In This Issue
	The Weird World of Wine News Canada's Grape Police Encrapification BC or Not BC EU vs VQA Cork Floats Book Review Sample My Next Book Portugal Sends Its Best Magnetic Personality

When The Going Gets Weird, The Weird Turn Pro

I have a problem with multi-tasking. I've been working on a new book for the past year and, as a result, I've found it difficult-to-impossible to fit in other projects. Several times I questioned whether I should abandon the whole newsletter thing. Then I struck on the idea of doing it as a blog. So, I set the whole thing up as a blog, and guess what? I really hate that idea. I'm now doing three blogs: my Wine of the Week, my exceedingly sporadic Podcast and, most recently, the first chapter of my next book (see below). But frankly, the more I look at blogs -- and wine blogs in particular -- the more I'm convinced that this is the wrong direction to go. It works well for my Wine of the Week; that's a one-off, consistent post that benefits from having some history available. But I'm not convinced that readers need to be inundated with daily wine opinions. So I'm going to attempt to continue to produce the email newsletter -- bi-monthly-ish or perhaps quarterly -- in which I will post a modest number of rants, a bit of pithy news, a few shots at the Ontario monopoly, plus some things that might help us all to understand wine. I hope you approve.

Anyone becoming interested in wine for the first time right about now must think that it's a pretty bizarre industry. Indeed, it has always been a bit hard to fathom, but a lot of recent headlines have simply got me scratching my head. What on earth is going on out there?

Take Ontario's bottle return program. The LCBO wanted nothing to do with bottle returns, and tried to force Tetra-paks down everyone's throats. The Blue Box people were arguing that an absence of liquor bottles at the curbside would undermine their work. Now that the government mandated program is in full swing, it's somehow a good thing. I've received a number of press releases telling me what a great initiative this is and how it 'enhances' the blue box program. Now, here's a lesson in spin -- Fight change as long as you can, but if you lose and the change is inevitable, act like it was your idea in the first place.

The most interesting -- and I think extremely foresighted -- part of the program is how the Ontario government is handling bottle horders. Environment Minister Laura Broten says that getting the bottles back is what's important. And, to prevent blatant abuse, you can't take back any more than 10 cases(!) of bottles at once. Bravo for the green team.

BTW, if you put your bottles into cases -- divided into clear and green -- then the Beer Store staff will be thrilled.

You Can't Grow It Here

After decades of the experts telling winegrowers what to plant, a few brave vignerons decided, about 30 years ago, to plant vinifera grapes rather than hybrids (such as Veeport, one of the only useful grapes to come out of all that publicly-funded 100-year research. It was claimed it made a pretty good "Canadian port"). Now shelves are filled with VQA Chardonnay, Cabernet, Gamay, Riesling, and practically every popular vinifera grape that is sellable.

So what's the logical next step? Hey, we should start a vinifera-only campaign and try to get rid of the hybrids.

An recent initiative by grapegrowers, mainly in Ontario, would have the authorities create a short list of acceptable grapes. That list would include only the most popular vinifera grapes -- no hybrids, no "new" varieties and, in fact, none of those lesser known grapes either. Not even Muscat made the list (try Hillebrand's Dry Muscat sometime.)

While it's nice that growers want to improve the overall quality of Canadian wines, this initiative would deal a virtual death blow to all but the most favoured regions. While you can grow some vinifera grapes in marginal areas such as Prince Edward County, it's the cold-hardy hybrids that are making it possible to establish new wine regions in Canada. A move to ban these grapes would cripple the growers who are looking beyond Niagara and Erie North Shore, just as the Niagara people, 30 years ago, looked beyond Labrusca. I hope this initiative quickly dies on the vine (so to speak).

It Only Gets Worse

A clever wag on CBC radio is trying to popularize a new word: Encrapification. What the word refers to is society's current willingness to accept 'crap'. The examples given were 5 bucks for a cup of frothy milk and coffee, or $400,000 for a cramped 1-bedroom apartment. I would add to that list $13 for a litre of crappy wine.

Yes, I consider myself an environmentalist and, yes, I prefer to see something done about the amount of waste glass produced by alcohol distribution. But should alternative packaging necessarily lead to inferior wine?

My Wine of the Week post for March 19/07 is a round-up of mainly tetra-pak wines, and believe me, it wasn't easy to be kindly in writing about even the best of these wines. I like to concentrate on "top quartile" performance, as I assume that the best 25% of anything is probably good enough for most of us. But I found that barely 10% of the available products reached even a minimum quality level. And running the majority of these wines through a price-performance formula leaves them wanting even more.

If you must have a "jug wine" in enviro packaging, then have a look at my W.O.W. short list. Otherwise, you are far better off with something packaged in glass, at least at Ontario's LCBO.

BC Drinks and Stays Home

I'm often chastised for including Ontario wines in a tasting to the neglect of wines from Canada's West Coast. Well, I'd love to, but there usually isn't much to choose from. BC's wine industry is barely half as large as Ontario's, and so they produce far less wine. Now it seems they aren't even making enough to share!

One of the main differences between BC and Ontario is that people in BC actually drink the wine that's made there, to the point that BC wineries are cutting back on their VQA exports. This means there will be less and less BC wine on Ontario shelves. Pity.

EU Cries Foul

The Canadian wine industry is quite accustomed to government policies that don't work to their advantage. In a remarkable turn of affairs, the Feds have announced an excise tax break for 100% Canadian wines. It's a rather small measure, given the enormous subsidies many other wine regions give their winemakers (Europe hands out about $2 Billion US annually). But the European Union doesn't like the idea and has, in fact, approached the World Trade Organization with a formal complaint.

The complaint is more remarkable when you look at the numbers involved. Ontario produces a pretty small quantity of grapes, which go into either VQA wine or "Cellared in Canada" blends. This tax break favours only VQA wines, and VQA wines account for a mere 5% of the wine produced in Ontario. Official sales figures for all Ontario products -- both VQA and Cellared in Canada -- show a total market share of 29%, and 5% of that works out to less than 1.5% of sales. And given that only half of VQA sales are through LCBO stores, that means that the "enemy" accounts for just .7% of LCBO shelf space. European wines, on the other hand, have fully 50% of the Ontario market.

So the question is, why does someone who has 50% of the market feel the need to hurt someone who has .7% of the market? It's even more more galling when you consider that Europe has no problem subsidizing their own producers. It really is a case of the big guy beating up on the little guy. There is nothing to be gained through this action, and the only outcome is more damage to an already fragile wine industry.

Want to Help? If you'd like to add your support to Canadian wineries, you can participate in an online petition that was set up by the Canadian Vintners' Association.

Cork Maintains Its Buoyancy

A 2006 study commissioned by the Tragon corporation in California has found that natural cork is by far the preferred closure for buyers in France and the US. The findings specified that, where price was not the primary consideration, buyers would always reach for real cork in all situations. And even among the "entry level" market, buyers would rather have a natural cork in their cheap wines.

One theory given for this finding is that the wine industry is not doing an effective job of educating the consumer. Although screwcaps are appearing more and more often on fine and premium wines, consumers still see it as a stigma.

No mention was made whether this research included Canada. It would be interesting to see if we Canucks are any more informed about screwcaps.

Did you know that you can recycle your cork closures. The Canadian Girl Guides have recycled more than 5 tons since they introduced their Bag-a-Cork program in 2003 at more than 150 locations around Ontario.

New Wine Book Forges a Unique Direction

There are few wine writers who are more respected -- or more prolific -- than Britain's Hugh Johnson. The same can also be said of Australia's leading oenologist, James Halliday. These two titans have teamed up to create a distinctive book that reaches into territory that's been too often neglected. The focus of The Art and Science of Wine is on vineyards and terroir rather than on wine or history or the region du jour. The book focuses on the "how and why" of wine rather than the "who, what, where". This is a fabulous book in many ways. Sincere love for the vine, its history and its cultures drip from every paragraph. The writing style is quite romantic, but at the same time, no-nonsense. As expected, the photography and production are impeccable. And at $29.95 it's a steal.

The Art and Science of Wine James Halliday & Hugh Johnson ISBN: 1-55407-247-6 (978-1-55407-247-7) $29.95

Buy it now from Amazon.com Buy it now from Amazon.ca

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Chapter 1: Read All About It!

One interesting and unusual bit of news (at least I think it's interesting) is that I've written an actual novel. Not a mystery or anything like that, but a wine-oriented novel, and I've made Chapter One available as a blog, which you can read at http://oenophilenextdoor.blogspot.com. Please don't be shy about leaving your comments.

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Portugal Sends Its Best

Most of us can look back to our earliest bottles and include a few budget Portuguese wines, often of the pink variety. Portugal is the world's fourth largest wine producer, despite its small size. And, like all wine regions, it produces everything from barely drinkable jug wines to premium fine wines. But you may have noticed a subtle yet important change in the Portugal section at your neighbourhoood wine store.

I attended an all-Portugal tasting this past February and although it was "same old, same old" in that very few of the wines presented will ever be available locally (i.e. in Ontario), I did come away with a very uplifting piece of information. What I learned was that, quantity wise, Portugal's wine exports are way down from previous years. The initial reaction might be that sales are flopping, but the truth is far more intriguing. The Portuguese wine industry has made a blanket decision to NOT EXPORT BULK WINES. Instead, they will focus on their premium wines exclusively. That means that the Portuguese wines you'll be seeing will represent the best in quality.

Aside from being pretty good wines, I find that Portuguese wines offer tremendous value, and now we're being assured that the wine we see is the genuine "DOC" product. Although you will occasionally find familiar varietal names, the majority of Portuguese wines are made from little-known indigenous grapes, and there are hundreds of them.

One example is my Wine of the Week for March 12/07, a Touriga Nacional. (I will be featuring a number of these Portuguese wines over the next few weeks.)

If He Had a Million dollars

In today's fast-paced world, how can anyone find the time to age wine? Interesting concept. I've never found "benign neglect" to be all that challenging or time sensitive. Still, a lot of wine creative types think that wine ageing should be an Olympic sport, with the fastest time emerging the winner.

James Randi, a wine educator based in Florida, is putting his money where his mouth is. He is offering a $1Million reward for anyone who can prove that magnetic wine enhancement devices work. There are plenty of devices available, and most are simply large magnets hidden in an attractive coaster base. The claim is that placing your bottle of budget wine red on the base for 1/2 hour is equivalent to ageing it for 5 years ... or something. Even more exotic and high-tech are magnetic devices that clamp around the neck of the bottle, giving the much-needed magnetic charge as the wine is poured.

Aside from the scientific opinion that there is nothing in wine that could possibly be affected by a magnet, there is a lot of anecdotal evidence that these devices are absolutely necessary.

If you agree that magnetic ageing is the way to go, all you need to do is set up a double blind test with appropriate wines and tasters, and then claim your million. Personally, I'll just continue to buy a few extra bottles to tuck away in my cellar until I've forgotten about them.

Tip: If you'd like to try the magnetic thing but don't want to lay out 60 bucks, you can try a magnetic small parts tray, like the one available from Lee Valley tools. It costs less than $11 and it's a great way to store parts when you're not amazing your friends with magnetically enhanced wine.

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From "The Frugal Oenophile's Lexicon of Wine Tasting Terms"

Green Cropping

Removal of unripe grape clusters from vines to encourage better development of remaining clusters. Some of the best growers remove up to half the crop

You can buy my Wine Lexicon and other items at my Online Store

Looking for Weekly Wine Recommendations? Every week I pick a moderately priced wine for your enjoyment, which I now post as a blog. Each wine recommendation will stay on-line so you can refer back to previous posts. You can also share your impressions with other readers. Click here to see my W-O-W blog. If you'd like to receive update notices, sign up here.

Inspirational Quote

I am a firm believer that wine is more fun than we are typically led to believe - Dave McIntyre