The “Virtual” Winery vs The “Micro” Winery

Bend’s newest glossy mag has just published its first issue and we have a nice mention in it. They spelled our last name incorrectly and referred to us as a “virtual” winery, but you know what they say: All publicity is good publicity. So, we appreciate the nod.

But I do want to clear up this “virtual” vs “micro” winery topic. As both business models become more common throughout the wine industry, the distinction is becoming more defined and apparent.

The VIRTUAL Winery: Can be operated by someone living thousands of miles from the production site. They write the checks to a production facility which then handles the entire process – from sourcing grapes through the finished wine in the bottle. The owner can sometimes watch the progress of their wine via the web, and they can even visit on-site and participate in their wine production. Day to day involvement is absolutely unnecessary. In fact, any involvement beyond sending money is unnecessary. The Virtual Winery owner can be as involved or as detached as he or she wants to be.

The MICRO Winery: Run in basically the same way as a 100,000 case per year winery, except production facilities are contracted rather than owned. Producers may grow their own grapes, or source their own. We spent years finding and securing long term contracts with the best growers. Producers of Micro-Wineries have all the final wine-making decisions – yeasts, barrel program composition, blending, bottling issues – the whole shebang. Consultants may be used – just like the giant multi-national producers. But the responsibility for the full-cycle – from grape to wine in the bottle – rests solely with the producer.

You may have read recently that there is only one winery in Central Oregon. That is not true. There is one commercial wine production facility. Volcano Vineyards® is a licensed Oregon winery and the address on our license reads “Bend, Oregon.”

Sometimes it seems as though we are being penalized for not having the millions of dollars it takes to open our own winery facility. Well, we’re working on it. In the meantime, with debt up to our eyeballs, we have focused on the grapes that are producing wines that are winning awards across the U.S. including a gold medal for our 2004 syrah from the largest domestic wine competition in the country (the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition). So, have patience with us. We will have our very own production facility some day. And we seem to be off to a good start. But doing the production facility the right way – to allow us to produce wines of superior quality - will take time and funding. If we decided to do a commercial wine production facility on the cheap, we could have chosen to simply buy bulk wine, get it to Bend on a tanker truck, blend, then bottle it – a perfectly legitimate business model, but not the path we’ve taken.

I hope this clears things up and gives everyone a better idea of what we are doing.

I'm serious - it's not Sirius!

It used to be jazz and cocktails but somewhere along the way it evolved into jazz and wine. Was it that cocktails fell out of favor on the coasts? That can’t be it – during the swing craze in the 90’s martinis again became the drink of choice (in a wine glass, a la Herb Caen). My theory is the two drink minimum. When faced with a choice, which gives you more bang for your buck? Watered-down well booze or a giant glass of jug wine? No contest, really.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of large format wines – the stuff in a box is great when you aren’t going to pay attention to what you’re tasting. Those wines are gateway wines – they lead to sauvignon blanc, then butter-bomb chardonnay, then merlot, followed by cab sauv… the next thing you know you’re dropping 125 bucks for a bottle of Pinot noir. (I am apparently stalled between the merlot and Pinot phase, having not yet experienced the elusive Pinot epiphany.)

Whatever the cause, jazz and wine are now linked and it is a union that works. Come experience it for yourself in the Tasting Room this Thursday night from 6-8 p.m. Tenor saxophonist Duncan McNeill and keyboardist Scott Hersh will play a mix of standards dating from the 30s to the 80s (yes, we’re starting off easy with the standards).

No cover. Great wine. Amazing music.

Hope to see you there.
Volcano Vineyards
930 NW Brooks Street
Downtown Bend, OR 97701
541.617.1102
www.volcanovineyards.com

Yea Syrah Syrah

People in the Tasting Room are always asking me if I’ve heard of Such and Such Winery in South Africa or the hot new boutique wine from Santa Barbara or if we’ve been to So and So’s Tasting Room in Washington. My answer is usually and sadly, no. With running the business and dealing with kid stuff, we lose track of a lot of the wine world outside of Oregon. So, one Saturday when the kids were napping I grabbed a year’s worth of back issues of Wine Spectator, Wines & Vines and Wine Business Monthly, determined to get through as many as possible. So I spent two glorious hours reading about the leading wineries from South Africa, the new boutique producers in Santa Barbara, the research and technological breakthroughs… I felt reconnected, savvy, in the know.

That night, my two year old had a bout of nightmares, waking up every two hours screaming for me (and smacking Scott away with a “No! I want mama!” when he answered the call instead of me). The next day in the Tasting Room a guy asked me if I knew the origins of syrah. I had just read about that the day before, and I could FEEL my brain trying to make the connections to where it had stored away that info. All I could think of was “Croatia” but even as I said that I knew it wasn’t right. (I was, or rather, my brain, was confusing syrah with zinfandel). He said, “Iran! It originated in Shiraz, Persia!”

Right, right, right, it all clicked in! Round about 600 BC or so some fellow is alleged to have “borrowed” some samples of this wonderful vine and smuggled them into what is now France and the rest is history. But later that night as I was reading an article by the brilliant Dr. Carole Meredith of UC Davis, I learned that her genetic testing showed that the varietal actually originated in the Rhone Valley. Oh well. The result is still the same – that’s one tasty grape!

There are two distinct styles of syrah: cool weather climate syrah and warm weather climate syrah. You can try them both for yourself in our tasting room – both display the classic characteristics of their style.

Our Volcano Vineyards 2004 Syrah is the cool climate syrah – the vineyard sits at 1600 feet, a high, cool spot in the Rogue Valley, challenging since some years the grapes never fully ripen. 2004 was a great year, steady warmth and more heat days than usual. As you’d expect in a cool climate syrah, ours is lower in alcohol – the grapes don’t get as ripe, so the sugar levels don’t get as high. Simply put, the fermentation of the sugars is what determines your alcohol level. Other classic cool weather syrah characteristics include blueberry and floral aromas, with cherry and plum flavors. It is more subtle and complex and is the syrah most Pinot noir lovers can appreciate.

Zerba’s 2004 Syrah is a classic warm weather syrah – the heat creates riper grapes, higher sugar levels, and the wine checks in at 14.85% alcohol. But, it has a nice backbone to support that higher alcohol so it doesn’t overwhelm your taste buds. Other classic warm weather syrah characteristics the Zerba has include dark berries, tobacco, and the distinctive white pepper/spice undertones.

Both styles are the result of the grapes terroir - where they are grown, not just the soil, but the climate, the geography and everything else that affects their development. Which leads to our next topic - terroir.

No Flabby Wines

A few weeks ago I went out to dinner with some girlfriends – a crazy Thursday Moms Night Out. The girls always make me pick the wine for some reason, which, frankly, puts a lot of pressure on me. Everyone’s taste is so different, we’re lucky if we can agree on red or white. It was a “steak” kind of evening, so red it was, and I ordered a syrah out of the Columbia Valley. Well, the girls LOVED it. I didn’t. It was flabby, no backbone, no acidity, the classic “high alcohol fruit bomb.” It completely drowned out the flavors of the food I was trying to enjoy. Why a restaurant would put a wine like that, so UN-complimentary to food, on its wine list was beyond me.

A few days later I was in another Bend restaurant, one with a fantastic wine list. And there was that same syrah. I asked the owner about it, and he said it was their best selling red wine. I was stunned. When I mentioned that I thought it was completely un-food friendly he said, “True, but people don’t care.” And I thought, “Ah-ha!”

A big reason Scott and I moved to Bend 6 years ago from San Francisco was to slow down and enjoy life (although ironically we’re working more than ever now, but hopefully that will settle down someday!). The lifestyle we wanted was one where we could hike without worrying about beating bridge traffic or not have to put our bikes on the car before we could take a ride. To lose the commute, to not have to ride on MUNI, to be able to walk to work. And most of all, to have the ability to enjoy the here and now. That includes tasting and enjoying food and wine. Truly dining. Experiencing flavors.

So, why drink wine that destroys the flavors in the food you’re eating? Think about that, and next time we’ll talk about syrah specifically.