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Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Congress ponders limiting your wine choices
Like ordering direct from out-of-state wineries? Congress is considering sticking a cork in it.
Sigh Here we go again. Reader Shannon Perdue alerts us to legislation the U.S. House of Representatives is considering that would effectively put an end to wineries shipping directly to out-of-state customers.
It’s all over the blogosphere. There’s an exhaustive, vehement analysis here. Wine Spectator’s take is here. And there’s a story with a Texas angle here.
Prevailing wisdom from all the chatter is that wholesales are playing the heavy, aiming to shore up the sacred three-tier system.
You know, as a completely objective journalist, that I have no opinion whatsoever on this — and I know a fair number of good people in that corner of the business. But how on Earth is this good for the wine business, particularly small wineries? Now what happens if you visit a winery in Sonoma whose wines are not distributed in Texas and you want to ship a case home? I’ll tell you what: You’re out of luck.
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Anchor Brewing sold: ruminations
Beer & Nosh broke the story Monday that craft beer icon Fritz Maytag was selling Anchor to the Griffin Group, an alcohol investment and consulting group led by Bay Area residents Keith Greggor and Tony Foglio. Here’s the San Francisco Chronicle story. Good on Maytag (yes, one of the appliance Maytags from Iowa) for keeping ownership local. At 72 he’s probably entitled to a break. He’s been involved in the company since 1965, when his washing-machine inheritance kept the venerable brewery, which dates to the 1850s, from going under. Since then he’s more or less single-handedly kept the steam beer style alive and is as responsible as anyone for reviving craft brewing in America, which today is brewing the lion’s share of the world’s most interesting beers.
Although Steam arguably isn’t a true steam beer, the company has focused on fidelity to historic styles. Their porter is as good as any; Old Foghorn barley wine is exactly as it should be and their ever-changing Christmas beer has a wide, passionate cult following. (Tastes too much like a pine tree for my taste, but knock yourselves out.) And he recently brewed a killer imperial stout with Sierra Nevada to commemorate the latter company’s 30th anniversary.
Now what? What niche hasn’t been filled? Might they hop on the hop bandwagon like Green Flash, Stone and others? I don’t know if we need yet another huge imperial IPA out there.
One clue: The new owners have a stake in Brew Dog, which suggests they have a taste for the extreme.
Thoughts? Anybody?
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“Bottle Shock” wine feast menu
We’ve talked about this event at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek, but this one, unlike the recent Dogfish Head extravaganza, isn’t yet sold out, so here goes. From the web site:
Bottle Shock Wine Feast Wednesday April 28th 7:30pm $50
It’s time for us to clean out our wine cellar at Lake Creek. Over the past year, we have built up quite a reserve of killer wines. Well, our back-log is your gain! We have a stock of some of the finest wines around and it’s time to put together a fun event to share the love. Don’t miss the film Bottle Shock with a multi-course gourmet meal with top of the line wine pairings.
The Menu will include:
Bacon Corn Chowder w/ Fiddlehead Honeysuckle Sauvignon Blanc
Mussels in white wine w/ Arizona Stronghold Tazi White
Branch Ranch Ribeye with bleu cheese butter, marinated mushrooms, and pomme frites w/ Terra Valentine Cabernet
Apple biegnets with honey cinnamon ice cream w/ Fiddlehead Sweetie
