Between The Wines February 2024
Hidden Treasures
The Cline family has a long history of winegrowing in Sonoma County vias Cline Family Cellars. Known mostly for super value wines—as in inexpensive but delicious as well. Located at the western edge of Carneros, at some point they acquired a parcel of land in nearby Petaluma. It was not for grape growing—it was considered much too cold for grapes there—but for a family organic garden, and to store equipment. Fast forward to the ‘00s and ‘cool climate viticulture’ was the in thing and this area now known as the Petaluma Gap had a new appeal. So named due to a unique terrain that allowed pacific fog and significant accompanying winds to work all the way this far inland.
hidden Treasures Thoughts & observations Soon, savvy vintners started to take a chance and began What's New planting vineyards in the area. Critical success followed, which all led up to the establishment of the Petaluma Gap AVA in 2017. The Cline Family was among those early adopters and quotation of coinciding with the the Month: establishment of the AVA, Gust was born. Very cool (pun "Wine cheers the sad, revives the intended) wines from old, inspires the Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Syrah young, makes are all produced here. Cool weariness forget climate Syrah is the polar his toil." opposite of Syrah from say Barossa, or even Santa Barbara. --- Lord Byron The Pinot is rich, but bright & fresh. And the Chardonnay is just right. All are values in their class. Turn your guests onto something unique!
Thoughts & Observations
Between The Wines February 2024
Premiumization 2.0 We have watched with delight that Michigan restaurant openings appear to be on the rise again. The pace and quality of restaurant openings was epic in the late teens…and then March 2020 happened. Needless to say, new openings ground to a halt. But over the last 6 months, there has been a resurgence of new concepts and new openings—a great thing of course. However, we have also heard—and observed—that many restaurants are slower, i.e., doing less covers on any given night than 4 or 5 years ago. We recently noticed at a favorite spot of ours—which used to still have people waiting to be seated at 10:30 pm—that the restaurant was a bit more than half-full at 9:45. So, if a restaurant is doing less covers than in the past, a logical move would be to try to sell more to the guests you do have. But when talking wine and spirits, selling them more might not be prudent. Selling them better is a wiser path. Happily, Americans continue to grow and mature as wine drinkers, which means as their palates develop, they seek better & better wines and spirits. The bottom line is instead of selling $10, $15, $20 wines, customers are increasingly happy to pay $15, $20, or $25 a glass… happier guests and happier operators.
quotation of the Month: "Wine cheers the sad, revives the old, inspires the young, makes weariness forget his toil." --- Lord Byron
Between The Wines
What's New
February 2024
Boathouse Vineyards We all know, Michigan wine quality has soared over the last decade or so. In addition to some of the ‘old guard’— Chateau Grand Traverse, Leelanau Cellars, and St Julian (all of whom produce a wide range of good to excellent juice), there are now dozens of smaller properties producing some pretty cool stuff. Our best whites are irrefutably world-class in their class. Our best reds however have not yet reached such heights…but that might be changing.
Boathouse Vineyards has always made clean, pleasant wines. But commencing with the ’22 vintage, their new winemaker Doug Olson is on a quest to take the wines to a new level, and his resume implies he might have the chops to do it. Not only did Mr. Olson work at the prestigious DuMol winery in Sonoma; his resume also includes a stint at the renowned St. Emilion property Chateau Angelus. Cabernet Franc is Michigan’s ‘signature’ red varietal and Angelus happens to use a lot of Cabernet Franc in their magical wine. Our first look at what Doug has to offer will be here soon with the upcoming release of their 2022 ‘Provemont Red’ which is a blend of Pinot, Cab Franc, Merlot and Syrah. We’re confident this wine will represent a change in tone at Boathouse, as well as a harbinger of what Michigan can do.