Mark's Wine Blog

It’s funny how new businesses can change plans so quickly.

In the coming weeks we’ll be celebrating a family reunion in Texas, my wife and I fond of roadtrips will be driving the 1,400 miles from San Diego to Texas.  We’re stopping a few places along the way, but I’m looking forward to being able to visit a winery or two along the way in a region of the country which isn’t exactly known for fine wine production.  I am interested in some of the New Mexico wine being growing at 4,500 feet or higher simply because the desert air is so warm during the day and cool at night.  Not really a fit for any of our wine clubs as of yet, but the likelihood of a quality Zinfandel being grown in these desert conditions is probably higher then any other grape, so it is interesting.

One of the fun things about living in the 21^st century is the east at which information can be shared.  No longer do we need to share information with only people we meet in person, but we can find people with similar interests.

As an example, I’ve made a few Hubpages over the past couple of months. For me, it’s allowed me to set up an easy example of some of the content I want to make for our official Uncorked Ventures site over the coming months.  I realize people wanting to learn about wine will be interested in reading about different grapes, winemaking techniques and of course the areas that produce wine.

At that end, I created a Hubpage based on a small area of Napa Valley, Spring Mountain.  A winery named Spring Mountain Winery contacted me through the Hubpage and invented us for a visit on our next trip through Napa.  A very generous offer and it opened my eyes to a winery which wasn’t otherwise on my radar during one of my next trips to Napa.  For the two of our businesses to get together, all it took was a little bit of time for both Uncorked Ventures and Spring Mountain Winery.

One of the fun things (well one of a great many really) of running Uncorked Ventures is the chance to visit with winemakers and spend time in wine country. I haven’t spoken at length about the wine industry in San Diego at all on this blog, for a number of reasons but mostly because it is largely non existent. There are very few (in relative terms) wineries you can visit that have a nice atmosphere to taste in, while tasting high quality wines.

Over the weekend I had the chance to visit Cordiano Winery, which although technically is in Escondido, California is about 5 miles from my house driving on back roads. It’s the type of place that is largely locals only, owned by an Italian family it offers some of the best views I’ve seen in some time (if we could only take away one small hill so that there would be a view into the Wild Animal Park), good friendly hosts, a small dog more interesting in table scraps and drinking out of the fountain then being petted, hand made outdoor brick oven pizza and some solid wine using grapes largely (exclusively for some of their wines) from grapes purchased from Paso Robles. Judging by the gathering crowds late in the day, their method of work of mouth advertising has been working thus far.

To me, it was nice to see a local winery offering a nice tasting environment while not holding strong to producing only Bordeaux varietals which need (stereotypically speaking at least) to be grown in cooler climates then we have south of Santa Barbara. Of interest at Cordiano was their Sangiovese which paired well with a pizza and seemed to be the favorite of most everyone at the winery that afternoon. Long term I’d hope that the wine industry in Southern California could find a set of grapes that grow well in the incredibly hot and dry conditions that we have here, but until that time having winemakers whom are willing to purchase grapes from more established regions seems to be a good business model.

Grazie del tempo dedicatomi Gerardo y Rosa.

So, my second article over at MetroCitizen Magazine was published this morning. Writing about Kosher wine was truly a learning experience and a topic which I am glad was suggested for me since I knew little about the Kosher wine world before writing the article. With Uncorked Ventures, we haven’t done a Kosher wine shipment as of yet.

I’m already starting on my article for next month as I’ll be comparing two vastly different wineries that make wine in a similar style. One is a traditional French Chateau that has been around for well over a hundred years and the other is a Napa Valley winery which released its first vintage about 5 months ago. Please check it out!

Wine at MetroCitizen Magazine

So last week was enjoyable both in terms of a short tasting appointments on my way to the Bay Area, as well as having the chance to work with the Peninsula Wine Enthusiasts Meet Up once again. Especially fun to hear Jeff from Vellum Wines talk about how their winery got started and some of their goals for the future.

This week brings a more hectic schedule (if that’s possible) as shipment start leaving the warehouse this morning and then we need to begin planning for the July shipment ASAP since we have a family reunion to attend which will take part of the month away from work in July.

Of course, please visit us online and see if one of our wine clubs would be a good fit for you and your family.

Over the past weeks I’ve talked some in this space about HR 5034 and the negative affects it could have both on my business as well as on the wine industry in general.  I know that although this law would in fact cripple the only growth area of the wine industry in the United States (small family owned wineries dependent on shipping directly to consumers) I have to be concerned when I hear Tom Wark who is not only one of the three most influential wine bloggers on the planet, but also the President of the Specialty Wine Retailers Association say that he gives this bill a 30% chance of passing.

To me, although I’m interested in politics, being a registered independent means that I feel like politicians from both sides should be not only willing to hear my cares and concerns, but even court my vote.  My local representative in the House of Representatives is Duncan Hunter, who fits largely with the image of San Diego politics 30+ years ago, being intensely pro military (a very good thing) as well as being extremely conservative socially (personally, I like moderates best).

I wrote him an email explaining my side of the story which can be summed up in the following points:

-Wine already faces more strict shipping regulations then guns or ammunition.

-Does it logically make sense that an under-age drinker wants to wait 2 days to obtain their alcohol, even if we discount the fact that all common carriers (Fedex, UPS, etc) require a person 21 years of age to sign for the shipment?  Wouldn’t it be easier to pay that same 21 year old person to buy the alcohol from the local grocery store?

-The national wholesalers behind the bill have not been able to show a single study to show that direct shipments of wine lead to underage drinking.

-Although the stated intent of this lawsuit is to stop lawsuits fighting state specific shipping regulations, the same sponsors of this bill are currently challenging California’s shipping law in court in this state.  If lawsuits shouldn’t be used by consumers fighting for the freedom to choose their own wine, why can the industry use them?

Please don’t misunderstand my points, I am not asking for the rights to ship to any consumer anywhere without regulation.  I’m simply asking for the right to apply for a permit, pay taxes and deal with consumers interested in my wine and wine clubs.  I believe that freedom of choice should extend to as many states as possible.  If Utah’s consumers do not want to approve direct shipment of alcohol, I can understand that completely, but New York State should not be allowed to violate the commerce clause by allowing their in state wineries to ship to consumer in the state, while not allowing out of state wineries to do the same.

I’m not even saying that I think distributors should go away completely.  We deal with some of these folks on a daily basis and some of them provide an incredible service and the widely distributed wines offer people an entry into the market and help to create a market of consumers that my company, Uncorked Ventures focuses on servicing as their wants and needs change over time.  To be even more clear, there are distributors that do an outstanding job including some of the people at Monterrey Bay, TGIC and even Southern Wine and Spirits.  The employees that we deal with in those companies don’t see my company as a threat, one of the wineries we represent makes 650 cases of wine a year.  Many distributors can’t represent anyone who makes under 10,000 because of their wide distribution channels.

Although I was quite impressed to have received a response from Mr. Hunter I was somewhat disappointed at the content, simply because it seems to include a number of talking points taken directly from the wholesalers.

Response from Duncan Hunter

The bold is my addition to bring your attention to a part which sounds pretty familiar:

According the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America:

It is important that states retain their constitutional power to regulate the distribution of beverage alcohol and are able to fend off litigation, which serves to destabilize or destroy that authority. Although we may oppose direct shipping and self-distribution as a matter of policy, our goal is not to overturn existing state laws. We simply believe the proper forum for resolving legitimate differences over these issues is in the state legislatures – not the courts.”

I will additionally point out that aside from the obvious inconsistencies which come up in the Wholesalers statement (how do you have adequate choice when there are 5 national distributors and 6,000 wineries in the United States?) I also wonder why using the courts would be used for such things like integrating schools, the death penalty and literally every social issue of our time, but somehow alcohol distributors and certain states should be exempt from those same challenges.

My overall frustration comes mostly from the fact that the Supreme Court just decided this exact issue in 2005 in GRANHOLM V. HEALD in which the court decided that State or territorial regulations may not facially discriminate, without justification, against out-of-state producers of alcoholic beverages in favor of in-state producers.”

I don’t think it’s asking too much to have a state prove why they need to break the commerce clause before they are allowed to do it.  If they can break it with impunity, what does that say not only for the judicial branch of our government, but the Constitution itself?

Mr Hunter, all we’re asking for is a fair playing field, one which is already accorded to our competitors which are based outside of California.

This Blog is Carbon Neutral

Many of my friends would tell you, that although I don’t necessarily show it outwardly on an everyday basis, I do believe strongly in environmental causes and like to what I can, when I can. I also believe strongly that companies and governments needs to give their citizens more choice when it comes to environmentally friendly alternative forms of transportation, packaging etc.

In that vein, I recently came across a company that helps ensure that your blog is carbon neutral. As it turns out there is a cost in terms of the number of visitors that visit this blog. That environmental cost is largely made up of the energy that it required to power the servers and other hosting mechanisms.

“My blog is carbon neutral” is an initiative, originally started in Germany by the “Make it green” programme, that has the goal to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. We plant a tree for your blog and thereby neutralise your blog’s carbon footprint for the next 50 years! Everyone can make a small contribution to the environment. Every tree counts!

One of the things that Matt and I talk about almost daily with Uncorked Ventures is that we never know exactly where the next big bit of business is going to come from. By now, we have a pretty good idea about how many new members of our wine clubs we can expect, but there are always other opportunities.

Sometimes those include the possibility of shipping some wine to Japan (if law permits) or even finding a case or two of rare Italian wine to ship to Oklahoma.

It’s these types of side projects that make not only our days more interesting, but allow us to continue learning more about wine and the entire industry as we become a larger part of it.

One of the challenges I’ve faced since starting Uncorked Ventures has been a combination with my relative inexperience with fine wines (when compared to others, including my business partner Matt) especially when combined with the fact that I live in San Diego where we don’t have many high quality wine stores.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t especially enjoy paying retail price for wine any more, but occasionally there are bottles which I’d like to try, either for personal enjoyment or for possible inclusion in our wine club, without creating the pressure and sense of urgency that often can accompany free samples. Simply put, sometimes it’s easier to pay for a single bottle of wine instead of having a winery or winemaker feeling slighted because you didn’t purchase a couple of cases after receiving a free sample.

In that vein, my wife and I started to try out a few well known wine stores here in San Diego starting last weekend with a trip to San Diego Wine Company, which is located on Miramar Road about equidistant between the 15 and 5 freeways.

I noticed immediately that they featured a nice selection of Napa/Sonoma wines, including offerings from Vineyard 29, Larkmeade and Audelssa which I’ve talked about at length in this space previously. Very impressed with both the selection as well as their pricing when it came to northern California wine.

As for the central coast wineries, I wasn’t nearly as impressed as they seemed to largely be missing the outstanding wines being produced in Paso Robles and Santa Barbara County, with one offering from Tablas Creek Vineyards, but nothing else of note.

I hope to come up with a scoring system in the coming days.

Until then, I hope your week has been as enjoyable as mine already has.

So I decided that it would be nice to get to know a few other bloggers and journalists within the wine industry, so I’m in the process of planning a meet up of wine journalists in Southern California, to be held somewhere in San Diego.

I’ve gotten a few good responses already both over the phone and via Twitter, so it should be a ton of fun.

Uncorked Ventures is going to provide a few wines to taste (one’s that you haven’t had before, even at Family Winemakers or AVA tasting events) as well as appetizers.

Are you interested in attending?