pseudo-scientists ran with it. Our pragmatic side says it’s a bunch of hooey.
But our realistic side thinks there is something to it. We have all enjoyed a certain wine, only to be less enthralled by a follow-up bottle. Traditionally we would attribute it to ‘bottle variation’ (old adage in the wine biz: ‘there are no great wines; only great bottles’). But as wine peddlers, we will sometimes taste the same wine from different bottles 8 or 10 times a week and by golly, they sometimes show differently.
Between The Wines Between The Wines march march 22023 023
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Between The Wines Between The Wines
march march 22023 023
Kosta Browne
In the boom times for California wine in the 90’s and 00’s, it seems like there was a new Napa Cabernet brand every week. And it also seemed that all of them seemed to sell well. High flying consultants were part of the formula as well It was not uncommon to tell a customer: ‘we have this new Cab, its called blah blah, Michele Rolland is their consultant, it got 95 points from Parker and they only made 500 cases’, and voila, it was in Selling Pinot Noir was quite different. First, though coastal Pinot Noir was starting to boom too, it was on a much smaller base, and they didn’t kick these wines off with the pomp & circumstance that the Napa folks were inclined to do. Much lower key, these vintners drove pickups instead of Range Rovers. More often than not, they were typically the winemakers too…no consultants necessary. But most importantly, their audience was different too: Pinot Noir (generally speaking) is lighter than Cabernet, more elegant and nuanced, less age-worthy as well. Cabernet drinkers like the power that grape can deliver, whereas Pinot drinkers liked subtlety. But then came a new breed of Pinot Noir producers that started making Pinot Noir for Cabernet drinkers: powerful, rich, extracted renditions of Pinot Noir. Some Pinot purists we know called them Pinot Syrah. On the leading edge of these showstopping Pinot Noirs was Kosta Browne
Founded in 1997 by Dan Kosta and Michael Brown, their early vintages relied on very ripe, sugar rich grapes which led to highly extracted Pinot Noir, which led to massive critical acclaim If there were any Pinot Noir producers whose wines enjoyed the cult status of things like Screaming Eagle or Harlan, Kosta Brown and Williams Selyem were it. The good news, even though the style of their wines might not be ‘classic’, it brought a lot of new drinkers under the Pinot Noir tent. After their 2009 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir was named as Wine Spectator’s #1 wine of the year in 2011, it got crazy So crazy that they decided to cash in and sold to a private investment group in 2015. Then---the good news Duckhorn Wine Company purchased the brand from that group in 2018 and now we get to bring the wines to you. As tastes and fashions change, so too has the original style of Kosta Browne The wines are much more like Pinot should be: rich for sure, but fresher, more balanced, and with gobs of complexity… serious Pinot Noir that appeals to a wine audience. They are still in fairly high demand/short supply mode, but the wines are worth the effort to acquire. Do yourself a favor
