New video every wine retailer should see: Wine shop owner Frank Pagliaro

With my Intoxicating Conversation series I'm trying to cover all aspects of the wine industry, and right now arguably no one is more important than retailers. With restaurants closed, retail shops are your primary source of good wine and liquor, and they are busier than ever.

But that doesn't mean they don't have time for innovation. I'm impressed by some of the things Frank Pagliaro is doing, both to help his customers and to support restaurant workers.

Pagliaro is the owner of Franks Wine in Wilmington, Delaware, a fine shop that sells wine at all price levels. Frank is busier than ever right now, but he gave me 25 minutes of his time to talk about what's going on at his store.

One thing Frank is doing that other shops could consider: He is offering out-of-work bartenders, restaurant servers and others the chance to work as greeters at his store for tips. Doesn't cost him anything, and it seems to be working out for the greeters as well, as you'll hear in the video.

Wineries will want to hear what's selling, and the good news is: almost everything! Maybe it's temporary, but I think you'll want to hear Frank talking about how high-end wines are moving -- and low-end wines as well.

We don't talk about it in the video, but Frank has a second life. Sssh -- don't tell anyone: Frank Pagliaro, occasionally, is Batman.

But there is no butt-kicking in this video, though it might get a PG-13 for saucy language on promotional items. Look away, Aunt Harriet. The rest of you, check it out:

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New video: Badia a Coltibuono owner/winemaker Roberto Stucchi

I drank Chianti Classico at 9 a.m. because I had work to do. What's your excuse? There's a pandemic? Good excuse! Mine is that I had work to do ...

My Intoxicating Conversations series goes international today, as Roberto Stucchi joins me from Italy to talk about all things Chianti Classico.

We cover a number of the issues in the conversation, including the impact of global warming on Tuscany, and how he believes massal selection -- instead of trying to pick one perfect clone -- has allowed him to deal with it.

Roberto used 3 terms together that I did not believe could be used in the same sentence

We also talk about the ongoing push from some vignerons in the region toward labeling wines with subregions. I am, perhaps surprisingly, not really a fan, and I explain why in the video. Roberto counters with what he's not a fan of: the Gran Selezione category of Chianti Classicos, which was created to give the region a high end to compete with Brunello. (I used to be ambivalent about Gran Seleziones but I just reviewed them last month and they've come a long way.)

If you like this conversation, you might enjoy a tangential story Wine Searcher published over the weekend, in which I explain the nearby region of Terre di Pisa, which is on the other side of the city of Florence from Chianti Classico.

My wife and I ended up having the Badia a Coltibuono Chianti Classico shown in the video with rotisserie chicken and fried rice, and it was excellent. I confess it was also pretty good by itself at 9 a.m.

Check out the conversation below:

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Serendipity: Sauvignon Blanc day leads to a good kale recipe

Today is International Sauvignon Blanc day. Normally I ignore all these bogus holidays: I'm not going to let a marketer tell me I can't have a Manhattan on National Whiskey Sour Day. May 7 is apparently both National Homebrew Day AND National Cosmopolitan Day, and I'm not going to drink either (although if you want to have a Cosmo made with vodka from your home still, knock yourself out. Literally.)

But, like 15 other media people in the San Francisco Bay Area, I got a home delivery on Wednesday from New Zealand Winegrowers of a nice three-course seafood meal and four bottles of Sauvignon Blanc. I said I could tweet about it; nothing more. I will tweet for food -- but I'm not gonna give away a blog post THAT easily.

However. The NZ care package was the second food pickup I had on Wednesday. The first was a box of organic produce I ordered from Watsonville's Tomatero Farm. It's a good deal: $20, but you have to buy the box in advance and can't list likes or dislikes. We got some very nice strawberries, butter lettuce, baby broccoli, and other goodies. But we also got kale.

I hate kale.

Kale is like eating nutritional guilt. It's what your parents try to sneak into recipes to add vitamins to foods that would be tastier without kale. It has no redeeming virtues except that it's really good for you.

Americans in Burgundy offer a great way to buy Burgundy wines online

Burgundy residents Eleanor Garvin and Dennis Sherman of Elden Selections

Rarely will I blog about an online wine club or store. It has to be special, or I would tell you to just go to Wine-Searcher, where I am US Editor, and which puts almost all the nation's wine stores at your fingertips.

I think Elden Selections is something special. Based in Burgundy but run by Americans, Elden is an online-only wine shop that offers a relatively narrow but deep selection of Burgundies made by small producers. The company, which ships throughout the U.S., specializes in "affordable" Burgundies -- it has 30 wines under $35 -- though its strength is wines priced a little above that, about $50-$60.

Here's what I mean by narrow but deep: Elden offers wine from only 33 producers. But, from each of those producers, it offers multiple wines. Moreover, the Elden website offers the kind of context that you rarely get from Burgundy.

New video: Adam Lee of Siduri and Clarice talks about fermenting in concrete

I've been talking -- and arguing -- with Siduri founding winemaker Adam Lee for almost as long as I've been writing about wine. Fortunately both of us enjoy a good argument. Sometimes he shows me I'm not as astute as I think (check out the "before" photo in that link).

I've always enjoyed talking with Adam because he's smart, he's candid, he's willing to engage on multiple topics, and he doesn't hold a grudge. At least not against me. That I know of.

In the last few years, Adam has quietly had a major philosophical shift in his approach to winemaking, which we get into in the video.

Adam sold the Siduri brand to Jackson Family Wines a few years ago and his contract with Siduri expires in June. When I learned he was making a new Pinot Noir for Jackson Family called Root & Rubble that is fermented and aged in concrete, I wanted to talk with him about it.

I'm a fan of wines fermented in concrete, but in the U.S. it's rare for red wines. We talk about the trip he took to Châteauneuf-du-Pape that gave him the inspiration (in that region they call Grenache the Pinot Noir of the Rhône), and what he learned.

We also talk about how aquarium heaters and electric blankets are important winemaking tools. And we learn why winemakers at today's small wineries curse Thomas Jefferson.

At the end of the conversation, Adam talks about his own label Clarice. It's an interesting departure for him. Siduri has always been known for making the wines as ripe as the terroir and season demand. With Clarice, he is using two Santa Lucia Highlands vineyards known for very ripe wines and picking not only earlier: He's intentionally picking several sections of the vineyard at differing levels of ripeness on the same day. He calls it a "purposeful Pinot Noir field blend."

We had this conversation a few weeks ago. I waited to publish it until I could try the Clarice wines. They're good: the Clarice wine from Garys' Vineyard showed a complexity and restraint that I hadn't really experienced before from that very famous source of fruit-forward Pinot Noir.

I really miss conversations like this; they're one of the treats of writing and talking about wine. Hope you enjoy this conversation as well.

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New video: UC Davis enology professor Dr. Andrew Waterhouse

When I was an undergrad, my favorite lecturers felt like rock stars to me. Little did I know it felt that way to them also.

For my latest Intoxicating Conversation, I chat with UC Davis professor Dr. Andrew Waterhouse. Dr. Waterhouse is Director of the Robert Mondavi Institute of Wine & Food Science at UC Davis and he has been very patient with me over the years when I have contacted him with some goofball question.

For example, last year, after reading "The Poison Squad," a book about the earliest days of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), I wondered about something that the FDA's original chemist worried about but never researched: whether sulfites have a cumulative effect on the human body when you consume them over time.

Most people would just fret about it, write a conspiracy-theory blog post, or order a Goop product. I sent Dr. Waterhouse an email. And he answered my question! He took it very seriously, and cited some research. Here's his conclusion:

"Our bodies process 1000 mg of sulfites per day. The 10 mg or so in a glass of wine would hardly overload the system. A small extra load like this would not be expected to lead to some sort of cumulative toxicity. And, as the (National Institute of Health) paper showed, they were not able to show a reaction to sulfites even by sensitive subjects except at the highest level. 

The early toxicologists might have been concerned because the metabolic pathway for sulfites wasn’t described until the 20th century. 

On the broader issues of toxicants in our environment, I feel we should require some sort of testing before any chemical is released into our environment at significant levels. The Europeans are approaching this standard, but in the US, we allow the production of almost anything, and wait to see what happens."

So, about that professors-as-rock-stars analogy: We talk about a few interesting things in the conversation, like how UC Davis is still able to hold required-for-graduation wine-tasting classes without any actual wine tasting. (By the way, students, your professors know whether or not you're attending virtual class.) And how students' favorite class is not the same without the barbecue afterward.

But the most interesting thing, to me, is when he tells how difficult it is to lecture without a live audience. Mick Jagger would no doubt say the same thing. But what does Mick know about phenolic compounds?

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New video: Autumn Shelton, organic cannabis grower

Autumn Shelton runs a pesticide-free cannabis warehouse in Santa Barbara County. She joins me today to talk about a wide range of issues in the cannabis industry.

If you're worried about a cannabis shortage because of the pandemic, don't be. (Whew.) Gov. Gavin Newsom declared cannabis an essential industry, so they can keep growing it, which is good, because it's better than alcohol for dealing with anxiety.

Santa Barbara County is increasingly important for cannabis and Shelton explains that the reasons are some of the same terroir-based reasons that it's good for wine.

If you're fairly new to ordering cannabis online, Shelton has some advice for you. We talk about why CBD is not as effective without THC, which might make you rethink some of the glitzier products on the market. We also talk about the monthly swings in price and availability of cannabis, so you can learn when to stock up and when to wait for prices to drop.

Longtime tokers might be interested in some of the farming questions. Do you get more crop from more smaller plants, or fewer larger ones? (Actually I don't know if longtime tokers will care but I wanted to know.)

It seems like a cliché to publish this conversation on 4/20, but whatever ... I know what I plan to do later today. As for your plans, I hope watching this video is in them. Happy 4/20!

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