I don’t want to beat a dead (or dying) horse, but I need to mention that I received a few rebuttal letters to my August column [“Growing Backward,” Vine Wise] from my friends in Mendocino County. There wasn’t one comment that would make me change my mind about anything I wrote. However, I do need to say that the commission they had was unique in that it included both wineries and growers under the same umbrella. That’s similar to mixing vinegar and oil—if you keep stirring, it might be all right, but the minute you stop, it separates. Other commissions I know of are growers only, and wineries usually have their own organizations. Maybe that was the initial problem; both parties just couldn’t live under the same roof.
Many years ago, we had an organization called the North Coast Grape Growers Association [NCGGA] that was comprised of Sonoma, Napa, Lake and Mendocino counties. As time moved on, most of the counties started their own individual organizations, leaving the NCGGA as basically a Mendocino-only contingent that begged for token board members from the other counties. As a group, the NCGGA was basically against everything—especially grower commissions, which it fought tooth-and-nail (and won during the first Sonoma County attempt).
Since I was at the heart of that battle, I remember it well and perhaps still harbor some ill feelings. The biggest battle cry was anti-government: “We don’t want any government intervention into our industry,” and I think we all agreed on that. But, in this case, the only government intervention was giving us the right to establish a commission with specific goals and the authority to collect mandatory dues if passed. If we look close at what a boondoggled mess the government has made of the dairy industry, then we should all agree. Dairy and a few other agricultural industries have had disastrous experiences with too much government intervention. But, grower commissions are a different breed, and one need only look at Blue Diamond Almond [Blue Diamond Growers] and other successful commissions, where all members work together for the common good. (God, that sounds impressive!)
Meanwhile, we see that Concha y Toro recently bought Fetzer and is supposed to do a major turnaround. Will that include bringing attention to Mendocino County? One can only hope. And since Weibel Family Vineyards & Winery hasn’t been earth-shattering in promoting Mendocino County, maybe its new owners, Vintage Wine Estates, will be.
I didn’t mention this the first time around, but the comments I received have left me wondering why the Mendocino County appellation shows up very infrequently in any wine competition results that I read. Looking at the results from the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, the largest in the country, it would almost seem like there are no wines even made there (if you exclude Anderson Valley, which doesn’t really claim Mendocino County anyway).
I’ve looked at several other competition results and found the same thing. You can go to www.vwm-online.com and see results from multiple competitions this year—and Mendocino is hard to find on any awards list. I should mention that non-award winners aren’t listed, so they may have entered and not won. That’s certainly one possibility and could explain their lack of recognition in quality wine. The other possibility is that they didn’t enter.
Now let me get this straight: The value of wine competitions are that they give you recognition in the marketplace—wine writers’ columns, shelf talkers, medals or plaques to hang in the tasting room and the like. If you’re trying to get recognized, wouldn’t entering wine competitions seem logical? If you peruse the Chronicle medal winners, there’s a small splattering of Mendocino Couty wines, thanks to the likes of Paul Dolan, Patianna, Frey and a few others. But overall and compared to all the other major appellations, it’s not a good showing. It may be only coincidental, but Sonoma County and Lodi dominate many of the classes and they also have grower commissions, which, I believe, lead the way in quality improvement and publicity. Looking at several more competition results, Mendocino is even harder to find. But those of you who wrote letters, thank you for letting me vent some more—and I really do wish you the best in your uphill climb to the top with true quality production.
Artisan effects
Things are forever changing. I used the term “boutique winery” the other day and was quickly jumped on as being very old and not up on current terms. I ask forgiveness and will now use the term “artisan” instead, even though I really don’t know what it means. I always thought it referred to bakeries, since we have millions of artisan breads out there now. Someone suggested it meant “hand-crafted” and others said “small batches of high-quality product.” I guess I can live with the small batches part, but I fail to understand why small batches correlate to high quality. Start with a pig’s ear and you’ll get a pig’s ear, so maybe they’re implying quality fruit must be used—if we can even define that term with any objectivity.
Another thought is maybe they try to sell all of their wines direct to consumers. It’s very difficult, if not impossible, to profitably sell small amounts of wine through brokers and/or distributors. Small wineries get completely lost in a distributors’ book because of the consolidation that’s occurred over the last few years (which has left only a few very large distributors to represent all wineries, big and small). The day of the small distributor is gone and, along with it, the opportunity for small wineries to use one. Brokers and even self-on-the-road sales are becoming prohibitively expensive when the margins in these times are so small. Hello wine clubs and hello Internet! Both are keeping many a small winery afloat.
OK, for your homework this month, let’s all try some Mendocino wines from the artisan side of the ledger—if we can find them. And, pray for a normal harvest this year. I think we deserve one.
