Vine Wise

Share |

E-Mail Article Printer-Friendly

Pop Quiz

Columnist

---

Richard L. Thomas
All articles by columnist

OK, quiz time right off the bat. Question: What do the following wineries have in common? De Loach, Alexander Valley Vineyards, Pelligrini, B.R. Cohn, Fritz, Thurow, Forchini, Mauritson, deLorimer, Passalacqua, Preston, Patz & Hall, Robert Young, Murphy-Goode, Jordan, Kunde, Trentadue and Mill Creek. Right—they all have some good wines. But more important, what else do they have in common? (A hint: This list is not all inclusive. There are many others that could join, but I didn’t want to use my total column space listing them all.)

Well, you’ve been thinking long enough soooo—the answer is they’ve disowned their heritage. For the last 25 years, the Sonoma County Grapegrowers Association has stated as one of its primary goals the promotion of Sonoma County as an area of premium grape production. And I should add that it was successful. One would think that should be a function of the Sonoma County Wineries Association, but label promotion was more important than looking at the whole county. The newly named Sonoma County Vintners Association seems to be in a bit of disarray, so the jury is still out.

The answer is that one or more of its products don’t say Sonoma County on the label. They all have smaller AVAs such as Dry Creek, Alexander Valley and Russian River. I can only assume they think the average wine drinker is very knowledgeable about the geography of the United States. The chances of many potential buyers knowing that these lesser AVAs are in Sonoma County is closer to an ice cube in Hell than reality.

A very clever cartoon was in Time magazine recently. It depicted a college professor asking his geography class to locate Paris on a world map. The student’s answer was, “I think she’s in, like, Malibu right now.”  Unfortunately, this is closer to the truth than we may want to accept. These same people are apparently expected to know that the Russian River Valley is at least in the United States? Maybe. California? Maybe. Sonoma County? Not a chance.

Now it’s up to you to start reading wine labels and letting the wineries know. Maybe we can start an e-mail campaign asking the wineries why they’re embarrassed to put Sonoma County on their label. This is very unlike our neighbors in Napa—wineries there are very proud of their Valley, and they proudly use Napa any time they legally can. Bless them for their intelligence! (There are, however, a few egocentric idiots trying to dilute the Napa Valley image by applying for much smaller AVAs. As a good vintner friend of mine in Napa said, “If Oakville Knoll can sell more wine than Napa Valley, I would buy it all.”)

Back to the original question: Are the wineries really ashamed of being in Sonoma County? Or are their egos that big? Or is it just simple stupidity? I guess it’s also possible that many of them expect to sell all of their wine right in our own backyard, where at least most wine consumers know where some of the major AVAs are located. Although, I would challenge any wine consumer to name all of the AVAs in Sonoma County. Green Valley and Rockpile are just two I would bet don’t jump quickly into everybody’s mind.

Some may remember the survey conducted by the SCGGA in 2005, which showed Sonoma County was a very recognized premium wine producing area. Another issue is if all the great wines produced in the county said Sonoma County on them it would create a much greater awareness of the area. Fragmentation has been a major thorn in my side for a long time, but I think it’s getting serious for the long run now.

In looking back on what I’ve said, please don’t think I’m trying to get rid of the smaller AVAs. I only want to add Sonoma County so that a label would read, for example: Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma County. Both Dry Creek and Sonoma County would benefit. (Remember that very recently the Napa Valley Vintners group spent a million plus dollars to protect their name while over here we don’t even care to use ours.) Where am I missing the point?

All right, point two of this column. What’s happening to Sonoma County in all of the wine judgings the last few years? There was a time when we advertised the fact that Sonoma County was the greatest award-winning area in the United States. That would be tough to say today. It’s been suggested that many wineries aren’t entering as many competitions—and I suppose that might have some validity. However, I wonder if maybe they’re afraid of getting their butts kicked. So far this season, I have either run or judged at six competitions, so I can go back and look at a lot of the results. I will grant that a very few prestigious wines are considered above everyone else and understand what would happen should they get beat. Want to guess who they might be? Perhaps another reason wineries aren’t entering is that sales are so good they don’t need the added publicity of winning a gold medal or even a sweepstakes. The advantage of the Sonoma County Harvest Fair is that all winners will be from Sonoma County.

How about a few examples from the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition that’s open to the entire United States and had 3,600 entries. In Sauvignon Blanc up to $14, which in years past has been a stronghold for Sonoma County, only one Sonoma County winery won a gold (out of 11 awarded)—and it was a California appellation. Great! In the high-end Sauvignon Blancs, we fared better with six golds out of 11 awarded.

In low-end Chardonnays we won just one out of 21 given. In mid-range Chardonnays we won three of 14, and in higher-end ($20 to $30) we only won two of nine, and for more than $30 we won four of 11—not a real disaster.

In Pinot Noir up to $20, we won two out of 10; $20 to $30 Pinots we won four out of 16. In high-end Pinots we won nine out of 32. In Zinfandel up to $30 we won 12 out 33, and we did excel in more than $30: we won six out of eight. In Syrah we won eight out of 34.

I could go on and on, but my space is limited so let me answer the big question of who else is doing well. Our major competitors are Lodi, Central Coast (Salinas Valley to Santa Maria with Paso Robles being very strong) and in reds the state of Washington is tremendous.

All right, go do your bottle-a-day homework.