A conversation with Davis Bynum

Davis Bynum on a visit to his former winery, now Thomas George Estates

At age 86, Davis Bynum the man has become an eponymous wine brand that will most likely outlive him. Not only that, the nation's biggest wine brand in retail sales was named after his feet.

He lives in Healdsburg, but still visits his old winery, once named for him, now called Thomas George Estates. (Read my column about that new winery at Wine Review Online; sorry, the reviews are behind their pay wall.)

I met him on a warm summer day for sandwiches, a bottle of Thomas George Sauvignon Blanc, and some stories about what it was like to sell California Pinot Noir in the 1970s.

Jeremy Baker, who owns and manages Thomas George, warned me that Bynum is slowing down and that our conversation might be short. But once Bynum got to telling stories, he didn't stop for two hours. Here are a few.

"I was in the infantry in World War II. I went in in 1943. They sent me to UCLA for nine months to study engineering. I think when they found out how stupid most of us were they realized it was a bad idea to convert an English major into engineering. They folded the outfit and I went into the mortar outfit."

Why aren't there more sparkling wine producers? Taxes.

California had 2,347 wineries in 2009.

How many of those make sparkling wine? I think I can count them on my fingers.

There have been new big-money investments all over the state. Napa Valley no longer has the franchise, or even the lead, on $20 million winery projects. But is there a new Schramsberg, Domaine Carneros or J? Not that I know of.

You might think the reason for this is that Americans still don't drink enough sparkling wine. It accounted for only 4.6% of U.S. wine sales in 2010, according to the Gomberg-Fredrikson Report.

But are 4.6% of the wineries in this country bubbly makers? Are there 100 sparkling wine producers in Calfornia? I wish.

Moreover, the category is booming, as 2010 sales were up 10% over the previous year. Maybe all those years of telling Americans that bubbly is great any day with any meal -- or by itself -- are finally paying off.

But are any of the major wine companies -- Constellation, Gallo, the Wine Group, Bronco -- pouncing in to capitalize? Not that I'm aware of. Everybody's into slightly fizzy Muscat; a bottle of Yellow Tail Muscat arrived at my door last week, which means the Muscat boom is about to hit a backlash. But traditional-method bubbly remains the province of a handful of players.

This is stunning when you think about the number of newbie fools optimists who think they're going to make their living on Syrah. In fact, I can name more new wineries making Ribolla Gialla than I can those making sparkling wine.

There's a hidden reason that savvy businessmen like the Wine Group know, but the rest of us wouldn't consider: taxes.

Louis Jadot "accepts the vintage"

Louis Jadot winemakers Frederic Barnier (left) and Jacques Lardiere

My most recent column at Wine Review Online sprung from a single sentence, one I have been repeating (mostly in disbelief) ever since I heard it: "We accept the conditions of the vintage."

What that means is the head winemaker at Louis Jadot, Jacques Lardiere, would rather make a lesser wine that's true to the vintage conditions than change the house style and make a wine that might taste better. It's a remarkable philosophy -- perhaps the crux of Burgundy -- and unimaginable in California, and I invite you to visit Wine Review Online to read what else he says about it.

Lardiere brought some 2009 barrel samples with him that Louis Jadot expects to release at the end of the year. It's hard to evaluate barrel samples in France, let alone when they have been abruptly bottled and flown halfway around the globe. I won't rate them, but I'll give you an idea of what they tasted like when I tried them.

The New York Times attacks Mike Thompson

To understand the New York Times story on Congressman Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena) that ran Monday, you don't need to look further than the first quote.

“Clearly, he has a personal interest in what he is advocating for,” said Craig Wolf, president of the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America, which has been in a dispute with wine producers over the past year. “And the ethics rules in Congress say you are not supposed to do these kinds of things.” 

The story is a classic political piece in which one side of a dispute uses a gullible newspaper to weaken the other side.

The article does expose one thing Thompson shouldn't be doing, and I'll get to that. The writer ignores an obvious area for investigation -- a real smoking gun -- and I'll get to that too.

What the article misses is perspective on Thompson's role in advocating for wine producers in Congress. He's not doing it because he owns a vineyard; he's doing it because it's his job, and he would be voted out of office if he didn't.

Moreover, the reason we as a society don't like government officials investing in the industries they govern is because we fear they will promote their own interests at the expense of the public.

But unlike with other industries, by helping wine producers, Thompson helps consumers.

My favorite expensive American white wines last week

Yesterday I wrote about judging expensive white wines at Sunset magazine's Western Wine Awards, but I may have buried the lead: I didn't mention actual wines.

I don't know which wines won, even in our categories. Sunset asks each judge to rate each wine on a 20-point scale and tabulates the results later. But I can tell you which wines I liked best, and why. All of these I scored either 18 or 19.

Schramsberg "Mirabelle" North Coast Brut Rosé NV ($27) Order here
There's no pink category in the Sunset awards, so pink bubblies have to sit with the whites. I liked this one for its red fruit, smoke and citrus notes. This is actually Schramsberg's cheaper rosé, and I was surprised to learn that because I found it quite elegant. I don't think Schramsberg will do well in these awards because one of our tasters, who recognized the bottle said, "I'm not a Schramsberg fan." Well, I am, and have been for years. I guess it's a question of style: their bubblies are often richer and more complex than some others in California, although it's fair to say they don't sell them at bargain prices. But I wouldn't say that about this.

Corison Winery "Corazón" Anderson Valley Gewurztraminer 2007 ($30) Order here
One of California wine's defenders, Steve Heimoff, recently launched a rant against wine writers complaining about oversized California Cabernet in which he wrote, "stop, puh-leeze, trotting out Cathy Corison every time as your poster child for what you think Cabernet should be." True enough, but I think Corison earns this modest recognition on merit, not solely through writers' laziness, and the fact that I loved this wine when tasted blind -- and had forgotten she makes a Gewurztraminer -- validates that theory. What I liked about it is exactly what I like about her Cabs: it's elegant and not overdone. It's mineral-driven, with citrus fruits and ginger on a long finish. Hard to believe two things: 1) an '07 is the current release, and 2) it doesn't taste of age at all.

Robert Sinskey "Abraxas" Los Carneros 2010 ($34) Order here
We weren't given the fanciful name "Abraxas" for this, which would have revealed the winery. But we also weren't given the full blend, perhaps for space reasons: it's 43% Pinot Gris, 32% Pinot Blanc, 15% Gewurztraminer and 10% Riesling. Instead, all we knew was that we were tasting a 2010 "Vin de Terroir." We mocked the name, which seems both pretentious and a way of getting a high price for mixed grapes. But this was one of my three favorite wines of the day: dried apricot with mineral, ginger and floral notes. Great complexity, and it doesn't taste like anything else. There's some claptrap on the winery website about how the name comes from a Greek god I've never heard of: "Abraxas, with the head of a cock, the body of a man and legs of the serpent, was the overlord of the 365 spheres and (just in case you did not make the connection that Abraxas was responsible for the year) the Greek letters of Abraxas add up to 365." Yeah, yeah. I'm glad I didn't read that before tasting it. Nice wine.

Expensive white wines: made to be conservative

Perhaps the best wine I've tasted this year was a white that costs $2225, which I rated 99 points. So I can't be said to have a grudge against pricey white wines.

But realistically, I'm not going to spend my own money on that wine (Domaine de la Romanée Conti Montrachet 2008). Or even 4% of it. However, I will spend over $100 on a red wine in restaurants -- most recently for a 1991 Lopez de Heredia Bosconia at Heirloom Cafe. That wine is a steal at $80 retail. I'm not sure I've ever spent $80 retail for a white wine.

But some people do, which is why Sunset magazine has a very small group of white wines over $60 at its Western Wine Awards, and I ended up judging them.

It has become standard knowledge among Sunset's recurring group of sommeliers, wine buyers and writers that judging the "deep pocket" red wine category is a painful slog. This year, two busy, influential sommeliers showed up late, and judging the $100 Cabernets was their punishment. Spare the oak rod, spoil the sommelier. I laughed at them from my perch at the pricey white wine table. I knew I wouldn't be reaching for roast beef to scrape the tannins off my palate and complaining loudly about the incredible heaviness of being (body, oak, bottles). Not this year anyway.

Pricey whites weren't painful at all. Three of us -- me, a wine buyer and CIA sommelier Traci Dutton, who says our palates are completely different because she likes good wines -- started at $26 to $40, where we tasted (blind, of course) a number of wines I have actually paid my own money for. Then we moved up to $41 to $60, where we encountered a few wines I've paid for by the glass.

We were a little chatty by the time we got to the over $60 whites; wine does that. So we got to talking about the concept. We know what people look for in an $80 red. If they're a Pinot drinker, they want some tiny production wine from a great vineyard. If they're a Cab drinker in 2011, apparently they want their tongue bashed repeatedly by a fist in a velvet glove. You might think I'm being sarcastic, but I've seen the "fist in velvet glove" cliche on several expensive Cabs' marketing materials. (Expensive Cab drinkers, bondage submission fetishists -- same crowd?)

But what exactly do people want in a $75 white?

My argument for biodynamic and organic viticulture

Viticulturist Richard Smart made conventional winemakers around the world feel good earlier this month with a speech in Barcelona in which he appeared to attack organic and biodynamic viticulture.

I wish I had been in Barcelona for the speech and the tapas. All I have to rely on is Lucy Shaw's report for Drinks Business, which makes Smart sound like he's grinding a different axe entirely. The provocative headline reads "Dr. Richard Smart Slams Organics," but his point seems to be that climate change should be our main worry.

His main point against organic viticulture appears to be this quote: "When people buy food they don’t mind choosing products that have been grown on land treated with chemicals, so why should they care about how a wine has been treated?” He also said, "Many of the concepts behind organics and biodynamics are nonsense. They’re not good for the environment." He may have gotten more specific than that, but if so it was not reported.

It's easy to dispute his first quote, and if accurately reported, it makes him look ignorant. Yes, most people don't care about organic produce, but plenty of people DO care, and that's why organics are the fastest-growing product segment in the grocery industry.

I would dispute only one word in his second quote, but it's a crucial one. It's true that SOME of the concepts behind organics and particularly biodynamics are nonsense: the unlimited use of copper springs to mind. Stu Smith would like to add that just because a chemical preparation is organic doesn't mean it's not harsh and dangerous. Stipulated.

Here, in four words that wine businesses won't like, is the entirety of my argument for certified biodynamic and organic viticulture:

I don't trust you.

I'm sorry. I don't mean you Larry, or you Nicholas, or any of you other guys I know personally, whose vineyards I've visited, who I've broken bread with. There are dozens of conventional wineries I trust to not overload their vineyards with toxic chemicals that might be absorbed into the wine grapes because I have had personal contact with them.