STELLA ROSA PUTS THE “LIFE”—AND “STYLE” - The ...

STELLA ROSA PUTS THE “LIFE”—AND “STYLE”—IN THE

NEXT BIG LIFESTYLE WINE

MARCH 2019 • $6.95

CultGOES

CLASSIC

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tastingpanel

dukespirits.comKENTUCKY STRAIGHT BOURBON WHISKEY

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march 2019 / the tasting panel / 3

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March 2019 • Vol. 77 No. 3

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4 / the tasting panel / march 2019

I was carefully examining the color of the wine in my glass after sniffing its aroma. Just as I was preparing to take a sip, a guy twice my size rammed his elbow into my ribs as he pushed his way through the crowd to get to the table where I was tasting. The wine splashed onto the blouse of the woman standing next to me. I apologized; he didn’t.

It was a typical incident seen at many “walkaround” tastings—the annoying format industry-event planners frequently employ to expose the maximum number of wines to the maximum number of potential buyers.

It seems that most people attending these clusterf**ks are there to schmooze with their friends and stuff their faces with the food that, after about half an hour, looks like a pack of wild dogs attacked it. It’s the same selection of bland cheese and tired charcuterie they served at yesterday’s tasting. Do these platters travel from event to event?

Upon entering these tastings, everyone is handed a booklet that lists all the wines on offer, usually in an order completely different from how they’re actually presented in the room. The wineries might be exhibited alphabetically, whereas the wines might be listed in the tasting book by region. This requires the diligent taster to spend considerable time flipping back and forth, often stepping into a corner until the correct wine is located.

If anyone is foolish enough to want to write some notes about the wines, there’s a narrow margin in which to record such scrib-blings. But try writing legible, coherent comments when you’re holding a glass in one hand and your program in the other. Clearly, it’s impossible.

Most exasperating are the really huge tastings. They can offer hundreds of wines to try, so how does one keep track? In very short order, particularly if they are young and of the same type, the wines all begin to taste the same. Then your tasting notations begin to reflect the winery’s reputation rather than your assessment of the wine itself.

Perhaps the most egregious event of this sort is an annual California tasting that features hundreds of wineries pouring their entire catalogs. After an hour of relative serenity, the doors open and a marauding army of thirsty consumers attack the tables with one purpose in mind: to slurp down as much wine as possible in the shortest amount of time and get falling-down drunk. It’s not exactly an atmosphere conducive to buying decisions or journalistic discoveries.

The other day, I attended a seminar that served as a guided tour of a specific region, with examples of all its varieties and styles. Because it was a sit-down tasting with 12 wines on display, I could write coherent notes about each of them. Speaking as a journalist, I found this format considerably more useful and informative than those massive, circus-like tastings. I came away with something to write about instead of bruised ribs.

Cattle CallLETTER FROM THE EDITOR

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

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Ole Smoky products spread out before the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee.

REBELSThe Spirit of

USING A HISTORIC RECIPE, OLE SMOKY DISTILLERY

TAKES ON A GIANT RIVAL

by Eric Marsh

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Choop, shiney, skull-pop, hooch, white lightning, mountain dew, moonshine: Historically, these terms have all meant the same

thing—and they’re pretty fun to say, too. “Moonshine” is used most com-monly today, but what is it, exactly? Technically and traditionally speaking, the word has been used to describe any illegally made, unaged, untaxed liquor, though the classic recipe in Southern Appalachia is corn, yeast, sugar, and water—essentially white whiskey. Today, it denotes unaged spirits.

Granted, “nascent whiskey” might be a more fitting description: Because it sees time in a still but none in a barrel, the spirit remains clear and doesn’t mellow. At 50 percent alcohol or higher, it’s strong enough to make your eyes pop out slightly after taking a sip. And, fittingly enough, its history is as rebel-lious as the spirit is potent.

Working by NightMoonshine production in the United

States dates back as far as the late 1700s, when Irish and Scottish immigrants settled in Southern Appalachia. The noun “moonshine” is derived from the British verb “moonshining,” which referred to any activity done at night. Much of the work to make and bottle the spirit was done by the light of the moon to remain undetected by law enforcement.

Closely tied to moonshiners are bootleggers: This moniker came from the verb “bootlegging,” which meant to conceal something in an actual boot—in this case, flasks of moonshine stacked high in a tall riding boot. Under the cover of darkness, off went bootleggers, at first on horseback. They’d later make their getaway in cars that looked “stock” on the outside but had heavy shocks installed to support the maximum amount of ’shine; souped-up engines, meanwhile, made it easier to get their goods to market more quickly while outrunning the authorities and traveling

longer distances. Beyond moonshiners and bootleggers, the corn farmers and sugar purveyors who sold their goods to distillers had a sizable presence in communities where the spirit was made.

Moonshining peaked during Prohibition. Despite the constant pressures of evading the law, meeting demand is what actually became the small syndicate’s defining challenge—they couldn’t make enough of the stuff. As a consequence, much of their product declined in quality, becoming watered down and sugary. Moonshiners still made ’shine post-repeal and police continued to hound them up until the 1970s, but since then, few cases have been heard in court.

A More Polished ShineIn 2009, Tennessee passed a law that

made distilling moonshine legal, and on July 4, 2010, Ole Smoky Distillery––using founder Joe Baker’s century-old family recipe––became the first distill-ery to begin legally making moonshine.

Pictured from left to right at Ole Smoky’s The Holler Distillery in Gatlinburg, TN, are Eric Vance, Distiller and Plant Manager; Michael Bender, President of Wholesale; Jim Anderson, Vice President of Distributor Sales; Robert Hall, CEO; Audie Kear and Jason King, Distillers and Plant Managers; and Cory Cottongim, President of Retail and Operations.

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Located in Gatlinburg at the foot of the Great Smoky Mountains, the distillery offers views of Mount Le Conte and, farther in the distance, Clingmans Dome––the highest point along the Appalachian Trail. Ole Smoky CEO Robert Hall describes the area and its residents with affection: “I can see Mount Le Conte from my kitchen. It’s a beautiful sight. I look at it every morning while eating breakfast,” he says. “The people in the community are friendly, happy, on the relaxed side. They’re handy. They do things for them-selves and they look after themselves.”

Asked if moonshine is still made ille-gally in the area, he admits it happens “less so now that the economy is doing better. When the economy is doing poorly, people get creative.”

Since 2010, Ole Smoky has opened two more distilleries—a second in Gatlinburg and a third in neighboring Pigeon Forge—and now employs more than 400 people. Each location offers tours and features a tasting bar as well as a retail shop carrying its full line of moonshine and other products. “We’ve become the largest craft distillery in the U.S., and we’re three times larger than any other moonshine manufacturer,” says Hall, adding that the company’s

distillery in Gatlinburg, known as The Holler, is the most visited facility of its kind in the world.

In the midst of this success, Ole Smoky is facing a new test from a surprising source. Behemoth corpora-tion PepsiCo filed a notice of opposition against the distillery in 2016 after Ole Smoky acquired the rights to

the trademark “Mountain Dew” for spirits and then tried to register the trademark “Ole Smoky Mountain Dew Moonshine.” While the term “mountain dew” has been used interchangeably with “moonshine” since the early 1800s, it means something wholly different to

some of the modern soda-consuming public: a sugary, carbonated liquid that emits a chemical chartreuse glow––and a brand PepsiCo happens to own.

Before the challenge from PepsiCo, Ole Smoky had plans to sell mountain dew as a distilled spirit—just as it had been sold pre-Prohibition by John McCulloch Distillery, the company from which Ole Smoky bought the rights to the Mountain Dew whiskey brand in 2015. PepsiCo is in opposition on the grounds that the spirit will disorient consumers; Ole Smoky, meanwhile, argues that PepsiCo initiated the confu-sion by associating its soft drink with the distilled mountain spirit in the first place, even releasing a product in 2015 called Mountain DEWshine.

Few corporations in the beverage industry rival the might of PepsiCo, but don’t count Ole Smoky out. The distillery owes its lucrative business model to one of the oldest DIY concepts in the country, and provided Ole Smoky is allowed to carry on the spirit of ’shine (or white lightning, or mountain dew, or whatever you choose to call it), the companies should have no problem coexisting: After all, this mountain seems more than big enough for the two of them.

Ole Smoky’s distillery, also known as The Barn, in Pigeon Forge, TN. In the background, visitors mingle in the store near the tasting bar.

Corn is cooked before being sent to one of Ole Smoky’s fermentation tanks to mature into alcohol.

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contentsMarch 2019 Vol. 77 No. 3

cover story

56 CULT GOES CLASSIC Stella Rosa Puts the “Life”—and

“Style”—in the Next Big Lifestyle Wine

reverse cover

24b MADE FOR MIXOLOGY New Japanese Import iichiko Saiten

Elevates the Cocktail Experience

up front

5 THE SPIRIT OF REBELS Using a Historic Recipe, Ole Smoky

Distillery Takes on a Giant Rival

features

48 INDUSTRY DISRUPTORS Enovation Brands Shakes Up the

Wine Business with Its Innovative Labels

52 A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A BEVERAGE SLINGER

Southwest Spirits’ Laura Black Brings Liquid to Lips Across North Texas

62 MULTIBILLION-DOLLAR BABY A Crash Course in Baijiu, the Chinese

Spirit Category Taking the World by Storm

46b FRENCH LESSONS The Gaillac Appellation Impresses

with its Under-the-Radar Grapes and Diverse Winemaking

special report

17b TALES FROM THE STILL From India to Virginia,

We Showcase an Array of Whisk(e)ys with Stories to Tell


Showcasing an Array of Whiskeys with Stories to tell

REPORTwhiskey

STILLSTILLTales from the

Meet the owners and winemakers and

taste alongside 30+ of the Napa Valley’s

finest wineries! All grape varietals will

be showcased. This event will feature

a charity silent auction that will benefit

the 501c3 TJ Martell Foundation of

Los Angeles, CA.

Wednesday March 13, 2019Trade Tasting 11AM - 3PMConsumer Tasting 6PM - 9PM

Participating Winerieswith 30 brands anticipated...

TOR WinesAXR - Unfiltered Collection Alpha OmegaTrinitas CellarsTeachworth Cabs1849 Wine Co.Hesperian WinesFrank Family VineyardsMiner WinesKale WinesYoung RidgeBarnett VineyardsVGS Chateau PotelleO' Connell Family VineyardsMichael Mondavi EstateBouchaine VineyardsPrime SolumBulgheroni Emerson Brown WinesStaglin VineyardsHertelendyVenge Vineyards

SPONSERED BY THE NAPA VALLEY VINTNERS

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contentsMarch 2019 Vol. 77 No. 3

departments4 Letter from the Editor

12 Industry Spotlight

18 Brief Encounters

20 The Ransom Note

22 Lone Star Libations

24 Somm’s List

26 Chew on This

28 Down the Aisle

30 Capitol Chill

32 Taking Inventory: Spirits

34 Five Minutes With . . . Faith Fulginiti

36 Taking Inventory: Wine

38 ForceBrands Movers & Shakers

40 ForceBrands Hot Shot

42 WSWA: Brand Battle

44 In the Kitchen: Stella Berry

60 Liquor Law: Tennessee Wine and Spirits Retailers Association v. Blair

61 Q&A: Daniel Pi of Trapiche Wines

3b Letter from the Managing Editor

4b Spirit Education: Maker’s Mark

6b On the Strip: MB Steak

7b Where We’re Eating

12b Wine Tourism: Argentina

14b Glenfiddich World’s Most Experimental Bartender

28b Mixology: Guillotine Heritage Vodka

30b Travel: London Hotels

32b San Francisco World Spirits Competition Results

50b Publisher’s Picks

54b Blue Reviews

58b Event Promotion: 2019 Food & Beverage Innovation Conference96

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Chase Sanders, Bar Manager at Katana in Los Angeles, noses the Aged Old Fashioned she makes with Guillotine Heritage Vodka.

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INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT

WINE AND BEVERAGE TRAINING FACILITY FOR LEASE

• State-of-the Art Facility in Turnkey Condition• 22 Station Laboratory for Wine & Beverages• Located in Campbell, CA (San Jose area) • Glass Enclosed Wine Room• Fully Integrated Internet/Audio/Video Systems• Adjacent Equipped Kitchen,

Office & Classrooms Available for Lease• Plenty of Free Parking

For More InformationGary Prell 303-915-5774 [email protected]

FOR LEASE

Bonnie Wilson Joins Don Sebastiani & Sons as the Company Bets Big on Spirits

Don Sebastiani & Sons is aggressively focusing on its premium tequila

brands by hiring renowned mixologist and spirits industry veteran Bonnie Wilson to the newly designated role of Spirits Manager.

Wilson will focus on developing brand strategy and sales behind Don Sebastiani & Sons’ growing spirits portfolio, which includes Contigo Tequila and El Macho Tequila as well as other brands the company is currently developing.

Wilson, who previously worked for The Marketing Arm and FrontBurner Restaurants, comes to Don Sebastiani & Sons with a rich history in the spirits, craft cocktail, and mixology industries. Certified as a Spirits Specialist by the Court of Master Sommeliers, she also serves as a “Cocktail Artist” for Food Story Brands and her grenadine is sold at more than 4,000 retail stores.

“I am thrilled to bring my passion and professional experience to the table at Don Sebastiani & Sons,” Wilson says. “We have a beautiful portfolio of top-quality tequila and with more innovation and expansion planned, I know we are going to knock it out of the park.” For more information, visit donsebastianiandsons.com.

Oak Ridge Winery Updates Its Popular OZV Brand

Oak Ridge Winery recently announced a refreshed

label for the OZV portfolio, which features three expres-sions of Zinfandel: OZV 2016 Old Vine Zinfandel, OZV 2018 Rosé of Primitivo, and OZV 2016 Old Vine Red Blend. The new label strengthens OZV among Oak Ridge Winery’s key brands—among them Maggio Family Vineyards, Old Soul, Moss Roxx, and Lodi Estates—by recharging its brand identity as it looks to the future.

Family-owned and -oper-ated for five generations, Oak Ridge Winery is led by the Maggio and Reynolds families, who have farmed Zinfandel in the Lodi area since the 1920s. Striving to capture California’s true Zinfandel heritage in every bottle, the winery sources the grapes for OZV from old vines averaging 30 years in age. “We’re thrilled to introduce our new OZV label,” CFO Raquel Maggio-Casity says. “The wine industry is constantly in flux and we know it’s important to evolve with our consumers. This proactive, refreshed rebranding marks a new day for OZV wines.”

OZV is available nationwide with an SRP of $13.

For more information, visit oakridgewinery.com.

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INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT


Delicato Family Wines Forms Fine Wine Sales and Marketing DivisionFamily-owned and

-operated Delicato Family Wines in January announced the creation of Transcendent Wines, its new selling division focused on fine wine. The Transcendent Wines portfolio will include Black Stallion Estate Winery Limited Release Wines (Napa Valley) and Diora Wines (Monterey/Santa Lucia Highlands); luxury agency brands like Merryvale and Starmont of Napa Valley; and Willamette Valley producers like Dobbes Family Estate Wines and Wine by Joe. Transcendent Wines will also represent imported luxury estate wines such as Schloss Vollrads, Franz Keller, and Bischöfliche Weingüter of Germany; Santa Rita Casa Real and Triple C of Chile; and Torbreck Vintners of Australia.

The company, meanwhile, has modified its corporate identity from Delicato Family Vineyards to Delicato Family Wines to better reflect its evolution from a bulk-wine producer to a diversified portfolio of leading brands: “This is a natural progression in Delicato’s continued growth strategy to build a world-class domestic and import portfolio,” President/CEO Chris Indelicato says.

The Delicato Family Wines portfolio will continue to include consumer-loved wine brands such as Bota Box, Noble Vines, Z. Alexander Brown, Mercer Family Wines, and Schmitt Söhne Family Wines. For more information, visit delicato.com.

CORRECTIONIn our annual Gin-uary report in the January-February issue, we misidentified Great Basin Bristlecone Gin as Great Base Bristlecone Gin. We regret the error.

Guarachi Wine Partners Promotes Bill Matthes to Vice President of National Sales

Guarachi Wine Partners has promoted Bill Matthes from Division Vice President of the

eastern U.S. region to Vice President of National Sales. Prior to joining Guarachi Wine Partners, Matthes’ career highlights included serving as VP of On-Premise, National Accounts, at Constellation Wines U.S. and Director of Sales at Distinguished Vineyards and Wine Partners Eastern Region for six years. In his new role, he will focus on sales strategy and long-term growth objectives for all Guarachi Wine Partners brands across California and South America in addition to overseeing the national sales team.

“I’m excited to welcome Bill to this new role at Guarachi Wine Partners,” says CEO and founder Alex Guarachi. “During his time with the company, he has shown impressive leader-ship skills and has optimized sales opportunities for his East Coast team. Having his leadership over the national sales force will allow the team continue to significantly grow our wine offerings in the U.S.”

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Our new packaging, honoring the world famous Nagaoka Fireworks Festival in Niigata, shipping this Spring, 2019

CELEBRATING A NEW LOOK FROM NIIGATAʼS OLDEST SAKE BREWERY

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INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT

Jerry Baker Joins Hawk and Horse Vineyards as Vice President of Sales & Marketing

London-Based Publisher Laurence King Set to Release Playing Cards for Gin LoversThose seeking a gift for the gin lovers and

cocktail enthusiasts in their lives should look no further than the Gin Rummy: Gin Lovers Playing Cards deck from London-based publisher Laurence King. Suitable for use in any card game, the set features illustrations by painter/tattoo artist Jean André of 40 global gin brands as well as 12 gin-based cocktails.

The cards are accompanied by a booklet written by gin expert Emma Stokes, an organizer behind World Gin Day and author of The Periodic Table of Cocktails. In addition to supplying recipes for the 12 cocktails in the deck, the guide provides a history of the gin category itself and a breakdown of the featured brands. Set for release on March 5, the cards will be available for $15; for more information, visit laurenceking.com.

Hawk and Horse Vineyards co-owners/co-founders Mitch and Tracey Hawkins have appointed Jerry M. Baker to the newly created position of Vice President

of Sales & Marketing at the up-and-coming winery in California’s Red Hills AVA.“We’re delighted to welcome Jerry to our team and know that his extensive

expertise will allow us to refocus our sales and marketing strategies on the national and international stage. Our expanding footprint will be very positive for our brand and the growing interest in this new and exciting AVA,” the couple said in the announcement.

Baker has been a prominent senior executive in the wine industry for several decades, serving in senior sales and marketing roles for Ladera Vineyards, White Oak Vineyards, Grgich Hills Cellars, Trefethen, Chateau Montelena, American Wine & Spirits, and Bohemian Distributing Company. “The dedication and commitment to growing and producing the finest wines from this extraordinary property is remarkable,” Baker said of Hawk and Horse Vineyards. “It is with great pride and enthusiasm that I will be traveling the country to tell our story and taste the wines with buyers near and far.”


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Our new packaging, honoring the world famous Nagaoka Fireworks Festival in Niigata, shipping this Spring, 2019

CELEBRATING A NEW LOOK FROM NIIGATAʼS OLDEST SAKE BREWERY

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Brief Encounters

Whether The Tasting Panel goes to the brand execs or the brands call us, there’s always an abundance of news to report, from the latest re-leases to behind-the-scenes experiences with some of the world’s most influential importers, winemakers, distillers, and . . . well, you name it.

We may not have enough pages in each issue to devote as much atten-tion as we’d like to each person or place we encounter, but please note that if something appears in the publication, we deem it noteworthy.

—Meridith May, Publisher & Editorial Director

At Mora Italiano, a Slice of Europe Lands in the San Fernando Valley

If you find yourself tucked into a cozy corner table one evening at Mora Italiano, the sounds of traffic fading on famous San Fernando Valley thoroughfare Ventura Boulevard, you may think you’ve been transported

from California altogether. The restaurant has brought a slice of Italy—and, naturally, the country’s peerless passion for wine—to Encino, with in-house sommelier Fernando Trivisonno dutifully overseeing a rotating list that also incorporates selections from France, Argentina, Chile, Spain, New Zealand, Germany, and Australia as well as the U.S.

Quiet neighborhood spots dominate Encino’s restaurant scene, and Mora follows suit while still managing to make dining there feel like an experience, particularly for Valley denizens seeking a new date-night spot geared toward shared plates in intimate quarters. With its checkered floors, well-lit wine bar, and ’60s-era black-and-white portraits adorning the walls, Mora has nonetheless embraced a modern approach to pasta and other Italian staples since it opened last October.

At the helm of this contemporary kitchen is Executive Chef Mindy Oh, a Los Angeles native who studied at Le Cordon Bleu’s now-closed Pasadena campus. This is the 27-year-old’s first role as an Executive Chef after serving as a sous chef for The Victorian in Santa Monica and Superba Food+Bread,

but her confidence shows through her dishes: Two intricately plated specials on a recent evening—linguine with shaved bottarga, Meyer lemon, arugula, and capers and a salad with lightly pickled fennel, Di Stefano burrata, Pecorino Fiore Sardo, watercress, and saba—were sublime, particularly when paired with a fresh, acidic white wine like the Fontanafredda Pradalupo Roero Arneis DOCG.

Other menu highlights—many of which feature locally sourced produce—include pan-seared Alaskan Weathervane scallops with heirloom polenta, braised shallots, pickled fresnos, and cultivated mushrooms as well as a selection of pizzas, one of which is topped with charcuterie. With Trivisonno giving attentive suggestions as to which wine guests should pair with their next course, you’ll be tempted to linger long after the lights dim while sampling as much of the menu as possible.

Opened last October in Encino, CA, Mora Italiano provides residents of the San Fernando Valley with an intimate venue for enjoying Italian favorites with a contemporary twist.


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The Ransom Note is a monthly column by Tasting Panel East Coast Editor David Ransom. Each month, David connects readers with some of the people, products, and events making news along the Eastern Seaboard.

During the last days of January, a record-setting cold front hit much of the country (on January 31, the temperature at my house plunged to –11.6 degrees Fahrenheit), leaving many

Americans yearning for anything to thaw them out. Tea sales probably doubled. But even in frigid weather, we New Yorkers are always up for a wine tasting, so when a couple caught my fancy, I donned a few extra layers and headed out the door.

At The Modern, Danny Meyer’s restaurant in the Museum of Modern Art, Maison Louis Jadot (imported by Kobrand) held its pre-release tasting of 2017 Bourgogne, Chablis, and Beaujolais wines. The vintage was tricky across much of Europe as April frosts stunted bud break—but in Burgundy, according to Jadot Winemaker Frederic Barnier, the problems ended there. “The nerves of spring gave way to a good growing season that, while cloudy much of the time, stayed dry and produced good fruit,” Barnier said before adding that despite lower yields, “across the board the wines came out well. And it’s going to be a great vintage for whites, which are showing good concentration and richness, including Chablis.”

Reds also showed well at the tasting. A few personal favorites included the Clos Vougeot, Morey-Saint-Denis Clos Des Ormes, and, of course, Jadot’s trio of Gevrey-Chambertin Premier Crus: Les Cazetiers, Petite Chapelle, and Clos Saint-Jacques.

Later that day over dinner with André Shearer, owner of import company Cape Classics, I tried a duo of Chenin Blanc wines from Loire Valley–based producers Vincent and Tania Carême: one from Vouvray and the other from Tania’s home country, South Africa. A longtime Vouvray fan, I was taken by the delightfully fresh Vouvray Chenin Blanc Spring ($20), which showed great acidity and light structure with just a hint of sweetness—hallmarks of a classic Loire Chenin.

Also impressive was the Terre Brûlée Chenin Blanc Le Blanc ($16) from Swartland on South Africa’s Western Cape. A mostly unirrigated region where bush-trained vines are prevalent, Swartland produces Chenins that tend to present more intensely than those from neighboring regions like Stellenbosch—a trait perfect for showing the grape’s more structured side.

New Wines from France and South Africa for Spring and Beyond

story and photos by David Ransom

These Chenin Blanc wines from Tania and Vincent Carême of Domaine Vincent Carême are imported by Cape Classics.

Maison Louis Jadot Winemaker Frederic Barnier with Tasting Panel East Coast Editor

David Ransom at The Modern in New York.

BARREL TASTINGS

RESERVE TASTINGS

HISTORIC WINE MUSEUM

WINEMAKER FOR THE DAY

buenavistawinery.comSONOMA, CA � 800.926.1266

california’s first.california’s finest.

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BARREL TASTINGS

RESERVE TASTINGS

HISTORIC WINE MUSEUM

WINEMAKER FOR THE DAY

buenavistawinery.comSONOMA, CA � 800.926.1266

california’s first.california’s finest.

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In designing the menu for Julep, a lively cocktail bar in one of Houston’s oldest neighborhoods, owner and

bartender Alba Huerta finds inspiration in the complicated, turbulent, and ever-changing history of the South.

Rum, Cognac, and whiskey dominate Julep’s list, allowing Huerta to tell the stories of these spirits in the context of Southern drinking culture. While cognizant of industry trends, she knew when she opened the bar in 2014 that she wanted it to have its own identity.

“My cocktail menu is based on the classics, but it’s not based on cocktails that are made in most other places,” says Huerta, who was supported in her research by the Southern Foodways Alliance, a Mississippi-based organiza-tion that documents and studies the food and beverage cultures of the

South. “I always think about this: What can I give people that they can’t find anywhere else? As we learn how migrations happen and how ingredi-ents have come to be Southern, we find a lot of stories that need to be told.”

Julep’s menu, which Huerta changes regularly, includes time-honored drinks like the Cherry Bounce Sour, the Sazerac, the Floradora, and the Queens Park Swizzle as well as seasonal concoctions such as the Creole Crusta. The rum-based cocktail is garnished with benne seeds, which are native to Africa and were a staple in Southern sustenance gardens before the aboli-tion of slavery. In her 2018 book Julep: Southern Cocktails Refashioned, Huerta and co-writer Marah Stets observe that the Crusta provides an opportunity to talk about “the trade routes that

carried slaves, crops, textiles, and manufactured goods from Africa and the Caribbean to America and Europe.”

While such conversations are welcomed, a visit to Julep—housed in a pleasingly distressed building that dates to the early 1900s—never feels strictly like a history lesson. With fresh-cut flowers from local vendors, mismatched antique glassware, a crushed-ice station topped by a vintage sculpture of a woman reaching to the skies, and a shaded patio for al fresco imbibing nearly year-round, Julep serves as a community gathering spot that helps redefine the new American South. “My responsibility as a bar-tender, and as your personal drinking guide, is to let you know what’s out there in the world,” Huerta says. “And I can do that through drinks.”

“We’re a classic cocktail bar implementing Southern ingredients,” says Julep owner (and consummate host) Alba Huerta.

AT HOUSTON’S JULEP, ALBA HUERTA HELPS REDEFINE WHAT IT MEANS TO BE SOUTHERN story and photo by Lori Moffatt

Stories in a Glass

It takes just the right amount of sunlight and cooling breezes to create the

fresh, alluring flavors in our wines. Pomelo founders Randy and Megan Mason

have always understood California’s inherent gifts: sun-drenched vineyards,

coastal air and remarkable soil. Since 2004, we’ve crafted bright, expressive

wines that faithfully convey their varietal character and embody the mix of

sun and soil that makes California’s vineyards like no other.

P O M E L O W I N E S . C O M

LIVELY WINESGROWN IN THE CALIFORNIA SUN

©2019 Pomelo Wine Co., Napa, CA

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It takes just the right amount of sunlight and cooling breezes to create the

fresh, alluring flavors in our wines. Pomelo founders Randy and Megan Mason

have always understood California’s inherent gifts: sun-drenched vineyards,

coastal air and remarkable soil. Since 2004, we’ve crafted bright, expressive

wines that faithfully convey their varietal character and embody the mix of

sun and soil that makes California’s vineyards like no other.

P O M E L O W I N E S . C O M

LIVELY WINESGROWN IN THE CALIFORNIA SUN

©2019 Pomelo Wine Co., Napa, CA

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We’ve partnered with Chef’s Roll & Somm’s List, the global culinary and wine professional networks, to learn more about beverage experts from across the country.

If you are a mixologist or wine professional interested in being featured here or want more information on Chef’s Roll and Somm’s List, please email [email protected].

GILLES SCHREIBERExecutive Chef at AG in The Ritz-Carlton, Atlanta, GA

How much consideration do you give beverage pairings when developing a menu?

One cannot live without the other—beverage pairings exist to bring the food to life. The pairing enhances the flavor and brings delicacy to the dish, making it an experience to eat. When developing our menus, I work very closely with our sommelier to find the ideal pairings. We consider every aspect and detail to bring our guests the best experience in each bite.

What is your all-time favorite cocktail?When I arrived in Atlanta two years ago, the bartender made a whole

new experience for me. He served up our Smoky Old Fashioned, which woke up my five senses: watching the smoke drift from the glass with a hint of hickory wood scent, listening to the pour of the rye whiskey aged exclusively for AG, the feel of the ice sphere swirling, and the rich flavor—a mix of citrus and freshness exploding in your mouth.

Are there any mixology trends you think go well with fine dining and that you hope to see continue?

I believe the bubbly cocktails will last. They are very well-received with such a large number of our guests. They are fun to play with and will pair very well with high-end seafood, foie gras, white meat, desserts, and more. It’s a cel-ebratory drink of infinite variety. In our restaurant, we serve a fresh Pineapple Mojito with Moët Ice Impérial Champagne in a copper pineapple cup.

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Executive Chef at Cast & Plow in The Ritz-Carlton, Marina del Rey, CA

When did you first know that you wanted to become a chef?My mom is a great cook, and for as long as I can remember, she was

making every single meal homemade. As a toddler, I used to love to make quiche dough—mixing the flour, the eggs, and other ingredients. When I was 6 years old, my teacher asked us to paint something on a white plate to hang on the wall at home. Guess what I painted? Yes, of course . . . a chef with a big chef hat!

Where do you go for inspiration when it comes to creating new dishes?It is a lifelong learning experience. I get inspiration from my previ-

ous trips with my wife around the world, from a book, a magazine, or a discussion with a friend. Really, you can find inspiration everywhere.

What advice would you give someone aspiring to pursue a career in fine dining, whether it be as a chef or behind the bar?

I think that these careers are simply a lifestyle. If after the long hours, the stress, the heat, the cuts, the intensity of a chef or a manager who is driving for perfection, you still wake up every morning with a smile and do it all over again, then don’t change anything—a bright future is in your hands in this industry!

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CHEW on this

In the history of American fine dining, dessert has often seemed like an afterthought (Jeremiah Tower’s Stars in San Francisco being one notable exception). While profit margins can be slim, the outlay to

actually produce desserts is not, as they require trained staff as well as separate space and equipment.

Reflecting this financial reality, many a dessert menu in the 1990s consisted entirely of some sort of chocolate cake (lava being the most popular), a crème brûlée, perhaps a seasonal fruit crisp, and the ubiq-uitous “trio of sorbets” (or gelato, or ice cream). Toiling in obscurity, the pastry chefs behind these confections often struggled to be taken seriously in the kitchen.

It’s difficult to trace the shift, but at some point in the past 15 years, dessert has finally become an important course at many restaurants—and even the focus of some. In his original Momofuku cookbook, which includes just three dessert recipes, David Chang admitted that dessert was barely considered at any of his three restaurants. That changed when he hired Christina Tosi in another role, from which she eventually transitioned to become Momofuku’s pastry chef. Nowadays, her spin-off concept, Milk Bar, arguably has more name recognition than Momofuku itself, thanks to her cookies and cereal-milk soft serve.

Along with Tosi, many other pastry chefs now rank in the upper echelons of celebrity chefdom. To name a few, there’s Dominique Ansel with his world-famous cronut; Amaury Guichon, a pastry instructor with 1.1 million followers on Instagram, where his fantasti-cal chocolate sculptures often go viral; and Jacques Torres, who gained notoriety last year on Netflix’s comical baking show Nailed It! but was known for years prior in foodie circles for his legendary chocolate-chip cookie recipe. And in its first cookbook, due out in April, perennial L.A. hot spot République doesn’t feature recipes for its elegant pastas; instead, Baking at République celebrates the famous desserts and breakfast pastries of co-owner/pastry chef Margarita Manzke.

As diners seek out restaurants not just for their entrées but also for their sweets, eagerly following the career trajectories of pastry chefs formerly left out of the spotlight, one thing is becoming increasingly clear: It’s time to save room for dessert.

Celebrating the

Last Course

Former Momofuku pastry chef Christina Tosi has created a

culinary empire of her own with Milk Bar, famed for its cookies, cakes, and soft serve. Pictured here are her birthday cake and

birthday-cake truffles.

THE RISE OF CELEBRITY PASTRY CHEFS MARKS A TURNING POINT IN RESTAURANT KITCHENS by Jesse Hom-Dawson

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Los Angeles–based République’s new

cookbook focuses on the desserts and

breakfast pastries of co-owner/pastry chef

Margarita Manzke (above).

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SOURCED FROM OUR FAMILY’S

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CERTIFIED SUSTAINABLE.

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SOURCED FROM OUR FAMILY’S

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1 TALKIE Clear, legible label; solid brand-ing. Good overall for retail.

2 TALKIES Eye-catching label and memorable branding. Very good for retail.

3 TALKIES Creatively inspiring in both packaging and branding. Great for retail.

4 TALKIES A near work of art and meaningful branding. Excellent for retail.

5 TALKIES A masterpiece in packaging and a new benchmark in branding. A must-have for retail.

In Down the Aisle, the editors at The Tasting Panel rate retail beverages based on a combina-tion of elements that can affect off-premise potential, including packaging, branding/credibility, value, and user friendliness.

“Talkies” are the little cards appended to retail shelves that educate the consumer through tasting notes and, sometimes, ratings. They are an invaluable tool when there isn’t a knowl-edgeable employee available and/or the customer is too intimidated to ask for help. For this reason, we are nixing the traditional rating system in favor of our “Talkie” rating system to assess retail wines/spirits/beers based on the aforementioned factors—and, of course, taste!

Lucas & Lewellen 2017 Chardonnay, Santa Barbara County ($17) This Chardonnay (with about 5% Viogner

added) comes from the Los Alamos Vineyard in Santa Barbara County and the Goodchild & Old Adobe Vineyards in the Santa Maria Valley. With its incred-ible creamy yet buoyant texture, this expression drinks above its $17 station; ripe pineapple and just-ripe yellow apple precede lemon zest and a chamomile finish. Its clean label design also makes a good impression.

Oceano 2016 Chardonnay, Central Coast ($38) Faint yellow flowers lead into red apple and pear around a grapefruity,

vibrant acid core. A prime example of the potential of the proposed San Luis Obispo AVA, this 100% Chardonnay was grown just a mile and a half from Pismo Beach in Spanish Springs Vineyard, which the producer claims is California’s closest vineyard to the Pacific Ocean. Both the packaging and branding are memorable.

Cuvaison 2017 Chardonnay, Napa Valley, Los Carneros ($26) Buttery brioche dominates this silky, estate-grown

Chardonnay alongside notes of ripe peach and pear. Aged 11 months in French casks (25% new), it strikes a nice balance between fruit and oak while also featuring elegant packaging. Established in 1969, Cuvaison always manages to find the sweet spot in its Chardonnays’ tension and price point.

FREDERICK WILDMAN & SONS

Seafall 2016 Chardonnay, Sonoma Coast, Sonoma County ($50) Ripe peach, lemon curd, honey caramel, lightly toasted

hazelnuts, and a lush, creamy, even viscous texture lend decadence that stops just shy of defying the mouthwatering, minerally finish. Over 90% of the fruit comes from the Heitz Vineyard in the Sonoma Coast AVA, a later-ripening site in close proximity to the ocean. Aged 14 months in oak (36% new), this wine has sharp, attention-grabbing packaging.

FRINGE COLLECTIVE: FETZER

Meiomi Méthode Champenoise Sparkling Wine ($27) With notes of green apple, toast, and marmalade, this is a

traditional-method sparkler with enough residual sugar (16 grams/liter) to enjoy with a fruit tart. The grapes for this blend of 60% Chardonnay and 40% Pinot Noir are sourced throughout Northern California; the result will undoubtedly solidify the allegiance of Meiomi’s fiercely loyal fans.

CONSTELLATION BRANDS

Springtime Chardonnay from California NUE MULENUE MULE2 parts NUE® VODKA4 parts Ginger Beer3/4 part Lime Juice

Combine ingredients into a mug filled with ice. Garnish with mint and lime.

2 parts NUE® VODKA4 parts Ginger Beer3/4 part Lime Juice


Create Nue Memories Responsibly.©2019 Southwest Spirits Dallas, TX

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NUE MULENUE MULE2 parts NUE® VODKA4 parts Ginger Beer3/4 part Lime Juice


2 parts NUE® VODKA4 parts Ginger Beer3/4 part Lime Juice


Create Nue Memories Responsibly.©2019 Southwest Spirits Dallas, TX

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CAP TOL

You know that Old Country stereotype about babushka-covered grandmothers thrusting

plates at you and prodding you to “eat, eat”? It’s come to life in the best way at Arlington craft-cocktail bar BABA—fittingly, that’s Serbian for “grandmother”—a floor below Balkan sister restaurant Ambar. A few options on its new menu are referred to as “cocktails with benefits,” as they include a mini-dish on the side.

Sink into one of BABA’s floral armchairs and you’ll feel as though you’ve stepped into a granny’s parlor where vintage glassware fills antique hutches, gold-framed paintings line the walls, and crystal chandeliers light up the space. A perfect starter from mixologist Marko Strugar is the Balkan Caviar Martini with Destilerija Hubert 1924 Apple Brandy, one of many commercial and housemade rakias (Balkan brandies) on the menu. Stirred with Tanqueray Gin and dry vermouth, the drink is served with a spoonful of caviar. If you need to feed your sweet tooth, instead order the Gypsy Wedding; made with Hubert 1924 Pear Brandy, Del Maguey Vida

Mezcal, lime juice, cinnamon syrup, and pear puree, it’s accompanied by a pineapple dessert.

Just days after hosting the only American pop-up of World’s Best Bar titleholder Dandelyan in November, The Gibson focused on celebrating ten years as one of D.C.’s top speakeasies. The bar has gotten a little more laid-back over the years, and the space, which includes three upstairs “apartments” for private parties, is as inviting as ever.

The drinks are equally elevated, a fact confirmed when my friend, a curious cocktail novice, joined me one recent evening to try selections from the anniversary menu. He started with the shock of blue that is the Nordic Spa Treatment; topped with sweet sparkling wine, it features Old Tom Gin, grapefruit juice, Becherovka, and Combier Bleu. I went rogue for the first round—requesting something “herbal

and citrusy with gin”—before switch-ing things up on round two with the Smoke Strike. Dry, savory, and smoky, it blends mezcal with Manzanilla Sherry, bitters, and walnut and ginger liqueurs.

Also notable: The Gibson now serves a selection of bar bites with suggested pairings. The avocado tartine garnished with cumin, arugula, pepitas, and pumpkin-seed oil lends itself to “something tart and refresh-ing,” while a boatful of fries topped with togarashi and a wasabi emulsion works alongside any beverage. After all, as the menu points out, everything tastes great with fries.

Kelly Magyarics, DWS, is a wine, spirits, lifestyle, and travel writer in the

Washington, D.C., area. She can be reached through her website,

kellymagyarics.com, or on Twitter and Instagram @kmagyarics.

Buzzing into 2019

The avocado tartine at The Gibson is topped with cumin, arugula, and pepitas.

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WASHINGTONIANS SIP COCKTAILS WITH BENEFITS AND TOAST TEN YEARS AT A TOP SPEAKEASY

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Made with pear rakia (Balkan brandy), the Gypsy Wedding at BABA is served with a pineapple dessert.

I n s p i r e y o u r s e n s e s

D R I N K R E S P O N S I B L Y

Proudly imported by Advantage InternationalContact: [email protected] - Tel: +1 305 573 3132 - www.adv-inter.com

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I n s p i r e y o u r s e n s e s

D R I N K R E S P O N S I B L Y

Proudly imported by Advantage InternationalContact: [email protected] - Tel: +1 305 573 3132 - www.adv-inter.com

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TAKING INVENTORY

YOUR BUSINESS, YOUR VOICES

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WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR PREFERRED WELL SPIRITS AND WHY? Q

KYNSEY HUNTER Beverage Director and Certified Kikisake-shi, The Green Pheasant, Nashville, TN

Our well spirits are actually more pre-mium wells. As a Japanese restaurant, we don’t pour too many vodka sodas or Gin & Tonics, and we find that our guests are naming call liquors auto-matically—but I do stand by Beefeater Gin for its versatility, and it’s at a great price point for liter bottles.

We use Henry McKenna as our bourbon well. It’s an all-around super-functional and balanced bour-bon—it drinks very smooth neat and in cocktails too. We also have a well shochu, Yokaichi Kome, distilled from rice. It’s very mild and dry and has proven to be a good entry-level shochu for introducing interested parties to a spirit they likely don’t know much about.

MILES MACQUARRIE Beverage Consultant, Alderwood, Santa Cruz, CA

Haus Alpenz is very important in the cocktail revival; the fact that they were the first to bring back crème de violette, Cocchi vermouth, and so many other historic ingredients means that they get my support forever. That includes Hayman’s London Dry Gin, a 150-year-old family recipe with a long maceration before distillation and the magic proof for a cocktail gin: 94. It’s great for your Martinis and Gimlets and is extremely well-balanced and versatile.

Also, Pierre Ferrand 1840 Cognac is a won-derful addition to any classic cocktail calling for brandy. I think you’ll find that this 90-proof bit of bottled history, developed in collaboration with the drink historian David Wondrich, is great in everything from milk punch and Vieux Carrés to Sidecars.

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BOBBY HOLLERHead Bartender, Ardyn, New York, NY (opening spring 2019)

Rittenhouse Rye is my No. 1. For the price, nothing comes close to it. Its flavor is bold with spice and balanced with a peachy fruitiness. And its high proof helps put the kick in a killer cocktail without overdoing it. It’s the undisputed champ of the rack pour.

Let’s also talk tequila. Let’s talk 100 percent agave. Let’s talk El Jimador.

Named after the good people who hand-cut each agave palm, this tequila is always in my rack (and my apartment). It’s aged in stainless steel for up to 60 days, then barrel-aged for another 30. Oozing notes of grapefruit, lemon, and white pepper, it makes the perfect choice for infusions, on the rocks, or a perfectly poured Paloma.

ROB HOLDER Director of Beverage and Brand Development, Roka Akor, multiple locations

Japanese whisky has always been a staple within our beverage program. However, when it blew up, it became more and more difficult not just to offer but to provide a less expensive expression. In recent years, Suntory has given us Toki to satisfy our Japanese whisky well option. It’s not at the price point of a typical well item, but it does give guests the opportunity to explore Japanese whisky without breaking the bank. It also has great cocktail application and is perfect for Highballs.

I also enjoy working with Wheatley Vodka, namesake of Harlen Wheatley, Master Distiller for Buffalo Trace. I find you get a quality product from a legendary whiskey producer at a favorable price.

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Faith Fulginiti

Faith Fulginiti served as a panelist late last year at SommCon San Diego,

where she shared her insights on building profits through award-winning wine lists.

You recently returned to California—tell me about that transition.My journey back to my home state was almost a year in the making! On the evening of the [Wine Spectator] Grand Award ceremony in New York in 2017, our CEO Norman Abdallah announced to the team that they had secured locations in California for Del Frisco’s

Double Eagle Steak House. I jumped at the opportunity to run my own program, transition into a Wine Director role, and bring my hustle from the East Coast to the first Del Frisco’s in California.

What are the nuanced approaches to buying for an East versus West Coast consumer? My goal is to offer breadth and depth to our curated wine list so that guests can choose their own adventure no matter their price point. San Diego diners are very loyal to California wines; however, I encourage them to think outside the box and try something new that may fit their palate.

What do you see as the biggest challenges facing sommeliers, as more notoriety is given to those achieving titles at the high-est levels?It is amazing to have stellar cre-dentials as sommeliers, but ultimately we are on the floor to give our guests an approachable, personal experience that will enhance their evening no matter what level of wine education we have. The goal is to have someone come back to see you because you helped them celebrate something special with passion and insight. I still see a reluctance in general from many guests who view sommeliers as salespeople or as people who are full of knowledge

but unapproachable. I hope to break those assumptions at Del Frisco’s and instill the perception that having a sommelier on hand to assist diners is essential in pairing their cuisine from start to finish.

What is your approach as a mentor?Everyone starts somewhere. When [people] get bit by the wine bug, it is my job to cultivate them and inspire them to learn more. Wine should be fun! There are no silly questions. It is essential that learning about wine is approach-able and it’s important to tell the story of how the wine came to be in the bottle.

You have one glass of wine and ten minutes. What are you drink-ing and who are you with?As I love everything Italian, I would be sharing a glass of Paolo Bea 2010 Pagliaro Montefalco Sagrantino with Anthony Bourdain—a classic pairing.

The Tasting Panel and The SOMM Journal are proud supporters

of SommCon and its Young Leaders Summit. Join world-class

educators at SommCon 2019 in Washington, D.C., June 23–25 and

San Diego November 13–15.

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by Michelle Metter

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TAKING INVENTORY

YOUR BUSINESS, YOUR VOICES

HOW MANY DISTRIBUTORS DO YOU WORK WITH AND WHY?Q

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DARYL NUHNWine Director, Gem, New York, NY

I like to keep the distributor pool small. While SevenFifty is an amaz-ing platform, it’s so easy to do everything online, browse through an entire portfolio, and add items to a cart. I believe the relationship between wine rep and buyer is something to be fostered. And there aren’t a ton of portfolios that focus on natural wines, so that narrows things down quite a bit—currently, I work with eight to ten import-ers. Tasting with my reps, many of whom I’ve known for years at this point, not only allows me to grow as a buyer but also to stay engaged with the people who are really on the ground representing the winemakers, to see what they’re inspired by.

For example, my rep from Goatboy brought in a wine from Gérard Marula, who usually works with Cabernet Franc but in 2017 lost almost his entire harvest. To make up for it, he bought some Merlot and made a small amount of wine from it. This wine is so, so, so delicious, and I was happy to buy it not only because it tasted amazing but also because it allowed us to support this farmer during a difficult time.

SCOTT TIPTONFood & Beverage Director, The Savoy at 21c Museum Hotel, Kansas City, MO

The Savoy engages with at least ten distributors for placement on our menu, even if it’s a single bottle selection. Our goal is to curate a list that runs the gamut of options for our guests, from offerings that complement the chef’s seasonal dishes to the unfamiliar or even obscure. That said, we do rely on three or four key partners to create the bulk of the glass list, with a keen focus on regular changes to keep the menu fresh. We love the freedom and creativity of working within their portfolios—and we’re fortunate that our vendors are always willing to bring new product that we discover into our market, even when it doesn’t have distribution.

New Zealand Wine

North Canterbury Sauvignon Blanc

SiSterS ridge2017 Pinot Noir San Francisco International Wine Competition, 95 Points | Double Gold

The Tasting Panel, Anthony Dias Blue, 90 Points

2018 Sauvignon Blanc The Tasting Panel, Anthony Dias Blue, 90 Points

The Real Reviews, Bob Campbell MW, 91 Points | 4 Stars | Silver Medal

Contact: [email protected] | sistersridge.com | P: +1 707 745 3649

North Canterbury, New Zealand

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New Zealand Wine

North Canterbury Sauvignon Blanc

SiSterS ridge2017 Pinot Noir San Francisco International Wine Competition, 95 Points | Double Gold

The Tasting Panel, Anthony Dias Blue, 90 Points

2018 Sauvignon Blanc The Tasting Panel, Anthony Dias Blue, 90 Points

The Real Reviews, Bob Campbell MW, 91 Points | 4 Stars | Silver Medal

Contact: [email protected] | sistersridge.com | P: +1 707 745 3649

North Canterbury, New Zealand

CARL YORKDirector of Operations, Craigie on Main, Boston, MA

We work with approximately 15 distributors for wine, with two doing the heavy lifting and four playing significant roles. There have been times when I expanded the roster to maybe 22 or 23 distributors, but it’s usually because I’m chasing one wine I love.

Our purchase decisions boil down to four criteria. First, our list is pretty focused: only European wines—mostly red Burgundy, Nebbiolo, and German Riesling—and no trophy bottles. That gives us natural distribution partners because these aren’t things that everyone focuses on. Second, avoiding trends is a point of pride. Our list doesn’t have 25 Greek whites right now, last year it didn’t have 35 Corsican wines, the year before it didn’t have 30 wines from Etna, and the year before that it didn’t have 37 flawed natural wines. So we’ve never chased the cool-kid importer—at least I hope we haven’t.

Third, whenever possible, we work with people who are both importers and distributors. It takes a hand out of the distribution chain that gets our clients better bottle pricing. That might sound impersonal, but if you sell Bordeaux, one producer can often be 30–35 percent cheaper than another. When that gets to the list, it can make a huge difference. And fourth, because we’re a family-owned res-taurant, we try to work with all of our purveyors that way—we try to earn and grow excellent relationships. And it’s just as important that distributors and importers are excellent to their wineries. That means steady portfolios. It means temperature control. It means transpar-ency. It means supporting growers in good years and bad. It sounds obvious, but it really isn’t that common.

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Movers & Shakers

Want to connect with beverage industry leaders? Tap into ForceBrands’ specialized beverage division BevForce at forcebrands.com/bevforce or email

[email protected] for more information.

CAREER CORNER

The LeadingRecruiting Firm in Beverage

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Our industry-specific beverage division BevForce offers:

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ForceBrands is the leading recruiting and staffing firm for the beverage, food, and beauty industries. We offer executive recruiting services, board-of-directors assembly, and industry-specific job boards—includ-

ing BevForce, which connects global beverage companies with future leaders.

Chris Langworth has been named Northeast Regional Sales Manager at The Cooper Spirits Company. He had been District Manager at Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits.

Tim Chiofalo has been named Florida State Manager at Sweet Amber Distilling Co. He had been Director of Sales at Beach Whiskey Company.

Jeffrey Koch has been named State Manager, Florida, at Q Mixers. He had been National Account Manager at Mast-Jägermeister US, Inc.

Seth Bunton has been named Area Sales Manager at Phusion Projects. He had been Regional Manager at Rogue Ales & Spirits.

BUZZ:

The Benefits of Wine CertificationsHow important are wine certifications to recruiters when reviewing resumes? Should you be certified to succeed in the alcoholic beverage industry? We checked in with Rachel Doueck, ForceBrands’ Director of Sales for the Spirits, Wine, and Beer Division, to learn more.

“I started my career in the industry as a mixologist in sports bars and high-end restaurants, so when I joined ForceBrands I already had what I thought was a strong knowledge of brands and the interworking of the industry,” Doueck says. “Spotting certifications on applications help me to recognize industry-educated talent, but going deeper, it allows me to be a better resource for my clients. After attending the WSET [Wine & Spirit Education Trust] classes, I understand more than ever the depth of brands in a company’s portfolio and can truly gauge what types of candidates, based on background as well as training, will be the most impactful to a company’s success.”

Doueck has long understood how the consumer thinks, but understanding how winemakers and distillers operate helps paint a fuller picture. “Not only am I passionate about the space, but by understanding how a product is created, how it gets on the shelf, and why consumers purchase a brand, I can provide the most consultative advice to my clients,” she says. “The education I’ve received from the WSET classes have helped me to understand the global wine and spirits environment, production processes, and a brand’s quality, which ultimately determines whether or not a brand will be successful.”

KEEP RUMCHATA ON THE BACK BAR AND IN THE COOLER. IF PEOPLE SEE RUMCHATA, THEY WILL BUY IT.

RumChata®. Caribbean Rum with Real Dairy Cream, Natural & Artificial Flavors, 13.75% alc/vol. Agave Loco Brands, Pewaukee, WI. Please Enjoy Responsibly. RUMCHATA and CHATA are Registered Trademarks of Agave Loco, LLC.

CONTACT YOUR RUMCHATA DISTRIBUTOR TO ORDER

THESE DOUBLE SIDED SHOT GLASSES TODAY!

IS HERE!

TRY A PIE HARD:ONE HALF RUMCHATA,

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TP0319_032-64_KNV4.indd 38 2/26/19 2:39 PM

KEEP RUMCHATA ON THE BACK BAR AND IN THE COOLER. IF PEOPLE SEE RUMCHATA, THEY WILL BUY IT.

RumChata®. Caribbean Rum with Real Dairy Cream, Natural & Artificial Flavors, 13.75% alc/vol. Agave Loco Brands, Pewaukee, WI. Please Enjoy Responsibly. RUMCHATA and CHATA are Registered Trademarks of Agave Loco, LLC.

CONTACT YOUR RUMCHATA DISTRIBUTOR TO ORDER

THESE DOUBLE SIDED SHOT GLASSES TODAY!

IS HERE!

TRY A PIE HARD:ONE HALF RUMCHATA,

ONE HALF APPLE WHISKEY.

®

TP0319_032-64_KNV4.indd 39 2/26/19 2:39 PM


HOT SHOT

ForceBrands: You’ve spent nearly 15 years in the wine and spirits industry. Tell us about your current role.Gustavo Valverde: As a Regional Director of Sales at Breckenridge Distillery, I am responsible for negotiating financial terms with the wholesalers that distribute our portfolio, analyz-ing selling costs and margins, and managing the supply chain. A crucial aspect of the role of Regional Director is building programming that will execute the strategic direction of the busi-ness unit across the channel segments; the strategic direction is focused on driving depletions through distribution to deliver the annual profit plan, all while growing brand equity.

FB: What are some industry trends you’ve observed take shape in the past year or so that could define the future of the beverage space?GV: Technology is having a huge impact on our business, starting with geo-based sales, real-time analytical data, and supply-chain traceability all the way through to direct interactions with our customers via social platforms. Social-media interactions have now migrated from impressions to direct transactions.

FB: Given your successful track record in sales, what advice would you give someone looking to succeed in your role? GV: Early in my career, I struggled to find a manager who deeply understood our industry. My advice is to identify a team and a strong mentor who will nurture and coach you. It’s critical for your career progression. An ideal mentor is someone who understands cross-disciplinary functions. This is key because sales, distributor management, strategy, supply chain, and, most importantly, the finance and accounting component will differen-tiate you from the average supplier.

FB: What’s one of your favorite products to sell and why? GV: Breckenridge whiskey, of course! Our industry has moved from selling products to selling brands and is now shifting to selling experiences and services surrounding these brands. To sell a luxury brand like Breckenridge is a joy, and having an authentic story to share is an advantageous tool when engaging the marketplace.

FB: If you could work in any other part of the industry, what would you be doing?GV: Each morning, I wake to the sector of the industry that pro-vides a complex tapestry of wholesaler organizations, state laws and rules, and a knowledgeable and passionate clientele. These complex factors challenge my mind and help me to be a better professional. I am fortunate to be doing what I love—I would not change a thing.

REGIONAL DIRECTOR OF SALES, BRECKENRIDGE DISTILLERY, BRECKENRIDGE, CO

A Q&A with Gustavo Valverde

To sell a luxury brand like Breckenridge

is a joy, and having an authentic story

to share is an advantageous tool

when engaging the marketplace.”

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WINE & SPIRITS WHOLESALERS OF AMERICA CONVENTION & EXPOSITION:

In It to Win ItMAKING A MARK AT BRAND BATTLE

by Ruth Tobias / photos by Michael Bennett Kress Photography

Ginja9 founder Alexander Dias makes his pitch to the esteemed panel of judges at Brand Battle 2018.

You know what they say—you can’t win if you don’t play. But with Brand Battle, the Wine &

Spirits Wholesalers of America can go you one better: If you’re playing, you’ve already won.

A marquee affair at the WSWA Convention & Exposition—the 76th annual edition of which will be held in Orlando, Florida, from March 31 to April 3—Brand Battle “is a TV-quality live event that showcases the best of the best in front of a panel of distribu-tors and industry influencers,” says Cindy Nachman-Senders, WSWA Senior Consultant for Meetings & Conventions.

How does she know they’re the cream of the crop? Because a team of highly qualified distributors chooses them, culling down as many as 250 video submissions to no more than seven participants who take the stage to make their timed elevator pitch.

Whether they’re newcomers to the marketplace or more established companies with expansion plans, she explains, they’re all “trying to break through the clutter. There are so many brands vying for attention, and we’re providing a unique opportunity to get in front of decision makers. If you have a good idea, good juice, and a good story, we have the tools to help get you to market.”

Of course, you’ve also got to be

prepared to face a voting audience as well as the judges tasked with examin-ing your product, packaging, and presentation on the spot. For instance, says Nachman-Senders, “A judge may ask, ‘How much sugar is in it?’ and you need to know that.”

Taking the title means more than prizes, which include $2,000 and two complimentary registrations to the next convention. Just ask Marsh Mokhtari, founder of Golden State Distillery, whose Gray Whale Gin took first place last year. Winning the competition was “the single best investment Gray Whale Gin has made to date,” says Mokhtari, as it “cata-pulted [the] fledgling brand into the laps of all the best distributors in the U.S. As a result, we are well on our way to garnering a national distribu-tion footprint.” (As a bonus, Mokhtari was also tapped to serve as the emcee of this year’s Battle.)

Even lower-placing participants have found that exposure is its own reward. Take Louise McGuane, founder of The Chapel Gate Irish Whiskey Company and its J.J. Corry label. As Nachman-Senders recalls of McGuane’s second-place presentation in 2017, “It was so polished. She told her story of being a whiskey bonder and really painted a picture with her words.” (Celebrity judge Bill Rancic referred to it at the time as “theater of

the mind.”) And in addition to $1,000 and a free registration, says McGuane, “The reception that we got and the contacts that we made were invalu-able.” Nachman-Senders herself regularly fields post-convention calls from distributors following up on the brands that impressed them.

To register before this year’s March 8 entry deadline, visit wswaconvention.org. Entry is free for registered conventiongoers; for non-exhibitors, there’s a $250 submission fee and a $2,000 participation fee.

Blake Helppie garnered a second-place finish for Rosé Piscine at Brand Battle 2018.

Last year’s Brand Battle judges pose with winner Marsh Mokhtari (center) of Golden State Distillery.

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IN THE KITCHEN

ELEVATE YOUR CABER NET SAUVIGNON EXPERIENCE

Trapiche, one of the oldest wine brands produced in Argentina, is proud to bring the best

from the heart of Argentine wine regions, like Mendoza’s high vineyards, located at

4,000 feet on the foothills of the Andes mountains.

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Pairing sweet wine with savory dishes can be adventurous yet risky for chefs, beverage directors, and diners alike. Beyond the classic pairing of French Sauternes with foie gras, sweet

wines rarely show up before dessert in multicourse meals. To cre-ate fare that pairs well with this category, it helps if the dish itself has sweet components, but it can’t be too saccharine, or wedding the two will result in a cloying experience.

Seeking to strike this careful balance, Executive Chef Ethan Holmes of Mattie’s in Austin, Texas, created a pan-roasted scallop dish with celeriac mousseline, pickled strawberries, and serrano chutney to pair with Stella Rosa’s Stella Berry expression. “Pairing sweet wine with savory dishes can be a challenge because it’s difficult to bring out the acidity in the wine,” Holmes said. “Scallops are naturally sweet and I knew after I tasted Stella Berry that they would work well for this dish. As the name suggests, Stella Berry is fruit-forward, which is where the strawberries came in. There’s also vinegar in the serrano chutney, which brought out the acid in the wine, and then Stella Berry’s long finish nicely tempered the heat from the serrano.”

When asked to identify other savory dishes that might go well with Stella Berry, Holmes suggested spicy-salty foods, smoked meats and vegetables, fried chicken, and grilled backyard fare. It’s not hard to guess why backyards are on the chef’s mind: Mattie’s is situated in a 19th-century Victorian house on the 10-acre Green Pastures estate, where oak trees abound and white-feathered peacocks roam freely. Located just six minutes from the capitol building, it’s an idyllic urban refuge where one can enjoy contemporary Southern fare before going for a post-dinner stroll under the oaks.

Sweet Wine, Savory FoodCHEF ETHAN HOLMES PAIRS

STELLA BERRY WITH PAN-ROASTED SCALLOPS AT MATTIE’S IN AUSTIN

story by Eric Marsh / photos by Robert G. Gomez

Pan-Roasted Scallops◗ 16 U10 scallops, patted dry ◗ Salt to taste◗ 4 Tbsp. grapeseed oil or

another high-smoke-point oil

Parsnip-Celeriac Puree◗ 1 lb. celeriac, peeled and diced ◗ 1 lb. parsnips, peeled and diced ◗ 2 oz. butter◗ 8 oz. heavy cream◗ Salt to taste

Pickled Strawberries◗ 1 cup red wine vinegar◗ ¼ cup sugar◗ 1 tsp. vanilla bean paste◗ 12 oz. strawberries, washed,

hulled, and sliced crosswise

Serrano Chutney◗ 1 cup Sherry vinegar ◗ 1 tsp. mustard seeds◗ 1 garlic clove, sliced thin ◗ 3 Tbsp. brown sugar◗ 3 oz. serrano peppers, sliced thin◗ Ginger, freshly grated

Braised Greens◗ 2 Tbsp. shallots, minced◗ 2 cups baby Swiss chard◗ 1 cup baby kale◗ 1 Tbsp. cider vinegar ◗ Salt and pepper to taste◗ Crispy fried shallots for

plated garnish

Chef Ethan Holmes at Mattie’s in Austin, TX, with Stella Rosa Stella Berry and one of

his latest culinary creations: pan-roasted scallops with celeriac mousseline, pickled

strawberries, and serrano chutney.

Stella Rosa Stella Berry with Chef Ethan Holmes’

pan-roasted scallops.

Pan-Roasted Scallops with Parsnip-Celeriac Mousseline, Pickled Strawberries, Serrano Chutney, Bitter Greens, and Crispy Shallots Courtesy of Executive Chef Ethan Holmes, Mattie’s Restaurant, Austin, TX

44 / the tasting panel / march 2019For the full story and recipe with instructions,

visit tastingpanelmag.com/stella-berry-scallops.

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ELEVATE YOUR CABER NET SAUVIGNON EXPERIENCE

Trapiche, one of the oldest wine brands produced in Argentina, is proud to bring the best

from the heart of Argentine wine regions, like Mendoza’s high vineyards, located at

4,000 feet on the foothills of the Andes mountains.

© 20

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92POINTS

JAMES SUCKLING

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90POINTS

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LIFT YOUR SPIRITS

SAVE THE DATEWashington, D.C. – June 23 – 25, 2019

San Diego, CA - November 2019*

*Dates to be Announced Soon!

�ree Day Conference Featuring Over 50 Masterclasses on Wine, Beer, and

a New Educational Track Devoted to Spirits

For more information or sponsorship inquiries, please contact Michelle Metter

[email protected] | 619.312.1212

Now welcoming young professionals under the age of 30 to apply for a full conference pass through our young leaders summit!

visit www.sommconusa.com to submit your application today.

www.sommconusa.com

TP0319_032-64_KNV4.indd 46 2/26/19 2:39 PM

LIFT YOUR SPIRITS

SAVE THE DATEWashington, D.C. – June 23 – 25, 2019

San Diego, CA - November 2019*

*Dates to be Announced Soon!

�ree Day Conference Featuring Over 50 Masterclasses on Wine, Beer, and

a New Educational Track Devoted to Spirits

For more information or sponsorship inquiries, please contact Michelle Metter

[email protected] | 619.312.1212

Now welcoming young professionals under the age of 30 to apply for a full conference pass through our young leaders summit!

visit www.sommconusa.com to submit your application today.

www.sommconusa.com

TP0319_032-64_KNV4.indd 47 2/26/19 2:39 PM

PORTFOLIO SPOTLIGHT


By the time the clock struck midnight on December 31, 2018, Enovation Brands President Alberto Pecora had made no fewer than 14 business trips to the U.S. from his home

in Verona, Italy, over the course of the year. By the time March comes to a close, he’ll have made two more, stopping at the wine and spirits importer’s headquarters in Miami before traversing the East Coast to meet with distributors and other clients.

Even before he and his brother Giovanni, who serves as Enovation Brands’ CEO, launched the company as the U.S. importer for Italian powerhouse Enoitalia in 2013, their dual citizenship equipped them with a rare perspective of the global wine industry. Born just 11 months apart, the siblings were raised in both Italy and the U.S., where their father’s side of the family owned restaurants and other hospitality businesses. Their uncle Albert was tasked with buying wines for these ventures: “He just fell in love with the business and the wine itself, and eventually he started importing wines,” Alberto says.

After Alberto and Giovanni’s father moved the family back to Italy, Albert remained, co-founding A.V. Imports in Washington, D.C. Within the decade, the company had reached $100 million in sales, thanks to the success of Italian brands like Luna Di Luna. By age 22, Giovanni was back in the U.S. and working for his uncle as the company broadened its portfolio to include wines from around the world. Alberto soon joined him in the wine business, and they eventually transitioned to new roles at Enoitalia, A.V. Imports’ partner and biggest supplier.

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Born and raised in the U.S., the brothers behind Enovation Brands, Alberto and Giovanni Pecora,

now reside in Verona, Italy.

The Terre di Valfredda vineyard in Italy’s Trentino region is surrounded

by mountains, which protect the grapes from the elements. The site’s

east-west exposure also provides ideal conditions for ripening Pinot

Grigio for Ca’ Montini, a member of the Enovation Brands portfolio.

DISRUPTORSTHE ITALIAN-AMERICAN BROTHERS BEHIND ENOVATION BRANDS SHAKE UP

THE WINE BUSINESS WITH THEIR INNOVATING LABELS by Kate Newton

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“When I went there in 1998, [Enoitalia was] a small winery, and now they are the largest privately held winery in Italy, doing business in 70-plus countries around the globe,” Giovanni says. He helped fuel that transnational growth, managing the majority of the company’s global exports and, like his brother, spending a lot of time tethered to a plane seat in the process.

Though both now live in Verona near Enoitalia’s still-wines facility (the company has a separate winery for its sparkling wines in Montebello), they sometimes go days without seeing each other. “When you’re in the U.S., you want to be in Italy, and when you’re back in Italy, you want to be in the U.S., so you live with a foot here and a foot there,” Giovanni says with a laugh. “But that gives us the best of both worlds, to understand where the potential of Italy lies with American consumers, because that’s fundamental.”

Setting “Meticulous” StandardsBy positioning itself alongside Enoitalia,

Enovation Brands has been able to tap into the company’s extensive resources while drawing inspiration from its family-oriented culture. “The first thing we wanted to do was create a company that stuck to its morals and values. It’s not the company that makes the people; it’s the other way around,” Alberto says. “Our brands are part of our family, but just like any big family, you want to keep it manageable, so we try to limit the number of brands we launch each year. We want our portfolio to be nimble and have things no other suppliers have.” (As it happens, a group of brothers also runs Enoitalia: “Can you see the synergy?” Alberto jokes.)

This doesn’t mean the Enovation Brands team

Above, Alberto and Giovanni Pecora hang out in the Gemma di Luna Boutique at last year’s Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America Convention & Exposition in Las Vegas. Enovation Brands recently debuted a limited-edition two-pack for Gemma di Luna that transforms into a jewelry box (at right).

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Lignum, the newest addition to the Enovation Brands portfolio, is a Sicilian blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Shiraz with an embellished wooden label that has performed well at white-tablecloth Italian restaurants.


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PORTFOLIO SPOTLIGHT

is content to rest on the laurels of its much-larger partner—quite the opposite, in fact. If its name wasn’t enough of an indication, the company prioritizes innovation in every decision it makes and brand it imports. That philosophy is reflected in the stunning diversity of its portfolio, from the sheer variety of grapes and Italian winemak-ing regions represented to the array of packaging and label designs. (For more on some of Enovation’s leading brands, see the sidebar below.)

To maintain a common thread between the labels they import to the U.S. market, the brothers take several factors into consideration. “If there’s a family group behind it and we see that it reflects our way of doing business, it’s an instant tie for us,” Giovanni explains. “Then, obviously, we look at quality, because we’re quality-control fanatics. At Enoitalia, we have six winemakers who are meticulous about bringing the

utmost quality to the market, because you can launch a beautiful bottle, but if the quality is not inside the bottle, you won’t have a long-term brand—and that’s what we strive to do.”

The same standard applies to their outside winery partners, whose products must “really represent the terroir of where they are from,” Giovanni says. “We work with over 200 farmers around Italy, so we can source wines from just about every region and try to bring unique varietals to the marketplace.”

“Global Experience” Settles Stateside

A desire to appeal to the millennial demographic—particularly women, who purchase and consume wine at a higher rate than men—has played a critical role in how Enovation packages and markets its brands, which are often defined by their unconventional bottle

shapes, vibrant colors, and fanciful labels. “If you look at the majority of our brands, they have a very specific appeal to that consumer segment, and we’re going to continue that strategy because we only see that group having more and more buying power over the years as they grow older,” Alberto says.

And while Americans have become more educated and enthusiastic about wine over the years, Enovation Brands continues to place an emphasis on consumer friendliness, which has been a guiding principle for the Pecoras ever since they helped launch the Luna Di Luna brand—instantly recognizable for its bright red and blue bottles—in the mid-1990s. According to Doug Shaw, Senior Vice President at M.S. Walker—which serves as Enovation Brands’ distributor in the New England market—the brothers have always been ahead of the curve when it comes to increasing approachability.

Lignum: The newest release from Enovation Brands has had no trouble carving out a niche for itself in the marketplace since its debut last spring—thanks in large part to its virtually peerless packaging. Fittingly, as “lignum” means “wood” in Latin, the wine is affixed with a wooden label that required Enoitalia to invest in special technol-ogy. Its eye-catching appearance, however, doesn’t supersede the quality of the wine itself. “What’s inside the bottle is what we strive for: This is Sicily at its best,” Giovanni Pecora says of this rich and balanced blend of 40% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 30% Shiraz. While Lignum is currently available in roughly 20 U.S. states, Giovanni’s brother Alberto says he hopes this “Super Sicilian” wine will have a presence in all 50 by mid-2019.

Gemma di Luna: After Gemma di Luna was named an Impact “Hot Prospect” brand in 2017, the label took off; the fol-lowing year, after a Pinot Grigio and a Prosecco encased in the brand’s signature teal hue were released, Gemma di Luna won a Growth Brand Award from the Beverage Information Group. Marketing this trio of wines as a lifestyle brand for female consumers, Enovation Brands has also recognized Gemma di Luna’s potential for engaging with consumers in inventive ways; a two-pack that transforms into a jewelry box recently followed on the heels of a successful hat-box promo-tion, which debuted in roughly a dozen markets last year. “Gemma di Luna has been a complete success,” Giovanni says. “We’re chasing a lion by its tail.”

Luna Di Luna: Intended to provide shoppers with a consumer-friendly option, Luna Di Luna was also a pioneering entry in the now-exploding blends category at the time of its debut. “We revolution-ized the wine industry back in 1995 by launching this brand,” Giovanni says. “People thought we were crazy, because they had never seen this array of colors in the wine busi-ness.” Made with grapes from northeastern Italy’s Tre Venezie region, the expression in the scarlet bottle features 60% Merlot and 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, while the white is a 100% Pinot Grigio, Italy’s most popular white wine imported in the U.S. “We’ve always believed in blending wines, and now millennials are even more excited about purchasing blends,” Giovanni adds.

Enovation’s Boundary-Breaking Brands

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“Enovation Brands has always put quality first but at price points that attract a wide audience. They have tried to demystify the wine business and have come up with easy-to-understand and innovative products,” explains Shaw, whose business relationship with the Pecoras dates back roughly 25 years. Though Luna Di Luna “set the stage” for Enovation Brands’ vision, in his view, he also cites the “unique bottle shape” of the Ca’ Montini Pinot Grigio, the “sense of style” of the VOGA Italia line of wines, and the success of “recent phenomenon” Gemma di Luna for helping reinforce the company’s talent for “speaking to the style, warmth, and charm of Italy” through its products.

Alberto credits his and his brother’s “global experience” and travels in their previous roles with Enoitalia and A.V. Imports for “mold[ing them] to think outside of the box” when priming their brands to succeed in a given market.

But he’s found that the U.S. alone provides more than enough intrigue to keep their creative juices flowing.

“It’s an amazing market—it’s where I got into the wine business, but it’s also the one that gives you the most diversity,” he explains. “You have 50 states, which means there’s 50 ways to sell the wines: What works in Texas won’t necessarily work in New York, and if something works in New York, that doesn’t mean it’ll work in California. So our approach is never one-sided. We always sit down and do a lot of brainstorming; we listen to our people managing our different markets, because their feedback is important.”

Part of that process, of course, involves assessing and getting in front of potential trends. “Not only do we follow the generations and look at their consumer habits, but we try to predict the future: What are people going to be drinking? Prosecco, for

instance—people were only really drinking Champagne, and we knew that Italy had a space to be able to sell a sparkling wine,” Giovanni says of their Prosecco expressions from Alberto Nani, Amore Di Amanti, Gemma di Luna, and VOGA Italia. “We just persisted and marketed it in a great way, and now [Enoitalia is] the second-largest Prosecco producer in Italy.”

The brothers agree, however, that predictions only get you so far when you’ve built your reputation on staying on the cutting edge. “You have to kind of look at the crystal ball and say, ‘We believe this is going to be the next trend,’ and push it out there and mar-ket it so it does become that,” Giovanni says. Adds Alberto, “We always say at Enovation that there’s only one way to predict the future: Create it. That’s the key. If you can be the one creating the wave, you’ll reach the shore before anybody else.”

VOGA Italia: Available in more than 80 countries, VOGA provides the best visual representation of the company’s innovative approach to packaging and bottle design. Recently relaunched in the U.S. with new caps, the line has preserved its iconic cylindrical bottle shape—with the exception of the Prosecco, whose packaging now features an ornate threading effect. “After 12 years on the market, it just needed a bit of a refresh,” Giovanni says. “We feel this new bottle does really represent the stylish, modern brand that is VOGA.” In addition to the VOGA Wines lineup, a VOGA vodka expression is also available.

Alberto Nani: Burgeoning interest in organic wines among U.S. con-sumers prompted Enovation Brands to launch Alberto Nani Organic Prosecco from Italy’s Treviso DOC in 2017, filling what they saw as a gap in the market-place. The full-bodied wine shows jammy and floral notes with a hint of mineral-ity on the finish. “It’s a higher-end Prosecco, so we’ve already seen great medals and prizes on it throughout the European market,” Giovanni says.

Ca’ Montini: Meant to innovate upon the ubiquitous Pinot Grigio category, Ca’ Montini was originally con-ceived to prove that with a meticulous approach to site selection, vineyard manage-ment, and winemaking, the Trentino region is more than capable of produc-ing world-class wines. Surrounded by mountains, the vineyard that provides Ca’ Montini’s hand-harvested grapes, Terre di Valfredda, was selected for its east-west exposure and “Pergola Trentina” trellising system, which together ensure ideal ripening condi-tions. The brand’s vinification process was developed by celebrated winemaker Riccardo Cotarella, who’s been deemed “one of the best in Italian winemaking” by Wine Spectator and “one of the most influential wine personalities in the world” by Robert Parker.

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ON THE ROAD

In

BEVERAGE SLINGER

a Day in the Life of a

SOUTHWEST SPIRITS’ LAURA BLACK BRINGS LIQUID TO LIPS ACROSS

NORTH TEXASstory and photos by Lori Moffatt

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“Calling on accounts is one of my favorite things about the job,” Black said as we arrived at State Draft House in the Dallas suburb of Flower Mound—a key on-premise account that just so happens to be a favorite hangout of hers. As the staff prepared for the lunch rush, General Manager Emma McWilliams whipped up a couple of seasonal drink specials using two of Southwest Spirits’ most popular brands: a pretty, cherry-kissed Martini made with Nue Vodka and a riff on a Pink Lady featuring Calamity Gin, a floral expression whose botanicals include Texas’ state flower, the bluebonnet.

“I like introducing people to our brands, whether that’s consumers or people in an account,” Black said. Granted, as a four-tier state, Texas can be a tough market for suppli-ers and distributors alike; Black explained that “on-premise accounts order through their Class B/local dis-tributor for any spirits they want to carry instead of directly from RNDC [Republic National Distributing Company].” For that reason, it’s all the more “rewarding to watch an

her role as North Texas State Manager for Southwest Spirits, Laura Black estimates she drives more than 1,000 miles a month—“probably double” during her busiest times, she says. In the boom-ing Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex, a tangle of cities and towns sprawled across more than 9,000 square miles, calling on key accounts means spending a lot of time on the blacktop. I tagged along on a sunny day in early February to learn what a typical day is like for her.

In

As North Texas State Manager for Southwest Spirits, Laura Black

crisscrosses the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex square

mile by square mile.

Beer and Spirits:

State Draft House, Flower Mound

Laura Black with Emma McWilliams, General Manager of State Draft House, a key account for Southwest Spirits.

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account grow and understand the value of using us,” she said.

Dallas-based Southwest Spirits is Texas’ third-largest distillery in terms of volume behind Austin’s Deep Eddy and Tito’s. “Nue Vodka is the lead horse,” Black said of Southwest Spirits’ premium portfolio, which includes eight core brands. “Nue is in about 35 states right now, and in Texas alone last year, we sold about 20,000 cases.” Other spirits in her portfolio include the aforementioned Calamity Gin; Title No 21 Rye, Bourbon, and American Whiskey, which pay homage to the end of Prohibition; Knockmore Irish Whiskey; Henderson Whiskey; and J.R. Ewing Bourbon, named for the iconic Texas antihero in the television series Dallas.

“Here at State Draft House, they sell a lot of beer, but they do cocktails, too, and they like selling local,” Black said. When she showed McWilliams how she could help the restaurant maximize profits while support-ing local brands, Henderson Whiskey, Calamity Gin, and Nue Vodka wound up as the house pours. “Especially with that Texas bluebonnet connection, Calamity was a great fit to add to the Texas gin lineup,” Black continued. “Our strategy is to [create] well-made products that fit an underserved or untapped part of the market at affordable price points.”

According to Black, Southwest Spirits’ recent alignment with RNDC has allowed her and her peers to explore fresh partnerships and ideas. “Distributors are the unsung heroes of this industry, because they have so many people to please. Republic is a great partner and ambassador to our brands,” Black said.

If Black’s on-site accounts need assistance with recipes, for example, they can call on RNDC’s corporate mixologists for ideas. If a new account needs help wrangling state regulations, the RNDC team can share their expertise. And when Black wanted to host a series of Repeal Day parties highlighting the Title No 21 brand at The Rustic, a wildly successful American restaurant and bar with locations in Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio, she called on RNDC for support.

“We can excel only if we are aligned with the goals of our supplier,” said RNDC Division Manager Janie Thurman. “Southwest Spirits made the repeal of Prohibition come alive and be relevant to consumers. We had big parties at The Rustic, and we also challenged our team to have similar parties at other accounts in the Dallas area.” For Black, the fact “that RNDC not only helped us execute our Repeal Day event at The Rustic but found us other locations across the state to activate in for Repeal Day is a great testament to their commitment to Southwest Spirits and our brands.”

The Rustic is part of a Texas hospitality group known as FreeRange Concepts. When we stopped by The Rustic’s flagship in Dallas’ Uptown district, FreeRange Beverage Director Kara Trissel made us a drink called the Texas Rye, in which a housemade honey syrup brought out the sweetness of the Title No 21 Rye she keeps on her list of local whiskeys.

Trissel noted that when she’s considering introducing a new product, she’ll ask herself if the brand suits FreeRange’s overarching identity. “The Repeal Day parties with Title No 21 were a perfect fit,” she said. “We had stations where people could taste the different expressions and learn about them, and we featured special Title No 21 Repeal Day cocktails. We love to help build brands because they’ll help us build ours.”

ON THE ROAD

Nue Vodka’s Texas pride shows right on the bottle.

FreeRange Concepts Beverage Director Kara Trissel uses Title No 21 Rye in a cocktail featuring Texas-made cider and honey syrup at The Rustic in Dallas.

Nurturing New Markets:

The Rustic/FreeRange Concepts, Dallas

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Southwest Spirits’ portfolio runs the cocktail-worthy gamut.

The Texas Rye Served at The Rustic, Dallas ◗ 1¼ oz. Title No 21 Rye◗ ½ oz. fresh lemon juice◗ ½ oz. fresh orange juice◗ 1 oz. honey syrup◗ 2 dashes Angostura bitters◗ 2 oz. Austin Eastciders Honey

(a Texas cider) Shake the first four ingredients with

ice in a shaker; strain over new ice. Add bitters and top with cider.

Justine Served at State Draft House, Flower Mound

◗ 2½ oz. Nue Vodka◗ ½ oz. Luxardo cherry liqueur◗ ½ oz. Chenin Blanc Shake with ice and strain into a

Martini glass. Garnish with a lemon twist and cherry.

Calm Lady ◗ 1½ oz. Calamity Gin◗ ½ oz. applejack brandy◗ ½ oz. lemon juice◗ 1 egg white◗ A few dashes of Grenadine Dry shake all ingredients to whip

egg, then add ice and shake again. Strain into a snifter and garnish with a cherry.

Roughly 30 miles north of downtown Dallas in a suburb known as The Colony, we stopped at yet another account: The first Texas outpost of the 23-year-old, Pennsylvania-based Cigars International.

Cigar shoppers make purchases in the retail store, but the real action here is around the bar and on the patio, where patrons light up stogies and sip whiskey on leather sofas and at café tables. Thanks to a state-of-the-art system that filters the air ten times an hour, the air doesn’t smell like smoke but rather of spice, wood, earth, and honey.

The bar at Cigars International features Nue Vodka as its house pour while using other Southwest Spirits brands in both listed and special cocktails (Bloody Mary flights, anyone?). “Texans are really loyal to their state,” District Beverage Manager Morgan Stefan said. “When we try Texas brands and like them, we snatch them up because they’re always a big hit.”

Because the Title No 21 whiskeys “play really well” with the bar’s other offerings, according to Stefan, she and Black were inspired to collaborate on their own experimental expression: a barrel-aged Title No 21 Whiskey that they’ll offer to guests as long as it lasts. “We took this 2-liter barrel, aged it in Port, and put the Title No 21 in,” said Stefan. “It makes an excel-lent Old Fashioned or Manhattan, but most people here order their whiskey neat or on the rocks.”

Nurturing New Markets:

The Rustic/FreeRange Concepts, Dallas

Morgan Stefan, District Beverage Manager for Pennsylvania-based chain Cigars International, barrel-ages Title No 21 Whiskey in house.

Smoke and Whiskey:

Cigars International, The Colony

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DEPARTMENT HEADER

56 / the tasting panel / march 201956 / the tasting panel / march 2019

COVER STORY

ine companies are always touting the awards they’ve won at competitions and in prestigious publications, but only one that we know of can lay claim to the Grand Marshal Award for most outstanding creative concept and float design at the legendary Pasadena Tournament of Roses: Stella Rosa Wines.

At the Rose Parade in January, Stella Rosa’s Taste the Magic float featured a 35-foot genie emerging from a bottle and a performance by Kool & the Gang, which changed its 1980 hit “Celebrate” to “Stellabrate” for the occasion. By route’s end, Vice President Steve Riboli estimates the float had been viewed by some 1 million paradegoers and 45 million television viewers. How’s that for a triumphant marketing campaign?

Production of Stella Rosa begins

in the hillside vineyards of Asti in

Piedmont.

ClassicCULT GOES

BY RUTH TOBIAS

STELLA ROSA PUTS THE “LIFE”—AND “STYLE”—IN

THE NEXT BIG LIFESTYLE WINE

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Four generations of the Riboli family are behind Stella Rosa’s unique wines.

It was all in a day’s work for the Stella Rosa team, who clearly has as much fun promoting their brand and engaging with their customers as any company reasonably could have. On their website and social media channels, they post lighthearted quizzes with titles like “What Stella Rosa Flavor Are You?” and contests such as the recent “Wish Upon a Stella Rosa,” which encouraged participants to submit short essays about their holiday hopes and dreams for the chance to win prizes valued at up to $500. (Riboli guesses that, “kind of like Secret Santa, we gave back what must’ve been $35,000.”)

Stella Rosa advertises on Pandora, particularly on hip-hop, jazz, and R&B stations, in both English and Spanish. It pops up at state fairs, music festivals, and Pride gatherings. It even erects billboards, unde-terred by what Winemaker Anthony Riboli freely acknowledges is “a faux pas in our industry. This brand has allowed us to do a lot of things that traditional wine marketers frown at.” Agrees Steve, “Our brand is, ‘This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Let’s enjoy what we’re doing.’”

The Ultimate Lifestyle Beverage Of course, it’s of the utmost importance that Stella Rosa’s audi-

ence also enjoys what they’re doing. After all, the company is as consumer-driven as they come: It was built on the success of a flagship product that was essentially crowdsourced before the concept of crowdsourcing existed. As Anthony explains it, the abiding favorite in the Los Angeles tasting room of San Antonio Winery, founded by the Riboli family in 1917, was light, fizzy, semisweet, low-alcohol Moscato

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“Our brand was not built on somms, but that doesn’t mean we can’t tell the story of why it has a place beyond the supermarket shelf.”—Anthony Riboli

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d’Asti—until about 15 years ago. “These customers began asking my grandfa-ther if there was a red wine that tasted like Moscato d’Asti,” Anthony says. “So we went back to Italy and asked, ‘Can we even make this?’ They were like, ‘No one’s ever asked.’”

Nevertheless, the answer turned out to be yes, and a sensation was born in the form of Stella Rosa Rosso. Violet-red and frizzante, the blend of Barbera and Brachetto with a touch of Moscato was inherently festive, and its packaging—a heavy glass bottle with an embossed crown—telegraphed

as much. So did its price, averaging $12–15 a bottle at a recessionary time post-9/11 when Two-Buck Chuck was all the rage.

“We were catering to a clientele who enjoys social life, who has a passion for living,” but who “maybe had never tasted wine before,” Steve says. “It told a story to the novice wine drinker: ‘This is Italian, this is classy.’” He adds that Stella Rosa aimed to become “a cult brand for family gatherings,” particularly in non–Anglo European communities (e.g. Latinx, African-American, and Southeast Asian)

where wine hasn’t historically been an everyday beverage.

But while Stella Rosa was instantly embraced by the “small indie retailers in SoCal” that served these demo-graphics and were “intimately” aware of their customers’ tastes beyond wine, Steve admits it was a much harder sell for “national retailers [that] could not fathom that there might be people who didn’t like Cab and Chard.”

Eventually, though, they came around, with Steve crediting a buyer at Costco for being the first to give it a chance. In the meantime, the company behind what’s now the nation’s top-selling import brand, according to Nielsen data, continued to foster the mutual trust it enjoyed with its fan base as it expanded its offerings. “We really work our clientele,” he says. “We ask our customers in retail aisles, ‘What do you drink? What do you like?’”

Taking this input to heart, the Stella Rosa portfolio encompasses 22 wines of varying effervescence and sweetness levels in a rainbow of flavors. To name just a few, there’s the Imperiale line of fully sparkling wines in Champagne-style bottles; Stella Pink, a rosé infused with strawberry and rose petal; Stella Platinum, with aromas of green apple, vanilla, and elderflower; and Stella Black, which Anthony calls “a phenomenon in its own right” flavored with blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries.

“What we’ve found is that the brand-loyalty customers aren’t just buying one flavor,” Anthony says. “That has been great because it allows us to try new things”—including the soon-to-be-released Ruby Rosé Grapefruit, which Steve calls “just dynamite.” “It’s been on our to-do list for a few years, and when I tasted it in Italy, I was like, ‘We’ve got to pull the trigger on this,’” he adds.

Alternative packaging in 187-milliliter mini-bottles represents yet another savvy play for the nontraditional wine drinker. “I was going down the freezer section of my local grocery store,” Steve recalls, “and I noticed people buying mini-Häagen-Dazs. And it dawned on me that it’s kind of like a self-limiting thing. Maybe some people don’t want to go home and drink an

According to Vice President Steve Riboli, Stella Rosa has strived to become “a cult brand” for family celebrations.

COVER STORY

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entire bottle of Stella Rosa—but they’ll drink 8 ounces.” And for those who don’t want to go home at all, opting to hit the beach or picnic in the park instead, a few products come in aluminum rather than glass.

The Real DealDespite Stella Rosa’s energetic

and inventive approach to marketing and developing its products, the fact remains that “what’s in the bottle still has to be good,” Anthony says, adding, “I think not everybody really appreciates what goes into these wines.”

Therein lies the untold history of Stella Rosa: “Our story was always that this brand was born in one town in Santo Stefano Belbo, in the heart of Asti in Piedmont, where my mother’s family is from,” Steve says. “This is a real product that’s made in an extremely difficult way.” “The quality from that region is definitely critical,” Anthony concurs.

While the DOCG classification for

Moscato d’Asti speaks for itself, the company had to set its own standards for Rosso—the first wine of its kind. But as it turned out, “the red aromatics were the real eye-opener for the new consumer,” Anthony says. “We chose Barbera for that cherry and raspberry freshness and good acid; Brachetto has a little more delicate strawberry flavor.” These varieties combine to represent 90 percent of the blend; Moscato provides “just a little boost of terpenes.”

To preserve those aromatic com-pounds, Anthony adds, the family wineries that the Ribolis work with “hold the juice cold until the decision is made to add yeast and ferment.” “Because it’s fermented on demand,” he adds, “the product arrives fresher and has optimal aromatic character.” Special pressurized tanks maintain the natural carbonation in the wines, some of which—like the aforementioned Stella Rosa Black—are fermented with natural fruit essences. (See page 44 for more on Stella Rosa.)

The question is, can Stella Rosa open the minds of connoisseurs and industry pros by telling that story as effectively as they’ve opened the eyes of nontraditional consumers? Or, as Anthony puts it, “Why doesn’t every Italian restaurant have our Moscato or Rosso or Rosso LUX? These are well-made products to show the more experienced wine drinker who’s look-ing for something after dinner with dessert or who has a family member who likes sweeter wines.”

There’s only one way to find out the answer. Given incentives like the growing demand for lower-ABV wines, he strongly believes that “now is the time to start marketing on-premise.” “Our teams need to spread the word to the gatekeepers: ‘Here are some reasons why you shouldn’t just dis-count this product,’” Anthony adds. “Our brand was not built on somms, but that doesn’t mean we can’t tell the story of why it has a place beyond the supermarket shelf.”

“The family wineries that we work with don’t begin

fermentation until we place orders, and they bottle

on demand,” says fourth-generation winemaker

Anthony Riboli.

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LIQUOR LAW

On January 16, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a case regarding durational residency requirements for liquor-store ownership in Tennessee. Incidentally, the date fell on the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 18th

Amendment, which established Prohibition.Tennessee Wine and Spirits Retailers Association v. Blair was incited when the asso-

ciation contested licenses for both Total Wine—whose owners live in Maryland—and Affluere Investments, Inc., a company created by Doug and Mary Ketchum after the couple moved from Utah to Tennessee for their daughter’s health.

The law requires would-be liquor-store owners to live in the state for two years before they can receive a license and for a decade before they can renew it. Despite the residency law, Tennessee’s Alcohol Beverage Commission had indicated it would grant the licenses to the defendants.

After the Retailers Association’s challenge, the Commission itself filed with the state courts seeking a declaratory judgment on the constitutionality of the residency requirements. The court ruled the requirements unconstitutional based on the dor-mant commerce clause in Article I of the Constitution, which prohibits discrimination in interstate commerce; its ruling was affirmed by the United States Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit.

The case then made its way to the Supreme Court. Representing the Retailers Association, lawyer Shay Dvoretzky argued that the state’s right to “virtually complete control” over the licensing and regulation of alcohol retail outlets was rooted in Section 2 of the 21st Amendment, provided Tennessee did not give preference to the importation and sale of products.

The justices nevertheless expressed skepticism over the residency requirements, which respondents argued were protectionist and potentially in violation of both the privileges and immunities clause of the 14th Amendment as well as the commerce clause.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor led with a barrage of questions against Dvoretzky, asking pointedly, “You can slice and dice as much as you want, but is it your position that the 21st Amendment makes all of our other jurisprudence wrong?”

Other justices, including Justice Samuel Alito, echoed this point, later prompting Justice Brett Kavanaugh to ask, “Why isn’t [the text of the 21st Amendment] most naturally read to allow states to remain dry and therefore ban transportation or importa-tion, but not to otherwise impose discriminatory or, as Justice Alito says, protectionist regulations?”

The only sticking point for the justices appeared to be how their judgment might affect brick-and-mortar stores and the three-tiered system, leaving unanswered ques-tions for a later date and paving the way for online behemoths that sell liquor from state to state. Justice Neil Gorsuch relayed this concern: “But isn’t the next business model just [to] try and operate as the Amazon [of] liquor?”

Carter Phillips, a lawyer representing Total Wine, responded, “No, my client oper-ates [more] on a brick-and-mortar business model that says we’re perfectly comfort-able operating within the sphere of regulation that the state imposes on every in-state operator. And all we are seeking . . . is not to be discriminated against.”

The case will likely be decided by the end of the Court’s term in June.

Derek Brown, a spirits and cocktail expert based in Washington, D.C., is the author of the forthcoming book Spirits, Sugar, Water, Bitters:

How the Cocktail Conquered the World.

In ContentionU.S. SUPREME COURT HEARS CASE ON TENNESSEE REQUIREMENTS

FOR LIQUOR-STORE LICENSEES

by Derek Brown

You can slice and dice as

much as you want, but is it your position that the 21st Amendment

makes all of our other jurispru-

dence wrong?”—U.S. Supreme

Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor

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Q&A

Founded in 1883, Argentina’s Trapiche is now the country’s largest exporter of premium wine

brands. Deborah Parker Wong, Global Wine Editor at The Tasting Panel’s sister publication The SOMM Journal, recently sat down with Daniel Pi, Trapiche’s Chief Winemaker, to discuss some of the winery’s notable releases, the role technology plays in its wines, and more.

Deborah Parker Wong: How has Trapiche, as one of Argentina’s

oldest wineries, continued to innovate? Daniel Pi: Exploring new terroirs—like Argentina’s coolest winegrowing region, known as Chapadmalal—is one key way that we innovate. Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Sauvignon Blanc were planted here in 2008 on loess and volca-nic ash soils just 6 kilometers from the South Atlantic Ocean. Chapadmalal is cold and humid, with plenty of rainfall

that allows for dry farming and a very long ripening season for our new Costa & Pampa still and sparkling wines.

You collaborate with as many as 200 winegrowers across several

regions and bottle the crème de la crème of every vintage as three Terroir Series wines. The 2013 Terroir Series Edición Limitada Finca Laborde ($50)

shows the distinct varietal character of Cabernet Sauvignon with red and black currant, tobacco, and a beauti-ful intensity on the midpalate. What’s behind this wine?These are the characteristics of Cabernet Sauvignon grown in Tunuyán, where the soils are more saline. Farming here is increasingly sustainable with fewer inputs required, and we’re seeing a purity of fruit character in all the wines that comes from picking at the

optimal time. You won’t encounter the geosmin [earthy, cooked root-vegetable notes] that can occur with overripeness. Tunuyán, along with Tupungato and San Carlos, are sites that really demonstrate the quality we can achieve.

I recently tasted the Trapiche 2017 Medalla Chardonnay ($20) in a

blind flight that included several other unoaked New World Chardonnays, and it bested them all for quality and style. To which factors do you attribute the beauty of this wine?The clonal material relies on our own massal selection, and the vineyard is planted to sandy, silty clay soils in the Gualtallary subzone of Tupungato. There is a strip of calcium carbonate that lies over graphite bedrock and the presence of large, round stones. The bright acidity and mineral texture of the wine is the result of this terroir and of our preference for native-yeast fermentation.

Considering Trapiche is Argentina’s top wine exporter,

technology must play a significant role at the winery and in the vineyard. What are some of the technologies you currently employ?We are not using any form of bio-technology in the winery—and by that I mean things like commercial yeasts and chemical additives during the winemaking process. The estate vineyards that surround the winery are farmed Biodynamically and enriched with Biodynamic compost. But technol-ogy does play an important role in the vineyards we own, where you’ll find state-of-the-art systems for irrigation and very high-tech vineyard architec-ture and management practices.

Daniel Pi is the Chief Winemaker at leading Argentine winery Trapiche.

Trapiche launched its premium label Medalla to celebrate its 100th anniversary.

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Steadfast Craftby Deborah Parker Wong

DANIEL PI, CHIEF WINEMAKER AT ARGENTINA’S TRAPICHE,

SOUNDS OFF ON TERROIR AND TECHNOLOGY

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GLOBAL SPIRITS


Multibillion-Dollar

This red rice sorghum is

destined for production of

the Chinese spirit baijiu.

Baijiu expressions like the decorative Langjiu are typically

packaged in ornate bottles.

Welcome! Have a seat—oh, but not that one. Here, your host has chosen a chair for you— but wait, you have more hands to shake. Now you may sit, and just in time, because lunch is being served.

Quick, back on your feet—your host is raising his glass and a brief clink is all that separates you from your meal. Now you’re sitting again, but there’s only been one toast—what are you doing?!

No, this isn’t some sort of etiquette-related fever dream: It’s a Chinese business meeting, and you’d better be hungry, but more importantly, you’d better be prepared to drink. You also need to pay attention, because no one is going to explain the rules to you; even if they tried, things might get lost in translation. Don’t kid yourself, though: There are rules—lots of them—and they’ve existed for centuries, if not millennia.

BabyA CRASH COURSE IN BAIJIU, THE CHINESE SPIRIT CATEGORY TAKING THE WORLD BY STORM WITHOUT LOSING SIGHT OF ITS HERITAGE

story and photos by Mara Marski

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Last October, I had the great honor of being invited by China Liquor Sales, LLC, to get up close and personal with baijiu—the clear spirit consumed with gusto during these meetings—at several far-flung Chinese distilleries. Baijiu has undergone a renaissance in the country ever since newer brands, including Chongqing-based JiangXiaoBai, began noticing that the category was falling out of fashion with millennial drinkers. They’re now using innovative methods and social-media outreach to introduce a new generation to China’s liquid heritage not just locally but globally, and it appears they’re succeeding: Baijiu brand Hengshui Laobaigan won “Best in Category” at the Las Vegas Global Spirits competition just last year, becoming the first Chinese spirit to claim the honor.

Pronounced “bye Joe,” baijiu translates to “white liquor” and usually clocks in anywhere from 40 to 70% ABV. Classified by flavor profile, several categories of baijiu are produced in China, but the most common types by far are light aroma, strong aroma, mixed aroma, and sauce aroma. This categorization system helps drinkers navigate a spirit with a staggering amount of variance and nuance.

Regardless of style, baijiu is most commonly distilled from a small, circu-lar cereal grain called sorghum, though other grains like glutinous rice and wheat are sometimes added. Unlike

most spirit categories, baijiu undergoes a dry fermentation.

Birthing BaijiuLocated in the southern Chinese

province of Sichuan, the privately held Langjiu Distillery specializes in the production of sauce-aroma baijiu, considered a luxury item. The “sauce” descriptor refers to soy sauce, though this type of liquor has nothing in common with your average bottle of Kikkoman: The descriptor instead signals the presence of a sort of under-lying savory/umami complexity.

Sauce-aroma baijiu is manufactured primarily by Langjiu and government-owned industry titan Kweichow Moutai Distillery. In Sichuan and the neighboring Guizhou province, where

Kweichow Moutai is based, the moun-tain water and valley terroir impart distinctive flavors on the raw materials used to make baijiu; native microorgan-isms, meanwhile, help determine the spirit’s taste as it ages.

Langjiu Distillery, nestled in the mountains alongside the Chishui River, exclusively utilizes locally sourced materials in its production. Before the annual process officially begins in October, the qu—a mixture of wheat, mother yeast, and microorganisms that’s pronounced “chew”—must undergo its own separate development months earlier. After the wheat, yeast, and water are combined, the mixture is shaped into blocks, dried, and aged for approximately six months so the microbes can mature and eventually impart a proprietary flavor profile in Langjiu’s products.

When work begins in earnest in the fall, raw grains of local red rice sorghum are steamed and left to cool before they’re mixed with the qu and shaped into a cone formation. After resting for roughly four to six days, the grain and qu mixture is moved under-ground into stone-lined fermentation pits sealed with soft clay. It’s then left to rest once more for approximately 30–40 days, at which point it’s returned to the steamer; there, the steam collects and cools in a condenser before the heads and tails of the distillate are cut.

At Langjiu, this fermentation and steaming process is repeated six additional times for a total of seven distillations. The method, which takes the better part of a calendar year, is

Langjiu Distillery’s baijiu ages for three to five years in clay pots on China’s Tianbao Mountain.

Tasting Panel contributing editor Mara Marski takes a class in baijiu inspection.Baby

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referred to locally as the “birth” of the spirit. After the seventh cycle com-pletes, the baijiu rests in stainless-steel tanks for a year (a period referred to as “growth”) before being transported via an elaborate piping system to a collec-tion of ceramic vessels—each of which can hold a volume of 1 metric ton—atop the peak of Tianbao Mountain.

Continuing the metaphor that compares baijiu production to child rearing, this step heralds the begin-ning of the spirit’s “maturation.” After resting in the fresh mountain air for two to three years, a portion of the liquid will be selected after rigorous taste testing and moved to smaller ceramic vessels—some older than the People’s Republic of China—nestled inside the spacious Tianbao cave, which naturally regulates its tempera-ture and humidity levels.

Unlike most aged Western spirits, which pull their nuanced flavors from the wood in which they’re stored, Langjiu’s sauce-aroma baijiu derives its complexity not only from mountain-grown sorghum and Chishui River water but also the interplay of more than 400 microorganisms present in the cave. While some liquid will age for roughly eight years before being used as a younger element in blending, other portions may be left to mature for 70–100 years.

How to Drink BaijiuWidely consumed both at business

functions and celebrations such as weddings or the Chinese New Year, baijiu has a spirited history that’s been largely confined by the borders of its home country. The tasting basics of the category, however, are fairly similar to what American drinkers are accus-tomed to: After smelling the glass with your mouth open, take a sip and let the liquid wash over your tongue from back to front so as to fully process both the aromatics and flavor profile of the spirit.

Though the tasting approach itself is likely familiar, drinking baijiu has an etiquette all its own. When I visited the northern Hebei province’s Hengshui Laobaigan Distillery, which creates an award-winning light-aroma baijiu, a crash course in Chinese business etiquette illuminated a rich fabric of cultural customs. Imbibers in this part of the country are served a small pitcher of baijiu next to a thimble-sized vessel that’s roughly the shape of a white-wine glass; although the spirit is typically served neat at room tempera-ture, it may be chilled for some relief in the sweltering summer months or heated in the winter.

The most important rule of baijiu is that it must be shared. At any given meal or celebration, the full party typically gathers for toasts led by the

host. The tradition often evolves into something of a toasting free-for-all, as anyone at the table may toast anyone else. To communicate humility, it’s important to position your glass below that of your host or the subject of your toast; most challenges to assume the lowest position end with glasses evenly matched on a tabletop.

After each toast, someone will most likely shout “ganbei”: essentially, “Empty your glass!” At this point, you take your shot before holding your glass sideways or upside down to prove you’ve drained your drink. The pitchers are then refilled and the process repeated seemingly ad infinitum until everyone is pleasantly enjoying one another’s company and all bottles are emptied.

Anyone new to the business of baijiu should practice refilling their glass immediately, as toasting can be a rapid-fire process. Be warned, too, that although this drinking ritual unfolds almost exclusively during meals, it takes precedence over eating: As I quickly learned, you might not actually get to taste much of your food at all.

Bartenders and consumers in the U.S. have discovered most of the Western Hemisphere’s sippable treasures, but our thirst for exploring other cultures through their signature spirits hasn’t abated. Given the resurgence of baijiu in its homeland, there may be no better time to bring the category to your own backbar and share in China’s liquid heritage every time you raise a glass.

The sorghum used to distill baijiu is steamed prior to fermentation.

Hengshui Laobaigan won “Best in Category” at last year’s Las Vegas Global Spirits competition.

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march 2019 / the tasting panel / 3bEU Organic

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LETTER FROM THE MANAGING EDITOR

When it comes to countercultural movements, as Denver goes, so goes the nation. With the launch of the Great American Beer Festival in 1982, the city I call home established itself as the inland hub of an infant craft-brewing movement that has since transformed the way we drink from sea to shining sea.

It has been a cradle of the fast-casual revolution, too, as the birthplace of Chipotle, Smashburger, Modern Market, and many other upstart franchises that continue to redefine fast food for the new millennium. And, of course, it’s the capital of one of the first two states to legalize recreational cannabis—not only providing a legislative and business model for the rest of the country to follow but also opening up adjacent frontiers in infused products and tourism.

Granted, when it comes to clockwise, capital-C culture, Denver has historically lagged behind the coastal metropolises. But in recent years—concurrent with its population boom—this rugged, DIY-centric town has been picking up its cosmopolitan pace, especially with respect to fine dining. It’s been a minute since the majority of options for celebrating a special occasion were steakhouses; these days, the establishments that hold sway include reservation-only chef’s counters for eight-course tastings, New French restaurants with the edgiest of natural-wine programs, elegant Italian destinations pouring $40 glasses of Champagne and Brunello, and fabulous Spanish hot spots with eye-popping decor and porron service.

The point is that so-called flyover country ain’t what it used to be—and hasn’t been for some time. Now that a city like Denver, which has been at the forefront of so many trends other than upscale hospitality, has begun to supplement its steady diet of IPAs and tacos with rabbit terrine and pét nat, it may be a bellwether for what will play in Peoria next—and a sign that the center of cultural gravity is spreading from the coasts toward, well, the center.

Change is on the horizon for The Tasting Panel, too, as it switches to a new publishing schedule that includes four bimonthly, double-cover issues. But it remains based—as it should—in Los Angeles, where the world-class dining scene is fueled by a world-class wine industry. That’s all the more reason I’m grateful to Publisher Meridith May for bringing me on board as the new Managing Editor, where perhaps my perspective on the rapidly changing hospitality culture between the coasts will show through. Viewed from 5,280 feet up in the Mile High City, it looks mighty promising.

Happy wining and dining,Ruth Tobias

Rocky Mountain Hi

Tasting Panel Managing Editor Ruth Tobias lives in Denver, CO.

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SPIRIT EDUCATION

Matt Micucci (center) teaches Los Angeles–area bartenders how not to sand like a dad. (Sorry, Dad.)

GrainExpectationsMAKER’S MARK TAKES BARTENDERS BACK TO

WOODSHOP CLASS FOR A GLIMPSE OF ITS

SIGNATURE FLAVORS

by Mara Marski / photos by Cal Bingham

When naming the qualities of Maker’s Mark, drinkers might first refer-ence the easy-sipping mash bill, the classic red-wax seal, or the label’s time-honored calligraphy penned by Margie Samuels, but it’s nearly impossible to overstate the importance of the American oak used for the brand’s aging process.

Because most members of the trade spend more time behind the stick than they do working with wood, Maker’s Mark brought some Los Angeles–area bartenders together late last year for a hands-on class that explored how oak expresses itself in the Samuels family’s beloved bourbon recipe. Led by a team of local craftsmen, the “Meet Your Makers” workshop unfolded at the Allied Woodshop in the heart of downtown L.A.

After a round of signature cocktails, Maker’s Mark Master Craftsman Eric Clem and woodworkers Nate Stefanelli and Matt Micucci informed the group that they’d be crafting their own cutting boards or serving platters. While the bartenders selected their raw materials, Clem and his colleagues explained concepts such as grain tightness and how to easily manipulate various types of wood.


march 2019 / the tasting panel / 5b

Over the course of three hours, the participants transformed slabs of wood sourced by Angel City Lumber into accoutrements they could personalize with their stamped initials or a brand of the iconic Maker’s “mark.” While they worked, the bartenders were told how to address imperfections in wood as well as how to use a drill press to create divots for glasses.

Maker’s Mark Diplomat Phil Olson, meanwhile, lined up a trio of Maker’s expressions for the group to taste as they toiled away. After completing their projects, the bartenders reconvened to discuss what they’d learned and, of course, to sip Maker’s Mark through the critical lens of wood-extracted character.

Maker’s Mark“Maker’s Mark is aged in American

white oak because the grain holds liquid particularly well and because it’s incredibly flavor-neutral as compared to red oak,” Olson explained of the brand's flagship expression. “Maker’s is known for its sweetness and mellow finish, and a lot of that is due to the specific way the Samuels’ wood is treated.”

Before being transformed into Maker’s barrels, American oak

heartwood is milled down into staves, stacked, and seasoned outdoors for a full year—significantly longer than the industry standard of three months. This process lets the wood degrade naturally, meaning the brand can forego kiln-dry-ing and heavy charring while locking in the dominant extractable flavors.

Maker’s 46Fittingly enough, the Maker’s 46

expression is named after a piece of wood. “When asked what he wanted his expression to taste like, [Bill Samuels Jr.] took to a white board and wrote ‘yummy,’” Olson said with a laugh.

When asked to elaborate, Bill Jr. shared a vision akin to Maker’s on steroids: a heavier presence of caramel and baking spices, a touch more spice, and a longer finish. The wood that imparted these particular character-istics—a piece of oak from northern France that had been seasoned out-doors for 18 months and seared under infrared heat—was simply named “sample 46.”

After following the company’s standard aging process, Maker’s 46 sees the addition of ten French oak

staves for nine weeks. “With the ingrain and the surface area of that wood, you’re getting more flavor from these little staves than from the entire barrel itself,” Clem said.

Maker’s Cask StrengthRob Samuels, Maker’s Mark COO

and Bill Jr.’s son, prefers his Maker’s uncut and unfiltered. In fact, he likes to sneak it straight from the barrel, a habit that led directly to the creation of Maker’s Cask Strength. Crafted like traditional Maker’s, this overproof

expression ages for five and a half to seven years and is rotated for consistency. Because this expression is bottled right out of the barrel, the wood shows in various ways—largely through the stronger presence of citrus and slightly softened tones of caramel.

“We’re pretty geeky about our wood,” Olson said, “but our barrels are differ-ent from any other bourbons because we’re stubbornly inefficient based on one man’s vision of how he wanted his whiskey to taste—and we don’t want to mess with his formula.”

Using a large oak staff as a visual aid, Maker’s Mark Diplomat Phil Olson walks the group through wood degradation and the flavor-extraction process specific to the Samuels family brand.

L.A. craftsmen Nate Stefanelli, Eric Clem, and Matt Micucci keep their students laughing during the whiskey-centric Maker’s Mark woodworking class.

How Maker’s Secures Its “Top-Rate” BarrelsThe Independent Stave Company, the dedicated cooper for Maker’s Mark, primarily sources its wood from the Ozarks region of Missouri. According to Olson, “Despite the popularity of American whiskey, there is currently three times as much white oak in the region as there was in the 1940s.” This surprising bit of good news is actually thanks to the efforts of the logging industry, whose practices are significantly influenced by the country’s whiskey producers.

“Because Maker’s Mark demands the highest quality from its cooper, coopers pay top dollar for the best bottom-third of the trees to ensure they become top-rate barrels rather than going to furniture makers,” Olson said, making sure to offer a quick apology to the woodwork-ers in the room.

Maker’s Mark derives a significant amount of its signature taste from its proprietary oak-aging process.



ON THE STRIP

It’s practically a Pavlovian response among meat-craving gourmands: Mention the word “Morton” and

they’ll conjure up images of thick, juicy slices of perfectly charred prime beef so flavorful and tender they practically melt in your mouth.

The Morton name has long been closely associated with the finest steaks, representing three generations of restaurateurs—including the late Arnie Morton, who launched the iconic Morton’s Steakhouse chain in Chicago. So it was hardly surprising when one of Arnie’s sons, Michael, relocated to Las Vegas with his wife Jenna and created The Morton Group, which includes downtown’s La Comida, La Cave at Wynn Las Vegas, and MGM Grand’s Crush and Greek Sneek.

The couple’s latest concept, MB Steak, takes them back to the family’s roots. Located inside the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino (soon to become part of the Virgin Hotel chain), the restau-rant is a joint venture with Michael’s younger brother, David, who oversees DMK Restaurants in Chicago. The “MB” stands for “My Brothers,” indicating the siblings’ closeness as they embark on their first partnership.

“It had been a dream of ours for

years to come together on a project,” Michael says. “I have always been in the restaurant industry, and David started a little later in life after a career in finance. At family gatherings we are always talking shop because we love what we do. We’ve both enjoyed our own success launching hospital-ity concepts across the country, and when we are together, we always gravitate to steak. Our dad taught us each so much, so we decided to develop a brand together that honors our family history. MB Steak was born from that vision.”

Although The Morton Group is no longer affiliated with Morton’s The Steakhouse, MB Steak exudes the old-fashioned, upscale vibe of the original brand—from the seductive, winding entryway into the cocktail lounge, with its dark wood and leather-covered bar, to the spacious dining room overseen by Executive Chef Patrick Munster, whom Michael calls “the mastermind behind MB Steak’s culinary program.”

Indeed, Munster has created a sensation with MB Steak’s 16-pound rib-eye for a table of 12, which comes with six side dishes, costs a whopping $1,200, and must be ordered 72 hours

in advance. Maple-glazed, applewood-smoked, and grilled bacon; charred Spanish octopus; and a sliced, butter-poached, 12-ounce lobster tail are other favorites, as is the creamed corn mixed with chunks of Alaskan king crab.

With a private upstairs meeting room and garden-inspired cocktail lounge, plus an innovative bar program that encourages mixologists to invent their own cocktails, it’s easy to see why MB Steak will be one of the few entities to remain when the new Las Vegas Virgin Hotel opens next year.

Masters of MeatSIN CITY SIZZLES WITH MB STEAK by Richard Carleton Hacker

To set MB Steak apart from other Las Vegas chophouses, Executive Chef Patrick Munster created this 16-pound tomahawk rib-eye. Served with six side dishes, it costs $1,200 and must be ordered 72 hours in advance.

MB Steak’s upstairs Garden Lounge is available for private parties and features louvered windows that open to the outside.

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WHAT WE'RE

Some years ago, I asked a renowned chef why, after collect-ing an assortment of Michelin

stars for his restaurants, he had opted to open a barbeque joint with the hillbilly name Zeke’s Smokehouse. He told me, “You do your cooking in the morning and serve the food all day. There are no reservations, people sit wherever they want, and the profit margin is good because the overhead is low. I wish I had figured this out years ago!”

Of course, many high-end chefs have known as much for quite some time now. After making their bones (as they say in the mob) working fancy, they’ve had a good old time getting down and dirty—or at least down and tasty. Since finding fame with his version of Southwestern cuisine at New York’s Mesa Grill and becoming the Food Network’s biggest star, Bobby Flay has opened nearly 20 locations of Bobby’s Burger Palace in airports, casinos, and malls from coast to coast.

Todd English, meanwhile, built his name on rustic Mediterranean cooking at Olives in Boston. He then went on to become a master of casual dining,

beginning with a pizzeria called Figs and extending to a slightly-more-formal seafood place, Kingfish Hall; Mexican eatery MXDC in Washington, D.C.; and a pair of food halls (one in the Plaza Hotel in New York, the other in Manila, the Philippines). You’ll also find his food at Tuscany in Connecticut

casino Mohegan Sun, as well as at Todd English P.U.B. in Las Vegas and Birmingham, Alabama. While some of his higher-end ventures have closed, his casual concepts seem to open as fast as he can envision them.

Perhaps no one has bridged the

upscale/downscale divide, however, as well as Wolfgang Puck. He became one the most famous chefs in America with Spago (which expanded from West Hollywood to far fancier locations in Beverly Hills, Las Vegas, Maui, Beaver Creek, and Istanbul), but the array of casual restaurants he went on to open is nothing short of daunting. From Wolfgang Puck Pizzeria, Wolfgang Puck Bistro, and Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill to Wolfgang Puck Express and Wolfgang Puck Grab & Go in super-markets across California, the man isn’t so much a celebrity chef as he is an omnipresent culinary force.

The appeal has even struck renowned sushi chef Kazunori Nozawa, once noto-rious for throwing celebrities out of his Los Angeles restaurant for daring to ask for a California roll or mixing wasabi with their soy sauce. Though he still enforces his own set of rules, since 2008 he’s been reaching the masses with a growing chain of fast-casual sushi bars called Sugarfish, which present orders in bento boxes with his instructions printed on them. He still doesn’t offer California rolls, but he no longer shows you the door if you ask.

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The L.A. Burger at Bobby Flay’s Bobby’s Burger Palace chain comes topped with avocado relish, watercress, cheddar cheese, and tomato.

Upmarket Chefs Keep Going Downmarketby Merrill Shindler

Ranking among the masters of casual

dining, Todd English has opened food halls

in Manila and New York’s Plaza Hotel.

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WSWA SUPPLIER LEADERSHIP SERIES2:30 PM - 4:30 PM

�Distribution�and�Brand�Building:��How�to�Get�to�Market�and�Compete��in�Today’s�Challenging�Environment.

This�first�session,�in�the�newly�developed�WSWA�Supplier�

Leadership�Series,�will�provide�answers�to�some�of�the�most�

pressing�distribution-related�questions�including:�brand�

building,�how�to�stand-out�in�a�sea�of�similar�skus,�alternative�

3-tier�compliant�routes�to�market,�finding�venture�capital,�

and�navigating�compliance�and�state�laws.�Hear�from�WSWA�

members�and�from�industry�leaders�hand-selected�to�provide�

you�with�information�that�could�dramatically�impact�how��

you�do�business.

MASTER MIXOLOGY CLASS 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM

In�conjunction�with�WSWA�Wholesaler�mixologists,�this�event�

will�offer�advanced�cocktail�training�for�those�in�the�industry�or�

for�anyone�who�would�like�to�mix�like�a�pro.�Learn�about�acid/

base�balance,�flavor�combinations�and�why�using�the�proper�

techniques�and�glassware�makes�a�difference.

The�session�will�open�with�TED-like�talk�on�trends�in�mixology�

followed�by�small�group�demonstrations�segregated�by�spirit�

type:�Gin,�Vodka,�Bourbon/Whiskey,�Tequila.�Attendees�can�pre-

select�and�rotate�between�2�spirit�types.�Stay�for�our�MarketPlace,�

which�will�offer�a�selection�of�spirits�related�items�such�as�books,�

bar�tools,�aprons,�etc.

WINE SEMINAR 1:00 PM – 2:20 PM

Join�WSWA�member�experts�as�they�share�the�latest�on��

wines�and�wine�trends.�The�event,�appropriate�for�those�in��

the�industry�or�those�who�would�like�to�learn�more�about�

wine,�will�begin�with�a�TED-like�talk�on�trends�in�current�

consumption,�what’s�being�planted,�and�influencers�that��

drive�consumer�behavior.

Following�the�talk,�our�wine�tasting�will�provide�access��

to�established�brands�and�the�opportunity�to�experience��

new�brands�that�may�not�yet�be�in-market.�

THE WINE & SPIRITS MARKETPLACE12:00 PM - 4:30 PM

Sample�a�variety�of�wines�and�spirits�and�shop�an�

array�of��wine�and�spirits�merchandise�available�

for�sale.�Good�wines�don’t�just�come�in�bottles�

anymore.��Learn�about�innovative�wine�packaging�

including�pouches,�cans,�and�kegs.�Experience�the�

packaging�for�yourself�and�see�if�your�palette�is�up�

to�a�blind�tasting�challenge.

The�Wine�&�Spirits�MarketPlace�is�open�to�all�

registered�attendees�and�is�also�available�by�a�

separate�ticket.�All�registered�exhibitors�may�pour�

and�display�their�brands,�products�or�services�-�

there�is�a�minimal�fee�of�$50.�

Non-registered�brands,�products�or�services�may�

register�on�a�space�available�basis.�The�fee�to�

participate�in�the�Marketplace�as�a�non-exhibitor��

is�$500�per�6’�table.�

For more information please contact

Kari Langerman, [email protected]

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Bruce HimelsteinFormer�Chief�Marketing�Officer,��The�Ritz-Carlton�Hotel�Company

MODERATOR

Louis ZweigSVP�Supplier�Management,��Southern�Glazer’s�Wine�&�Spirits

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Bob Bath, MS�Head�Beverage�Professor,�Culinary�Institute�of�America,��Greystone,�and�COPIA�Napa,��California

SUNDAY, MARCH 31, 2019 The Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes

MODERATOR

Zane LampreyHost�of�“Four�Sheets”�premiering�on�#DrinkTV�

PANELISTS

Troy Clarke, SP, B.A.R. ReadyDirector�of�Mixology�&�Spirits�Education,�Martignetti�Companies�

Natalia CardenasBeverage�Development�Manager,�Breakthru��Beverage�Illinois

PANELISTS

Kristen Bareuther Managing�Director,�First�Beverage�Ventures

Cheryl DurzyFounder�and�CEO,�LibDib

Harry KohlmannFounder�/�Chief�Executive��Officer,�Park�Street

O U R S P O N S O R A N D I N - M A R K E T D I S T R I B U T O R PA R T N E R S :

Ryan MosesExecutive�Vice�President,�Best�Brands

Brian RosenPresident,�BevStrat

COME SEE WHAT’S SHAKIN’

A L L N E W

David OrtizMixologist�and�Spirits�Specialist,�Republic�National�Distributing�Company

Michael PrzydzialBeverage�Program�Specialist�AB,�WSET�Level�2�Wine�&�Spirits,�BAR�Advanced,�CBS�Southern�Glazer’s�Wine�and�Spirits�of�Nevada

C H E C K U S O U T AT WSWACO N V E N T I O N .O R G


S U N DAY, M A R C H 3 1 , 2 0 1 9

7:00 AM – 6:00 PM REGISTRATION OPEN Palazzo Ballroom Foyer (JW)

8:00 AM – 5:00 PM LOWER LEVEL AND TRADITIONAL SUITE MOVE-IN

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Sponsored by and Our in-market distributor partners: Chilled Magazine Breakthru Beverage Group Republic National Distributing Company Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits

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2:30 PM – 4:30 PM WSWA SUPPLIER LEADERSHIP SERIES New! Tuscany Ballroom (RC)

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M O N DAY, A P R I L 1 , 2 0 1 9


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8:30 AM – 10:00 AM WSWA BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING AND BREAKFAST Tuscany Ballroom E (RC) (WSWA Members Only; Traditional Suite Listing will be available)

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Sponsored by: American Distilled Spirits Association

T U E S DAY, A P R I L 2 , 2 0 1 9


8:30 AM – 10:00 AM GENERAL SESSION Coquina Ballroom (JW)

10:15 AM – 10:30 AM RIBBON CUTTING AND EXHIBIT HALLS Palazzo and Mediterranean GRAND OPENING Ballroom Foyers (JW)

10:30 AM – 5:00 PM EXHIBIT HALLS OPEN Palazzo and Mediterranean Ballroom Exhibit Halls (JW)

10:30 AM – 5:00 PM LOWER LEVEL AND TRADITIONAL SUITES OPEN

10:30 AM – 5:00 PM WINE & SPIRITS TASTING COMPETITION Mediterranean Ballroom (JW)

Sponsored by: The Tasting Panel Magazine and The SOMM Journal

11:00 AM – 2:00 PM ADVISORY COUNCIL MEETING Salon III (RC) (Invitation Only)

5:00 PM – 6:30 PM WSWA WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP COUNCIL RECEPTION Tuscany Terrace (RC)

6:00 PM – 8:00 PM TASTE OF THE INDUSTRY Coquina Ballroom (JW)

7:00 PM – 9:00 PM ADVISORY COUNCIL DINNER (Invitation Only)

W E D N E S DAY, A P R I L 3 , 2 0 1 9


8:00 AM – 10:30 AM GENERAL SESSION AND BRAND BATTLE Coquina Ballroom (JW)



12:00 PM – 1:30 PM FINANCE COMMITTEE MEETING Egret Room (RC) (Closed)

12:30 PM – 3:00 PM WHOLESALER IRON MIXOLOGIST COMPETITION Mediterranean Ballroom (JW) Sponsored by: The Tasting Panel Magazine and The SOMM Journal

For detailed information about these events and more, please visit WSWACONVENTION.ORG

SCHEDULE OF EVENTSMARCH 31 - APRIL 3, 2019 | GRANDE LAKES, ORLANDO FLORIDA


S U N DAY, M A R C H 3 1 , 2 0 1 9


8:00 AM – 5:00 PM LOWER LEVEL AND TRADITIONAL SUITE MOVE-IN

10:00 AM – 12:00 PM MASTER MIXOLOGY CLASS New! Tuscany Ballroom (RC)

Sponsored by and Our in-market distributor partners: Chilled Magazine Breakthru Beverage Group Republic National Distributing Company Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits

12:00 PM – 4:30 PM WINE & SPIRITS MARKETPLACE OPEN New! Tuscany Ballroom (RC)

12:00 PM – 1:00 PM GRAB & GO LUNCH Tuscany Terrace (RC)

1:00 PM – 2:20 PM WINE SEMINAR New! Tuscany Ballroom (RC)

Sponsored by and Our in-market distributor partners: The SOMM Journal Breakthru Beverage Group Republic National Distributing Company Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits

2:30 PM – 4:30 PM WSWA SUPPLIER LEADERSHIP SERIES New! Tuscany Ballroom (RC)

6:00 PM – 8:00 PM GROWTH BRAND AWARDS Highball & Harvest (RC)

6:30 PM – 8:30 PM WSWA EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING AND DINNER Egret Room (RC) (Executive Committee Officers Only)

M O N DAY, A P R I L 1 , 2 0 1 9


7:00 AM – 8:15 AM NON-MEMBER WHOLESALER BREAKFAST (Invitation Only)

8:30 AM – 10:00 AM WSWA BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING AND BREAKFAST Tuscany Ballroom E (RC) (WSWA Members Only; Traditional Suite Listing will be available)

10:00 AM – 12:00 PM WSWA WHOLESALER LEADERSHIP SERIES Tuscany Ballroom E (RC) (Wholesalers and Invited Guests Only; Traditional Suite Listing will be available)

12:00 PM – 5:00 PM OFFICIAL OPENING: TRADITIONAL AND LOWER LEVEL SUITES

12:00 PM – 1:30 PM JOINT WSWA/ADSA MEETING AND LUNCH Tuscany Ballroom D (RC) (Invitation Only)

4:00 PM – 6:00 PM M. SHANKEN COMMUNICATIONS HOT BRAND AWARDS Tuscany Ballroom E (RC)

6:30 PM – 8:00 PM OPENING NIGHT RECEPTION Coquina Ballroom (JW)

Sponsored by: American Distilled Spirits Association

T U E S DAY, A P R I L 2 , 2 0 1 9


8:30 AM – 10:00 AM GENERAL SESSION Coquina Ballroom (JW)

10:15 AM – 10:30 AM RIBBON CUTTING AND EXHIBIT HALLS Palazzo and Mediterranean GRAND OPENING Ballroom Foyers (JW)



10:30 AM – 5:00 PM WINE & SPIRITS TASTING COMPETITION Mediterranean Ballroom (JW)

Sponsored by: The Tasting Panel Magazine and The SOMM Journal

11:00 AM – 2:00 PM ADVISORY COUNCIL MEETING Salon III (RC) (Invitation Only)

5:00 PM – 6:30 PM WSWA WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP COUNCIL RECEPTION Tuscany Terrace (RC)

6:00 PM – 8:00 PM TASTE OF THE INDUSTRY Coquina Ballroom (JW)

7:00 PM – 9:00 PM ADVISORY COUNCIL DINNER (Invitation Only)

W E D N E S DAY, A P R I L 3 , 2 0 1 9


8:00 AM – 10:30 AM GENERAL SESSION AND BRAND BATTLE Coquina Ballroom (JW)



12:00 PM – 1:30 PM FINANCE COMMITTEE MEETING Egret Room (RC) (Closed)

12:30 PM – 3:00 PM WHOLESALER IRON MIXOLOGIST COMPETITION Mediterranean Ballroom (JW) Sponsored by: The Tasting Panel Magazine and The SOMM Journal

For detailed information about these events and more, please visit WSWACONVENTION.ORG

SCHEDULE OF EVENTSMARCH 31 - APRIL 3, 2019 | GRANDE LAKES, ORLANDO FLORIDA



WINE TOURISM

A rgentina is having a tough time financially: According to a 2018 poll conducted by

the country’s central bank, its economy contracted by 2.4 percent last year and may shrink another 1.2 percent in 2019. The inflation rate, meanwhile, is running at roughly 48 percent, and the Argentine peso has also lost 50 percent of its value against the U.S. dollar in the past 12 months.

Argentina’s wine industry has not been immune to the effects of the eco-nomic downturn, though all seemed calm on my recent visit to Mendoza, where the snowy Andes mountains framed neat rows of Malbec vines. Equally placid in the face of adversity at the historic Trapiche winery in Maipú was Gustavo Arroyat, Vice

President of Corporate Business for the U.S. and Canada at Grupo Peñaflor, Trapiche’s owner and Argentina’s largest wine producer.

Arroyat did acknowledge, however, that the weakness of the peso makes importing materials like French oak barrels more expensive. He also noted that Grupo Peñaflor is still recovering from the aftermath of the 2016 and 2017 harvests, the smallest in more than 55 years. With a reduced supply of wine to sell abroad, Argentina has seen its market share and shelf space shrink in the United States as of late, and it’s struggling to make up the deficit.

Granted, when Trapiche sells wine to the U.S. market this year, Arroyat noted that its “margins [will be] healthier” because the dollars from stateside sales

of the winery’s products are worth more inside Argentina. Unfortunately for Grupo Peñaflor, however, its state-side distributors and retail chains know this; as a result, according to Arroyat, they “ask [the company] to cut [its] prices to get better deals” on wines like

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ARGENTINA’S ECONOMIC CRISIS HAS MIXED EFFECTS ON THE WINE INDUSTRY by Paul D. Poux, CSW

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Lunch is served with vineyard views at the Finca Decero estate in Luján de Cuyo.

The dramatic view from the Viña Cobos estate in Argentina’s

Luján de Cuyo region.

in the AndesUPS AND DOWNS



Trapiche’s line of Medalla Malbec and Chardonnay.

Adding even more fuel to the fire, Argentine wine drinkers’ salaries are not keeping pace with steeply rising domestic retail prices. “The domestic market is tough,” Arroyat admitted.

Tourism Helps Turn the TideLocated just a 30-minute taxi ride

from Trapiche down dusty desert roads, Viña Cobos in the Luján de Cuyo region is experiencing similar pres-sures. “We had to increase prices twice to protect profitability and preserve the value of our goods,” General Manager Ariel Núñez Porolli reported.

Founded by consultant Paul Hobbs, an early Malbec evangelist, Viña Cobos

is celebrating its 20th vintage and sells just 25 percent of its wine domesti-cally. To spur growth, it continues to invest both in export markets in the U.S and Asia as well as in education: “Communicating our anniversary and what makes Argentina special could be one of the biggest opportunities,” Núñez Porolli said.

While Argentina’s overall wine industry is feeling the squeeze, one domestic area currently experienc-ing success is tourism. The cheaper Argentine peso attracts more tourists to Mendoza from Brazil, Peru, and other countries who now have more to spend in the devalued local currency. “Visitors can get a VIP experience in Mendoza for the price of a budget

meal in other parts of the world,” said Carolina Cortinez, Tourism and Events Manager at Finca Decero, another Luján de Cuyo producer.

One such experience offered at Finca Decero, a five-course lunch with unlimited wine pairings, unfolds in the winery’s restaurant overlooking vineyards and the stunning Andes. Last year, the meal—which includes dishes such as filet mignon with pumpkin–white chocolate puree and raspberry- and rosemary-infused carrot sorbet—would have cost U.S. visitors the equivalent of $70 in pesos. Now, it’s available for just $35.

Flights from low-cost airlines into Argentina are facilitating the tourism boom, and Cortinez now calls the former off-season “Brazilian season”

thanks to increased visits from the country’s neighbors. With these reduced prices serving as a lure, she hopes there are many more five-course lunches in Finca Decero’s future. P

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Finca Decero sits in the shadow of the Andes in Luján de Cuyo.

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The Trapiche winery in Maipú.

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in the Andes



When a group of highly skilled bartenders from around the globe gathered in Scotland

last November for the final stage of Glenfiddich’s far-reaching World’s Most Experimental Bartender Competition, they were joined by an unexpected cast of characters, among them celebrated chefs, musicians, baristas, ice sculptors, butchers, and chocolatiers.

This motley crew of travelers wasn’t on hand simply to cheer on the com-petitors, who were there representing the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Taiwan, India, Bulgaria, Israel, Spain, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates after winning their respective regional finals earlier in the year. As collaborators, they played vital roles in helping the bartenders craft a stunning array of original cocktails and drinking experiences meant to highlight the shape-shifting abilities of Scotland’s most-awarded single malt Scotch whisky.

After visiting Glenfiddich’s head-quarters in Dufftown, where the group rubbed elbows with the distillery team and faced a series of technical challenges like cask making and blind tasting, they arrived at famous Glasgow venue The Arches to present their experimental cocktail concepts featuring Glenfiddich 12 Year Old in the “freestyle” round. Appearing on the judging panel were Glenfiddich Malt Master Brian Kinsman; Glenfiddich Global Brand Ambassador Struan Grant Ralph; 2016 competition winner Nathan O’Neill, Head Bartender at New York’s NoMad Hotel; Stuart Bale, owner of creative bartender hub/coworking space Crucible; and Jordan Murphy

MOSTEXPERIMENTAL BARTENDER

Representing Taiwan, Johnny Tsai of Bar TCRC and his partner, Yu Lee of Ninao Gelato, claimed victory at Glenfiddich’s annual World’s Most Experimental Bartender competition, held last November in Glasgow, Scotland.

U.S. competitors Jill Anderson (pictured) and Leonard Hollander drew inspiration from Gaelic mythological figure Cailleach for one of their original cocktails, which made use of a funnel to create a whirlpool effect.

Matches Made in Whisky Heaven

TAIWAN CLAIMS VICTORY IN GLENFIDDICH’S “WORLD’S MOST EXPERIMENTAL BARTENDER”

COMPETITION AS U.S. TAKES SECOND

by Kate Newton

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Doidge, Head of Creative for The Gentleman’s Journal.

The following day, the group faced its final challenge. As part of a new addition to the competition, each team was tasked with creating an interpreta-tion of a Glenfiddich 12–based Highball by selecting from an array of mostly Scottish ingredients—just hours before 250 consumers arrived to try the drinks and vote on their favorites.

After the dust settled on the bar tops, Taiwan’s Johnny Tsai of Bar TCRC and his chef-partner Yu Lee of Ninao Gelato emerged victorious. (Particularly well-received by the judges was their freestyle entry “Xiao Long Fiddich,” in which xiao long bao, or steamed buns, were filled with what Tsai called “East meets West” flavors like Glenfiddich-infused raisins, wax-gourd candy, homemade maple-syrup bacon, and cashew nuts.) Before Tsai returns as a judge for the 2019 competition later this year, the pair will attend the Tokyo International BarShow and Bar Convent Brooklyn on behalf of Glenfiddich.

“Taiwan showed great creativity throughout the week of competi-tion, first [by] combining traditional Taiwanese food and tea ceremonies with cocktail mixology in a way none of the judges had seen before,” Ralph told The Tasting Panel. “In the freestyle round, they showed true innovation [by] combining local Scottish ingre-dients in their own unique way and wowing the audience and judges with theater and perfect execution.”

Trailing Team Taiwan by just two points were Chicago-based col-laborators Jill Anderson of acclaimed

speakeasy The Drifter and her close friend Leonard Hollander, chef/partner at farm-to-table restaurant Arbor. Seeking to honor Scotland’s “apothecary history” and mythology, according to Anderson, the pair drew inspiration from Cailleach, a deity who “represents a lot of duality”: a recurring theme in her winning serve from the U.S. final. “She’s queen of winter, but she also is able to bring on spring, so she’s generally depicted as an old hag who can transform herself into a young maid,” Anderson explains. “She took her tartan and scrubbed it in this whirlpool for three days, and when it came out it was snow white.”

To translate this tale into their first freestyle cocktail, Anderson and Hollander used a rotovap to strip out the color of the Glenfiddich 12 before performing, in Anderson’s words, something akin to “a magic trick.” Poured through a tubing-and-funnel device to “mimic the swirl of a whirl-pool,” the spirit appeared to lose its color before the audience’s eyes.

Next, the whisky went into a glass that, through the use of magnets, turned on its plate; the cocktail would then mix itself while creating a similar swirling effect. Fat-washed with Colombian white chocolate, the drink also featured Hollander’s handmade bronze-fennel syrup and chocolate saline. “We tried to find the most exotic ingredients we could while pushing the boundaries of everything we know in terms of technique,” Anderson explains, adding that nearly all of the plant-based ingredients came from either her or Hollander’s gardens.

To emulate Cailleach’s ability to usher in spring, the partners took an electric smoker and loaded it with lavender to smoke the glasses for their next cocktail, which featured preserved pink lemon and cotton candy (flavored with Irn-Bru, a Scottish soft drink) meant

to mimic snow. By displaying a log stamped with Glenfiddich’s stag logo on their presentation table, “the idea was the in the dead of winter, there’s the yule log, and when you light it, the witch trapped inside is released, and she’s able to begin the process of spring,” Anderson says.

In an homage to the distillery itself, their last freestyle cocktail was accompanied by biscuits made with fermentation materials and cracked grain from Glenfiddich. Anderson and Hollander’s ability to think on the fly impressed not only the judges but also Senior Glenfiddich Ambassador Mitch Bechard, who says, “I could tell that they had not only put in a lot of work into the actual serve but also spent a lot of time on how they presented it to the audience and judges.”

Though they hit a bit of a snag in the final consumer round, running out of their Glenfiddich Highball (which utilized Scottish ingredients like Aelder elderberry liqueur and tablet fudge) before they could serve it to all of the voters, Anderson says she was incred-ibly impressed with Hollander for keeping up with her rapid pace behind the bar. “At the end of the day, I was so proud of every single effort we made,” she added. “Even though I’ve known this guy forever, when we walked away from the competition, we realized that we worked so well together that we should do more of this.”

Despite the disappointment of the loss, Anderson says you’d be hard-pressed to find winners more “hard-working and wonderful” than Tsai and Lee. “With American bartend-ers, everyone kind of follows the same unspoken rules. [But] when you have all of these different cultures, it’s constantly a reminder to honor and respect where they’re coming from as well, which was a really eye-opening experience,” she says.

Chicago-based collaborators Leonard Hollander and Jill Anderson represented the United States at Glenfiddich’s 2018 World’s Most Experimental Bartender competition, where they came in second.

The second and third rounds of the competition were held at famous Glasgow venue The Arches.

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STILLSTILLK A P A L U A W I N E A N D F O O D . C O M

Join Host Master Sommelier Michael Jordan, MS, CWE and a contingent of

world-renowned winemakers, celebrity chefs and Maui’s own culinary stars

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J U N E 7 - 9 , 2 0 1 9 • K A PA L U A R E S O R T, M A U I 38TH ANNUAL

Sponsored in part by:



REPORTwhiskey

STILLSTILLK A P A L U A W I N E A N D F O O D . C O M

Join Host Master Sommelier Michael Jordan, MS, CWE and a contingent of

world-renowned winemakers, celebrity chefs and Maui’s own culinary stars

at oceanfront galas, cooking demonstrations and interactive wine tastings.

J U N E 7 - 9 , 2 0 1 9 • K A PA L U A R E S O R T, M A U I 38TH ANNUAL

Sponsored in part by:



REPORT

A s we creep steadily toward the beginning of a new decade, perhaps 2019 will be the year that truly transports us from “sci-fi as fantasy” to “sci-fi as everyday reality”— whisk(e)y not excluded.

In a handful of liquor stores scattered across California and at Bottlerocket Wine & Spirit in New York, customers can now talk to

spirits before they decide to buy them. Based on factors like preference, price, and occasion, SmartAisle—a technology its creators describe as “the world’s first voice-powered retail shopping assistant”—is providing shoppers with the opportunity to buy that perfect bottle of whiskey with help from Amazon’s virtual assistant, Alexa. After a recommendation is made, the shelves light up to guide consumers toward the bottle in question.

While innovations like this might make decision making easier for the everyday consumer, they also might feel a bit, well, impersonal to some. The whiskey category has a storied history from bottle to barrel, with real, hard-working people responsible for crafting each option you see on the shelf. From India to Virginia, the expressions highlighted in this report prove there’s a human element behind each whiskey brand that can’t be summarized by an automated response. —Abby Read

Courage & Conviction:

Virginia Distillery Co.Dr. George G. Moore, the late founder of the Virginia

Distillery Co., lived by one motto: “Have the courage of your convictions.” Now it’s a rallying cry for the native

Irishman’s family and their team as they marry Old World whisky-making traditions to the maturation climate of their New World home. In fact, Courage & Conviction is the name of the American Single Malt whisky they’ll be releasing in 2020.

Yet in the meantime, the company has already real-ized its vision via its award-winning Port Cask Finished Virginia-Highland Whisky. To create the American-Scottish hybrid, Head Distiller Ian Thomas blended non-peated, six-year-old Scotch exhibiting “full-bodied, bold flavors” with two-plus-year-old stocks of Courage & Conviction. Though still developing, the single malt “completely took us by surprise with regards to its maturity,” Thomas admits. “We had always assumed

that the Virginia climate would provide an interesting twist to our maturation process—but seeing and tasting it firsthand was very exciting!”

And the blend isn’t the only bridge between Old World and New; so is the cask. As George’s son and CEO Gareth Moore observes, many Virginia winemakers use American grapes and Portuguese techniques to make high-quality Port-style wine. The opportunity to acquire bar-rels from producers “with a similar vision to our own” made Port cask finishing “a clear choice for our flagship product.” —Ruth Tobias

*Virginia Distilling Co. omits the “e” in its spelling of whisky.

An Ageless Diamond:

Rampur Select Single Malt Whisky Radico Khaitan LTD, the company behind Rampur Select Single Malt Whisky, knows there’s much more to the production of a memorable whiskey than just aging. Nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas in the Indian city of Rampur, the Rampur Distillery has been operating and producing malt whisky for 25 years.

Despite its lengthening tenure, the distillery avoids putting age statements on its products. “Though it is matured for a long time, extreme weather conditions can make the aging process four times faster in India than in other places,” says Sanjeev Banga, President of International Business at Radico Khaitan LTD. “The most important thing to us is its taste.”

Known as the “Koh-i-Noor of Single Malts”—a nod to one of the world’s largest cut diamonds, unearthed in India hundreds of years ago—Rampur has a distinctive flavor profile replete with vanilla, honey, spices, and dried fruits. “The spice is bal-anced but still present and representative of a premium-quality single malt whisky,” Banga says. An equal amount of thought went into Rampur’s packaging: A luxe, embroidered silk pouch accompanies the bottle, whose design serves as an homage to the ancient Devanagari writing system.

While every element of Rampur honors its Indian heritage, the brand’s reach is worldwide. Now available in more than 25 countries after launching in Las Vegas in April 2016, it received a Double Gold Medal at the 2017 San Francisco World Spirits Competition and was rated No. 5 on Whisky Advocate’s “Top 20” list that same year. Rampur plans to unveil several new expressions in the coming months, including the Sherry PX Finish and a limited-edition release. —Abby Read

Rampur Single Malt Whisky, India Exotic scents of coriander and frankincense with a hint of peach lead to a palate of peat and caramel. Heady with savory tones, this is a handsome, well-coordinated, and mature whisky. Heavily malted and throat-warming, the flavors linger before finishing with peppered espresso and a dollop of toffee. 93 —Meridith May



Ask anyone what they think the spirit of choice is in Texas, and we bet the whole ranch they’ll say “whiskey.” In 2008, Balcones became the first distiller in the Lone Star State to sell whisky* since Prohibition, and the brand has since roped in a Texas-sized collection of more than 300 international awards and accolades.

Last October, Balcones and friends celebrated a decade of whisky produc-tion at the brand’s multimillion-dollar Waco facility, located inside the historic Texas Fireproof Storage Company building. In addition to serving as a platform for the debut of Balcones’ limited-release Hechiceros and Brujeria Single Malt whiskies, the celebration prompted some inward reflection for its founders. In defining what makes a bona fide Texas whisky, Head Distiller Jared Himstedt says the answer for his team lies in channeling Balcones’ use of character-rich grains and the unique Texas climate.

“The uncompromising climate and its temperature swings force a lot of interaction with the barrels in a short period of time, which creates great potential for body, mouthfeel, and sugar extraction,” Himstedt adds. “It is really rewarding to harness the character of the place to create something that truly expresses its spirit.”

Tasting Panel Editor in Chief Anthony Dias Blue first became aware of Balcones when it won a Double Gold medal for its Baby Blue Corn Whisky at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition several years ago. “Since then, they have won multiple gold medals as they extended their line,” Blue says. “Balcones is surely the standard-bearer for the burgeoning craft spirits movement. I love their products and now they have added a stunningly aromatic rye to their product line.”

The Lone Star State may not be the birthplace of whisky, but it’s certainly become one of its beloved homes thanks to Balcones. —Jessie Birschbach

*Balcones omits the “e” in its spelling of whisky.

The architects of Texas whisky:

Balcones Distilling


DEPARTMENT HEADER

1922 Clyde May is born to a moonshiner

family in Alabama.

1945May returns from military

service to recover from his injuries,

having earned the Purple Heart and

Bronze Star during World

War II.

1946May invents

Alabama-style whiskey

by adding oven-dried

apples to the aging barrels,

resulting in a smoother,

richer profile.

1973 May is

sentenced to eight months

in jail for moonshining.

199O May passes

away, having never sold a

legal bottle of whiskey.

2OO1 The Alcohol and Tobacco

Tax and Trade Bureau approves the May family’s

recipe for Alabama-style whiskey made

in Clyde’s honor.

2OO4 Clyde May

is named the official spirit

of the state of Alabama.

The Fascinating Life of Clyde May and the Birth of ALABAMA-STYLE WHISKEY

Clyde May’s Alabama Style WhiskeyThe original style is aged five to six years in oak barrels and finished with a hint of apple; 85 proof

Clyde May’s Straight Rye95% rye; aged three years minimum; 94 proof

Clyde May’s Special Reserve Whiskey A select reserve of special stock aged six to seven years in 53-gallon charred barrels and finished dur-ing bottling with a natural essence of apple; 110 proof

Clyde May’s Straight Bourbon Whiskey

Aged four to five years in

new 53-gallon oak barrels;

non-chill-filtered; 92

proof

Clyde May’s Cask Strength Alabama

Style WhiskeyExclusive 3,000-

bottle production release; aged 11

years and bottled at cask strength. Set for release in

March 2019; bottle and proof may be

different from what is pictured.

Clyde May’s Cask Strength Straight

Bourbon WhiskeyA limited release

of just 3,500 bottles, aged ten years young; 117

proof



“What America needs now is a drink,” President Franklin D. Roosevelt reportedly said upon the passage of the 21st Amendment, which repealed Prohibition. Dallas-based whis-key brand Title No 21 was built to celebrate that glorious moment—and, given the timelessness of the sentiment, every moment since.

But in an era when consum-ers are craving homegrown authenticity, one could just as easily say that what a drink needs now is America, and Title No 21 brand creator Southwest Spirits celebrates that notion too. As the team invests in the completion of their own distillery, they’re sourcing grain spirits from top producers all over the country—literally the cream of the crop of Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, and other states—to bring different regional flavor profiles together in hand-selected blends that further rely on the terroir of Texas for their robust yet balanced character.

Regarding their maturation in seasoned new-oak barrels, Master Distiller John Fortman says, “I firmly believe that our aging is

enhanced by Texas’s extreme summer heat and its cold—some nights below freezing—in the winter. These temperature swings cause a change in barometric pressure inside the barrels, which allows the whiskey to go deeper in and out of the wood and extract some of the 400-plus chemical compounds it contains. As most people know, aging can account for as much as 60–70 percent of flavor, so it’s very important to us.”

The proof is in the pudding: Take Title No 21 American Whiskey. As Fortman explains, “There is consumer perception that whiskey is not as good as bourbon, yet ours is one of few brands I know of that has 50 percent bourbon in the mix” along with ten-year-old high-corn whiskey, resulting in a mellow—not to mention award-winning—sipping spirit with notes of caramelized fruit and spice.

Title No 21 Bourbon, mean-while, comprises a blend of three to five high-rye bourbons aged up to two years. As a firm believer in letting its distinctly

crisp yet honeyed flavor profile dictate the mash bill rather than the other way around, Fortman tinkers with the recipe of each run until he’s satisfied. Then there’s Title No 21 Rye, which contains 89 percent rye with a small amount of bourbon aged up to nine years; delivering plenty of peppery spice, its complexity ensures it’ll please the palates of even non–rye drinkers.

To celebrate its brand history, the team recently partnered with The Rustic on Repeal Day with promotions at all three of the dining-and-music venue’s Texas locations. In creating a limited-edition rye with a diamond-cut glass bottle and a 375-milliliter sampler pack of two expressions for the occasion, they recruited even more off-premise custom-ers. But in the end, says Vice President of Marketing Ronna Feifarek, “Having consistency in taste supports the brand story. You can romance the brand with all the industry speak you want, but if you cannot back it up with what’s in the bottle, your great marketing ‘story’ falls apart quickly.” —Ruth Tobias

American free Spirit: Title No 21


22b /

Spending much of his time performing as half of the dynamic country duo Big & Rich, John Rich works hard and plays hard too—and so do his whiskeys.

Rich launched the Redneck Riviera brand 11 years ago after noticing the phrase everywhere—from tank tops to beer koozies—during a concert in Alabama. The musician immediately wondered who owned the trademark, and soon enough, that was Rich himself.

Beginning with apparel and boots, Redneck Riviera grew into a brick-and-mortar establishment in Rich’s hometown, Nashville. As that was developing, he teamed up with Eastside

Distilling and Master Distillers Mel Heim and Travis Schoney to create an American blended whiskey. After testing more than 200 samples over the course of eight and a half months, Rich finally tasted one and thought, “Boom, that’s it.”

For final approval, though, he had to seek out the “most experienced” whiskey drinker he knew. Making a stop at the alteration shop where his 86-year-old grandmother, known as Granny Rich, works hemming blue jeans and taking in wedding dresses, he set down a shot glass on her sewing machine. After throwing back the

shot, she told Rich, “That might be the smoothest whiskey I have ever had.”

Redneck Riviera Whiskey is an all-American spirit from its ingredients right down to its cork. Because of that, the brand has opted to donate 10 percent of its profits to Folds of Honor, an organization that provides college scholarships to the children or spouses of American servicemen and women who have died or been disabled in combat. In 2018, Redneck Riviera funded more than 40 scholarships.

As a nod to Granny Rich, Redneck Riviera is set to roll out an 86-proof Reserve expression (compared to the original’s 80) through April in select markets throughout the Midwest and Southeast. It has the amplified caramel finish Granny loves—not to mention an accessible price tag. “The whole point of Redneck Riviera is you can afford to go to the Redneck Riviera,” Rich says. “I want hard-working Americans to be able to afford to drink the good stuff.”

For more information on Folds of Honor, visit foldsofhonor.org. —Abby Read

Work Hard, Play Hard:

Redneck Riviera Whiskey

Redneck Riviera founder John Rich with his grandmother, whom the brand’s Granny Rich expression is named after.

Redneck Riviera Whiskey ($25) offers subtle aromas of pekoe, bananas, and cinnamon. This 80-proof spirit is composed of 95% American light whiskey aged two years and 5% aged at least one year. The mouthfeel is cooling with a hint of peppermint that glazes over a rich butterscotch core. Vanilla and oak

integrate beautifully through the spiced finish. 93 —M.M.

Redneck Riviera Granny Rich Reserve Whiskey ($40) offers a heady array of richness on the nose and palate. Scents of leather and almond toffee gather for an outstanding nosing. Aged up to four years, this small-batch 86-proofer enters with a peppered ginger note followed by a warmth of coffee and mocha.

A sense of minerality comes through, drying the tongue with a sweet caramel finish. 93 —M.M.



A new wave in Irish whiskey:

West Cork DistillersBy Ireland’s standards, a 15-year-old distillery is just a babe

in the woods (or in this case, a babe not far from the Glengarriff Forest). But with an eclectic, visionary team behind it, West Cork Distillers is poised for growth well beyond its years.

When John O’Connell founded West Cork in 2003 with two childhood friends turned deep-sea fishermen, Ger and Denis

McCarthy, they built their passion project from the ground up. With a love for whiskey informed by his background as a veteran food scientist, O’Connell began working alongside two industry legends—Master Distillers Frank McHardy and the late Dr. Barry Walsh, both recipients of Whiskey Magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award—before taking the operational reins.

In that capacity, he has combined the heart of a tradition-alist with an innovator’s eye toward standing out from the increasingly large pack of artisanal Irish whiskeys. West Cork is the only distillery in Ireland to malt its own local barley and to use only local spring water—and the integrity of the process shows in its core products. The Bourbon Cask, for instance, is a smooth, even delicate blend of 75

percent grain and 25 percent malt whiskey, matured four years in its namesake to yield subtle aromas of cracked pepper and citrus; a chewy, honeyed palate; and a soft vanilla finish. The 10 Year Single Malt, meanwhile, balances intensity with complexity as a non-chill-filtered whiskey aged in new, flame-charred bourbon barrels for a decade.

And then there’s the Limited Release Glengarriff Series, named for the aforemen-tioned forest near the distillery in Skibbereen. Working with a proprietary charring device they handbuilt with guidance from a fifth-generation local blacksmith, O’Connell and the McCarthys finish their single malt whiskeys in two types of barrel: one charred over peat from the forest and the other over bog oak. While the smoky finish of the Peat Charred Cask is sure to intrigue Scotch fans, the Bog Oak Charred Cask is like nothing most whiskey drinkers have ever smelled or tasted.

Blending an appreciation for Ireland’s heritage with a flair for invention, this still-young distillery—built by its owners to prove there’s more to Irish whiskey than even aficionados know—is already making an international splash. —Ruth Tobias



ometimes, all it takes is a spark to ignite a revolution. It’s hard to believe, for example, that until the Smirnoff brand was introduced to the U.S. in 1939, vodka was a little-known Russian curiosity for most American drinkers. Thanks to its mixability, most notably in the

Moscow Mule, the category became a sensation. If New York–based spirits marketing company Davos Brands has its way, the U.S. is about to experience yet another drinking revolution—this one fueled by a spark from Japan.

COVER STORY

MıxologyMade for

NEW JAPANESE IMPORT IICHIKO SAITEN ELEVATES THE COCKTAIL EXPERIENCEby David Gadd / photos by Timothy Murray

At Bar Goto in New York City, iichiko Saiten shines in the Mugi cocktail created by owner Kenta Goto.



This year, Davos is introducing iichiko Saiten, a cocktail-ready shochu expression created especially for the U.S. market with input from leading American mixologists and bartenders. Shochu may register as barely a blip on the radar of many contemporary imbibers, but iichiko Saiten, with its made-for-mixology mandate, is poised to change the status quo.

Shochu Creates “Tremendous Opportunity”Shochu, Japan’s traditional distilled alcoholic beverage (not to be confused with saké, a brewed product), has been on slow simmer for some time in the consciousness of U.S. drinkers. Although well-known in its home country, the iichiko brand had previ-ously been available in just a handful of stateside markets. Now, with the launch of Saiten, the Davos Brands team seeks to broaden the footprint of Japan’s top-selling authentic barley shochu.

“We were fortunate to meet the iichiko team as they were looking for a U.S. importer to help them expand distribution nationally,” says Davos Brands founder Guillaume Cuvelier. “We hit it off immediately, as iichiko could really appreciate our expertise in marketing and distributing our premium saké brand, TYKU, for the last ten years. They related easily to our challenges and successes in building a premium Asian alcoholic beverage brand and, in the end, they understood that we could offer a skill set and network that fits their strategy and is unparalleled in the U.S. market.”

Davos Brands CEO Andrew Chrisomalis says he sees a tremendous opportunity for the shochu category over the next five to ten years and beyond. “American consumers love the quality and craftsmanship of Japanese products, especially spirits,” he notes. “Shochu is the number one–consumed spirit in Japan, and iichiko is a big reason for that. We expect to see significant growth for Saiten.”

Breaking with TraditionShochu has a long, proud tradition in Japan. “The history of honkaku (‘genu-ine’) shochu goes back to the 15th cen-tury, when distilled spirits were introduced from the Asian continent to the Ryukyu dynasty in Okinawa,” explains Masahiko Shimoda, President

of Sanwa Shurui Ltd., iichiko’s parent company. “Then, in the 16th century, it is believed that the traditional shochu-making method was propagated in southern Kyushu. Barley was used in shochu-making beginning in the latter part of the 18th century, also known as the late Edo era.”

Within the honkaku shochu category, barley accounts for 40 percent of overall production. “Barley shochu is made in a traditional style with barley, rice- or barley-koji, and water,” Shimoda adds. “It is fermented and then distilled only once, and there are no additives except for water.”

By creating iichiko Saiten with American cocktail culture in mind, Sanwa Shurui intentionally broke with

tradition. “In Japanese culture, sho-chu’s alcohol content is relatively low, about 25 percent ABV, as it is designed to be enjoyed with a meal,” Shimoda says. “But with iichiko Saiten, we made it 43 percent ABV to showcase its full potential as a spirit. Its rich aromas and deep flavors come forward in a pronounced way.”

On-Premise ProofWhile importing a new product in a lesser-known category comes with a myriad of challenges, the Davos Brands team is well-aware that master mixologists and their curious clientele are key to their strategy for success.

“Davos quite simply provides an

At cocktail den Existing Conditions in Greenwich

Village, iichiko goes avant-garde in the Saiten Martini

created by Head Bartender Jack Schramm.



opportunity and an education into the world of Japanese spirits and premium shochu,” Chrisomalis says. “We believe we are adding value to the trade and to bar programs by introducing key mixologists and gatekeepers to these brands and this category—by exploring with them this part of the world. Knowledge, ultimately, is power. By educating and providing opportunities for unique, differentiated customer experiences, we believe we are adding real value to key trade and tastemakers.”

The concept of quality over quantity defines Davos Brands’ rollout of iichiko Saiten: As Chrisomalis says, “At this early stage, we will measure our success more by quality account placements—and success—than by case depletions.”

To find out how iichiko Saiten fits into and enhances cutting-edge bar programs, The Tasting Panel visited two leading gatekeeper accounts in New York City: Bar Goto and Existing Conditions.

It’s All in the KojiKoji proves essential in the produc-tion of saké, miso, soy sauce, and shochu—an important traditional aspect of Japanese food culture. It is, of course, of vital importance in crafting iichiko Saiten.

Masahiko Shimoda, President of iichiko’s parent company, Sanwa Shurui Ltd., explains: “In traditional Japanese saké- and shochu-making, there is a saying: First, koji. Second, yeast starter. Third, mash-making. This means that koji-making is the most important aspect of making iichiko. We only use barley-koji to make a 100 percent barley shochu. The enzymes created from barley-koji and yeast lay the foundation for iichiko’s umami character. In addition, the enzymes produce a range of amino acids that serve as nutrition for the yeast and help to create a broad array of aromas.”

BAR GOTOKenta Goto, Proprietor

At Bar Goto on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, proprietor Kenta Goto has had shochu cocktails on his menu since the establishment opened almost four years ago. These drinks have been well-received by his guests, he reports—hence his enthusiasm for iichiko Saiten.

A recipient of the “American Bartender of the Year” award at Tales of the Cocktail in 2011, the mixologist opened Bar Goto after a seven-year tenure at New York’s famed Pegu Club. In addition to being named “Bar of the Year” in 2016 by Bon Appétit, Bar Goto was a semifinalist for “Outstanding Bar Program” at the James Beard Awards in 2017 and 2018.

“iichiko Silhouette is pretty much at every izakaya in Japan, but unlike Silhouette, Saiten is rich and creamy,” says Goto, who was born in Japan and came to the U.S. after high school. “At over 80 proof, it’s made to be the main ingredient in cocktails. Most shochu that people in Japan are familiar with comes in at around 50 proof. While the lower proof works well with food pairings, it often gets overshadowed by other ingredients in cocktails if you simply apply standard cocktail recipes.”

Goto named his original cocktail Mugi after the Japanese word for barley, reflecting Saiten’s barley base.

Mixologist Kenta Goto at his Bar Goto on New York’s Lower East Side.

Mugi◗ 2 oz. barley tea–infused iichiko Saiten

◗ 4 tsp. Martini & Rossi Rosso

◗ 1 tsp. Nux Alpina Walnut Liqueur

Infuse Saiten with barley tea (1 teabag in 1 cup of Saiten for 90 minutes). Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass and stir with ice. Strain into a snifter or ceramic tea cup.



EXISTING CONDITIONSJack Schramm, Head Bartender

At avant-garde cocktail den Existing Conditions in Greenwich Village, Head Bartender Jack Schramm says being introduced to iichiko Saiten has created “a fun opportunity to open the minds of guests to new ingredients that are exciting to us, so we can learn together.”

A former student in New York University’s Food Studies program, Schramm says he “found his calling” when he discovered handcrafted cocktails at Booker and Dax, the first bar from Existing Conditions own-ers Dave Arnold and Don Lee. He embraces the opportunity to experi-ment with new products: “It’s exciting to finally have a genshu (undiluted) style of shochu that feels focused on cocktails,” he says. “iichiko Saiten is incredibly versatile and exciting. Its light, floral quality lends itself beautifully to shaken, citrus-driven, and Martini-style drinks. Its umami richness makes it an ideal modifier to add depth of flavor to cocktails with a different base spirit.”

He offers his Saiten Martini as ample proof of iichiko Saiten’s ability to meld nicely with other spirits. “The brightness of the Champagne acid and the oxidative note from the Fino Sherry highlight the deep, savory quality of the shochu,” Schramm explains. “The Vermut and Cardamaro serve to add richness, body, and depth of aromatics.”

Like Chrisomalis, Schramm says he’s optimistic about the shochu cat-egory’s potential in the U.S. market: “I think shochu will break out in the States via cocktail bars in markets like New York, Chicago, and L.A. From there, it will only be a matter of time before the broader drinking culture takes notice,” he adds. “Shochu is too delicious and has too rich a history not to expand in popularity outside Japan.”

“iichiko Saiten offers a very unique aromatic spectrum that elevates the cocktail experience to the wonderful world of Japanese shochu.” —Guillaume Cuvelier, founder of Davos Brands

Jack Schramm is Head Bartender at Existing Conditions in Greenwich Village.

Saiten Martini◗ 1½ oz. iichiko Saiten ◗ 1 oz. Lustau Vermut Blanco◗ ½ oz. Tío Pepe Fino Sherry◗ ¼ oz. Cardamaro◗ Barspoon Champagne acid*◗ Lemon twist Add all ingredients to a mixing glass

over fresh ice. Stir until chilled and

diluted. Strain into a chilled coupe and garnish with a lemon twist.

*Champagne acid

◗ 3 g lactic acid powder◗ 3 g tartaric acid powder ◗ 94 g water Add all ingredients to a bowl and stir

to combine. Champagne acid will keep indefinitely if refrigerated.



SOCAL SIPS

French Grapes,

Japanese Grace

For her Aged Old Fashioned, Katana Bar Manager Chase Sanders combines Guillotine Heritage Vodka with amaro, Mandarine Napoléon liqueur, and black-walnut bitters.

GUILLOTINE HERITAGE VODKA IS A WELCOME ADDITION TO THE BAR

PROGRAM AT L.A.’S KATANA

by Kyle Billings / photos by Cal Bingham



erhaps it’s poetic that a restaurant named for a samurai sword would adopt a vodka named for another famous blade. As Director of Operations for the Innovative Dining Group—which includes

Japanese restaurant Katana, a staple on Los Angeles’ Sunset Strip for nearly 20 years—Christian Corben praises Guillotine Heritage Vodka for standing out in a cutthroat crowd while lending itself to a bevy of classic and contempo-rary cocktails.

“I get approached every single day with, ‘Oh, I got a new vodka,’” Corben says. “I never take the meeting. Then I heard about this vodka aged in Cognac barrels from the Champagne region in France, [made with] Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, and Chardonnay. I was like, ‘Wow, that sounds exciting.’”

Guillotine Heritage Vodka owes its idiosyncrasies to both its ingredients and production methods: Champagne varieties lend textural richness to the base spirit, whose russet color indicates an aging process normally reserved for whiskey. Its bouquet of cinnamon and toffee, meanwhile, further illustrates the year it spends maturing in Cognac foudres.

The unexpected fragrance initially shocked Katana Bar Manager Chase Sanders. “The minute I opened it up,

the smell was the first thing that caught my attention,” she says. “You have all these aromas you would never associ-ate with vodka. There’s caramel, there’s a little bit of a spiciness; it’s nutty, [with] slight citrusy notes. They’re character-istics that you would find more with bourbon and Cognac. So just to smell that from a vodka, [I was] like, ‘OK, I’m interested in trying this now.’”

Sanders expresses relief at being able to craft cocktails from a vodka that doesn’t merely yield to other ingredients in the mixing tin. Her Aged Old Fashioned incorporates amaro, Mandarine Napoléon liqueur, and black-walnut bitters, which work in service of the flavors of Guillotine Heritage.

“It’s not just the flavor but the aesthetics and everything that goes

into it,” she says. “All of those mat-ter because we’re trying to get your attention, pique your interest. And then if it’s a good cocktail and it tastes good, you’ll keep ordering it.”

A unique entry into the plenitude of vodka offerings was a welcome surprise for Corben, who describes Katana’s clientele as increasingly knowledgeable and adventurous. “I think more people are more curious these days,” Corben says. “They’re very interested in classic cocktails [but also] willing to try new things. That’s why when Chase came up with this, I was like, ‘OK, this is great.’ What I want be able to do is to take those vodka drinkers and get them to commit to a new style of vodka that I’ve never seen before on the market.”

Guillotine Heritage is the barrel-aged expression of French grape-based vodka Guillotine Originale.

Innovative Dining Group Director of Operations Christian Corben with Katana Bar Manager Chase Sanders.



TRAVEL

THE STAFFORD AND THE CHESTERFIELD PROVIDE WORLD-CLASS LODGINGS IN A WORLD-CLASS CITY

by Anthony Dias Blue

anybody who’s been to London in the past few years is aware that there are thousands of hotels to choose from in this bustling city. That includes

two-star fleabags, sleek glass-and-steel monoliths, creaky old monuments that have been in need of renovation for a century or more, and a few special places that embody everything you go to London for—or at least what you should go for.

And what is that? It can be summed up in one word: Englishness. As I’ve said before, you don’t travel with the purpose of duplicat-ing the feeling of being at home. Step outside your comfort zone and immerse yourself in the place you are visiting; it’s elevating to come into contact with the cultural riches of a foreign locale. As my wife is wont to say: “I don’t leave home unless I’m going to better my standard of living.”

The Chesterfield Mayfair (top) was once the residence of the Earl of Chesterfield. Historic lodgings can also be found at The Stafford London (bottom), which occupies buildings

constructed in the 17th century.

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The Stafford LondonOn our most recent trip to London, we stayed at The Stafford, one of the city’s most elegant and truly authentic gems. We had lodged at this beautiful hotel some years ago, and I was eager to return to it. To our delight, we found it had been recently upgraded and made even greater without losing any of its crisp British charm.

Located in a quiet cul-de-sac in the heart of St. James, just a five-minute walk from busy Piccadilly, this stunning hotel skillfully blends three 17th-century buildings, the most important of which is the former home of Lord and Lady

Lyttelton. In total, The Stafford has 107 rooms, including lovely suites that open onto a cobbled courtyard.

The property has gone through several transformations: The most notable one took place in 1912, when the three merged buildings became a hotel. Another upgrade took place in 2017 with a major redesign and the opening of The Game Bird. This restaurant—which, not surprisingly, specializes in partridge, guinea hen, quail, and, in season, grouse—has received high marks from global critics

and Londoners alike. Our dinner there was exceptional. Afternoon tea—a meal in itself—is served in the living-room area just outside the restaurant.

Downstairs is London’s oldest wine cellar; nearly 400 years old, it holds 8,000 bottles. During World War II, the famed Prunier restaurant group stashed its wines here. The hotel’s main public attraction, however, is The American Bar, its walls and ceiling festooned with memorabilia brought in by devoted customers over the years (a huge collection of club ties hangs from the ceiling). This historic bar is reputed to make the best Martini in London. I tried several of them; they sure tasted good to me.

Our stay at The Stafford was perfection, enhanced by the exceptional staff, many of whom have been serving guests for several decades. The concierge, meanwhile, was almost magician-like in his ability to conjure up theater and train tickets.

The Chesterfield MayfairNot too far from The Stafford in central Mayfair is The Chesterfield, which provided another immersion into British culture. Not only is the hotel charming with a lovely staff, a fine restaurant, and traditional tea service, its location is just about the best in London. Berkeley Square is a block away and just around the corner is Shepherd Market, one of the city’s hidden delights. Close by are the finest shops London has to offer.

Once the residence of the Earl of Chesterfield, this charismatic hostelry is steeped in history and tradition. Part of The Red Carnation Hotel Collection, The Chesterfield is family-owned and overseen by The Red Carnation’s founder and owner, Beatrice Tollman, whose tasteful hand is apparent in all the public spaces as well as the individual rooms, which are dramatically decorated with opulent and colorful fabrics. I’ve stayed at the Chesterfield several times, yet each visit has been different and memorable because every room is different.

The Chesterfield Mayfair offers the pure English experience I crave when I visit London—and, incidentally, it’s about half the price of The Stafford.

The American Bar at The Stafford London is renowned for both its decor and its cocktails.

The Game Bird, located in The Stafford London, specializes in fowl dishes such as this truffled partridge.

Tea service at The Chesterfield Mayfair.

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The 38th annual San Francisco International Wine Competition (SFIWC) was held November 17–19, 2018, during which 59 judges tasted more than 4,500 wines. With entries from countries all around the world, the 2018 SFIWC was truly a global competition.

This year, entries across 135 categories were blind tasted by a panel of 60 world-renowned industry experts, including Dr. Rowald Hepp of Schloss Vollards (Rheingau, Germany); Jim Harré of The Gates County Lodge (New Zealand); Robert Whitley of Wine Review Online; and Traci Dutton of the Culinary Institute

of America (Greystone, Saint Helena).

Reflecting the latest industry trends, SFIWC 2018 saw the most diverse set of entries to date, with a 70 percent increase in saké entries, 50 percent increase in sparkling rosé entries, and 40 percent increase in Cabernet Franc entries.

The largest and most influential international wine competition in America, SFIWC has been setting the standard for professional wine judging since its debut in 1980. It maintains the highest level of integrity with a blind-tasting system performed by a highly experienced

panel of internationally acclaimed wine experts.

A SFIWC medal has been estab-lished as a reliable indication of wine excellence, and wines recognized as medal-worthy by our judges are universally understood to be among the very best.

In the following pages, you will find a list of the winners of the top honors bestowed by our distinguished competition judges. Congratulations to all the 2018 winners. For complete results, visit sfwinecomp.com.

—Anthony Dias Blue, Executive Director

Results of the 2018

San Francisco International Wine Competition

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BEST IN SHOW AWARDSBEST IN SHOW RED, BEST SYRAHV. Sattui Winery 2015 Syrah, Napa Valley, USA

BEST IN SHOW WHITE, BEST RIESLINGArtisan Tasmania 2018 Riesling, Tasmania, Australia

BEST IN SHOW SPARKLING, BEST BLANC DE NOIRGloria Ferrer Caves & Vineyards NV Blanc de Noir, Carneros, USA

BEST IN SHOW DESSERT, BEST ICE WINEInniskillin Niagara 2017 Riesling Icewine Estate, Niagara Peninsula, Canada

BEST OF NATION AWARDSARGENTINA: TopografiaAUSTRALIA: Heirloom VineyardsBULGARIA: Edoardo MiroglioCANADA: InniskillinCHILE: Santa RitaCZECH REPUBLIC: Vinné Sklepy LechoviceíFRANCE: Moët & ChandonITALY: Fattoria La ViallaJAPAN: DassaiNEW ZEALAND: Marisco VineyardsPORTUGAL: Casa Ermelinda Freitas SLOVAKIA: Ostrožovic ˇSOUTH AFRICA: Backsberg Estate CellarsSPAIN: Bodegas Ysios

BEST OF VARIETAL/TYPEBEST BARBERA Silvestri Vineyards 2015 Barbera Estate, Carmel Valley, USA

BEST BORDEAUX BLEND UNDER $25Jackson-Triggs Okanagan Estate 2015 Meritage Grand Reserve, Okanagan Valley BC VQA, Canada

BEST BRUTRoederer Estate 2012 Brut L’Ermitage, Anderson Valley, USA

BEST CABERNET/SHIRAZ BLENDWolf Blass 2014 Cabernet Shiraz Grey Label, Langhorne Creek, Australia

BEST CABERNET FRANC Maryhill Winery 2015 Cabernet Franc, Columbia Valley, USA

BEST CABERNET SAUVIGNONRound Pond Estate 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, Napa Valley, USA

BEST CHARDONNAY V. Sattui Winery 2016 Chardonnay, Los Carneros, USA

BEST CIDERGowan’s Heirloom Cider Heirloom Cuvée Estate, Sparkling Gowan’s Family Orchard, Anderson Valley, USA

BEST EXTRA BRUT AND BEST CHAMPAGNEMoët & Chandon 2009 Extra Brut Grand Vintage, Champagne, France

BEST FRUIT WINESt. James Winery Raspberry Sweet Wine, USA

BEST GRENACHE Heirloom Vineyards 2017 Grenache Alcala, McLaren Vale, Australia

BEST HYBRID WHITE BLENDVilla Belleza 2017 Cotes du Pepin White Wine, Upper Mississippi River Valley, USA

BEST ITALIAN WHITE VARIETAL Velenosi 2017 Trebbiano d’Abruzzo Prope DOC, Italy

BEST LATE HARVESTVinné Sklepy Lechovice 2015 Late Harvest Ryzlink Rýnský, Moravia, Czech Republic

BEST MALBECJeff Runquist Wines 2016 Malbec Fiddlehead Vineyard, Fairplay–El Dorado County, USA

BEST MERLOTMénage à Trois 2016 Merlot, California, USA

BEST MOURVÈDRENavarro Vineyards 2016 Mourvèdre, Mendocino, USA

BEST NERO D’AVOLA Calabria Family Wines 2017 Nero d’Avola Private Bin, Riverina, Australia

BEST NON-BORDEAUX BLEND UNDER $25 Milbrandt Vineyards 2016 Red Blend Brothers’ Blend, Columbia Valley, USA

BEST NORTON St. James Winery 2017 Norton Estate Frontier Selection, Ozark Highlands, USA

BEST PÁLAVAVinarství Líbal 2017 Pálava, Moravia, Czech Republic

BEST PETIT VERDOTTERO Estates 2014 Petit Verdot Windrow Vineyard, Walla Walla Valley, USA

BEST PETITE SIRAHMaryhill Winery 2015 Petite Sirah Art Den Hoed, Yakima Valley, USA

BEST PINOT GRISThe King’s 2017 Pinot Gris Thorn, Waihopai, New Zealand

BEST PINOT NOIRDANCIN Vineyards 2016 Pinot Noir Ecarte, Oregon, USA

BEST PORTQuady Winery NV Port Starboard Batch 88, California, USA

BEST PREMIUM BORDEAUX BLENDJ. Lohr 2014 Cuvée PAU, Paso Robles, USA

BEST PREMIUM NON-BORDEAUX BLENDDolin Malibu Estate Vineyards 2012 Red Blend The Troubadour, Malibu Coast, USA

BEST RHÔNE BLENDShale Oak Winery 2014 CHI, Paso Robles, USA

BEST ROSÉ Bird In Hand 2018 Rosé, Adelaide Hills, Australia

BEST SAKÉ Dassai Junmai Daiginjo Saké 23, Yamaguchi, Japan

BEST SANGIOVESE Perrucci Family Vineyard 2013 Sangiovese Family Selection, Santa Cruz Mountains, USA

BEST SANGIOVESE BLENDFlying Suitcase Wines 2016 Winemaker’s Blend, Amador County, USA

BEST SAUVIGNON BLANCAorangi Road Wines 2017 Sauvignon Blanc Single Vineyard, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand

BEST SPANISH/PORTUGUESE/ARGENTINE WHITE VARIETALMettler Family Vineyards 2017 Albariño, Lodi, USA

BEST SPANISH/PORTUGUESE/ARGENTINE REDGoodMills Family Winery 2016 Graciano Estate, Lodi, USA

BEST TANNATJeff Runquist Wines 2016 Tannat Silvaspoons Vineyard, Alta Mesa - Lodi, USA

BEST TEMPRANILLO Bodegas Ysios 2012 Rioja Reserva DOCa, Spain

BEST VERMOUTHQuady Winery NV Vermouth Vya Sweet, California, USA

BEST VIGNOLES Keuka Spring Vineyards 2017 Vignoles, Finger Lakes, USA

BEST VIOGNIER Blue Ostrich Winery 2017 Viognier, Texas, USA

BEST WHITE ITALIAN BLENDFattoria La Vialla 2017 Torbolino, Italy

BEST WHITE RHÔNE VARIETAL Dandelion Vineyards 2018 Roussanne Honeypot of the Barossa, Barossa Valley, Australia

BEST ZINFANDELV. Sattui Winery 2016 Ancient Vine Zinfandel Quaglia Vineyard, St. Helena, USA

DOUBLE GOLD MEDALSWHITESCHARDONNAY Bream Creek Vineyard 2017 Chardonnay, Tasmania, Australia ($36) Cinder 2017 Chardonnay, Snake River Valley, USA ($23) Concannon Vineyard 2016 Chardonnay Reserve, Livermore Valley, USA ($30) Davis Bynum Winery 2015 Chardonnay River West Vineyard, Russian River Valley, USA ($25) Harken 2017 Chardonnay, California, USA ($15) Houdini 2017 Chardonnay Dean Block, Napa Valley, USA ($25) Niner Wine Estates 2016 Chardonnay, Edna Valley, USA ($25) Slow Press 2016 Chardonnay Oak Barrel Aged, Sonoma County, USA ($17) V. Sattui Winery 2016 Chardonnay, Los Carneros, USA ($44)

2018 PREMIUM AWARDSTHE TASTING PANEL MAGAZINE WINERY OF THE YEAR: Jeff Runquist Wines,

Plymouth, CAANDRÉ TCHELISTCHEFF WINEMAKER OF THE YEAR: Benoît Gouez, Moët & Chandon

PORTFOLIO OF THE YEAR AWARD: Kobrand Wine & Spirits



SAUVIGNON BLANC & WHITE BORDEAUX VARIETALS Aorangi Road Wines 2017 Sauvignon Blanc Single Vineyard, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand ($18) Atelier 2017 Sauvignon Blanc Anon, Tasmania, Australia ($22) Craggy Range 2017 Sauvignon Blanc Te Muna Road Vineyard, Martinborough, New Zealand ($22) Francis Coppola 2017 Sauvignon Blanc Diamond Collection, California, USA ($16) GoodMills Family Winery 2017 Sauvignon Blanc, Lodi, USA ($22) Joel Gott 2017 Sauvignon Blanc, California, USA ($15) Line 39 2017 Sauvignon Blanc, California, USA ($11) Marisco Vineyards Craft Series 2013 Sauvignon Blanc Pride and Glory, Waihopai, New Zealand ($50) Mission Hill Family Estate 2017 Sauvignon Blanc Reserve, Okanagan Valley BC VQA, Canada ($22) Oak Farm Vineyards 2017 Sauvignon Blanc Mohr-Fry Ranches, Lodi, USA ($19) Round Pond Estate 2017 Sauvignon Blanc, Napa Valley, USA ($28) Voyager Point 2017 Sauvignon Blanc, California, USA ($10)

RIESLING & GEWÜRZTRAMINER Artisan Tasmania 2018 Riesling, Tasmania, Australia ($25) Bradley Vineyards 2016 Riesling Estate Bradley Vineyards, Elkton Oregon, USA ($16) Crescent Hill Winery 2016 Gewürztraminer Private Reserve, Okanagan Valley BC VQA, Canada ($21) Keuka Spring Vineyards 2017 Riesling Humphreys Vineyard, Finger Lakes, USA ($22) La Cave des Vignerons de Pfaffenheim 2017 Riesling Pfaff, Tradition, Alsace AOC, France ($5) St. Julian 2017 Riesling Mountain Road Estate Reserve, Lake Michigan Shore, USA ($22)

RHÔNE VARIETALS & BLENDS Blue Ostrich Winery 2017 Viognier, Western Cape, South Africa ($15) Dandelion Vineyards 2018 Roussanne Honeypot of the Barossa, Barossa Valley, Australia ($28) Perdeberg Winery 2017 Grenache Blanc The Vineyard Collection, Texas, USA ($22)

PINOT GRIS/PINOT GRIGIO Barrett Family Wines 2016 Ramato Pinot Grigio Copper Falls Reserve, Temecula Valley, USA ($35) JOHANN W 2015 Pinot Gris, Cechy, Czech Republic ($14) Noble Vines 2017 Pinot Grigio 152, Monterey, USA ($13) Ohau Wines 2018 Pinot Gris Woven Stone, Ohau, New Zealand ($20) The King’s 2017 Pinot Gris Thorn, Waihopai, New Zealand ($20)

MISC. WHITE VARIETALS & BLENDS Alamos 2017 Torrontés, Salta, Argentina Dancing Dragonfly Winery NV White Wine Lindy, USA ($17) Duchman Family Winery 2017 Trebbiano Bingham Family Vineyards, Texas High Plains, USA ($16) Fattoria La Vialla 2017 Torbolino, Italy ($19) Keuka Spring Vineyards 2017 Vignoles, Finger Lakes, USA ($15) Laessiger 2017 Grüner Veltliner, Niederösterreich, Austria ($10) Mahoney Vineyards 2017 Vermentino Estate, Carneros, USA ($22) Mettler Family Vineyards 2017 Albariño, Lodi, USA ($20) Portalupi Wines 2017 Vermentino Las Brisas Vineyard, Carneros, USA ($28) San Sebastian Winery NV Carlos Vintner’s White, Florida, USA ($11) St. Julian 2017 Grüner Veltliner Braganini Reserve, Lake Michigan Shore, USA ($22) Velenosi 2017 Trebbiano d’Abruzzo Prope, DOC, Italy Villa Bellezza 2017 Cotes du Pepin White Wine, Wisconsin, USA ($23) REDS CABERNET SAUVIGNON & CABERNET BLENDS 1849 Wine Company 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Declaration, Napa Valley, USA ($80) Alexander Valley Vineyards 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate, Alexander Valley, USA ($25) Anarchist Wine Co. 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon The Philosopher, Napa Valley, USA ($38) Becker Vineyards 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon, Texas, USA ($25) Bellacana Vineyards 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander Valley, USA ($30) Black Stallion Estate Winery 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, USA ($30) Bodegas Aguirre 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate, Livermore Valley, USA ($28) Burnside Road 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon, Red Hills, Lake County, USA ($20) Collier Falls Vineyard 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Estate, Dry Creek Valley, USA ($45) Cougar Crest Estate Winery 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate Grown, Walla Walla



Valley, USA ($45) Desert Wind 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Heritage Series 97 Block, Wahluke Slope, USA ($35) Eberle Winery 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate, Paso Robles, USA ($45) Eberle Winery 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Vineyard Selection, Paso Robles, USA ($24) Estate 1856 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Tzabaco Rancho Vineyards, Sonoma County, USA ($50) Giapoza 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Giapoza, California, USA ($18) Gnarly Head 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon 1924 Double Black, Limited Edition, Lodi, USA ($15) Holmes Harbor Cellars 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon, Walla Walla Valley, USA ($34) Jackson-Triggs Niagara Estate 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Grand Reserve, Niagara Peninsula, Canada ($35) Kathryn Kennedy Winery 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon Small Lot, Santa Cruz Mountains, USA ($45) Layer Cake 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Bourbon Barrel Aged, California, USA ($20) Lighthouse Cellars 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Spice Cabinet Vineyard, Horse Heaven Hills, USA ($34) Monte De Oro Winery 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon, Temecula Valley, USA ($40) Murray Street Vineyards 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon Red Label, Barossa Valley, Australia ($35) Outlot 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander Valley, USA ($25) Pebble Lane 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Sustainably Grown, Monterey County, USA ($13) Platinum Crush 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Stagecoach Vineyard, Napa, USA ($100) Platinum Crush 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa, USA ($75) Pomar Junction Vineyard & Winery 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, El Pomar District, USA ($45) Rellim Wines 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Jean Davide Estate Single Vineyard, Sonoma, USA ($69) Reyes Winery 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon, Sierra Pelona Valley, USA ($26) Robert John Vineyards 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon RJV D’Ambrosio, Coombsville, USA ($90) Rodney Strong Vineyards 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate Vineyards, Knights Valley, USA ($35) Round Pond Estate 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, Napa Valley, USA ($110) Scattered Peaks 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, USA ($40) Sea Bird 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Poseidon, Napa, Rutherford, USA ($89) Shamwari Vineyards 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon, Sonoma, USA ($45)

The Hess Collection 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Allomi, Napa Valley, USA ($32) Three Thieves 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon, California, USA ($8) Trailhead 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon, North Coast, USA ($25) Vibe Wines 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Captivate Me, Santa Barbara, USA ($38) Vinum Cellars 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, USA ($43) Warr-King Wines 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon, Red Mountain, USA ($36) Wente Vineyards 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Charles Wetmore Single Vineyard, Livermore Valley, USA ($30) Wolf Blass 2014 Cabernet/Shiraz Grey Label, Langhorne Creek, Australia ($45) Stonyfell 2016 Cabernet/Shiraz The Baton, Langhorne Creek, Australia ($32)

MERITAGE & BORDEAUX STYLE BLENDS Bookcliff Vineyards 2016 Bordeaux Blend Ensemble, Colorado, USA ($20) Cliff Creek Cellars 2013 Claret Sams Valley Vineyard, Southern Oregon, USA ($28) Inniskillin Niagara 2016 Merlot/Petit Verdot Discovery Series, Niagara Peninsula, Canada ($40) J. Lohr 2014 Cuvée PAU Bordeaux Blend, Paso Robles, USA ($50) Jackson-Triggs Okanagan Estate 2015 Meritage Grand Reserve, Okanagan Valley BC VQA, Canada ($25) Muse Vineyards 2013 Premium Bordeaux Blend Clio, Shenandoah Valley, USA ($35)Rocky Pond Winery 2016 Premium Bordeaux Blend La Domestique Double D Vineyard, Columbia Valley, USA ($39) Santa Rita 2014 Premium Bordeaux Blend Triple C, Estate Bottled, Valle Central, Chile ($40) See Ya Later Ranch 2015 Premium Bordeaux Blend Ping-Meritage, Okanagan Valley BC VQA, Canada ($25) Sequoia Grove Vineyards 2016 Red Bordeaux Blend Rebellious, Napa Valley, USA ($40)

MERLOT, MALBEC, CAB FRANC & PETIT VERDOT Becker Vineyards 2016 Merlot Reserve, Texas, USA ($17) Browne Family Vineyards 2015 Cabernet Franc, Columbia Valley, USA ($40) Cannonball 2016 Merlot, California, USA ($16) Cody Kresta Vineyard and Winery 2017 Cabernet Franc, Lake Michigan Shore, USA ($35) Inniskillin Niagara 2016 Cabernet Franc Reserve, Niagara Peninsula, Canada ($26) Jackson-Triggs Niagara Estate 2016 Merlot Grand Reserve, Niagra Peninsula, Canada ($26)

Jeff Runquist Wines 2016 Malbec Fiddlehead Vineyard, Fairplay - El Dorado County, USA ($29) Made by James 2015 Merlot Estate, San Lucas, Monterey County, USA ($20) Maryhill Winery 2015 Cabernet Franc, Columbia Valley, USA ($26) Ménage à Trois 2016 Merlot, California, USA ($12) Merriam Vineyards 2014 Merlot Windacre Vineyard, Russian River Valley, USA ($34) Mission Hill Family Estate 2015 Merlot Reserve, Okanagan Valley BC VQA, Canada ($26) Obelisco Estates 2015 Merlot Estate Grown, Red Mountain, Washington, USA ($50) Perrucci Family Vineyard 2013 Malbec, Santa Cruz Mountains, USA ($36) Pollak Vineyards 2015 Cabernet Franc Reserve, Monticello, USA ($50) Robert Hall Winery 2016 Merlot, Paso Robles, USA ($19) Sequoia Grove Vineyards 2016 Cabernet Franc Winemaker Series, Napa Valley, USA ($50) St. Francis Winery 2015 Merlot, Sonoma County, USA ($22) TERO Estates 2014 Petit Verdot Windrow Vineyard, Walla Walla Valley, USA ($38) Toad Hollow Vineyards 2016 Merlot Richard McDowell, Sonoma County, USA ($17) Walla Walla Vintners 2016 Cabernet Franc, Columbia Valley, USA ($35) Whitecliff Vineyard 2016 Cabernet Franc Estate Bottled, Hudson River Region, USA ($26) Yorkville Cellars 2016 Malbec Certified Organic Grapes Rennie Estate Vineyard, Yorkville Highlands, USA ($34)

PETITE SIRAH & ZINFANDEL Amador Cellars 2015 Petite Sirah, Amador County, USA ($38) Amphora Winery 2015 Zinfandel Gasparini-Beals Vineyard, Dry Creek Valley, USA ($34) Berryessa Gap Vineyards 2016 Petite Sirah, Yolo County, USA ($32) Berryessa Gap Vineyards 2016 Zinfandel, Yolo County, USA ($22) Castoro Cellars 2015 Zinfandel Zinfusion, Paso Robles, USA ($23) Concannon Vineyard 2015 Petite Sirah Reserve Nina’s Cuvée, Livermore Valley, USA ($38) Concannon Vineyard 2014 Petite Sirah Reserve, Livermore Valley, USA ($45) Gnarly Head 2016 Zinfandel Old Vine, Lodi, USA ($15) Helwig Winery 2014 Petite Sirah Frenchmen’s Creek, Shenandoah Valley, USA ($35) Inniskillin Okanagan 2015 Zinfandel Discovery Series, Okanagan Valley BC VQA, Canada ($28) Main & Geary 2016 Petite Sirah, Lodi, USA ($18)



DANCIN && THE WINE DRRESS ES ARE THE TH TRADRADEMAREM KS OF DANCINCIN VIVINEYARYARDS, LLC.C. AALL RIGHTS RERESERVED.

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2016 pinot noir

double gold medal winner

double gold medal

95 points

best pinot noir

southern oregon1620 90syrahDanseur points

southern oregon1620 pinot noirSeptette 97points

gold medal winner

southern oregon1720 89chardonnayCapriccio points

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. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

gold medal winner. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Maryhill Winery 2015 Petite Sirah Art Den Hoed, Yakima Valley, USA ($36) Oso Libre Winery 2015 Zinfandel Osezno, Paso Robles, USA ($39) Root 49 2017 Petite Sirah Naggiar Vineyards, Nevada County, Sierra Foothills, USA ($28) Schmitz 24 BRIX 2013 Petite Sirah Reserve, Lake County, USA ($29) V. Sattui Winery 2016 Ancient Vine Zinfandel Quaglia Vineyard, St. Helena, USA ($49)

SYRAH/SHIRAZAngove 2016 Shiraz Family Crest, McLaren Vale, Australia ($25) Backsberg Estate Cellars 2013 Shiraz Pumphouse, Paarl, South Africa ($23) Beresford 2015 Shiraz Blewitt Spings Estate, McLaren Vale, Australia ($35) Bird In Hand 2013 Syrah Nest Egg, Mt Lofty Ranges, Australia ($71) Bird In Hand 2017 Syrah, Adelaide Hills, Australia ($28) Chalk Hill 2017 Shiraz Luna, McLaren Vale, Australia ($19) Chateau Yaldara 2016 Shiraz HT, Barossa Valley, Australia ($70) Craggy Range 2015 Syrah Le Sol Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand ($105) Francis Coppola 2015 Syrah Reserve, Dry Creek Valley, USA ($42) Givich Vineyards 2015 Syrah, Oak Knolls District, Napa, USA ($50) Helwig Winery 2015 Syrah Frenchmen’s Creek, Shenandoah Valley, USA ($28) Hyde Estate Winery 2016 Syrah Larry Hyde Hyde Vineyard Estate, Carneros, Napa Valley, USA ($60) J. Lohr 2016 Syrah South Ridge, Paso Robles, USA ($15) Jacob’s Creek Wines 2017 Shiraz Classic, Australia ($8) McGuigan 2016 Shiraz Shortlist, Barossa Valley, Australia ($22) Mission Hill Family Estate 2015 Shiraz Reserve, Okanagan Valley BC VQA, Canada ($26) Mum’s Block 2016 Shiraz, Barossa, Australia ($43) Murray Street Vineyards 2017 Shiraz Red Label, Barossa Valley, Australia ($35) Reyes Winery 2013 Syrah, Sierra Pelona Valley, USA ($28) Rocky Bay 2016 Shiraz, Australia ($5) Silvestri Vineyards 2015 Syrah Red Ranger Estate, Carmel Valley, USA ($60) Sister’s Run 2017 Shiraz Sisters Run Calvary Hill Barossa Shiraz, Barossa Valley, Australia ($100) Taylors 2017 Shiraz Reserve Parcel, Clare Valley, Australia ($25) Taylors 2017 Shiraz Promised Land, South Australia ($14) Ulithorne Wines 2016 Shiraz AVITUS, McLaren Vale, Australia ($85) V. Sattui Winery 2015 Syrah, Napa Valley, USA ($41) Wolf Blass 2015 Shiraz Gold Label, Adelaide Hills, Australia ($29) Wolf Blass 2013 Shiraz Grey Label, McLaren Vale, Australia ($45) Wolf Blass 2016 Shiraz Grey Label, McLaren Vale, Australia ($45) Wolf Blass 2015 Shiraz Grey Label, McLaren Vale, Australia ($45) Wolf Blass 2012 Shiraz Estates of the Barossa Lyndoch, Barossa Valley, Australia ($89) Wolf Blass 2010 Shiraz Platinum Label Medlands Vineyard, Barossa Valley, Australia ($199) Wolf Blass 2012 Shiraz Platinum Label Medlands Vineyard, Barossa Valley, Australia ($199) Wolf Blass 2013 Shiraz Platinum Label Medlands Vineyard, Barossa Valley, Australia ($199)

OTHER RHÔNE VARIETALS & BLENDS Allegretto Wines 2015 Tannat, Paso Robles, USA ($55) Dane Cellars 2016 GSM Valeria, Sonoma Valley, USA ($40) Heirloom Vineyards 2017 Grenache Alcala, McLaren Vale, Australia ($60) Jeff Runquist Wines 2016 Tannat Silvaspoons Vineyard, Alta Mesa - Lodi, USA ($27) Navarro Vineyards 2016 Mourvèdre, Mendocino, USA ($29) Oso Libre Winery 2014 Mourvèdre Bendicion Estate, Adelaida District, Paso Robles, USA ($56) Robert Hall Winery 2016 GSM Cavern Select, Paso Robles, USA ($45) Russian Ridge Winery 2015 Red Table Wine Concerto, Santa Cruz Mountains, USA ($34) Shale Oak Winery 2014 CHI Red Rhône Blend, Paso Robles, USA ($75) Sister’s Run 2017 Red Rhône Blend Cow’s Corner GSM, Barossa, Australia ($22) Turkovich 2015 Grenache, Yolo County, USA ($24) Turkovich 2014 GSM Wolfskill 96, Yolo County, USA ($45)

PINOT NOIRCameron Hughes 2015 Pinot Noir Lot 656, Arroyo Seco, USA ($16) Cellardoor Winery 2015 Pinot Noir, USA ($25) Craggy Range 2015 Pinot Noir Te Muna Road Vineyard, Martinborough, New Zealand ($45) DANCIN Vineyards 2016 Pinot Noir Ecarte, Oregon, USA ($49) DANCIN Vineyards 2016 Pinot Noir Septette, Southern Oregon, USA ($39)



Davis Family Vineyards 2016 Pinot Noir Dutton Ranch, Russian River Valley, USA ($55) Duck Pond Cellars 2016 Pinot Noir St. Jory Vineyard, Willamette Valley, USA ($20) Fleur de California 2016 Pinot Noir, Monterey, USA ($19) flipflop NV Pinot Noir, California, USA ($9) Francis Coppola 2016 Pinot Noir Reserve Dutton Ranch, Russian River Valley, USA ($45) J. Lohr 2016 Pinot Noir Fog’s Reach, Arroyo Seco, USA ($35) La Cave des Vignerons de Pfaffenheim 2016 Pinot Noir Cuvée des Dominicains, Alsace AOC, France ($6) Lucas & Lewellen Vineyards 2015 Pinot Noir High 9 Goodchild Vineyard, Santa Maria Valley, USA ($35) Navarro Vineyards 2016 Pinot Noir Deep End, Anderson Valley, USA ($55) Pennyroyal Farm 2016 Pinot Noir Jeansheep Vineyard, Anderson Valley, USA ($59) Poppy Wine Company 2015 Pinot Noir, Monterey, USA ($15) Santa Rita 2017 Pinot Noir 120 Reserva Especial, Valle Central, Chile ($9) Sister’s Ridge 2017 Pinot Noir, North Canterbury, New Zealand ($18) Sonoma-Cutrer 2016 Pinot Noir Owsley, Russian River Valley, USA ($46) The Sisters 2018 Pinot Noir, Marlborough, New Zealand ($14) Trump Winery 2014 Pinot Noir Méthode Champenoise, Monticello, USA ($55)

ITALIAN & ITALIAN-STYLE REDS Portalupi Wines 2017 Arrossire di Barbera Pauli Ranch, Mendocino County, USA ($40) Silvestri Vineyards 2015 Barbera Estate, Carmel Valley, USA ($55) Velenosi 2016 Montepulciano d’Abruzzo DOC, Italy Stefano Farina 2012 Nebbiolo, Barolo, Italy ($40) Calabria Family Wines 2017 Nero d’Avola Private Bin, Riverina, Australia ($15) Perrucci Family Vineyard 2013 Sangiovese Family Selection, Santa Cruz Mountains, USA ($36)

SPANISH & SPANISH-STYLE REDSBodegas Ysios 2012 Rioja Reserva DOCa, Spain ($34) Brennan Vineyards 2016 Tempranillo, Texas, USA ($28) Cinder 2016 Tempranillo, Snake River Valley, USA ($30) Pedernales Cellars 2016 Tempranillo Reserve, Texas, USA ($50) Tempus Two 2016 Tempranillo Copper Series, New South Wales, Australia ($22) Veleta 2009 Tempranillo Privilegio, Granada DO, Spain ($95)

MISC. RED VARIETALS & BLENDS Casa Ermelinda Freitas 2016 Castelão Quinta da Mimosa, DO Palmela, Portugal ($6) Casa Ermelinda Freitas 2010 Moscatel Roxo, DO Setúbal, Portugal ($21) Cellardoor Winery 2016 Concord Sweetheart, USA ($12) Dark Hundred 2016 Premium Red Blend, California, USA ($27) Dolin Malibu Estate Vineyards 2012 Red Blend The Troubadour, Malibu Coast, USA ($45) Flying Suitcase Wines 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon/Sangiovese Winemaker’s Blend, Amador County, USA ($40) GoodMills Family Winery 2016 Graciano Estate, Lodi, USA ($28) Harry & David 2015 Red Blend Royal Crest, Southern Oregon, USA ($20) Heirloom Vineyards 2017 Touriga, McLaren Vale, Australia ($40) Hye Meadow 2015 Red Wine Blend Boooom, Texas High Plains, USA ($50) Maryhill Winery 2016 Winemaker’s Red, Columbia Valley, USA ($15) Milbrandt Vineyards 2016 Red Blend Brothers’ Blend, Columbia Valley, USA ($17) Mt. Boucherie Estate Winery 2014 Premium Red Blend British Columbia, Canada ($55) Península de Setúbal Sobreiro de Pegôs NV Red Blend Premium, Portugal Sister Creek Vineyards 2016 Premium Red Blend Vintners Collection, Temecula Valley, USA ($40) St. James Winery 2017 Friendship School Red, Ozark Mountain, USA ($9) St. James Winery 2017 Norton Estate Frontier Selection, Ozark Highlands, USA ($14) The Hess Collection 2015 Napa Valley Red Lion Tamer, USA ($45) Topografia 2011 Reserva Red Blend, Valle de Uco, Mendoza, Argentina ($40) Vinarství Líbal 2017 Pálava, Moravia, Czech Republic ($9) Vinha do Fava 2017 Touriga, IGP Setúbal, Portugal ($12) Wisdom Oak Winery 2017 Petit Manseng, Monticello, USA ($24)

ROSÉ Bird In Hand 2018 Rosé, Adelaide Hills, Australia ($14) Charles & Charles 2017 Rosé, Columbia Valley, USA ($15) Moët & Chandon 2009 Rosé Grand Vintage, Champagne, France ($70)

SPARKLING WINES Banfi 2017 Brachetto d’Acqui DOCG, Italy ($20) Champagne Collet NV Blanc de Noir Premier Cru, Champagne, France ($65) Champagne Duperrey 2012, Champagne, France ($49) Chandon NV Sparkling Rosé, California, USA ($26) Domaine Anderson NV Brut, Anderson Valley, USA ($18) Edoardo Miroglio 2014 Brut Rosé EM Elenovo, PDO Nova Zagora, Bulgaria ($18) Gloria Ferrer Caves & Vineyards NV Blanc de Noir, Carneros, USA ($22) Gowan’s Heirloom Cider Heirloom Cuvée Estate, Sparkling Gowan’s Family Orchard, Anderson Valley, USA ($10) Keller Estate 2015 Sparkling Brut, Sonoma Coast, USA ($55) Korbel Champagne Cellars NV Brut Rosé, California, USA ($14) Moët & Chandon NV Brut Champagne MCIII, Champagne, France ($650) Moët & Chandon 2009 Extra Brut Champange Grand Vintage, Champagne, France ($65) Perlino NV Prosecco, DOC, Italy ($14) Roederer Estate 2012 Brut L’Ermitage, Anderson Valley, USA ($48) Sidewood NV Extra Brut, Adelaide Hills, Australia ($18) Swedish Hill Winery NV Naturel Sparkling Wine, Finger Lakes, USA ($19) Trump Winery 2014 Sparkling Rosé Méthode Champenoise, Monticello, USA ($50) SWEET WINES Inniskillin Niagara 2017 Riesling Icewine Estate, Moravia, Czech Republic ($16) Inniskillin Niagara 2016 Vidal Icewine Estate, Waihopai River, New Zealand ($20) Inniskillin Niagara 2017 Sparkling Vidal Icewine, Okanagan Valley BC VQA, Canada ($42) Jackson-Triggs Niagara Estate 2015 Vidal Icewine Reserve, Niagara Peninsula, Canada ($80) Jackson-Triggs Okanagan Estate 2016 Riesling Ice Wine Reserve, Okanagan Valley BC VQA, Canada ($26) Mission Hill Family Estate 2016 Riesling Icewine Reserve, Niagara Peninsula, Canada ($50) Seifried Estate 2018 Sweet Agnes Riesling Winemakers Collection, Niagara Peninsula, Canada ($21) St. James Winery Raspberry Sweet Wine, USA ($9) The Ned 2017 Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc, Niagara Peninsula, Canada ($80) Vinné Sklepy Lechovice 2015 Late Harvest Ryzlink Rýnský, Nelson, New Zealand ($34)

Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Zinfandel, Sauvignon Blanc, and Chardonnay

2018 San Francisco International

Wine Competition Gold Medal Winners

90PTS HERENCIA 2015 CHARDONNAY

90PTS HERENCIA 2014 MERLOT

HERENCIAWINES.COM



SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL

WINE COMPETIT ION GOLD MEDAL

AMISF IELD.CO.NZ

SHERRY, PORT, SAKÉ, & OTHER Born Junmai Daiginjo Saké Hoshi, Hitachi, Japan ($40) Casa Martelletti NV Vermouth di Torino Classico, Fukui Prefecture, Japan ($43) Dassai Junmai Daiginjo Saké 23, Yamaguchi, Japan ($37) Ippin 2017 Junmai Daiginjo Sake, California, USA ($25) Perlino NV Vermouth di Torino Riserva Del Palio, Italy ($22) Quady Winery NV Vermouth Vya Sweet, Italy ($25) Quady Winery NV Port Starboard Batch 88, California, USA ($25) V. Sattui Winery 2002 Vintage Port, California, USA ($65)

GOLD MEDALS

WHITESCHARDONNAY Bargetto Winery 2017 Chardonnay Reserve Regan Estate Vineyards, Santa Cruz Mountains, USA ($35) Beresford 2017 Chardonnay, McLaren Vale, Australia ($20) Black Stallion Estate Winery 2016 Chardonnay, Napa Valley, USA ($19) Caged 2017 Chardonnay, California, USA Carol Shelton Wines 2017 Chardonnay Wild Thing, Sonoma County, USA ($19) Casa Ermelinda Freitas 2017 Chardonnay Valoroso, IGP Setúbal, Portugal ($12) Chalk Hill Estate Vineyards & Winery 2017 Chardonnay, Sonoma Coast, USA ($24) Chateau Bu-De Winery 2014 Chardonnay Reserve, American, USA ($32) Cloudfall 2017 Chardonnay, Monterey County, USA Cosentino Winery 2016 Chardonnay THE Chard, Lodi, USA ($15) DANCIN Vineyards 2017 Chardonnay Capriccio, Southern Oregon, USA ($34) Dusk to Dawn 2017 Chardonnay, Russian River Valley, USA ($26) Eberle Winery 2017 Chardonnay Estate, Paso Robles, USA ($24) Estancia 2016 Chardonnay, Monterey, USA ($12) Fallbrook Winery 2017 Chardonnay Special Selection, Monterey, USA ($25) Hábanskê Sklepy 2017 Chardonnay, Moravia, Czech Republic ($7) Happy Camper Vineyards 2017 Chardonnay, California, USA ($9) Harney Lane Winery 2017 Chardonnay, Lodi, USA ($28) Harry & David 2017 Chardonnay, Oregon, USA ($18) Herencia 2015 Chardonnay, Los Carneros, Sonoma County, USA ($40) Herzog 2016 Chardonnay Special Reserve, Russian River Valley, USA ($38) Highway 12 2017 Chardonnay, Carneros, USA ($20) Imagery Estate Winery 2017 Chardonnay, California, USA Inniskillin Okanagan 2016 Chardonnay Dark Horse Vineyard, Golden Mile Bench, Canada ($35) J. Lohr 2016 Chardonnay Arroyo Vista, Arroyo Seco, USA ($25) LANGETWINS Winery 2017 Chardonnay, Clarksburg, USA ($15) Ledson Winery & Vineyards 2015 Chardonnay, Carneros, USA ($44)

Lucas & Lewellen Vineyards 2017 Chardonnay, Santa Barbara County, USA ($17) Mission Hill Family Estate 2016 Chardonnay Perpetua, Okanagan Valley BC VQA, Canada ($64) Poseidon Vineyard 2017 Chardonnay Sea Change, Los Carneros, USA ($38) Poundstone 2016 Chardonnay Sangiacomo Catarina, Carneros, USA ($40) Sonoma Coast Vineyards 2017 Chardonnay Gold Ridge Hills, USA ($30) Staura Cellars 2016 Chardonnay 7 Hour Lunch, Santa Rita Hills, USA ($45) Taylors 2017 Chardonnay, South Australia ($18) Thirty-Seven 2015 Chardonnay, Sonoma Coast, USA ($36) V. Sattui Winery 2017 Chardonnay Collina d’Oro, Russian River Valley, USA ($40)

SAUVIGNON BLANC & WHITE BORDEAUX VARIETALS Dancing Crow Vineyards 2017 Sauvignon Blanc, Lake County, USA ($18) Doña Paula 2017 Sauvignon Blanc Los Cardos, Mendoza, Argentina ($14) Echo Bay 2017 Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, New Zealand ($19) Hans Fahden 2017 Sauvignon Blanc, North Coast, USA ($28) Huia Vineyards 2017 Sauvignon Blanc Certified Organic, Marlborough, New Zealand ($20) Infamous Goose 2017 Sauvignon Blanc, Marborough, New Zealand ($15) Invivo Wines 2018 Sauvignon Blanc Graham Norton’s Own, Marlborough, New Zealand ($15) Jackson-Triggs Okanagan Estate 2017 Sauvignon Blanc Reserve, Okanagan Valley BC VQA, Canada ($13) Kim Crawford Wines 2017 Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, New Zealand ($18) L.A. Cetto 2017 Sauvignon Blanc Estate Bottled, Valle de Guadalupe, Mexico ($10) Oak Grove Wines 2017 Sauvignon Blanc Family Reserve, California, USA ($9) Rippey Family Vineyards 2017 Sauvignon Blanc, Napa, USA ($24) Sacred Hill 2018 Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, New Zealand ($15) South Coast Winery 2017 Sauvignon Blanc, Temecula Valley, USA ($16) Te Pa Family Vineyards 2018 Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, New Zealand ($16) The Crusher 2017 Sauvignon Blanc, California, USA The Seeker 2017 Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, New Zealand ($14) The Sisters 2018 Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, New Zealand ($14) Veramonte 2018 Sauvignon Blanc, Casablanca Valley, Chile ($12) Vinarství U Kaplicky 2017 Sauvignon Blanc Fresh Wine, Moravia, Czech Republic ($7)

RIESLING, GEWÜRZTRAMINER, MOSCATO 50th Parallel Estate 2017 Riesling, Okanagan Valley BC VQA, Canada ($20) Amisfield 2016 Riesling, Central Otago, New Zealand ($25) Backyard Vineyards 2017 Riesling, BC VQA British Columbia, Canada ($19) Bell’agio NV Moscato, Emilia-Romagna IGT, Italy ($10) Caposaldo NV Moscato, Provincia di Pavia IGT, Italy ($14) Cavit 2017 Moscato, Trevenezie IGT, Italy ($9) Charles & Charles 2017 Riesling, Columbia Valley, USA ($15) Château de Riquewihr Dopff & Irion 2017 Riesling Cuvée René, Alsace AOC, France ($5) Crescent Hill Winery 2016 Riesling Cristal’s Fault,



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Okanagan Valley BC VQA, Canada ($20) Jackson-Triggs Niagara Estate 2017 Riesling Grand Reserve, Niagara Peninsula ($21) Keuka Spring Vineyards 2017 Semi-Sweet Riesling, Finger Lakes, USA ($17) Llano Estacado Winery 2017 Moscato, Texas, USA ($15) Maryhill Winery 2017 Riesling Milbrant Vineyard, Columbia Valley, USA ($16) Nk’Mip Cellars 2017 Riesling Qwam Qwmt, Okanagan Valley BC VQA, Canada ($24) Sawtooth Winery 2016 Riesling Classic Fly Series, Snake River Valley, USA ($14) SEAGLASS 2017 Riesling, Monterey County and Santa Barbara County, USA ($45) See Ya Later Ranch 2017 Gewürztraminer Unleashed, Okanagan Valley BC VQA, Canada ($17) Shaw Vineyard Estate 2018 Riesling, Canberra, Australia ($22) Sutter Home Winery NV Riesling, California, USA ($8) Sutter Home Winery NV Sweet Riesling, California, USA ($8) Tropical NV Moscato Passion Fruit, Piedmont, Italy ($18) Wild Goose Vineyards 2017 Riesling Stoney Slope, Okanagan Valley BC VQA, Canada ($18)

RHÔNE VARIETALS & BLENDS2Hawk Vineyard & Winery 2016 Viognier Darow Series, Rogue Valley, USA ($46) Adkins Family Vineyards 2017 Viognier, Alta Mesa, USA ($39)

Alara Cellars 2017 Grenache Blanc, San Benito County, USA ($37) Anaba Wines 2016 White Rhône Blend Turbine White, Sonoma Valley, USA ($32) Duchman Family Winery 2017 Roussanne Oswald Vineyard, Texas High Plains, USA ($22) Eberle Winery 2017 White Rhône Blend Côtes-Du-Rôbles Blanc, Paso Robles, USA ($24) Luna Rossa 2017 Viognier, Mimbres Valley, USA ($14) Oak Grove Wines 2017 Viognier Family Reserve, California, USA ($9) Orfila Vineyards & Winery 2017 White Rhône Blend Lotus Estate, San Pasqual Valley, USA ($29) Pedernales Cellars 2016 Viognier Reserve, Texas, USA ($40) Pomar Junction Vineyard & Winery 2017 White Rhône Blend Cotes de Pomar Blanc, Pomar Junction/Creston Ridge, El Pomar District, USA ($25) Septenary Winery 2017 Viognier, Virginia, USA ($30) Shale Oak Winery 2015 Grenache Blanc, Paso Robles, USA ($38) South Coast Winery 2017 Viognier, Temecula Valley, USA ($25) Suveg Cellars 2015 Roussanne, Lodi, USA ($32) Trump Winery 2017 Viognier, Monticello, USA ($28) Weisinger Family Winery 2017 Viognier Avra Vineyard, Rogue Valley, USA ($25)

PINOT GRIS/PINOT GRIGIO & PINOT BLANCBrancott Estate 2018 Pinot Gris Flight Song,

Marlborough, New Zealand ($14) Brassfield Estate Winery 2017 Pinot Gris High Serenity Ranch Vineyard, High Valley, USA ($22) Calabria Family Wines 2017 Pinot Bianco Private Bin, Riverina, Australia ($15) Château de Riquewihr Dopff & Irion 2017 Pinot Blanc Cuvée René, Alsace AOC, France ($4) Château de Riquewihr Dopff & Irion 2010 Pinot Gris La Vigneray Clos Château Isenbourg, Alsace AOC, France ($8) Luna Nuda 2017 Pinot Grigio Estate, Alto Adige, Italy ($13) Mission Hill Family Estate 2017 Pinot Gris Reserve, Okanagan Valley BC VQA, Canada ($22) Misty Cove 2018 Pinot Gris, Marlborough, New Zealand ($17) Montevina Wines 2017 Pinot Grigio Glass Falls, California, USA ($12) Silver Springs Winery LLC NV Pinot Grigio, New York, USA ($23) SKAHA Vineyard 2017 Pinot Blanc, Okanagan Valley BC VQA, Canada ($21) The Sisters 2018 Pinot Gris, Marlborough, New Zealand ($14) Trimbach 2015 Pinot Gris Reserve, Alsace, Italy ($25) Villa Amoroso 2017 Pinot Grigio, Provincia de Pavia IGT, Italy ($10) Wild Goose Vineyards 2017 Pinot Gris, Okanagan Valley BC VQA, Canada ($17) Yellow Tail 2018 Pinot Grigio, Yenda, Australia ($8)



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MISC. WHITE VARIETALS & BLENDSAndré Lurton 2017 White Blend Château Bonnet, Bordeaux, France ($14) Arrington Vineyards 2017 Symphony, USA ($19) Aruga Branca 2016 Koshu Clareza Distinctamente, GI Yamanashi, Japan ($45) Asmundson Family Vineyard 2014 Torrontes Yendola, Mendoza, Argentina ($18) B\V Vinarství 2017 Ryzlink Rýnský, Moravia, Czech Republic ($8) B\V Vinarství 2016 Tramín Cervený, Moravia, Czech Republic ($9) Backsberg Estate Cellars 2018 Chenin Blanc, Coastal Region, South Africa ($13) Baron Herzog 2017 Chenin Blanc, California, USA ($10) Big Cork Vineyards 2017 White Blend Russian Kiss, Maryland, USA ($22) Big Door Vineyards NV Blanc du Bois & Carlos Gold Lace, Georgia, USA ($18) Big Door Vineyards NV Pam Sunlight, Georgia, USA ($15) Bird In Hand 2018 Arneis, Adelaide Hills, Australia ($21) Broken Earth 2017 Verdelho Limited Release, Paso Robles, USA ($24) Dancing Coyote Wines 2017 Albariño Estate Grown, Clarksburg, USA ($12) Dry Creek Vineyard 2017 Chenin Blanc, Clarksburg, USA ($15) Duchman Family Winery 2017 Vermentino Bingham Family Vineyards, Texas High Plains, USA ($20) Fontana Candida 2016 Frascati Secco, Frascati DOC, Italy ($10) Gervasi 2017 Aromella Passione, Ohio, USA ($24) Haak Vineyards & Winery 2018 Blanc du Bois Semi Dry, Texas, USA ($20) James Charles Winery & Vineyard 2017 White Blend, Virginia, USA ($19) Keuka Spring Vineyards 2017 White Blend Crooked Lake, Finger Lakes, USA ($13) L.A. Cetto 2017 Chenin Blanc Estate Bottled, Valle de Guadalupe, Mexico ($10) La Cave des Vignerons de Pfaffenheim 2017 Sylvaner Pfaff, Tradition, Alsace AOC, France ($4) Lakeridge Winery & Vineyards NV Carlos Southern White, Florida, USA ($11) New Clairvaux Vineyard 2017 Trebbiano Vina Ranch, Tehama County, USA ($21) Robert Hall Winery 2017 Vermentino Cavern Select, Paso Robles, USA ($32) Shale Oak Winery 2016 Albariño, Paso Robles, USA ($28) St. James Winery 2017 Traminette Winemaker’s Series Estate Grown, Ozark Mountain, USA ($15) Sutter Home Winery NV Chenin Blanc, California, USA ($8) Tempus Two 2018 Verdelho Copper Series, Hunter Valley, Australia ($22) Tempus Two 2018 Verdelho, Hunter Valley, Australia ($11) Vican Rodinné Vinarství 2017 Pálava Karel Roden Edice, Moravia, Czech Republic ($14) Víno Masarík 2017 Ryzlink Rýnský, Blatnice VOC, Czech Republic ($7) Wollersheim Winery 2017 Seyval Blanc Prairie Fumé, USA ($10) Znovin Znojmo 2017 Ryzlink Rýnský, Moravia, Czech Republic ($7)

REDSCABERNET SAUVIGNON & CABERNET BLENDS1847 Wines 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Barrel 88 Reserve, Adelaide, Australia ($30) 3 Finger Jack 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon East Side Ridge,

Lodi, USA ($20) ANKH 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, USA ($50) Aquinas 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon, North Coast, USA Backsberg Estate Cellars 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon, Paarl, South Africa ($15) Bajka Wine Company 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Nagengast Estate Vineyard, Paso Robles, USA ($100) Becker Vineyards 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve Wilmeth Vineyards, Texas High Plains, USA ($40) Beresford 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon, McLaren Vale, Australia ($20) Bernhardt Winery NV Cabernet Sauvignon, USA ($33) Broken Earth 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, Paso Robles, USA ($48) Cameron Hughes 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Lot 637, Columbia Valley, USA ($14) Canoe Ridge Vineyard 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon The Expedition, Horse Heaven Hills, USA ($17) Cat Amongst the Pigeons 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon, Barossa, Australia ($20) Chacewater 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon North Ponderosa Vineyard, Sierra Foothills, USA ($25) Cinquain Cellars 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Nagengast Estate Vineyard, Paso Robles, USA ($60) Clos LaChance Winery 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate Vineyards, Central Coast, USA ($17) Cosentino Winery 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Cigar, Bourbon Barrel Aged, California, USA ($22) Cypress Vineyards 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon, Central Coast, USA ($10) Dane Cellars 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon DesNudos, Moon Mountain District, USA ($40) De Novo Wines 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Acure Estate Vineyard, Alexander Valley, USA ($38) Donovan Parke 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon, California, USA ($16) Draxton 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander Valley, USA ($36) Dutcher Crossing Winery 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve Taylor Vineyard, Dry Creek Valley, USA ($50) Fair Oaks Winery 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon, California, USA ($15) Four Vines Winery 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon The Kinker, Paso Robles, USA ($18) Francis Coppola 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Director’s Cut, Sonoma County, USA ($23) Franklin Tate Estates 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Alexanders Vineyard, Margaret River, Australia ($20) Gibbs 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, Saint Helena, USA ($65) Grape Creek Vineyard 2016 Cabernet/Syrah Prosperity, USA ($37) Grape Creek Vineyard 2016 Cabernet Trois Texas Red Wine, USA ($23) Herzog 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Special Reserve, Alexander Valley, USA ($44) Houdini 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon St. Helena, Napa Valley, USA ($40) Imagine Wine 2011 Cabernet, Paso Robles, USA ($75) J. Lohr 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Seven Oaks, Paso Robles, USA ($17) Jason-Stephens Winery 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon, Santa Clara Valley, USA ($28) Joel Gott 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon 815, California, USA ($20) Joseph Cellars Winery 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate Bartholomew Family Vineyard, Calistoga, USA ($110) Josh Cellars 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon, California, USA ($16) Kaiser Family Wines 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Compilation Buoni Amici Vineyard, Calistoga, USA ($40) Katherine Goldschmidt 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Crazy Creek, Alexander Valley, USA ($24) La Honda Winery 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Salinian

Block, Santa Cruz Mountains, USA ($38) Lake & Vine 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Ranch, Lake County, California, USA ($45) Laurentia Vineyard and Winery 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate Stoltz Block, Grand River Valley, USA ($75) Loscano Vineyards 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Grand Reserve, Mendoza, Argentina ($22) Lucinda & Mille 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon Organic Grapes, Mendocino County, USA ($15) Main & Geary 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon, Central Coast, USA ($20) Ménage à Trois 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon, North Coast, USA ($14) Merriam Vineyards 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Gloeckner-Turner Ranch, Rockpile, USA ($65) Obelisco Estates 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon III Nefer, Red Mountain, Washington, USA ($125) Obsidian Ridge 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate, Red Hills Lake County, USA ($32) Oso Libre Winery 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Quixotic Estate, Adelaida District, Paso Robles, USA ($45) Penny’s Hill 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Edwards Road Estate Single Vineyard, McLaren Vale, Australia ($18) Pine Ridge Vineyards 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, USA ($65) Ravage 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon, California, USA ($13) Raywood Vineyards 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon, Central Coast, USA ($8) Republique 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon, Paso Robles, USA ($24) Robert Hall Winery 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon, Paso Robles, USA ($22) Robert John Vineyards 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon RJV D’Ambrosio, Coombsville, USA ($90) Saddleback Cellars 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, USA ($75) Sean Minor 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon 4B, Paso Robles, USA ($16) Shaw Vineyard Estate 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz, Canberra, Australia ($24) Silver Ghost Cellars 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, USA ($35) Sunrock Vineyards 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon, Okanagan Valley BC VQA, Canada ($30) Sutter Home Winery NV Cabernet Sauvignon, California, USA ($8) Toad Hollow Vineyards 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon, Lodi, USA ($17) Toby Lane Vineyards 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon Proprietor’s Reserve Estate, Alexander Valley, USA ($65) V. Sattui Winery 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon, Mt. Veeder, USA ($90) V. Sattui Winery 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Preston Vineyard, Rutherford, USA ($85) Viansa Sonoma 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, Sonoma Mountain, USA ($45) Wallis Family Estate 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Seraphim, Diamond Mountain District, Napa Valley, USA ($175) Windsor Vineyards 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Private Reserve, Sonoma County, USA ($24) Wolf Blass 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Gold Label, Coonawarra, Australia ($29) Wolf Blass 2012 Cabernet Shiraz Malbec Black Label, Langhorne Creek, McLaren Vale, Australia ($130)

MERITAGE & BORDEAUX-STYLE BLENDS Broken Earth 2016 Red Bordeaux Blend Pull Series, Paso Robles, USA ($18) Chateau Ramage La Batisse 2015 Sci Chateau Ramage La Batisse, Haut-Médoc Cru Bourgeois, France ($13) Davis Family Vineyards 2015 Bordeaux Blend CAB 5, Rockpile Ridge, USA ($65)



Ecluse Wines 2016 Ensemble, Paso Robles, USA ($48) Estate 1856 2015 Premium Bordeaux Blend Duvall’s Prospect Tzabaco Rancho Vineyards, Sonoma County, USA ($52) Hugo Casanova Wines 2015 Malbec/Carménère Family Reserve, Curico Valley, Chile ($10) Jackson-Triggs Niagara Estate 2016 Meritage Grand Reserve, Niagra Peninsula, Canada ($25) Jason-Stephens Winery 2014 Meritage Persing Vineyard, Santa Clara Valley, USA ($38) La Rusticana d’Orsa 2015 Premium Bordeaux Blend Cinque, Santa Cruz Mountains, USA ($45) Lake Chelan Winery 2016 Meritage M9, Chelan Valley, USA ($65) Mullan Bard 2015 Red Bordeaux Blend, Columbia Valley, USA ($45) Oso Libre Winery 2013 Bordeaux Blend Querida, Adelaida District, Paso Robles, USA ($36) Oso Libre Winery 2014 Bordeaux Blend Reserva, Adelaida District, Paso Robles, USA ($43) Perseus 2016 Bordeaux Blend, Okanagan Valley BC VQA, Canada ($20) Rancho Sisquoc 2015 Meritage Cellar Select Flood Family Vineyards, Santa Maria Valley, USA ($35) Septenary Winery 2015 Premium Bordeaux Blend Coleman, Virginia, USA ($40) Solis Winery 2014 Red Bordeaux Blend Casa Mia Reserve Estate, Santa Clara Valley, USA ($25) Sterling 2015 Meritage Vintner’s Collection, California, USA ($12) Sunrock Vineyards 2015 Meritage, Okanagan Valley BC VQA, Canada ($30) Sunset Hills Vineyard 2015 Mosaic, Virginia, USA ($50) The Weasel and The Cork 2016 Premium Bordeaux Blend, Alexander Valley, USA ($27) Thurston Wolfe 2013 Premium Bordeaux Blend Geologist, Columbia Valley, USA ($50) Trump Winery 2015 Premium Bordeaux Blend New World Reserve, Monticello, USA ($54)

MERLOT, MALBEC, CAB FRANC, & PETIT VERDOT Abacela Vineyards & Winery 2015 Malbec Reserve, Umpqua Valley, USA ($42) Alamos 2016 Malbec High Altitude, Seleccion, Mendoza, Argentina Becker Vineyards 2016 Malbec Reserve, Texas, USA ($30) Bending Branch Winery 2015 Malbec Newsom Vineyards, Texas High Plains, USA ($42) Big Cork Vineyards 2016 Cabernet Franc, Maryland, USA ($46) Black Sage Vineyard 2015 Cabernet Franc, Okanagan Valley BC VQA, Canada ($26) Black Sage Vineyard 2015 Merlot, Okanagan Valley BC VQA, Canada ($26) Boatique Winery 2015 Malbec, Red Hills, Lake County, USA ($35) Bordertown Vineyards and Estate Winery 2015 Merlot Reserve, Okanagan Valley BC VQA, Canada ($31) Cakebread Cellars 2015 Merlot, Napa Valley, USA ($54) Ca’Momi 2015 Merlot CA, Napa Valley, USA ($20) Cass Winery 2016 Malbec Cass, Paso Robles Geneseo District, USA ($62) Castoro Cellars 2016 Merlot Estate, Paso Robles, USA ($20) Cathedral Ridge 2015 Cabernet Franc Moody Vineyard, Columbia Valley, USA ($44) Chateau Bu-De Winery 2015 Cabernet Franc, USA ($40) Chloe Wine Collection 2015 Merlot Estate Vineyard, San Lucas, Monterey County, USA ($18) Cosentino Winery 2016 Cabernet Franc THE Franc, Lodi, USA ($15) Estate 1856 2016 Malbec Tzabaco Rancho Vineyards,

Sonoma County, USA ($44) Forthright Winery 2015 Merlot, Oak Knoll, USA ($125) Gibbs 2016 Cabernet Franc, Napa Valley, USA ($28) Grgich Hills Estate 2015 Merlot Estate Grown, Napa Valley, USA ($43) Herencia 2014 Merlot, Napa Valley, USA ($45) Jackson-Triggs Okanagan Estate 2015 Merlot Grand Reserve, Okanagan Valley BC VQA, Canada ($25) Jason-Stephens Winery 2014 Merlot, Santa Clara Valley, USA ($24) Keswick Vineyards 2016 Cabernet Franc Signature Series, Monticello, USA ($45) Lake Chelan Winery 2016 Cabernet Franc Amos Rome Vineyard, Chelan Valley, USA ($35) Lamoreaux Landing Wine Cellars 2016 Cabernet Franc, Finger Lakes, USA ($23) Ledson Winery & Vineyards 2015 Merlot Reserve Estate Vineyard, Sonoma Valley, USA ($85) Loscano Vineyards 2016 Malbec Grand Reserve, Mendoza, Argentina ($22) Lost Oak Winery 2016 Cabernet Franc Burning Daylight Vineyard, Texas, USA ($30) Maryhill Winery 2015 Cabernet Franc Elephant Mountain, Rattlesnake Hills, USA ($36) Maryhill Winery 2015 Petit Verdot McKinley Springs Vineyard, Horse Heaven Hills, USA ($36) Merriam Vineyards 2014 Cabernet Franc Windacre Vineyard, Russian River Valley, USA ($45) Merriam Vineyards 2016 Malbec Lower Pond, Alexander Valley, USA ($45) Mission Hill Family Estate 2015 Cabernet Franc Terroir Collection No. 32, Vista’s Edge, Okanagan Valley BC VQA, Canada ($39) Napeequa Vintners 2016 Petit Verdot Phinny Hill Vineyards, Columbia Valley, USA ($50) Piattelli Vineyards 2015 Malbec Limited Edition Animaná, Salta, Argentina ($19) Sunset Hills Vineyard 2015 Cabernet Franc Reserve, Virginia, USA ($40) Thirty-Seven 2015 Petit Verdot Reserve, Sonoma County, USA ($75) Township 7 2016 Merlot, Okanagan Valley BC VQA, Canada ($23) Wait Cellars 2016 Cabernet Franc Los Amigos Vineyard, Russian River Valley, USA ($28)

PETITE SIRAH & ZINFANDELHarney Lane Winery 2015 Old Vine Zinfandel Lizzy James Vineyard, Lodi, USA ($36) Bending Branch Winery 2014 Petite Sirah Old Vine Shell Creek Vineyards, Paso Robles, USA ($40) Berryessa Gap Vineyards 2016 Petite Sirah, Yolo County, USA ($28) Concannon Vineyard 2016 Petite Sirah, Livermore Valley, USA ($17) Concannon Vineyard 2016 Petite Sirah Reserve Captain Joe’s, Livermore Valley, USA ($38) Dancing Coyote Wines 2016 Petite Sirah Estate Grown, Clarksburg, USA ($14) Dutcher Crossing Winery 2015 Petite Sirah Proprietor’s Reserve, Dry Creek Valley, USA ($33) Four Vines Winery 2016 Petite Sirah Skeptic, California, USA ($20) French Bar 2016 Petite Sirah, California, USA ($19) Hearst Ranch Winery 2015 Petite Sirah The Pergola, Paso Robles, USA ($32) Lawer Estates 2015 Petite Sirah Betsy’s Vineyard, Knights Valley, USA ($30) Oak Grove Wines 2017 Petite Sirah Family Reserve, California, USA ($9) South Coast Winery 2015 Petite Sirah Reservoir Block Wild Horse Peak Mountain Vineyards, South Coast, USA ($38)

Stanton Vineyards 2016 Petite Sirah, St. Helena, USA ($45) Theopolis Vineyards 2015 Petite Sirah Estate Grown Theopolis Vineyards, Yorkville Highlands, USA ($39) Vina Robles 2014 Petite Sirah Estate, Paso Robles, USA ($29) Alexander Valley Vineyards 2015 Zinfandel Sin Zin, Alexander Valley, USA ($20) Cameron Hughes 2016 Zinfandel Lot 636, Lodi, USA ($13) Caricature 2015 Zinfandel Old Vine, Lodi, USA ($15) Carol Shelton Wines 2016 Zinfandel Rocky Reserve Florence Vineyard, Rockpile, USA ($36) Dry Creek Vineyard 2016 Zinfandel Heritage Vines, Sonoma County, USA ($24) Dry Creek Vineyard 2015 Zinfandel Old Vine, Dry Creek Valley, USA ($35) Eberle Winery 2016 Zinfandel, Paso Robles, USA ($30) Felicità 2015 Zinfandel Old Vine, Lodi, USA ($25) Francis Coppola 2015 Zinfandel Director’s Cut, Dry Creek Valley, USA ($29) Harney Lane Winery 2015 Zinfandel, Lodi, USA ($24) Mettler Family Vineyards 2016 Zinfandel Epicenter, Old Vine, Lodi, USA ($25) Peachy Canyon Winery 2016 Zinfandel Vortex Barrel Aged, Paso Robles, USA ($38) Portalupi Wines 2016 Zinfandel Old Vine Dolinsek Ranch, Russian River Valley, USA ($48) Zinchronicity 2016 Zinfandel, Paso Robles, USA ($25)

SYRAH/SHIRAZBeresford 2014 Shiraz Limited Release, McLaren Vale, Australia ($55) Bird In Hand 2016 Syrah Nest Egg, Adelaide Hills, Australia ($71) Bird In Hand 2013 Syrah MAC, Mt Lofty Ranges, Australia ($250) Cat Amongst the Pigeons 2016 Shiraz Fat Cat, Barossa, Australia ($29) Chris Ringland 2017 Shiraz, Barossa, Australia ($30) College Cellars 2016 Syrah Stoney Vine Vineyard, Walla Walla Valley, USA ($30) DANCIN Vineyards 2016 Syrah Danseur, Southern Oregon, USA ($39) Dandelion Vineyards 2016 Shiraz Red Queen of the Eden Valley, Eden Valley, Australia ($100) Dutcher Crossing Winery 2015 Syrah Proprietor’s Reserve, Dry Creek Valley, USA ($33) DV8 Cellars 2015 Syrah Overdrive White Hawk, Santa Barbara County, USA ($45) Francis Coppola 2016 Shiraz Rosso & Bianco, California, USA ($12) Franklin Tate Estates 2016 Shiraz Alexanders Vineyard, Margaret River, Australia ($20) Heirloom Vineyards 2017 Shiraz, McLaren Vale, Australia ($40) Jeff Runquist Wines 2016 Syrah Three Way Vineyard, Paso Robles, USA ($30) Jip Jip Rocks 2017 Shiraz, Padthaway, Australia ($21) Krondorf 2016 Shiraz Symmetry, Barossa Valley, Australia ($50) Krondorf 2017 Shiraz, Barossa, Australia ($17) Layer Cake 2017 Shiraz, South Australia ($15) Martella Wines 2015 Syrah Came Hill Vineyard, Santa Cruz Mountains, USA ($60) Martin Ranch Winery 2014 Syrah Thérèsa Vineyards Lester Family Vineyards, Santa Cruz Mountains, USA ($38) McGuigan 2016 Shiraz Select, Gundagai, Australia ($16) Miles From Nowhere 2017 Shiraz Best Blocks, Margaret River, Australia ($23) Mockingbird Hill 2016 Shiraz Slate Lane, Clare Valley, Australia ($30)



Monte De Oro Winery 2013 Syrah Reserve Vista del Monte Vineyard, Temecula Valley, USA ($80) Morambro Creek 2016 Shiraz, Padthaway, Australia ($35) Mr. Riggs 2016 Shiraz The Bolter, McLaren Vale, Australia ($20) New Clairvaux Vineyard 2016 Syrah St. James, Tehama County, USA ($21) Perrucci Family Vineyard 2013 Syrah, Santa Cruz Mountains, USA ($34) Redemption 2017 Shiraz, Canberra, Australia ($28) Robert Hall Winery 2015 Syrah, Paso Robles, USA ($22) Schild Estate Wines 2016 Shiraz, Barossa Valley, Australia ($22) Schild Estate Wines 2015 Shiraz Prä Miè Libbich Vineyard, Barossa Valley, Australia ($70) Séka Hills 2015 Syrah Yocha Dehe Vineyards, Capay Valley, USA ($28) Shottesbrooke 2013 Shiraz Eliza, Reserve Series, McLaren Vale, Australia ($45) Skinner Vineyards 2015 Syrah, El Dorado, USA ($30) Sunrock Vineyards 2015 Shiraz, Okanagan Valley BC VQA, Canada ($27) Taylors 2017 Shiraz Jaraman, Clare Valley, Australia ($30) Tertini Wines 2017 Shiraz, Hilltops, Australia ($25) Wolf Blass 2014 Classic Shiraz Brown Label, Adelaide, Australia ($55) Wolf Blass 2015 Shiraz Blass Noir, Barossa Valley, Australia ($32) Wolf Blass 2012 Shiraz St. John’s Ebenezer Road, Barossa Valley, Australia ($89) Wolf Blass 2014 Shiraz Estates of the Barossa Dorrien, Barossa Valley, Australia ($89)

OTHER RHÔNE VARIETALS & BLENDS Anaba Wines 2015 Red Rhône Blend Turbine Red, Sonoma Valley, USA ($36) Blood Brother Republic 2017 Grenache Blewitt Springs, Mclaren Vale, Australia ($33) Calabria Family Wines 2016 GSM Saint Petri, Barossa Valley, Australia ($80) Château la Nerthe 2016 Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc, AOC, France ($60) Dandelion Vineyards 2016 Mataro March Hare of the Barossa, Barossa Valley, Australia ($60) Davis Family Vineyards 2016 Grenache/Syrah/Mourvèdre Throne, Russian River Valley, USA ($42) Grenachista 2016 Grenache Noir Mounts, Dry Creek Valley, USA ($42) Jeff Runquist Wines 2016 Alicante Bouschet Dutchman Vineyard, San Joaquin County, USA ($29) Navarro Vineyards 2016 Grenache, Mendocino, USA ($29) Sculpterra Winery 2015 Mourvèdre Lago De Los Patos, Paso Robles, USA ($36)

PINOT NOIR1849 Wine Company 2016 Pinot Noir Iris, Sonoma Coast, USA ($30) 2Hawk Vineyard & Winery 2016 Pinot Noir Darow Series, Rogue Valley, USA ($42) 50th Parallel Estate 2016 Pinot Noir, Okanagan Valley BC VQA, Canada ($29) Alexander Valley Vineyards 2017 Pinot Noir Estate, Alexander Valley, USA ($34) Anaba Wines 2015 Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast, USA ($42) B Side 2016 Pinot Noir, Lodi, USA Babich Wines 2017 Pinot Noir Black Label, Marlborough, New Zealand ($19) Bargetto Winery 2017 Pinot Noir Pommard Clone Regan Estate Vineyards, Santa Cruz Mountains, USA ($35) Bream Creek Vineyard 2017 Pinot Noir, Tasmania, Australia ($39)

Canihan Family Cellars 2014 Pinot Noir Exuberance Reserve Estate, Sonoma County, USA ($75) Cardwell Hill Cellars 2015 Pinot Noir Reserve, Willamette Valley, USA ($28) Carneros Ranch Winery 2014 Pinot Noir, Carneros, USA ($28) Casa Tiene Vista 2014 Rembrandt Series Pinot Noir The Beggars, Central Coast, USA ($35) Castle Rock Winery 2013 Pinot Noir, Los Carneros, USA ($14) CLE Urban Winery 2015 Pinot Noir Drawbridge, USA ($30) Davis Bynum Winery 2016 Pinot Noir Jane’s Vineyard, Russian River Valley, USA ($35) Domaine Anderson 2014 Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley, USA ($40) Domaine Anderson 2014 Pinot Noir Pinoli Vineyard, Anderson Valley, USA ($55) Five Acres 2016 Pinot Noir, Clarksburg, USA Fog Crest Vineyard 2016 Pinot Noir Estate, Russian River Valley, USA ($55) Fog Crest Vineyard 2016 Pinot Noir Laguna West, Russian River Valley, USA ($44) Francis Coppola 2016 Pinot Noir Director’s Cut, Russian River Valley, USA ($29) Gary Farrell 2015 Pinot Noir Martaella Vineyard, Russian River Valley, USA ($65) Giapoza 2016 Pinot Noir Giapoza, California, USA ($18) Hawkins Cellars 2015 Pinot Noir Bayliss Bower Vineyard, Yamhill Carlton AVA, USA ($40) Hyde Estate Winery 2015 Pinot Noir Larry Hyde Hyde Vineyard Estate, Carneros, Napa Valley, USA ($70) Intercoastal Wine Company 2016 Pinot Noir Limited Release, California, USA ($38) Jackson Estate 2015 Pinot Noir Vintage Widow, Marlborough, New Zealand ($34) Laetitia 2017 Pinot Noir Estate, Arroyo Grande Valley, USA ($26) Lucia Highlands 2016 Pinot Noir Fogstone Vineyard, Santa Lucia Highlands, USA ($30) MacPhail Wines 2016 Pinot Noir The Flyer, Sonoma County, USA ($40) Malm Cellars 2017 Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley, USA ($15) Ménage à Trois 2017 Pinot Noir Luscious, California, USA ($14) Michael Pozzan Winery 2016 Pinot Noir, Russian River, USA ($22) Mt. Beautiful 2016 Pinot Noir, North Canterbury, New Zealand ($28) Nk’Mip Cellars 2016 Pinot Noir Qwam Qwmt, Okanagan Valley BC VQA, Canada ($30) Paddy Borthwick 2016 Pinot Noir, Wairarapa, New Zealand ($35) Parker Station 2017 Pinot Noir, Monterey County/San Luis Obispo County/Santa Barbara County, USA ($15) Plummy 2016 Pinot Noir, California, USA ($17) Poppy Wine Company 2014 Pinot Noir Reserve, Santa Lucia Highlands, USA ($18) Ritual 2016 Pinot Noir, Casablanca Valley, Chile ($20) Sean Minor 2016 Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast, USA ($22) Silvestri Vineyards 2015 Pinot Noir Rising Tide Estate, Carmel Valley, USA ($45) South Coast Winery 2016 Pinot Noir, Santa Lucia Highlands, USA ($35) Taft Street Winery 2017 Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley, USA ($28) Tedeschi Family Winery 2015 Pinot Noir, Yorkville Highlands, USA ($46) Three Thieves 2017 Pinot Noir, California, USA ($8) V. Sattui Winery 2016 Pinot Noir, Los Carneros, USA ($42)

Virginia Dare Winery 2016 Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley, USA Willamette Valley Vineyards 2016 Pinot Noir Estate, Willamette Valley, USA ($32) Willowbrook Cellars 2016 Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley, USA ($24) Yamhill Valley Vineyards 2015 Pinot Noir Estate, McMinnville, USA ($22) Zeka Vineyards 2015 Pinot Noir, Bennett Valley, USA ($47)

ITALIAN & ITALIAN-STLYE REDS601 Cellars 2015 Sangiovese Reserve, Napa, USA ($45) Alara Cellars 2016 Sangiovese, San Benito County, USA ($39) Barone Montalto 2017 Rosso Passivento, Terra Siciliane IGT, Italy ($15) Bayer Family Estate 2016 Sangiovese Estate Grown, Rogue Valley, USA ($36) Bent Oak Winery 2017 Sangiovese, Texas High Plains, USA ($30) Bird In Hand 2016 Montepulciano, Adelaide Hills, Australia ($28) Castello Banfi 2013 Excelsus, Toscana IGT, Italy ($75) Cellardoor Winery 2015 Sangiovese Blend Col Agnel, American, USA ($26) Due Vigne 2015 Nebbiolo Cinnamon Hill Vineyard, El Dorado County, USA ($48) Fattoria La Vialla 2014 Chianti Casa Conforto Riserva, DOCG, Italy ($30) Helwig Winery 2016 Barbera, Amador County, USA ($24) Imagine Wine 2016 Sangiovese, Santa Ynez, USA ($35) L’Altra 2017 Barbera d’Asti DOCG, Italy ($32) Lorimar Winery 2015 Montepulciano, California, USA ($54) Marchesi Vineyards 2017 Sangiovese Emma, Columbia Valley, USA ($32) Maryhill Winery 2015 Dolcetto Painted Hills, Yakima Valley, USA ($44) Maryhill Winery 2015 Primitivo Art Den Hoed, Yakima Valley, USA ($26) Maryhill Winery 2015 Sangiovese Elephant Mountain, Rattlesnake Hills, USA ($36) Navarro Vineyards 2016 Barbera, Mendocino, USA ($25) Noceto 2015 Sangiovese Riserva, Shenandoah Valley California, USA ($34) Oh! Orgasmic 2016 Sangiovese, Columbia Valley, USA ($70) Orfila Vineyards & Winery 2016 Sangiovese Blend Full Fathom, San Pasqual Valley, USA ($45) Paskett Winery 2015 Barbera, Lodi AVA, USA ($26) Picchetti Winery 2016 Sangiovese Blend Super Tuscan, California, USA ($43) St. Joseph Vineyard 2016 Sangiovese Pinot Vista Vineyard, Grand River Valley, USA ($25) Stefano Farina 2017 Dolcetto, Dolcetto di Diano d’Alba, Italy ($15) Tenuta San Vincenti 2016 Chianti Classico DOCG, Italy ($7) Vines on the Marycrest 2015 Primitivo, Paso Robles, USA ($42) Walla Walla Vintners 2016 Dolcetto Dwelley Vineyard, Walla Walla Valley, USA ($30) Wedding Oak Winery 2016 Dolcetto Texedo Red Diamante Doble Vineyard, Texas High Plains, Texas ($27) Windsor Vineyards 2016 Sangiovese, Alexander Valley, USA ($20)

SPANISH & SPANISH-STYLE REDS2Hawk Vineyard & Winery 2015 Tempranillo Darow Series, Rogue Valley, USA ($49) Abacela Vineyards & Winery 2015 Tempranillo Estate Reserve, Umpqua Valley, USA ($49)



Bodegas Campo Viejo 2012 Rioja Gran Reserva DOCa, Spain ($25) Bumgarner Winery 2014 Tempranillo, El Dorado, USA ($32) Cooper Ridge Vineyard 2015 Tempranillo, Umpqua Valley, USA ($36) Cordiano Winery 2016 Tempranillo Estate Primo Amore Vineyards, California, USA ($40) Duchman Family Winery 2015 Tempranillo Texas Salt Lick Vineyard, Texas Hill Country, USA ($42) GoodMills Family Winery 2016 Tempranillo Estate, Lodi, USA ($28) Harney Lane Winery 2015 Tempranillo, Lodi, USA ($28) Jeff Runquist Wines 2017 Tempranillo Liberty Oaks Vineyard, Jahant District - Lodi, USA ($27) Lorimar Winery 2015 Tempranillo/Barbera, California, USA ($52) Maryhill Winery 2015 Tempranillo Art Den Hoed, Yakima Valley, USA ($36) Turkovich 2016 Tempranillo, Yolo County, USA ($22)

MISC. RED VARIETALS & BLENDSBig Door Vineyards NV Red Muscadine Twilight, Georgia, USA ($15) Blue Rock 2016 Premium Red Blend Baby Blue, Sonoma County, USA ($30) Bluestone Vineyard 2016 Chambourcin The Steep Face Estate Grown, Shenandoah Valley, USA ($23) Cellardoor Winery 2014 Red Blend Puerto Viejo, USA ($24) Cinder 2016 Valentina, Snake River Valley, USA ($30) Cinquain Cellars 2016 Sonnetina 10th Anniversary Edition Nagengast Estate Vineyard, Paso Robles, USA ($50) Collier Falls Vineyard 2016 Red Wine Cascata Hillside Estate, Dry Creek Valley, USA ($65) Frogtown Cellars 2014 Bravado Bravado, Dahlonega Plateau, USA ($39) Glass House Winery 2015 Chambourcin Estratto, Monticello, USA ($34) Gnarly Head 2017 Red Blend 1924 Double Black Limited Edition, Lodi, USA ($15) Grape Creek Vineyard 2016 Serendipity, USA ($49) Hans Fahden 2013 Red Wine BDX, Sonoma County, USA ($45) Jason-Stephens Winery 2013 Carménère Swing Vineyard, Santa Clara Valley, USA ($38) Jean Boisselier 2016 Coteaux Bourguignons - Gamay/Pinot Noir, Burgundy, France ($15) Kriselle Cellars 2015 Red Blend Di’tani, Rogue Valley, USA ($27) Line 39 2016 Red Blend Excursion, California, USA ($11) Madison County Winery NV Red Wine Blend Phat Man, USA ($25) Marchesi Vineyards 2016 Red Blend Connubio, Columbia Valley, USA ($34) Marilyn 2016 Rouge, North Coast, USA ($18) McPherson Cellars 2017 Red Blend EVS Windblown, Texas High Plains, USA ($20) Melodramatic 2017 Red Blend Macabre, California, USA ($10) Ménage à Trois 2017 Soft Red Blend Silk, California, ($14) Miluron Cucoriedkové Víno Patriot, Slovakia ($5) Miluron Víno z Ciernych Ríbezlí, Slovakia ($5) Mission Hill Family Estate 2014 Compendium, Okanagan Valley BC VQA, Canada ($75) Monte De Oro Winery 2015 Red Wine Owners’ Blend Synergy 65, Temecula Valley, USA ($38) Naggiar Vineyards 2015 Premium Red Blend La Grand

Pere Estate Reserve Grown, Nevada County, Sierra Foothills, USA ($47) Opaque 2015 Red Wine Darkness, Paso Robles, USA ($32) Península de Setúbal Alto Pina 2015 Castelao Arogonez Reserva, Portugal Perdeberg Winery 2015 The Dry Land Collection Pinotage Resolve, Paarl, South Africa ($25) Picchetti Winery NV Red Blend Pavone, California, USA ($39) Potter Settlement 2017 Marquette, Hastings County, Canada ($38) Rabisco 2015 Tinto Finest Selection Reserva, DOC DoTejo, Portugal ($8) Rocky Pond Winery 2016 Red Wine Double D Vineyard, Columbia Valley, USA Ryan Patrick Wines 2016 Red Wine Rock Island Red, Columbia Valley, USA ($20) Saint Croix Vineyards 2016 Marquette, Minnesota, USA ($23) Scalon Cellars 2016 Priority Red, Napa Valley, USA ($50) Sculpterra Winery 2015 Statuesque, Paso Robles, USA ($40) Séka Hills 2013 Tuluk’a Yocha Dehe Vineyards, Capay Valley, USA ($20) Shocken Hill 2016 Red Blend, California, USA Sister Creek Vineyards 2016 Premium Red Blend Reserve, Temecula Valley, USA ($26) Solis Winery 2014 Red Blend Seducente Reserve Estate, Santa Clara Valley, USA ($25) Spirits of Norway Vineyard NV Marechel Foch Attitude Adjustment, USA ($15) Sutter Home Winery NV Red Blend, California, USA ($8) Thirty-Seven 2015 The Hermit Reserve, Sonoma County, USA ($46) Tuck Beckstoffer Seventy Five Wine Company 2016 The Sum Red Blend, Lake County, USA ($25) V. Sattui Winery 2015 Red Wine Paradiso, Napa Valley, USA ($90) Yellow Tail NV Red Blend Big Bold, Yenda, Australia ($8)

ROSÉ 21 Brix Winery 2017 Dry Rosé Green Farm, Lake Erie, USA ($15) Bouchaine Vineyards 2017 Vin Gris of Pinot Noir, Napa Valley, USA ($27) Clos du Bois 2017 Rosé, California, USA ($11) Dancing Flame 2018 Rosé Ojos del Salado, Central Valley, Chile Josh Cellars 2017 Rosé, California, USA ($13) Love Noir 2017 Rosé, California, USA ($16) Lunetta NV Lunetta Rosé, Italy ($14) Mt. Boucherie Estate Winery 2017 Rosé, Okanagan Valley, Canada ($22) Robert Hall Winery 2017 Rosé de Robles, Paso Robles, USA ($19) South Coast Winery 2017 Grenache Noir Rosé, Temecula Valley, USA ($19) Sutter Home Winery NV Rosé, California, USA ($8) The Ned 2018 Pinot Noir Rosé, Marlborough, New Zealand ($15) Trump Winery 2017 Rosé, Monticello, USA ($18) Vinarství V & M Zborovsky 2017 Medovina Rosé, Moravia, Czech Republic ($5)

SPARKLING WINESChandon NV Blanc de Noir, California, USA ($24) Bodegas Campo Viejo NV Brut Gran Reserva, Cava DO, Spain ($14) Bohemia Sekt 2016 Brut Prestige, Moravia, Czech Republic ($8) Bohemia Sekt 2016 Brut Rosé Prestige, South Coast, USA ($35) Ca’Momi NV Sparkling White Heartcraft, California, USA ($25) Cantine Maschio 2016 Prosecco del Veneto, Yountville, USA ($45) Cantine Maschio NV Sparkling Rosé, Crémant d’Alsace AOC, France ($8) Carter Estate 2013 Brut Recently Disgorged, Cava DO, Spain ($15) Cavaliere d’Oro NV Prosecco, Champagne, France ($40) Cavit NV Prosecco, Moravia, Czech Republic ($8) Chandon NV Brut, Crémant d’Alsace AOC, France ($7) Chandon 2012 Brut, Monterey County, USA ($19) Château de Riquewihr Dopff & Irion 2011 Brut L’Exception, Champagne, France ($45) Château de Riquewihr Dopff & Irion NV Brut Rosé, DOC, Italy ($12) Da Luca NV Prosecco, Italy ($14) Da Luca NV Sparkling Rosé, DOC, Italy ($15) Francis Coppola 2017 Brut Rosé Sofia IGT, Italy ($13) Maison de Grand Esprit NV Champagne - Chardonnay/Pinot Noir Marquis de la Mystèriale, Italy Marqués de Cáceres NV Brut, Italy ($14) Moët & Chandon Brut Imperial, California, USA ($15)

SWEET WINESBarefoot Bubbly NV Sweet Red Sparkling, USA ($9) Cooper’s Hawk Winery Passion Fruit Wine, USA ($9) Inniskillin Niagara 2017 Vidal Icewine Gold Estate, USA ($11) Ostrožovic 2000 Tokajská Výberová Esencia, Russian River Valley, USA ($36) Sonoma-Cutrer 2015 Late Harvest Chardonnay, Moravia, Czech Republic ($11) St. James Winery Blackberry Blueberry Sweet Wine, Lake Michigan Shore, USA ($20) St. James Winery Cherry Sweet Wine, USA ($15) St. James Winery Cranberry Sweet Wine, USA ($9) St. James Winery Peach Sweet Wine, USA ($9) St. James Winery Strawberry Sweet Wine, California, USA ($10) St. Julian 2017 Late Harvest Vignoles Braganini Reserve, Tokaj, Slovakia ($200) Vinné Sklepy Lechovice 2017 Late Harvest Chardonnay, Niagara Peninsula, Canada ($90)

SHERRY, PORT, SAKÉ, & OTHER Bargetto Winery NV Chaucer’s Mead, Lake Michigan Shore, USA ($14) Hiro 2017 Tokubetsu Junmai Saké, Niigata, Japan ($39) Shimeharitsuru Junmai Ginjo Saké, Japan ($25) St. James Winery NV Pink Catawba, California, USA ($16) St. Julian NV Cream Sherry Solera, Ozark Highlands, USA ($7) Takizawa Junmai Ginjo Saké, Niigata Prefecture, Japan ($28)

Meet the owners and winemakers and taste alongside 30+ of the Napa Valley’s finest wineries! All grape varietals will be showcased. This event will feature a charity silent auction that will benefit the 501c3 TJ Martell Foundation of Los Angeles, CA.







Meet the owners and winemakers and taste alongside 30+ of the Napa Valley’s finest wineries! All grape varietals will be showcased. This event will feature a charity silent auction that will benefit the 501c3 TJ Martell Foundation of Los Angeles, CA.







Gaillac producers pride themselves on their use of indigenous varieties.

FRENCHlessonsTHE GAILLAC APPELLATION

IMPRESSES WASHINGTONIANS WITH ITS UNDER-THE-RADAR GRAPES AND

DIVERSE WINEMAKING

by kelly magyarics, dws

FRANCE



Gaillac might lack in prolificity it more than compensates for in stylistic diversity and a wealth of indigenous varieties: That was the takeaway shared by André Compeyre during a trade lunch at Chloe in Washington, D.C., early last November.

Compeyre, a Wines of Southwest France Ambassador as well as Sommelier and Manager at Aldo Sohm Wine Bar in New York, is also a native of Toulouse, which lies 60 kilometers west of this region to watch. “Gaillac is one of the oldest appellations and one of the most diverse,” he told the audience of industry professionals. “It can produce any style of wine: white, red, rosé, and sparkling.”

The region’s 100 growers and two major co-ops are collectively respon-sible for producing 20 million bottles per year. (By comparison, Burgundy makes 200 million bottles and Bordeaux a staggering half-billion annually.) Gaillac wines are emerging as a great source of value, which, as Compeyre pointed out, isn’t automatically synonymous with wallet friendliness. “Value doesn’t necessarily mean cheap; it could be a $60 bottle that’s comparable to a $250 one in a more well-known appellation,” he explained.

What makes Gaillac a sommelier’s and wine geek’s dream region is its unapologetic preference for unfamiliar, little-grown local grapes over more prominent international varieties. The white wines—which have been classi-fied as an AOC, labeled Gaillac Dry White or Gaillac Premières Côtes, since 1938—rely mainly on crisp and vibrant, if not overly expressive, Mauzac. Also important are Loin de l’Oeil, which lends full body, low acidity, and stone-fruit notes, and Sauvignon Blanc and Muscadelle, which are used to boost aromatics.

Wines of Southwest France Ambassador Andre Compeyre, Clement Serres from Domaine la Croix des Marchants, Chloe chef/owner Haidar Karoum, and Alain and Brigitte Cazottes at the Gaillac wines luncheon in Washington, D.C.

Attendees saw the diversity of Gaillac’s wines—including bubbly made in the methode ancestrale from the indigenous white grape Mauzac—during lunch at Chloe in Washington, D.C.



For AOC Gaillac red wines, Braucol is the most important grape, touting concentrated flavors of red currants and soft tannins. Duras has a grip-pier structure, while Prunelart allows Braucol to be a bit showier. And just as in other French regions, Syrah bottled solo or in blends offers signature dark-fruit and black-pepper notes.

Then there are Gaillac’s sparkling wines made from Mauzac, which kicked off the afternoon. In Gaillac (as in neighboring Limoux), winemakers employ the méthode ancestrale, halting fermentation by chilling the juice down to the point where the yeast becomes inactive. After the wine is bottled and warms up again, the yeast continues its process of feeding on the

sugars, resulting in trapped bubbles. Compeyre pointed out that these wines can be a little challenging, as their sweetness and effervescence vary. It’s that inconsistency, however, that makes them an exciting gamble.

As Chloe chef/owner Haidar Karoum served smoked-salmon rillettes, guests sipped the dry and fresh NV Domaine du Moulin Mauzac Méthode Ancestrale and the semi-sweet, white flower–tinged 2017 Domaine la Croix des Marchands Méthode Ancestrale. Three whites were then poured with the first course, a salad of autumn greens, cucumbers, and radishes in Sherry vinaigrette.

The 2017 Domaine des Terrisses Terrisses demonstrated how Loin de

l’Oeil can express dusty, dry apricot notes and Mauzac can lend structure as Sauvignon Blanc adds aroma and freshness. The 2017 Domaine Croix des Marchands Fraîcheur Perlée incor-porated the region’s three main white varieties in relatively even amounts,

Various cheeses have an affinity for the whites and reds of Gaillac.



along with a touch of carbon dioxide for energy and slight fizz. The 2016 Domaine Plageoles Ondenc, meanwhile, featured Ondenc, a little-known grape that accounts for just 1 percent of Gaillac’s wines. Funky with some oxida-tion, it warranted comparison to orange or amber expressions.

Four reds were served with a choice of main course: hanger steak with creamed winter greens, blistered red shishito peppers, and crispy onions or potato gnocchi with roasted wild mushrooms, butternut squash, Brussels sprouts, and black-truffle butter. Dark fruits and spice were the hallmarks of the 2015 Domaine des Terrisses Terre Originelle; made with Braucol, Prunelart, and Syrah, it was fermented

for four weeks and aged in 25 percent new oak. Similar notes showed in the 2014 Domaine la Croix des Marchands Vieilles Vignes, produced from equal parts Syrah and Braucol grown on old vines, hand-harvested, and aged nine months in oak to maintain the fruit. The 2015 Château Palvié Les Secrets du Château Palvié was a round and soft Syrah blended with a touch of Braucol and aged 14 months in oak. We also tried the 2015 Château Lastours Rouge Tradition, which got some of its austerity and tannic structure from the inclusion of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot (Braucol kept it focused).

The luncheon finished with a pairing of three wines and cheeses. The tangy 2016 L’Enclos des Braves Gourmand

Sec, a half-and-half split of Sauvignon Blanc and Loin de l’Oeil, was a no-brainer for the Pipe Dreams goat cheese. Grayson Meadow Creek and Cambozola Blue vied for the attention of the 2016 Domaine des Terrisses l’Orée des Terrisses, in which Duras (80 percent) amped up the tannins yet kept things balanced. The nose was domi-nated by violets and dried tea leaves.

Finally, the 2014 Domaine du Moulin Cuvée Florentin—produced entirely from Braucol—mirrored the style of a dry, dusty, tannic Cabernet, with creamy cheese complementing it as well as a marbled piece of meat would have. Commit the aforementioned grapes to memory, as Gaillac clearly makes wines to watch.

Chloe chef/owner Haidar Karoum set the table for a multicourse luncheon paired with the sparkling and still wines of Gaillac.



WINESCline Cellars 2017 Old Vine Zinfandel, Lodi ($12) The old vines used to create this expres-sion have thrived for more than a century in Lodi’s Mokelumne River AVA. Planted in sandy soil, these mostly head-pruned Zinfandel vines deliver low yields and express a sense of character that stands out. Roses and lilacs on the nose are charmingly matched on the palate, where ripe and rich red fruit—almost candied—accompany lightly sprinkled dots of white pepper. This is an energetic Zin with the comfort of vanilla and the savoriness of tobacco: a great vintage! 92

Maggio Family Vineyards 2016 Old Vine Zinfandel, Lodi ($12) Fragrant red flowers and rhubarb ride in on a perfumed wave in this wine made with grapes from Oak Ridge Winery’s home vineyard. Satiny in texture with ripe strawberry and red tea, it’s feminine and graceful for a variety that usually shows muscle. Even the oak notes, smitten with mocha and cherry, are sweetly delivered. 91

Hopes End 2017 Red Blend, South Australia ($13) Exceedingly generous notes of blue and red fruit meld with vanilla bean, plum liqueur, and dark chocolate, creating body and substance. This blend of 41% Shiraz, 39% Grenache, 12% Malbec, and 8% Petit Verdot has a relatively low ABV of 13.5%. 90

TRINCHERO FAMILY ESTATES

Oak Ridge Winery 2017 Old Soul Chardonnay, California ($16) Nutty scents add depth to vanilla and apple tart in this shiny penny of a wine. Lemons, apples, and pears unite on the sumptuous palate as tarragon and sage lightly weave throughout. A salinity lilts on the finish. 90

Oak Ridge Winery 2016 Old Soul Pinot Noir, California ($16) Tobacco, earth, and straw-berries are distinct and generous on the nose of this billowy, lithe, and graceful wine. Ripe and bright red fruit is kissed by sweetness. 91

In each issue, The Tasting Panel’s Publisher and Editorial Director Meridith May selects her favorite wines and spirits of the month.

Check here for the latest arrivals in our offices, the hottest new brands on the market, and an occasional revisited classic.

Publisher’s

Worthy of a smooch.

French-style double bizou.

Wildly infatuated.

Seriously smitten.

Head over heels in love.

PICKS

PH

OTO

: JE

RE

MY

BA

LL



Folie à Deux 2017 Chardonnay, Russian River Valley, Sonoma County ($18) This exuberant white with vibrant acidity is clean, rich, and bright on the nose and palate. Key lime, tarragon, melon, and lemon blossom entice with edgy crispness. 92


Parducci 2017 Small Lot Pinot Noir, Mendocino County ($18) Parducci Wine Cellars, the oldest winery in Mendocino County, aged this vibrant expression one year in French and American oak. On the heels of perfumed roses and heady scents of forest leaves, flavors of ripe and sour cherries merge with dark blue fruit. 90

MENDOCINO WINE COMPANY

Santa Barbara Winery 2016 Pinot Noir, Sta. Rita Hills AVA ($19) In 1962, Pierre Lafond founded the oldest winery in Santa Barbara County and named it Santa Barbara Winery. In the western Santa Ynez Valley, he bought vineyards defined by the cool, ocean-influenced climate of the Sta. Rita Hills AVA. Bright and lively aromas of black cherry accentuated by forest floor give way to high acidity and tart strawberry, keeping the wine vibrant from start to finish. The palate, dry and dusty with black tea and violets, maintains a mouthwatering sensation. 90

WINESELLERS, LTD.

Folie à Deux 2017 Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast ($20) Spring rose petals bloom from the glass as the nose lifts up raspberry-cedar. With striking acidity and a fleshy mouthfeel, the wine itself is representa-tive of its cool, coastal terroir and was aged nine months in primarily French oak (33% new). Licorice paints delicate red-tea tannins with a sturdy flavor as toffee enhances toasty oak on the finish. 90


Château Paul Mas Belluguette, Languedoc AOP, France ($20) Grenache, Vermentino, Roussanne, and Viognier are separately vinified before aging in oak barrels for four months to create this charming blend. Aromas range from mango and hazelnut to lemon curd and vanilla-coconut as hints of flowers linger. The palate is creamy with an underscore of crème brûlée and marshmallow. 91

Mt. Beautiful 2016 Riesling, North Canterbury, New Zealand ($22) This delicately eloquent white from the sunny Waipara Valley exudes aromas of jalapeño-drenched lime with a touch of salinity. It’s a crisp, distinguished expression with tightrope acidity and notes of apricot, beeswax, and honeyed white flower petals. 92

Chronic Cellars 2017 Sofa King Bueno, Paso Robles ($22) A blend of 53% Syrah, 21% Grenache, 12% Petite Sirah, and some Tannat and Mourvèdre, this entry is pure satin. Its rustic character shows through on the palate as flavors of soil and blackberry cobbler rise from the sofa and onto the dance floor. Chocolate-coffee and black pepper keep the energy going. 91

Cuvaison 2017 Méthode Béton Sauvignon Blanc, Carneros, Napa Valley ($35) Introducing a new dimension of Sauv Blanc, this wine was fermented in a concrete (béton) egg to keep the lees in suspen-sion. The mouthfeel for this estate-grown, small-lot white is full and round, with apricot cream, lemongrass, and a nimble quality preceding a finish of pineapple upside-down cake. 93

Sculpterra 2015 Mourvèdre, Paso Robles ($36) This wine is made entirely from estate-grown vines on rocky limestone and clay soils; the grapes are crushed and fermented on site. The blending in of Petite Sirah (15%) serves to add structure and dry, dusty tannins while deepening color and intensifying the flavors of dark fruit. Ripe with notes of bittersweet dark chocolate and black cherry, this chewy expression is quite food-friendly even at 15.5% ABV. 91

Castello di Gabbiano 2013 Bellezza, Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG, Italy ($40) After spending 30 days on the lees during malo-lactic fermentation and aging 16 months in French oak barriques and tonneau 400-liter barrels, this wine also sees a long period of maturation in bottle before release. Given that it tastes expensive and carries a Gran Selezione denomination, the price is pleasantly surprising. Spiced cranberry and vanilla bean lead the charge on the nose as leather and minerality arise on opposite sides of the flavor and textural spectrum. The hyperbolic acidity common in the Old World combines with cherrywood and silky tannins to heighten complexity. 94

TREASURY WINE ESTATES

Maison de Grand Esprit 2015 La Mystèriale Lussac-Saint-Émilion, Bordeaux, France ($45) This Bordeaux has common sense: It’s a winning combination of rich and powerful. Mulberry and anise spice up deep notes of brandied plum in this blend of 70% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc, and 15% Cabernet Sauvignon, which offers both ripe-ness and earthiness with mocha-powdered tannins. 93




Maison de Grand Esprit 2015 La Mystèriale Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Rhône Valley, France ($50) Ginger and cinnamon flirt with the nose as dried roses, rhubarb, oregano, and heather dotted with red pepper seduce the palate. With a stellar lineup of 80% Grenache, 10% Mourvèdre, 6% Syrah, and 4% Counoise/Cinsault, this silky beauty has us captivated. The mouthfeel bathes in blueberry juiciness. 95


Shafer 2015 Relentless, Napa Valley ($95) This Syrah (with 10% Petite Sirah blended in) possesses the plushest array of dark fruit, violets, and chocolate cream with persistent aromas of plum and leather. The presence of graphite and smoked meat doesn’t hamper the wine’s luscious texture and flavors. 96

Calla Lily Estate & Winery Audax 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley ($120) The grapes for this big red from winemaker Cary Gott come from a 95-acre vineyard planted in 1995 on the eastern side of Howell Mountain. A blend of 89.2% Cabernet Sauvignon with 5.2% Cab Franc and 5.6% Merlot, the wine spent 27 months in 50% new French oak. Plum, olives, and pea tendrils emerge as the initial scents before the palate dives into powdery tannins and balanced acidity. With a red-fruited elegance, a core of blackberry and vanilla, and a mocha-oak finish, it takes you on a lengthy journey that’s truly multi-dimensional. 94

DAOU Vineyards 2015 Soul of a Lion, Adelaida District, Paso Robles ($125) Rich, round, and full-bodied with aromas of meaty dark chocolate and porcini mush-room, this concentrated and powerful wine hails from the DAOU Mountain vineyard at an elevation of 2,200 feet and shows intense flavors and chalky tannins. Black pepper-corns, ash, and blackberry make up this king of the Paso Robles jungle. 96

+ Louis M. Martini 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon, Monte Rosso Vineyard, Sonoma Valley ($230) Concentrated aromas from a wildflower garden appear alongside an orchard of black cherries. Decades of impeccable grape-growing in this world-class vineyard express themselves with elegance through the texture, flavor, and scents of mountain brush present in this wine. Chewy tannins and a dry palate lure notes of black pepper, slate, and an energetic mélange of tangerine peel, blackberry, and cassis. Filled in with mocha and dark red fruit, the triumphant finish further explores the complexity and depth of this expression. 99

SPIRITSCascade Street Distillery North Sister Vodka, USA ($25) Made with GMO-free corn and distilled six times, this 80-proof spirit undergoes 100 filtrations via a carbon-filtration process and is blended with Cascade Springs water from Sisters, Oregon. Aromas of vanilla and cashew come through crisply and cleanly before the salty-sweet palate expresses flavors of roasted marsh-mallow. 90

Long Road Distillers Amaro Pazzo, USA ($35) A blend of Michigan winter wheat and Madcap Coffee, Amaro Pazzo (pazzo means “crazy” and “madcap” in Italian) is infused with an array of herbs and spices. This 57-proof spirit owns up to its deep and profound coffee aromas as a hint of caramel wafts alongside. On the palate, the instant engagement of dark-chocolate orange peel is almost soulful. 93

LONG ROAD DISTILLERS

Bethel Rd. Distillery Gin, USA ($45) It seems like an obvious choice to distill this 88-proof spirit from grapes, considering it’s made in Templeton, California: the heart of Central Coast wine country. Scents of lavender, lime zest, and white-peppered vanilla bean inspire a sweet perfume as the lively palate streamlines spice and citrus in this modern and exciting expression. Juniper envelops the tongue on the finish. 95

McQueen and the Violet Fog Gin, Brazil The maceration and vapor infusion of 21 botanicals bring us a gin from an unexpected part of the world. Mandarin orange perfumes the air with a floral spray of jasmine as sweet flavors of lemon tart, pomegranate, and peppercorn delicately melt across the palate. 92

SOVEREIGN BRANDS

Publisher’s PICKS

Introducing Craftsman’s Finest by Creamy CreationGlobal brand owners, entrepreneurs and everyone in between trust Creamy Creation to develop products tailored to their requirements. Visit www.creamy-creation.com.

Harness the power of nature inyour next cream liqueur.

Discover the true flavor of coconut, hazelnut, cocoa, orange and lemon through Craftsman's Finest cream liqueurs, our B2B product line

made with natural and pure ingredients, developed to be blended with each other seamlessly.Move away from artificial ingredients.

Partner with Creamy Creation to create a smooth and unique cream liqueur product your

consumers will love.

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Westwood Estate 2016 Legend, Sonoma County ($55) Winemaker Philippe Melka collaborated with Westwood Estate to create the inaugural release of this proprietary red, which blends 55% Cabernet Sauvignon with Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvèdre from Westwood’s Biodynamic Annadel Gap Vineyard. The prestigious, cool-climate site is situated between two mountains in Sonoma County and is influenced by the Pacific Ocean 20 miles to the west. Aromas of sweet, savory soil are accentuated by rich tones of blueberry preserves in this generous red; a true extrovert, it gives wide berth on the palate to creamy boysenberry and luscious, ripe plum. Red floral notes and graphite harmonize with high-energy acidity as finely grained tannins grip like a professional golfer : confident, seamless, and firm but not tight. It finishes with a snip of cayenne, sparking an alignment with cinnamon and oak as the blue fruit turns darker. 96

Introducing Craftsman’s Finest by Creamy CreationGlobal brand owners, entrepreneurs and everyone in between trust Creamy Creation to develop products tailored to their requirements. Visit www.creamy-creation.com.

Harness the power of nature inyour next cream liqueur.

Discover the true flavor of coconut, hazelnut, cocoa, orange and lemon through Craftsman's Finest cream liqueurs, our B2B product line

made with natural and pure ingredients, developed to be blended with each other seamlessly.Move away from artificial ingredients.

Partner with Creamy Creation to create a smooth and unique cream liqueur product your

consumers will love.

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Award of Excellence



DOMESTIC

92 St. Francis 2015 Reserve Zinfandel, Dry Creek

Valley ($44) Lush and dense with ripe blackberry and boysenberry. Rich, long, and spicy, it aged for 20 months in 60% new French oak.

KOBRAND WINE AND SPIRITS

93 Sequoia Grove 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon,

Rutherford, Napa Valley ($50) Deep with smooth texture and mature flavors of rich blackberry and plum; generous, elegant, and classic with length and balance.


93 Stags’ Leap Winery 2017

Chardonnay, Napa Valley ($30) Fresh, nervy, and bright with tangy acidity, this expression is indicative of the racy style that results from a lack of malolactic fermentation.

TREASURY WINE ESTATES 92 Stags’ Leap Winery 2015 The Investor Red, Napa

Valley ($60) Dark ruby color ; smooth, juicy, and ripe with rich spice and velvety texture. 42% Merlot, 30% Petite Sirah, 19% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 9% Malbec aged in oak (American and French) for 18 months.


In each issue, Editor in Chief Anthony Dias Blue selects a wide range of the best wines and spirits from among the more than 500 he samples over the course of a month. The reviews are subjective editorial evaluations, made without regard to advertising, and products are scored on a 100-point scale:

85-89: VERY GOOD

90-94: OUTSTANDING

95-100: CLASSIC

Once products are selected for publication, producers and importers will be offered the option of having their review accompanied by an image (bottle photo or label art) for a nominal fee. There is no obligation to add an image, nor does the decision affect the review or score in any way.

The “twisty” icon indicates wines

sealed with a screwcap closure.

For additional Blue Reviews, go to bluelifestyle.com.

Prices are for 750-mL bottles unless otherwise noted.

Anthony DiasBLUE REVIEWS

Presented by



94 Stags’ Leap Winery 2015 The Leap Estate Grown

Cabernet Sauvignon, Stags Leap District ($110) The plum nose of this concentrated and complex wine exudes an intense ripeness. Stylish, fresh, and balanced, it’s the work of talented French winemaker Christophe Paubert.


93 Stags’ Leap Winery 2015 Ne Cede Malis Estate

Grown Petite Sirah, Stags Leap District ($125) Smooth, powerful, and rich with length and depth. Concentrated and balanced, it’s a remarkable wine made from a variety that deserves more respect.


94 Flora Springs 2015 Holy Smoke Vineyard Cabernet

Sauvignon, Oakville ($125) Deep ruby color with a plum nose, velvety texture, and pronounced berry notes. Dense, balanced, and generously juicy, it’s ready to drink now.

93 Flora Springs 2015 Out of Sight Vineyard Cabernet

Sauvignon, Napa Valley ($125) Ripe plum nose and richly smooth texture; deep, spicy, and intense with tangy, balanced style. While it’s already long and complex, give this one time to age.

92 Pamplin Family Winery 2015 J|R|G Red, Columbia

Valley AVA, Washington ($30) Deep ruby color and lush texture with fresh, ripe plum. Showing depth, style, and composure, it’s a lovely effort from this exceptional winery.

93 Ponzi Vineyards 2016 Abetina 2 Pinot Noir,

Chehalem Mountains AVA, Oregon ($110) A polished nose of cherry and raspberry precedes the silky, rich, and deep palate of bright berry and spice. Elegant, lush, savory, and complex with balance and a lengthy finish.

92 Ponzi Vineyards 2016 Aurora Chardonnay,

Chehalem Mountains AVA, Oregon ($65) Silky, refined, and impressive, this single-vineyard cuvée was made with grapes from Ponzi’s certified-sustainable Aurora Vineyard. Fresh and tangy with a creamy texture and bright, layered flavors.

93 Eberle Winery 2016 Syrah,

Paso Robles ($34) Smooth, juicy, generous, and fresh with ripe blackberry; balanced and lush with a long, expressive finish. Eberle is the pioneer of this variety in California.

93 Silver Ghost Cellars 2016

Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley ($35) Named for the 1909 Rolls Royce, this deeply colored and rich wine is dense and complex with notes of plum, cherry, and vanilla. It’s particularly remarkable given its price.

WINE SPOKEN HERE

IMPORTED

93 Frankland Estate 2015

Olmo’s Reward, Western Australia ($55) Named for Dr. Harold Olmo, a viticulturist who recognized the winemaking potential of the Frankland River region back in the 1950s, this Cabernet Franc–dominant blend sees the addition of Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Petit Verdot. Rich, lush, and generous; spicy and complex with juicy berry notes and good balance.

QUINTESSENTIAL WINES

92 Symington Family 2015

Quinta do Ataíde Vinha do Arco Red, Douro, Portugal ($35) Smooth, rich, and dense with finesse, style, and ripe black fruit. A long and balanced expression from a producer that takes advantage of its unique terroir.

VINEYARD BRANDS

92 Viñedos y Bodegas

García Figuero 2015 Tinto Figuero 15 Tempranillo Reserva, Ribera del Duero, Spain ($66) Deep ruby color with soft tannins and lush style; an intense and beautiful Tempranillo.




BLUE REVIEWS

91 Viñedos y Bodegas García Figuero 2016 Tinto Figuero

12 Tempranillo Crianza, Ribera del Duero, Spain ($32) Dark, smooth, and juicy with vigor and depth; soft tannins and lush blackberry lead to a long finish.


VALUE

90 Ricardo Santos 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon,

Mendoza, Argentina ($20) Deep, dark, and sleek with ripe black cherry and spice; concentrated, rich, long, and intense.

GLOBAL VINEYARD

88 Funckenhausen Vineyards 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon,

South Mendoza, Argentina ($17) Smooth, generous, fresh, and friendly. Long and bright, it’s simple but likeable. Comes in a 1-liter bottle.

GLOBAL VINEYARD

89 Vino dei Fratelli 2017 Pinot Grigio, Friuli-Venezia

Giulia, Italy ($13) Juicy, clean, and refreshing with a creamy texture. A great value with balance and a lengthy finish.


92 Symington Family 2015

Quinta do Ataíde Red, Douro, Portugal ($23) The dense, rich palate of spice, earth, and dark fruit follows a lush, ripe nose of black cherry. Long and intense, this wine was made with grapes usually used for Port.

VINEYARD BRANDS

89 Count Karolyi 2017 Grüner Veltliner, Pannon, Hungary

($12) Ripe, floral nose; dry, minerally, and tangy; long, fresh, and lively. The wine is left on the lees for four to six weeks post-fermentation to heighten its complexity.


90 Bouvet Ladubay 2016 Brut Crémant de Loire, France

($20) Refreshing and bright with lively fruit and good balance; crisp, long, and charming with a subtle undercurrent of earth.


90 Aniello 2017 Soil Blanco de Pinot Noir, Patagonia,

Argentina ($17) Burnished gold color ; smooth and rich with mouthwatering acidity and considerable depth. Zesty citrus notes lead up to a long, lush finish.

GLOBAL VINEYARD

89 Frescobaldi 2017 Alìe Rosé, Toscana IGT, Italy ($19) Pale

pink color ; smooth and juicy with crisp strawberry and apple; tangy and fresh with a long finish. Syrah-dominant with a touch of Vermentino, this balanced wine has an ABV of 12.5%.

FOLIO FINE WINE PARTNERS

90 Maison Louis Jadot

2017 Chardonnay, Bourgogne, France ($18) Silky texture with minerality and crisp, tangy citrus; racy, satisfying, and long with fine balance. A great price for a real Burgundy.


91 Alta Vista 2017 Estate Malbec, Mendoza, Argentina

($20) Dark and spicy with luscious berry notes and juicy style; polished, balanced, and dense with pronounced flavors.


88 Tussock Jumper NV Prosecco,

Prosecco DOC, Italy ($10) Fresh and velvety with clean but short flavors. Tangy, bright, and charming, this is a lively and inexpensive wine.

TRI-VIN IMPORTS, INC.

.

90 Sisters Ridge 2017 Pinot Noir, North Canterbury, New

Zealand ($18) Silky and crisp with bright cherry notes; a juicy, lively, and long entry from Mt. Beautiful’s second label.

MISTARR WINE IMPORTERS

90 Sisters Ridge 2018 Sauvignon Blanc, North

Canterbury, New Zealand ($13) Luxurious and rich with notes of grapefruit and passion fruit; smooth, clean, and balanced.

MISTARR WINE IMPORTERS

89 Luna Nuda Extra Dry Prosecco, Treviso, Italy ($13)

This pleasantly clean and refreshing Prosecco draws added complexity from the small but significant addition of Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio. And what a price!

BLUE RIDGE SPIRITS & WINE MARKETING

89 Chakras 2017 Reserva Malbec, Mendoza, Argentina

($13) Smooth, fresh, and medium-bodied with juicy blackberry and spice. Dense and long with balance and style.

BLUE RIDGE SPIRITS & WINE MARKETING



89 1427 Wines 2017 Amazia, Macedonia, Greece ($17)

Ripe, minerally, and well-balanced with depth and flair ; rich and juicy with clean, appealingly unique flavors. 95% Amasia (an indigenous grape) and 5% Muscat d’Alexandria.

UNIVERSAL EXPORT, LLC

88 1427 Wines 2016 Xino, Macedonia, Greece ($17)

Suave, juicy, and fresh with bright plum and spice. Precise and long, this expression shows considerable depth and style at a great price. 50% Xinomavro and 50% Limnio.


89 1427 Wines 2017 Xinomavro Rosé,

Macedonia, Greece ($17) It turns out that the great red grape of Greece makes a bright, crisp rosé that’s tangy, racy, and fresh. There’s lively, apple-tinged fruit and fine acidity present in this balanced and juicy expression.


88 Viña San Pedro 2017 9 Lives Reserve Cabernet

Sauvignon, Central Valley, Chile ($10) Fragrant and spicy with smooth, lush fruit; clean and balanced, it’s a great value from a winery founded in 1865.

SPIRITS

90 Drake’s Organic White Rum, USA

($20) Silky, smooth, and bright; clean and simple with bright flavors. This 80-proof expression is aged in American white oak.

DRAKE’S ORGANIC SPIRITS

92 Drake’s Organic Premium Vodka,

USA ($20) Smooth and creamy texture with lush, rich notes of vanilla from a company that strives to source the “purest and healthiest ingredients.” Long and generous, it’s not only organic but vegan.

DRAKE’S ORGANIC SPIRITS

93 Powers Three Swallow Release

Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey, Ireland ($48) The toasted barley nose is echoed smoothly on the palate alongside hints of citrus and green apple. The lovely, rich finish shows spice, dried fruit, and oak.

PERNOD RICARD

93 Heirloom Brand Genepy Liqueur, USA ($33) Herbal

and sweet with complex flavors attributable to the 26 botanicals in the recipe of this traditional liqueur. Smooth and rich with high proof and good balance.

94 Dewar’s The Monarch Blended Scotch Whisky

Aged 15 Years, Scotland ($45) Smooth, toasted, and bright with layers of flavor ending in sweet caramel and soft spice; a lovely, seamless, and masterful blend with a long and measured finish.

BACARDI

97 Highland Park 25-Year-Old Orkney Single Malt

Whisky, Scotland ($650) A smooth, rich, and elegant cask-strength expression with notes of treacle, caramel, and peat. Incredibly elegant and refined with hints of heather honey, sea brine, and dried flowers, it’s the complete package.

HIGHLAND PARK

95 Booker’s 30th Anniversary Kentucky Straight Bourbon

Whiskey, USA ($200) Rich, toasted nose and an array of complex, elegant flavors: It’s sumptuous with sweet vanilla oak and spice yet also crisp with hints of dried fruit and new oak.

BEAM SUNTORY

93 Source One Vodka, USA

($34) Distilled from oats, this single-estate vodka is smooth and creamy with flavors of vanilla and grain; lush, balanced, and long with style and finesse.

BENTLY HERITAGE ESTATE

93 Juniper Grove American Dry

Gin, USA ($40) Silky and rich with fresh botanicals; luscious with soft spice, elegant style, and a long finish.

BENTLY HERITAGE ESTATE



EVENT PROMOTIONP

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As a food-focused event designed with independent restaurant owners, chain operators, chefs, and other industry profes-sionals in mind, the 2019 Food & Beverage Innovation

Conference (FBIC) seeks to achieve three major goals when it returns March 26–27 in Las Vegas: assist participants as they embark on their quests to re-energize their brands, find exciting ways to increase traffic and boost revenue, and mitigate the threats presented by disruptors like food-delivery services, which are growing increasingly popular among millennials.

To accomplish this lofty mission, the conference has partnered with Philadelphia native Brian Duffy, who’s known for his refined, modernized pub fare (he coined the culinary term “New Celtic”) and no-nonsense approach in the kitchen. Anyone who’s encoun-tered Duffy knows that if you ask him a question, you’ll get a blunt yet helpful answer.

Duffy has assembled a dynamic team of industry-leading chefs to join him at this year’s FBIC, among them Christine Hazel—also a Philly native—who has appeared on Hell’s Kitchen in addition to being a recent Chopped champion; Jennifer Behm-Lazzarni, Co-Executive Chef at Red Fin Crudo + Kitchen and season-two winner of MasterChef USA; and Kayla Robison, Executive Chef at Arnold’s Bar & Grill in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Other accomplished chefs in attendance at FBIC will include Keith Breedlove, Kevin Des Chenes, David Rose, and Jason Santos, who have collectively appeared on Chef Wanted, The Great Food Truck Race, Beat Bobby Flay, The Today Show, Hell’s Kitchen, Bar Rescue, Guy’s Grocery Games, Cutthroat Kitchen, and Food Network Star.

Joining a slate of restaurant/food truck owners, this incredible team of executive, co-executive, celebrity, and private chefs is eager to share the latest dishes, techniques, and insights that will shape the food and dining trends of 2019. As competition for guests’ attention reaches new heights, food-service professionals can’t afford to have any missed opportunities or weaknesses jeopardize their operations.

Whether you’re an independent owner, chain manager, quick-serve restaurant operator, or chef, the FBIC will help you find excit-ing ways to increase revenue at your business through technology and quality ingredients. To learn more about the conference, which is co-located with the 2019 Nightclub & Bar Show in the Las Vegas Convention Center, visit ncbshow.com/fbic.

Chef TakeoverAT THE UPCOMING 2019 FOOD & BEVERAGE INNOVATION CONFERENCE IN LAS VEGAS, THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “TOO MANY COOKS” by David Klemt

Brian Duffy, a Philadelphia native known for his refined pub fare, has assembled the team of acclaimed chefs appearing at the 2019 Food & Beverage Innovation Conference.

The conference, set for March 26–27 in the Las Vegas Convention Center, will feature a lineup of executive, co-executive, celebrity, and private chefs ready to share insights on the food and dining trends of 2019.

Drink Responsibl�Ole Smoky Salty Caramel Whiskey. 30% Alc./Vol. ©2019 Ole Smoky Distillery, LLC, Gatlinburg, TNAll Rights Reserved. OLE SMOKY is a registered trademark of Ole Smoky Distillery, LLC.

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AVAILABLEALL YEAR-ROUND

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Drink Responsibl�Ole Smoky Salty Caramel Whiskey. 30% Alc./Vol. ©2019 Ole Smoky Distillery, LLC, Gatlinburg, TNAll Rights Reserved. OLE SMOKY is a registered trademark of Ole Smoky Distillery, LLC.

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AVAILABLEALL YEAR-ROUND

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