Between The Wines June Edition

ISSUE #126

Between The Wines

GREAT LAKES WINE & SPIRITS June 2024

Hidden Treasures In this newsletter you can expect:

Tony Soter was one of the early ‘wine whisperers’ in Napa Valley, hanging his hat in the 80’s and 90’s at Spottswoode, Shafer, Dalle Valle, and Araujo to name a few. He also founded Etude winery during that period, as well as purchasing a little vineyard in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Around the turn of the millennium, Tony sold Etude and doubled down on Oregon—where wife Michelle hailed from. His ‘little vineyard’ turned out not to be the ideal spot, so —flush with cash from the Etude sale—he purchased Mineral Springs Ranch in the Yamhill Carlton AVA… and he's never looked back.

Mineral Springs Ranch is now farmed biodynamically, where Tony produces exquisite Pinot Noir AND one of America’s greatest sparkling wines. Additionally, he produces several single site wines in his ‘Origin Series’ from several of Willamette’s sub-AVA’s from like-minded growers---all very reasonably priced considering the quality of the juice.

And last but not least, in 2009 Tony founded Planet Oregon wines—a Willamette Valley appellated Pinot Noir that is one of the state’s supreme values. All organic fruit, very sustainable with certifications from Demeter to CCOF, to Salmon Safe and virtually every other responsible vintner certification out there.

A portion of all sales is donated to several environmental organizations.

After 40 + years in the business…we think he knows what he’s doing!

Hidden Treasures

What’s New

Thoughts & Observations

What’s New? A Wine We Love Interestingly, one of our very favorite Napa Cabernet producers is Larkmead Vineyards. The wines are extraordinary —every one of them—and its among the most beautiful properties in Wine Country. And one of our favorite cool, outstanding and slightly nerdy wine producers in all of California is Massican Wines. We say interestingly because Massican owner/winemaker is Dan Petroski…who happened to be winemaker at Larkmead for several years. We guess its sorta like loving the food at your favorite restaurant, and then you discover a new favorite place…only to find out their new chef is the person that was chef at the first favorite. Talent is talent.

This feature is too short to go into great detail the path that Dan took to get to Massican, but his old marketing background surely helps his highly sophisticated marketing for this fairly small brand. Though he refers to his product as ‘Mediterranean’, the wines he produces are mostly a nod to the wines of Friuli Italy: Sauvignon Blanc, Ribolla Gialla, Tocai Friulano, as well as bits of Fiano, Greco, Pinot Bianco…and a bit of Chardonnay.

The wines are all ‘varietally correct’, and all share a brightness and freshness rarely seen in California wines. And it is not just us that are impressed: He was San Francisco Chronicle’s ‘Winemaker of the Year’ in 2017 (a big deal out there), Food and Wine magazine’s ‘Innovator of the Year’ in 2022, and made the Wine Spectator’s ‘Top 100’ list. These are no-brainer wines to drink and to sell. So much so that E & J Gallo purchased Massican last year in yet another move to put some cherries on top of their portfolio sundae. Because Massican is a cherry.

These limited production wines will be arriving soon. You’ll want some.

Thoughts & Observations Expand Your Horizons About a dozen years ago, famed wine writer Jancis Robinson came out with an amazing book called ‘Wine Grapes’ In it she explores 1368 grapes that are used around the planet to produce wine commercially, and she acknowledges she probably missed 500+. Admittedly 1200 of those 1368 are rarely seen, with limited acreage and sometimes limited appeal.

But that leaves 168! We pose this question to our readers: How many varietals do you have in your repertoire? Of course everyone reading this has tried Cabernet, Chardonnay, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Zinfandel and Moscato. Probably too, Syrah, Chenin Blanc, Semillon, Gewurztraminer, Gruner Veltliner, Pinot Blanc, Sangiovese, and Tempranillo. But what about Nerello Mascalese, Pelaverga, Aglianico, Mourvedre, Perricone, Tannat, Poulsard, Trousseau or Mencia? We could go on and on.

Of course, there’s a reason that first group (the classics) dominate the wine business —and most people’s wine drinking—they make delicious wines, plus they are fairly adaptable: they all perform ok to very good in a wide range of environments. But there’s also a reason that these ‘heirloom’ varietals continue to exist: in some environments, the classics don’t do well— Sicily is a bit hot and dry for Chardonnay & Cabernet for example. Conversely, in some cases a local grape has acclimated to its environment over thousands of years.

Using Sicily as an example again, Nero d’Avola can handle the scorching heat in the Noto area and the wines retain some acidity and are not 16% alcohol…Cabernet would be fried. Mother nature wins again.

Next time you see a wine/varietal you’ve never heard of…buy it!

eek Wine G GREAT LAKES WINE & SPIRITS

313.453.2200

www.glwas.com

Find us on Social