Mother Nature punishes hang time

Mother Nature stepped in yesterday and said, "Enough with the hang time!"

"I've had it with these over-extracted fruit bomb wines that don't represent the good earth I've given you people," Nature said. "Look what I've given you: a fruit that turns itself into wine. All I ask is that you pick the grapes at their proper time. And what do you do? You walk around these vineyards with these shiny sticks of metal, measuring sugar. Birds know when the grapes are ripe. Why don't you just watch them?"

Displeased, Mother Nature sent 4 inches of rain to Northern California on Tuesday, rewarding grape growers who had picked already, and punishing those who had hoped for another two weeks of ripening so they could make bigger bodied, more concentrated wines.

Those growers will now have to contend with botrytis, watery grapes, muddy conditions that will make harvesting difficult and more expensive, and the potential for even more rain and havoc. Some might even lose the crops they had been waiting for.

"Put that in your brix refractometer," Nature said. "It's October 14, people. It's time to be indoors in the winery, letting my native yeasts enjoy the fruits of your summer's labor. It's time for the vines to shed their leaves and prepare for a restful winter's nap. Why are you keeping them awake for an extra month? How would you like it if I did that to you?"

She pointed out that many veteran winemakers and grapegrowers had finished picking well before Tuesday. "Theirs are the wines I like to drink myself," Nature said. "Those are wines with elegance, wines worthy of the name, not boozy fruit juices. Even Bacchus turns his nose up at some of these 16-percent Syrahs: I've seen him do it. And normally that guy will drink anything."

When asked her favorite wine, Mother Nature said that she doesn't play favorites with grapes, saying, "They are all my children, in a manner of speaking. What I like is when their shepherds let the grapes express themselves. I can't stand opening a bottle of Pinot Noir that tastes like Syrah, or a Chardonnay that tastes like melted butter. When I get one of those, sometimes it gets me so hot under the collar that I forget myself, and there's 110 degree temperatures in Napa for days."

I pointed out that she wasn't helping the situation with such tantrums, as summer heat makes the grapes produce more sugar that turns into alcohol. She gave me a glare that froze a bottle of Irish whiskey I had sitting nearby.

"Haven't you read Rudolf Steiner?" Nature said. "There's so much goofiness in there, but he gets the general idea -- a farm should be in balance, and if the vines have sunk their roots deep into the soil and are in healthy balance themselves, then the wines will be in balance. It's really not that hard. I took care of things for millenia before reverse osmosis and spinning cones, and it worked pretty well."

I asked if she was done with Northern California, and she said, "For now. I've got business elsewhere. There are some mobile home parks on the East Coast that aren't recycling their trash, but instead are just tossing it amongst my trees. I'm going to see about sending them a little swirly wind. But don't worry, I never stay out of touch for long. I love California; you can tell by the bounty it gives you every year. Just don't mess it up."

Tasting Malbec by telephone

Though it's a solitary sensation, wine tasting is usually a communal experience. Not many people, even professionals, open a half-dozen bottles to sample by themselves -- it's always good to hear a second opinion.

Yesterday I tasted 8 Argentine Malbecs imported by Vine Connections. This is not a noteworthy event on a wine writer's schedule -- last week alone I had about 15 similar comparative tastings. What made this unusual was an Internet and telephone conference with Mendel winemaker Roberto de la Mota and Vine Connections co-founder Ed Lehrman joining from Mendoza, Argentina.

While fun, the tasting showed me a flaw in the format: nobody offered an opinion on the wines other than Roberto and Ed, even though we all had chat capability. What's the point of tasting together if you're not talking about the wines?

I think the reason is that even slightly negative opinions look much more harsh when written in a chat. I invited a friend over to taste the wines with me, and he winced at the tone of the questions I did ask, none of which would have sounded tough in person. Looking at Roberto and Ed trapped in a tiny window on our computer screens made us feel responsible for their happiness or discomfort. What worked best were softball questions, like "Isn't it great to work with Malbec?"

The teleconference must have saved a fortune, though: To get 15 wine writers/bloggers/radio hosts together with these guys ordinarily requires renting a restaurant or other space, paying for Roberto's airfare and hotel rooms, and other incidental event expenses. Instead, they just had to send us all free bottles of the wine (There's my FTC disclosure! Happy, Mr. President?) and buy a conference on WebEx. So maybe it's the wave of the future.

If so, I encourage people to be more brutally honest, even at the risk of discomforting the faces on the screen. My friend and I, with the phone on mute, freely shared our opinions on the wines, and that was much more informative to me than the conference itself.

I have great respect for Vine Connections -- they have good taste in sake, their other main product besides Argentine Malbec. I don't doubt that their Malbec portfolio is as good as it gets.

So here's a brutally honest opinion. This tasting solidified for me a feeling I've had for a while about Argentine Malbec -- it's a big-bodied but often one-dimensional wine that best serves as a lower-cost replacement for enormous New World-style Cabernet Sauvignons. Plus, the cheaper Malbecs are often better than the really expensive ones because tarting it up -- literally, as both guys dodged repeated questions about added acid -- doesn't give it anything but more oak flavor and even less complexity.

I know this opinion makes me an outlier. Argentine Malbec is one of the trendiest red wines in the world, and this tasting explained why. If you like big black fruit, beefy mouthfeel and soft tannins -- so many people do -- you'll love these. I'm a freak; I want something more out of wine: balance and complexity. Only one of the 8 wines we tasted gave me that, and ironically it was the cheapest of all.

I should really have shared this opinion on the closed-circuit live chat so we could have debated it, but I was afraid of hurting Ed's and Roberto's feelings. Instead, I'm posting out here on the open-water Internet. Surely that won't bother them at all.

Tasting notes

La Posta Angel Paulucci Vineyard Lujan de Cuyo Malbec 2007 ($18)
Black plum flavors with some earthiness in the aroma. Plenty of acidity on the short finish, but it tastes acidified. Very soft tannins. A little hot. 87

Mendel Lujan de Cuyo Malbec 2007 ($27)
Made from 80-year-old vines on ungrafted rootstock, this is an easy wine to like. It delivers blackberry and black plum fruit, some pretty rose petal notes on the nose and a bit of sandy minerality. Medium body, soft tannins. Good value as a Cab alternative. 89

Susana Balboa Lujan de Cuyo Malbec 2007 ($27)
Black raspberry and black plum flavors covered up by oak, particularly on the finish. 87

La Posta Pizzella Vineyard Uco Valley Malbec ($18)
I saved these bottles for dinner (lamb chops) and, while this wasn't my very favorite wine at the time of the tasting, it turned out to be the only one I actually wanted to drink with food. Very different from the others: it's spicy, with more red fruit character -- red and black plums and plenty of cinnamon. The Pizzellas, who own the vineyard, are both physical education teachers who must be pleased by the restrained 13.5% alcohol. Both La Posta wines had much less new oak than the others, and I think that's an advantage. 89

Mendel Finca Remota Uco Valley Malbec 2006 ($115)
This wine is brought to you by the worship of extremes. De la Mota let the grapes hang 20 days longer than all of his other grapes. He aged the wine for 12 months in new oak barrels, then transferred it to different new oak barrels for another 6 months -- 200% new oak. What does it taste like? What do you think it tastes like? Ripe blackberry licked off a brand-new oak board. Perhaps the oak will settle one day, but that day is not soon. While I could never identify it blind as Malbec or Argentine, I must acknowledge that it does have good fruit and a pretty floral note on the nose. 88

Luca Uco Valley Malbec ($36)
Laura Catena named this wine after her son. It's fairly tannic with cherry flavor, a note of milk chocolate, and a hint of violet in the aroma. 88

Tikal Amorio Uco Valley Malbec ($33)
Ernesto Catena named this wine after his son. Seeing a pattern? I like the blueberry fruit, the note of milk chocolate and the decent acidity from the midpalate on. But it's a little hot, and there may be major-league baseball bats that weigh less than this bottle. 87

Mendel Unus Lujan de Cuyo 2006 ($50)
Without food, this blend of 70% Malbec and 30% Cabernet Sauvignon was quite good: Ripe blackberry flavors with strong structure and interesting violet notes, though it is oaky on the finish (16 months in 100% new oak will do that). It's big-bodied and fleshy, but the nose is pretty. I tried it with lamb chops, though, and it was just too overbearing. This is a good wine to use as a cocktail, and probably will be at its best 3-5 years from now. It's also better the second day it's open than the first. 89

Bordeaux's 2009: California Dreamin'

Everyone in Bordeaux is throwing out lofty comparisons for the 2009 vintage.

Most bypass 2005, considered the best vintage of this decade, and are comparing it instead to 1989 or even 1982, the superb year that established Robert Parker as the world's pre-eminent critic because he was the first to say the wines were great.

Christian Moueix, who runs Petrus and a number of other great properties on the Right Bank, even invoked 1947, one of the most legendary years of the last century.

I'm a professional skeptic. In California, every year we hear about what a great vintage it's going to be, and you have to filter the hype to hear the real message. But I believe the Bordeaux vintners for a number of reasons. It's clearly a good year, and likely a great one. The question is just how good/great/life-changing.

The second question is, what will that do to prices? Bordeaux wineries, unlike almost every other winery in the world, don't really set their own prices. They will wait for Parker to rate their nascent wines next spring -- I'm sure he's licking his chops already about tasting these wines -- and then most will turn the job of selling over to negociants.

In 2005, a very good year, prices were set so high that the wines didn't sell as quickly as everyone expected. Prices were lower for the next two vintages, for good reason, but those wines are also selling slowly because the '05s, even if more expensive, are clearly better than the '06s and '07s. Pricing the '09s will also be complicated because '08 appears to be a better vintage than the previous two years.

But I digress. Back to quality.

Early Saturday morning, rain fell fairly hard in Bordeaux for the first time in almost a month. But the rain had been forecast for a week, and most vintners were well-prepared. The summer and early fall have been so warm -- it was t-shirt weather all last week -- that a great deal of Merlot, which is much more susceptible to rain than Cabernet, has already been picked. Right Bank vintners who have high proportions of Merlot are going to have great '09s regardless of what happens weather-wise the rest of the year.

That said, the universal view of a Bordeaux vintage is set by the first-growths in the Medoc, where Cabernet Sauvignon is king. From their perspective, '09 is looking good but still not done. The rain Saturday wasn't long or hard enough to cause serious problems, but a few more days might.

However, Bordeaux wineries have come a long way technologically, and in knowledge base, from the way wine was made in 1989.

Yes, they've known on which soils to plant which grapes for decades. But vineyard management was really lackadaisical -- and chemically based -- in the '80s even on top properties. Organic and biodynamic techniques are now widespread, even at non-certified vineyards.

And in the winery, comparing today to the '80s is like comparing a flat-screen high-definition TV to a giant cathode ray tube model. Places that use cement tanks for fermentation today, and there are many, do it by choice, not because "that's what we've always done" or "we don't have the money to change."

I saw the most amazing sorting device I've ever seen employed at a half-dozen wineries, something so incredible I plan a separate post just about it. But even the idea of careful sorting and gentle handling of grapes wasn't universal 20 years ago.

The one burr in all this optimism for the '09s is alcohol level. The summer has been long and warm, with plenty of sun. The '09s will be good/great/super?, but many will be over 14 percent alcohol and some outliers will top 15 percent, even if they don't admit it on the label (there's a 1 percent fudge factor before penalties set in.)

In fact, if you want a quick comparison that no Frenchman made, Bordeaux had a near-California summer in 2009. It's a wine fan's intellectual dream to imagine Cabernet on Bordeaux's outstanding soils with Northern California's excellent weather. This year it may have actually come to pass.

Bubbly that's better the next day

Wine is a mystery sometimes.

Last week I opened a bottle of Freixenet Elyssia Cava Pinot Noir Brut (the one on the right, $17). It was really ordinary, even boring -- maybe a hint of strawberry, but essentially it just tasted like bubbles, not even really pink bubbles.

It's also slightly dishonest, as it includes 15% Trepat. That's legal for a wine labelled Pinot Noir, but it's not what you expect, and moreover you have to get the press notes to even know that's the case, as the bottle says "Pinot Noir" once on the front and thrice on the back with no mention of any other grapes.

But it's pink bubbly, which just happens to be perhaps my favorite wine type, so I had a glass with a shrimp/crab risotto and some grilled tuna, closed the bottle and stuck it in the refrigerator.

The next night I had a sudden event worth celebrating and there was this bottle, right there. So I poured a glass, figuring it was all about the bubbles anyway.

Suddenly this boring wine had evolved into a really worthy pink bubbly, with delightful strawberry and cherry character, a noticeable brioche/yeasty note, an interesting earthy undertone, and a surprisingly long finish. Wow! It wasn't just my happy event, either -- I tried some a few hours later, and it was just as impressive, suddenly worthy of being included even with fine pink Champagnes.

I can't explain it. I sealed it well, but didn't bother using Private Preserve or any other preservation device. It gave off enough CO2 to protect it from oxidation anyway -- it was still quite bubbly the second day.

The upshot is, the first day, the wine wasn't worth its $17 asking price. The second day, it was worth more than double it. I can't advise people to buy Elyssia, open it, pour out a couple glasses, reseal it and drink it the next day, because your results may vary. But if you do have a bottle, don't give up on it right away.

Bordeaux dreams of a "perfect vintage" in 2009

It's still way too early to tell, but many Bordeaux vintners believe 2009 could be a great vintage, on par with 1989. This is particularly true on the Right Bank because Merlot and Cabernet Franc, the dominant grapes there, ripen earlier than Cabernet Sauvignon, and many have already been picked.

The shadow on the vintage forecast is rain expected on Thursday night. Wineries are deciding today whether or not to finish picking beforehand.

The region has had warm weather most of the summer, but without the oppressive heat that roasted the grapes in 2003. So far rain has not been a problem during harvest, though Thursday is circled in red on everyone's mental calendar. But some wineries are already finished harvesting.

Jean-Francois Quenin, owner of Chateau de Pressac, is one who is waiting. Quenin, who is also president of the Conseil des Vins de Saint-Emilion (a thankless job), says he can be patient because his winery is not owned by an outside company.

"If you have to answer to somebody, you pick now," Quenin says. "You don't take the risk. It's still warm, and if it rains, I could lose 30% of my crop (to rot) in a day, just like that. But I want it to get a little riper. Nobody can fire me if I'm wrong."

Over at Chateau Cheval Blanc, now controlled by the LVMH luxury corporation, enologist Pierre Olivier Clouet scoffs at the idea that picking decisions will be made safely.

"The pressure here is for quality," says Clouet (left), who is just 29 years old.

That said, the weatherman is still king. Clouet says, "We want to wait on one plot of Cabernet Franc until Friday. But we are going to get 20 mm of rain on Thursday. So we will not wait."

It's not corporate pressure, Clouet says, but a quality decision: "If you wait two days for more ripeness and it rains, you have to wait two more weeks." That said, Clouet is also very high on the '09 vintage, saying the fruit picked so far is so perfect, "We don't even have to sort it." But they do anyway, of course. The photo at the top is of Cheval Blanc workers doing just that, and those grapes do look round, ripe and, well, perfect.

I must add that one's definition of how great this vintage is may depend on how big you like Bordeaux. At Troplong-Mondot, where half the Merlot (but none of the Cab Franc) has been picked already, I tasted a sample of just-crushed grapes that tasted like sugar water. Proprietor Xavier Pariente says it has potential alcohol of more than 16 percent, which would be outrageous even for a property known for big wines. He plans to lower the alcohol percentage of the overall blend, but it may end up over 15 percent.

But Troplong-Mondot is always big: "We are the latest to pick," Pariente says. "Last year we picked on the first of November."

I haven't yet run into a vintner who doesn't think '09 will be excellent, and I believe them: Bordeaux's problem in bad years is getting the grapes ripe enough, and that's not going to be a issue for anyone. Pariente, though, was the most enthusiastic of all: "Climatically, this year is a dream. These conditions have never been seen before. It's perfect in every way. When we needed water, we had water. The days were warm, the nights were cool. We needed a little bit of rain in September, we got it. We needed some wind, and we got it. Every condition where we needed a little bit of a shift, we got it."

It is still too early to tell. But this just might be a very special year in Bordeaux.

Dry Creek Valley Zinfandels

A decade ago, I drank a lot more Zinfandel.

I've changed, but Zinfandel has changed more. No grape has put on more weight in California. It's driven to some degree by nature: Zinfandel ripens unevenly and to get a whole cluster ripe sometimes requires letting some of the grapes get overripe. But it's also driven by the more-extreme-is-better philosophy that infects American cuisine in everything from hot sauce to vegetarianism.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I attended Zintopia in Dry Creek Valley a couple weeks ago. Dry Creek Valley is known for Zin, and has some of the oldest vines in the country. Many farmers have embraced organic or biodynamic farming (that's Lou Preston of Preston Vineyards, a fully integrated organic farm, in the photo.)

As a group the wines were pretty good, though subtlety is not in vogue. Most are over 15% alcohol, and I heard one vintner brag repeatedly that his wine is a good, balanced food wine because it was "only" 14.5%. You guys need to get out more.

That said, it's not fair to judge Zinfandel by the standards of Syrah or Grenache because its natural alcohol level is higher. And that's part of the charm for its fans: when good, Zinfandel is a delightful blast of fruit with some complexity, manageable tannins and a kick like a mule.

I've listed my tasting notes in alphabetical order, but I'll cut to the chase: the '06 Sbragia Gino's Vineyard was amazing, a swoon-worthy wine, that shows that great Zinfandel really can be both full-fruited and balanced. I was also very high on the '07 Mauritson, and there were more than a half-dozen others that I'd be happy to have a bottle of -- albeit more likely while watching the baseball playoffs than with dinner.

Tasting notes

Alderbrook Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2007
Ripe blackberry, decent acidity. Jammy on the finish. 88

Amphora Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2006
Quite tannic and firm, with blackberry fruit up front and pretty raspberry on the finish. Since it evolves so much in one taste, it would be interesting to see how much a whole bottle evolves. It's 15.4% alcohol, so find out while sharing. 90

Del Carlo Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2005
This is the first release from this small winery run by cousins of the famous Teldeschi grape-growing family. There's nice bright cherry fruit, some bramble, and reasonably good balance for a 15.5% alcohol wine. Nice debut; let's see where they go from here. 89

Diablita Sonoma County Zinfandel 2006
Tightly wound wine with raspberry and chile flavors. Nice label, but some will prize it for the 13.9% alcohol alone. 87

Ferrari-Carano Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2006
This is less a Zinfandel than an international-style red, but it's a good one, with vibrant cherry fruit and vanilla flavor from 18 months in oak. Includes 12% Petite Sirah and 5% Carignane. 88

Forchini Proprietor's Reserve Estate Grown Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2007
Nice dark cherry, blackberry and dark chocolate flavors, with mouthfeel slightly on the syrupy side, probably from letting those grapes hang just a couple days more. 15.5% alcohol. 89

Gustafson Dry Creek Mountain Vineyard Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2007
Intense cherry fruit flavor with some herbaceousness from some of the highest-elevation vines in the region. A little hot on the finish. These are young vines from a new winery (FYI: a beautiful place to visit), and it will be interesting to see where they go with this in the future. 88

Hawley Ponzo Vineyard Russian River Valley Zinfandel 2007
A ringer at a Dry Creek festival, this dense, mouthfilling wine has lots of blackberry and vanilla with notes of coffee. If you like wines powerful and intense, you'll like this. 15.1% alcohol 91

Kokomo Mounts Vineyard Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2007
Winemaker Erik Miller says the Mounts Vineyard grapes are naturally low in acidity. I wouldn't have believed him if I hadn't tasted his other wines. Persistent, intense boysenberry fruit is the good point; low acidity and slight sweetness are the bad points. This is not a food wine, but if you like boysenberry -- I know I do -- it would be pleasant to drink by itself. 15.1% alcohol. 89

Kokomo Timber Crest Vineyards Winemaker's Reserve Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2007
Ripping raspberry flavor with plenty of acidity -- couldn't be more different from Kokomo's other Zin. Perfumey, pretty nose and fine balance meant my eyes bugged out when I saw it was 15.8% alcohol. It's funny, it's a food wine that you can't drink too much of, so maybe it's a food wine for carnivores on a diet. 91

Kokomo Perotti Vineyards Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2007
Tangy raspberry and citrusy flavors with notes of cherry. Another good food wine despite the 15.5% alcohol. 90

Mauritson Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2007
One of the most interesting wines of the vintage. Lots of raspberry and cherry fruit with notes of anise and white pepper. Complex wine with a long finish. 15.1% alcohol. 92

Mazzoco Smith Orchard Reserve Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2007
This wine is almost a main course in itself: peppered lamb with blackberry sauce. It's very peppery with strong smoked meat flavors that cover up the blackberry fruit until the finish. 15.7% alcohol. 91

Mill Creek Beacham Downey Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2006
A tannic wine that's one of the few Zinfandels that seems to need cellar time. Cherry and raspberry fruit are tied with chile notes to a strong backbone. Try it in 2011. 14.7% alcohol. 89

Optima Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2005
Initial raspberry and chile flavors segue into a savory, smokey note on the somewhat tannic finish. Give it plenty of air and consider another year in the cellar. 14.5% alcohol. 90

Pedroncelli Mother Clone Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2007
Rich blackberry fruit with a mouthfeel that starts out slightly syrupy, as all the acidity comes in a rush at the end, like Underdog coming to save the day. 14.7% alcohol. 88

Ridge East Bench Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2007
This is the 2nd vintage of a new nationally available Zin from Ridge, made from 7-year-old vines that had been blended into Lytton Springs. It's highly promising: very savory, with smokey meat, black currant and fresh herb notes and a rugged, tannic finish. The wine and the vineyard both need some time to settle down. 15.4% alcohol. 89

Ridge Lytton Springs Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2007
Consistently one of the best Zins from the area, and this vintage is no disappointment. A smooth, powerful, yet not over-the-top wine with blackberry fruit, smoked meat notes and some pretty floral aromas. Gotta love that 14.4% alcohol; if Ridge can keep it well under 15%, why can't everybody else? 91

Sbragia Gino's Vineyard Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2006 ($28)
Winemaker Ed Sbragia's son Adam says, "This is the wine I grew up drinking." I could have called Child Protective Services, but one sip of this and I forgot everything else. This was easily my favorite Zin of the day. A very perfumey, fruity aroma with notes of lavender and raspberry leads into a melange of blackberry and cherry fruit, with excellent balance keeping it food-friendly. If there's such a thing as a Pinot Noir-like Zin, this is it. 94

Talty Estate William Talty Vineyards Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2005
Subtle for Zin, with red currant and raspberry flavors that leave you wanting another sip. 91

Talty Estate William Talty Vineyards Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2006
Initially tart, with red currant and raspberry flavors that coalesce into pretty raspberry fruit on the finish. 90


Not rated
Bella Lilly Hill Estate Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2007
Collier Falls Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2005
Dutcher Crossing Maple Vineyard Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2007
Everett Ridge Old Vine Zinfandel 2006
Mazzoco Maple Vineyard Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2007
Moni Claire Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2006
Moni Claire Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2007
Mounts Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2007
Rued Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2006
Wilson Molly's Vineyard Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2007
Wilson Sawyer Vineyard Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2007
Wilson Carl's Reserve Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2007

Wine grapes ripe for eating

California's wine grape growers are having a terrible year. Not with the weather -- there have been the usual occasional challenges (heat, rain), but so far it doesn't look like 2009 will stand out as a great or terrible vintage.

No, the problem is selling their grapes. Farmers without long-term contracts are finding that prices have plummeted compared to 2008, which wasn't a great year for them either. And many grapes are simply going unsold.

So what's a farmer to do? Some might make their own wine. Bottled wine has a much higher profit margin -- a similar bad year for grape sales is how the Seven Deadly Zins guys got into winemaking. But consulting winemaker Jeff Gaffner (Black Kite Cellars, profile here) says most farmers will end up spending more money to produce a product they have no idea how to sell, at a time when consumers are trading down and distributors are slashing prices. Gaffner says growers without winery contracts might be better off simply leaving the grapes on the vine to rot this year.

Here's a unique solution taken by one Central Valley grower: sell the wine grapes to Whole Foods as eating grapes.

Usually we don't eat wine grapes because they have less liquid than table grapes, large seeds, and often more tannic flavors. But there's no reason you can't eat wine grapes, and if you've ever visited a vineyard during harvest season, a highlight is pulling some Chardonnay or Zinfandel or whatever grapes right off the vine and chowing down (spitting out the seeds of course).

We bought some Carignan and Grenache and are enjoying them now. They're sweet, and I don't mind seeds in my table grapes; it makes them feel less industrial.

Financially this makes a lot of sense. Grenache and Carignan in the Central Valley both sold for an average of under $250 per ton to wineries last year. As table grapes, at $2.69 per pound, consumers are paying more than $5300 per ton. I don't know how much markup Whole Foods is getting, and I'm sure it's considerable, but I'll be these enterprising farmers are getting more than $250 per ton for these.

If the Soghomonians and Whole Foods are successful, look for more wine-to-table grapes in grocery stores next year. White Zinfandel saved old Zin vines from destruction; maybe table grapes can do the same.