In the latest installment of 1WD TV, I go backstage in D.C. to talk to rocker Les Claypool about his Claypool Cellars wines, eat the butterscotch cookies in his Green Room, and generally geek out about great Sonoma Pinot Noir.  Les has just kicked off a tour with Primus in support of their new (excellent, dark & funky) album Green Naugahyde, a jaunt that will take them across a wide swath of the U.S., with stops in South America later this year and a stint at London’s famed Royal Albert Hall next April.

This is my second interview with Les (you can check out the first one here), and he’s still clearly very into the CC endeavor, and is quite the CA-boy homer when it comes to Pinot Noir.  Words can not accurately describe the coolness of this interview for me, so just watch the friggin’ video already because it’s Pudding Time, children!!!

Mentioned in this episode:

• Claypool Cellars wine
• Purple Pachyderm Pinot Noir
• Awesome, face-meltingly-good Pinot from the West Sonoma Coast

Cheers!

Copyright © 2011. Originally at 1WineDude TV Episode 39: Backstage With Rocker Les Claypool Talking Claypool Cellars Wine from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!

In Boz Scaggs’s case, you start up a wine brand. Of course!

Many of you…, uhm… younglings reading this may not be intimately familiar with Boz’s tunes, or his soulful crooning, but chances are very, very good that your parents think he’s the shiz. In 2000, smooth-soul-rocker Boz and his wife Dominique released the first wines made under their Scaggs Vineyard label. Their plantings were started on a bit of a lark in the late 1990s, when a friend suggested they try growing grape vines on their Napa Valley property (and gave them some leftover Syrah he had on his truck). Turned out that friend was onto something – Scaggs Vineyard 2008 Mt. Veeder Montage is a stellar Mourvèdre / Grenache / Syrah blend that’s packing as much soul as any one of Boz’s numerous memorable grooves.

Judging by his responses to my interview questions, award-winning singer/songwriter Boz Scaggs may be a man of many infectious grooves but he’s also a man of relatively few words. When it comes to his wines, however, little embellishment is needed for those who have had the opportunity to taste them.  Boz might “Speak Low,” but his wines carry a pretty loud bang (for the buck).

A quick interview with Boz (who took some time out of a busy and active touring schedule to answer my questions) is below, along with some further thoughts on two recent Scaggs Vineyard releases (tasted as samples).  I suggest listening to the live version of Lowdown while reading it (if that song doesn’t get your booty moving at least a little bit, then you might not have a pulse…).  I’m not sure Boz “gets” my sense of humor (actually, I’m pretty sure he doesn’t get my sense of humor), but I sure “get” his wines – of all of the rock-star-turned-wine-producers that I’ve interviewed, Boz’s releases are certainly among the best (if not the best).

Enjoy!…

1WineDude: Let’s just get this out of the way right off the bat – you’re not in the Rock & Roll Hal of Fame? What kind of bullsh*t is that?!??

Boz Scaggs: I won a Grammy a while back and I have no idea where it is. Somebody stole it, I think. Maybe I wasn’t meant to have awards. [ Editor’s note: that Grammy was for Best R&B Song, awarded to Bozz for the way-groovy tune Lowdown. ]

1WD: You have an active music career, how do you balance that with owning a wine brand? And which one do you consider as your “day job?”

Boz: I suppose if I were very actively out there selling the wine, stirring the barrels of biodynamic potions or pulling weeds it could run into some compromising hours, but the fact is that 2 acres of vines doesn’t require or yield that much juice…

1WD: You’re making wine from Rhône varieties out in (mostly) Cabernet country. I understand that came about as a bit of an accident? And did anyone in the wine biz tell you that you were nuts for doing that?

Boz: We were not in business when we started. Yes, the first thing in the ground was Syrah, but we were – and are – Rhône wine consumers and therefore planted what we enjoyed. We were particularly interested in the program at Tablas Creek and acquired our material from their Beaucastel cuttings.

1WD: How often did your wine get popped open backstage during the last The Dukes of September Rhythm Revue tour? Does having fine wine available factor into your touring regimen at all? You know, like Van Halen had to have the brown M&Ms removed, is there a “no Bretty wines” clause in your tour rider? Please feel free to use embarrassing backstage stories of Michael McDonald liberally when answering this question…

Boz: I receive a variety of wines while on tour and will stop into a local shop from time to time. Frankly, there’s not much wining and dining in the course of a concert tour…

1WD: You’ve mentioned Chateauneuf-du-Pape and in particular Beaucastel as influences for Scaggs Vineyard, are there any California wines that have influenced the direction at Scaggs Vineyards?

Boz: Influenced, yes, by way of telling me that it was possible to produce a wine of the character we like in CA.  I would refer to John Olney, Steve Edmunds, Sean Thackery, Joseph Swan and Paul Draper.

1WD: You’re certified organic by the CCOF at Scaggs Vineyards. How important was it you to get an organic certification?

Boz: The rigorous standards required by CCOF reflect our personal values in farming, and the certification seal lets people know what they’re getting.

1WD: What’s the worst wine-related pun put to one of your songs that you’ve ever heard? I was thinking something like “Vino! Whoa-oohhhh-ohh-ohhhhh” sung to the chorus of Lido Shuffle (I’ll freely admit that pun is terribly, horrifically, epically bad).

Boz: [ No response ].

1WD: What’s next for Scaggs Vineyard?

Boz: Bottling the 2011 Montage. Cheers!

2008 Scaggs Vineyard Mt. Veeder Montage (Napa Valley)
Price: $45
Rating: A-

This is a CA GSM with some real soul to it. It’s pretty big, which is what you need to expect for the most part with CA Grenache, but impeccably made and well-balanced despite the heft. There’s a panoply of great aromas on this wine, but it’s the overall presentation that really sets it apart: meaty, leathery, spicy, & juicy in all the right places. And if it’ll put hair on your chest, at least that hair will be silky and stylish!  Can be purchased via the winery.

2009 Scaggs Vineyard Rosé (Napa Valley)
Price: $25 (1/2 bottle)
Rating: B+

Small bottle, but big red berry flavor. The wine is made via whole cluster method and the grapes are picked favoring acidic brightness rather than fruity ripeness; the result is a wine with charming acidic lift, and dollops of flowers & orange pith to go with the berry action. Just about a perfect aperitif for your next date. Can be purchased via the winery in a 3-pack.

Cheers!

Copyright © 2011. Originally at Speak Low And Carry A Big Mourvèdre (The Boz Scaggs Interview) from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!

Simple question, right?  “Duh! To make wine!” you might be answering to yourself.  What could be more simple than that?

But real wine lovers, and real winemakers, know better; they know that almost no other query could be more complicated, opinionated, difficult, thought-provoking, or (hopefully!)invigorating to answer.

Which is exactly what drove me to ask it.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned after visiting hundreds of winemaking outfits of all sizes all over the world, it’s that no two winemakers ply their craft in exactly the same way, or with exactly the same ends in mind, or exactly the same attitudes.  But one thing in that world is consistent: the majority of those same people invariably have passionate stances on both the How and the What of their jobs as winemakers.  Theirs are the kinds of viewpoints that make for fascinating reading – and even more fascinating discussion and debate.

I wanted a techy interview, but one with passion, soul, and life . – in the hopes that it would fascinate, entertain, educate and maybe even get your wine blood boiling. To that end, I’ve staked the decks significantly in favor of passionate discussion by posing it to Matt Powell, the force behind Lodi’s Draconis Vineyards. Matt’s wines are focused and powerful – just like his viewpoints. He’s active on social media, is a big fan of comics, and takes his wine very, very seriously; case in point – visitors to the Draconis Vineyards at one point were greeted with the following message:

“I have no lists, clubs, or membership bullshit.”

Matt’s take on the job of the winemaker today? It’s just as straightforward, opinionated, and fascinating as you’d expect form the person who authored that welcome message, and who told me this about a recent vintage: “I tossed the entire 2009′s; weren’t good enough.”  A review of one my faves of Matt’s wines follows our interview. Enjoy!…

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1WineDude: What do you think is the role of the winemaker today?

Matt Powell: Not to be a total a**hole, and to remember that it’s the process of turning the juice into wine that matters most.  It’s easy to overthink it. Its easy to add sh*t to it.  It’s easy to screw it up.  But it’s really, really hard to just leave it alone.

There are so many tools in the winemakers kit today to modify, blend, and change the fundamental process that todays wine often loses its … character.  Filter, filter, filter, rack, rack, filter some more, throw in some sulfur and get a good score …right?

Bullsh*t.

Wine evolves from the process and needs to grow.  Often I feel winemakers, as good as some of them are (and you know who you are), by their very nature, are bound to create wine for today’s market; it’s all about turning the inventory and giving the customer some uber-high residual sugar blend with a really cool name …like “Flaming Porcupine blend … a mix of 18 different varietals grown in the mountaintops of Iceland, next to the volcano where sulfur naturally occurs, giving the wine its unique nose and protective features” …hey that sounds cool… I’d buy it (*sarcasm*).

Really though, I feel like the modern wine industry has lost its focus, that winemakers’ hands are constrained by corporate policies and shelf-life.  Now, don’t get me wrong; I totally understand it, and yet totally hate it at the same time. Sh*t, there’s nothing i can do about it except to try and play a different game myself.

I mean, like, what would Captain Kirk do?  I’m certain he’d take a different approach – but he’s smart enough to know that it’ll take the customer to force change in the industry and to the winemaker.  They just have to listen.

Ultimately, the winemaker has a responsibility to get back to the roots of wine.  Step it back a few generations and take a note from history.  Let the wine process evolve; don’t change it with equipment, chemicals, and blends. Try really hard to leave it alone making only the minimum necessary adjustments while listening to your customers’ desires.  Idealistic and unrealistic as that sounds, that’s what I believe and whatIi stick to.  Maybe someday, we’ll get there and the customer will have a much better selection of wine to choose from.

1WD: Is there really such a thing as non-interventionist winemaking?

MP: Probably not.  I have a hard time envisioning a completely non-interventionist winemaking process – I mean, there are things you have to do… that you just don’t want to leave out.  Like adding Sulfur; you need the sulfur to neutralize microbial activity – without it, bacteria and other microorganisms will hands-down ruin your wine.  This is especially true when taking a minimalist approach to the wine like I do … no filtering or fining means that the all the ‘character’ of the wine remains; but to stabilize the product i have to hit it with sulfur.  So in one respect, being almost non-interventionist certainly allows the wine to evolve in a livelier way, but on the other hand, it also does require that certain actions are taken to retain quality in the product.

1WD: Are there certain things that are “off limits” to you, things that you just won’t do to adjust or correct a wine under any circumstances?

MP: Oh yeah.  I learned the hard way that I won’t add adjust the acids of my wines.  I also ferment to complete dryness.  I’m not a big fan of the over alcoholic “bold” residual sugar-based wines and prefer a more refined and elegant end result.  Lots of people have suggested I leave half to 1% RS in my wine, but I won’t do it … I feel like it covers up what the wine is supposed to be.

1WD: Do you think the technical tools offered to winemakers today do more good than harm?

MP: A difficult question to answer – I feel that technology has its place in the wine process; for instance, without technology we wouldn’t have modern cultivated yeasts or required additives like DAP; this in itself, has helped wine become better over the last 30 years.  However, I feel there are winemakers out there that depend too much on technology to guide them and end up doing more harm than good.

A lot of times, the wine may be technically correct but doesn’t have … life; no character or personality.  Tinkering with the process may fix one factor (like the acid levels), but it’ll certainly throw the rest of the wine off simply because the fruit arrived in a certain way.  That is, the fruit showed up in its optimal state as dictated by its microclimate.  Adding extra acid will automatically change the ratios of the other goodies in the juice…  So, I guess to answer your question and in my own opinion, technology should be used as an accent, nothing more …unless your making a million cases – then you’ll need robots to make your wine…

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2007 Draconis Petite Sirah “Classic” (Lodi)
Price: $28
Rating: B+

For the price, this wine is pretty much unbeatable.  Draconis pumps out a spicy, meaty take on Petite Sirah that is utterly without pretense – and it’s about as faithful to the variety as you can get while still managing to offer up a wine that feels complete, and doesn’t drop off precipitously in its middle stanza. It’s also a drop-dead sexy wine in its deep, dark, midnight-blues-infused color and silky but not flabby mouthfeel. PS, with no BS indeed!

2008 Draconis “French Oak” Zinfandel (Lodi)
Price: $28
Rating: B+

The QPR on this wine is ridiculous. A wizardly-crafted, wicked combo of deep, dark-berry fruit, spices, and sweet oak. Normally this amount of oak could feel off-putting to me, but here one gets the clear impression that a few years in the bottle will integrate that fruity/spicy/oaky core into something wonderfully hedonistic and even more supple than it is now. If you must open it early, please do so with a full rack of ribs and about an hour and a half of pre-dinner decanting time booked in your schedule.

Both tasted as samples.

Cheers!

Copyright © 2011. Originally at Signs Of Life: What It Takes To Make Wines Of True Character (With Matt Powell of Draconis) from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!

During my March jaunt to South America, I spent my birthday at the Santiago home of Derek Mossman, the man behind Chile’s Garage Wine Co. and iconoclastic director of MOVI (Movimiento de Viñateros Independientes, or “Movement of Independent Vintners”).

Think of them as the collective vinous mice, who are making tiny amounts of hand-crafted wines and are roaring at the Chile’s modern winemaking industrial lions in an area dominated by a (very) small amount of (very) big players who make (very) massive quantities of wine.  They count among their ranks a Swiss lawyer, a French photographer, a former submarine maker and a Scottish miner – not exactly your typical band of Chilean winemaking bothers (or sisters).

MOVI have been making a splash lately, releasing wines that are garnering increasing amounts of critical acclaim (guilty! – see my faves below after the jump) and news coverage.  In the long-overdue return of 1WineDude Radio podcasts, I talk to Derek about where MOVI sits in the grand scheme of the Chilean wine industry, the over-oaking to hell of wines generally, what makes truly authentic wine, and whether or not MOVI is achieving its vision of “effort and dreams put into the bottle.”  Trust me, this guys is good for a controversial quote… or two (or ten).  Enjoy!

Some of my MOVI faves from a tasting (of several dozen MOVI wines) held at Derek’s home in Santiago (for more MOVI reviews, check out this twitter mini-review roundup):

2006 Von Siebenthal Montelig Cabernet Blend (Aconcagua)
Price: $60
Rating: A-

One of the best Cab blends I tasted in South America, period.  Smokey, spicy, flowing with sweet tobacco and black currants, and a teeny bit of earthiness.  Chocolate, black cherries, and more tobacco on the palate and very “juicy” finish.  Like standing up to the fearsome dark of night and spitting triumphantly in its face. Kick-ass, indeed.

2007 Gillmore Cabernet Franc Old Vines (Loncomilla)
Price: $35
Rating: B+

Dry-farmed on old País roots, this dark  beast has an incredible structure, and is one of the most complete – and most interesting – Cab Franc wines I’ve had in a few years. The dark fruits are there, concentrated but not at the expense of added complexity like dried herbs and spices. Somebody tell CA to make wine like this – on second thought, cancel that, because it would cost like $125.

2008 Polkura “block g & i” Syrah (Colchagua)
Price: $35
Rating”: B+

Made from vines that face the south and get the benefits of cooling climate influences, there’s 2% Viognier mixed in for good measure and the measuring is indeed pretty good.  Ripe, spicy and balanced, this is a bottle to open with game meat dinners, pass around liberally, and talk about until it’s gone (and then cry).

2009 Meli Carignan (Maule)
Price: $35
Rating: B+

Another old vine, dried-farmed wine (sensing a pattern here…). Dark chocolate and dep, black plum fruits rule the day here, backed up by a phalanx of tea leaf aromas and wood spices.  The long finish has delivers about a dozen different kinds of plums.  So you’d better be liking plums, okay?  In this case, I think the odds are pretty good.

2009 Bravado Wines Sofía Pinot Noir (Casablanca)
Price: $28
Rating: B

Red berries, a little hint of smoke, and even some chocolate.  But the clinchers are the red fruits and mouthfeel on the palate: smooth, velvety and very, very sexy.  Hellooooo, date night.

Cheers!

Copyright © 2011. Originally at 1WineDude Radio: MOVI-n’ On Up (Talking Artisanal Chilean Winemaking With MOVI’s Derek Mossman) from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!

In today’s episode, you get highlights from wine personality and social media / business guru Gary Vaynerchuk‘s keynote speech at the synthetic cork producer Nomacorc-sponsored "Marketing to the Next Generation of Wine Consumers" conference that took place in Napa last week (at the beautiful Culinary Institute of America in St. Helena). They are things the wine industry probably doesn’t want to hear – but they desperately need to hear them. 

I was part of panel at the event, in which we riffed on the main themes espoused by Gary in his fantastic keynote speech (which delivered some much-needed stern messages to the Napa wine industry – for a distillation of some of those messages, check out my article later this week on the Wines.com blog).  If anyone who attended still thinks that Gary isn’t the real deal after his keynote, then they have their heads shoved into a part of their anatomy that requires a belly-button-window installation for them to see what’s really going on.  Most importantly, Gary also finally admits that I am a handsome man (though I refrained from asking him to sign my chest as one male attendee did – thankfully I did NOT get that on video).

In today’s vid (at the 10:10 mark) I interview Gary about his new book, The Thank You Economy (a book that, well, crushes his previous release Crush It! and is Seth-Godin-level good – and will certainly further brighten his already-nearly-blindingly-brilliant star in the social media space). I also get his take on how different wine regions of the world are performing in terms of engaging their customers (hint: not well).

Enjoy (and make sure to get Gary’s new app at DailyGrape.com while you’re at it)!

Copyright © 2011. Originally at 1WineDude TV Episode 32: Things The Wine Industry Needs To Hear (The Gary Vaynerchuk Interview And Keynote Highlights From #NomWineConf 2011) from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!