Wine Article Archives

On this page you will find current and past articles published previously on the Internet, local newspapers, and other print media.  Feedback, commments, and questions are welcomed.

Celebrity wines. The good, the bad, the ugly.

© By John Juergens

You probably have noticed in wine shops some names that sound familiar but in a different context.  I’m talking about Celebrity Wines.  That is, wines made by people who have risen to fame and fortune in some other career.  We have had wines made by all sorts of movie and TV personalities, including people like The Smothers Brothers, comedian Pat Paulsen, and golfers Arnold Palmer and Greg Norman.  Francis Ford Coppola is another recognizable name, and even Davy Crocket (a.k.a. Fess Parker) is in the wine business.  I’m sure there are many others around the world who own wineries, but don’t display their names as prominently as some of these folks.  As far as I know, Tiger Woods has not come out with a wine under his name, and I don’t think I have yet seen a wine called Newman’s Own.

Whenever I see one of these celebrity wines I wonder what got them interested in wine to the point that they would want to dump a ton of money into such an enterprise rather than just buying really good stuff made by real wine makers.  I suppose if you are fabulously wealthy and you live in a great wine making place such as California, Oregon, Washington, Australia, France or Italy, it might be very tempting to invest some of your disposable millions in what appears to be a very idyllic way of life.

I have tried many of the wines that carry celebrity names, but with very few exceptions, I have never really been impressed by any of them, especially at the premium prices most of them carry.  This got me to wondering about how much actual input the celebrities have in the wine making process.  For sure, they all have a hired-gun wine maker out in the vineyards and on the winery floor taking care of the technical production details, but just how much of the celebrity’s personality and taste preferences influence the wine character?

Taking this line of thinking just a bit too far, I started speculating on the kinds of wines other notable public figures might make if they decided to get into the business.  Let’s pick a few and see what they might come up with.

First up, Hillary Clinton.  Hillary has had more than her fair share of limelight over the years, and drags a lot of baggage around with her.  But now that she is running for president she is trying very hard to redefine herself because, as she has admitted, she is one of the most famous candidates nobody really knows.  Hmmm. But running with that thought, Hillary probably would take some old wine and try to breathe new life into it by mixing it with some new and possibly unrecognizable fruit flavors, which may or may not be all natural.  The resulting wine would be a confusing blend of the new and the old, with multiple personalities jumping forward and receding as the tasting environment would require.  This is the kind of wine that might be interesting with the first glass, but not something you would want to serve throughout the meal because its loosely bound component parts would quickly fall apart.

Next is that energetic Jack Russell of a candidate nipping at Hillary’s heals, Barack Obama.  He has been referred to as one of the most refreshing political personalities to come along in a very long time.  Without a doubt, he would make a fresh and lively Mosel-style wine with a balance of nice crispness, a touch of sweetness, and just a hint of latent spritz to energize the crowds but without popping its cork.  The big question would be whether the wine had enough substance to carry through for the long term.

Britney Spears and Paris Hilton would team up and try to steal the name Folie à Deux because it fits their personalities perfectly, but they would have to settle for Ménage à Deux Bêtes.  They would buy from Charles Swan whatever wine was not good enough to go into that month’s vintage of Two Buck Chuck, which is now actually Three Buck Chuck.  The catchy name for their wine would be Up Chuck Bimbo, and it would become the drink of choice of the “A-List” glitterati social scene. In spite of its flashy style the wine would have absolutely no staying power, so it would need to be fully consumed at an early age.  It would start down the path of degradation as soon as it hit the bubble shaped glass that comes with each bottle.

Of course, we can’t leave out George W. Bush and his rough and ready VP, Dick “Shotgun” Cheney.  Lordy, where do I start?

Frankly, I think good ol’ Dick is chronically pissed off at being an understudy, playing second kazoo to the big W’s noisemaker because he is almost always combative and on the defensive. Therefore, he would most likely make a wine starting with very sour grapes, probably half-ripe Chancellor grapes, which are very common to the D.C. surrounding areas of Maryland and Virginia.  Being a consummate large corporation CEO type, in the interest of efficiency Dick would harvest the grapes all by himself using a pump action 12-gauge shotgun, which would also eliminate the need for the de-stemming and crushing operations.  And like Dick, these grapes, even in full ripeness, would produce a meaty and sometimes caustic wine that could blister you just by coming into the slightest contact with the juice, or in this case, venom (he’s not called “Dick” for nothing).  The wines would never mellow with age because of their excessive astringency, but they would be very effective in curing animal hides.

Last but not least, what kind of wine would our fearless leader make?  For starters, George would select a grape type that is simple, straightforward, and easy to pronounce, such as the Thompson Seedless table grape.  Of course, we all know that this is not a wine grape, and all attempts to make a palatable and viable wine from it have failed.  But, true to form, George wouldn’t let a silly little fact like that stand in his way.  Ignoring the advice of all his seasoned wine consultants and historical records, not to mention common sense, he would promote his new strategy for cultivating this one-dimensional varietal of nondescript character to a victorious conclusion.  That is, instead of training the vines on trellises he would prune the vines to grow in the shape of, what else, a bush, and he would direct the fruit-bearing canes into the highly fertilized but shallow earth of Crawford, Texas.  His strategy would be to grow the grapes underground like the humble but highly successful potato.  This way the crop would be much safer from potential WMDs called “birds,” which Homeland Security would eradicate, if they could find any in the area.

If George’s plan bore any fruit whatsoever, it would result in a very insipid wine with an astronomical and escalating price tag, but with no practicality or future for aging. It would have a lingering finish of bloody dirt that would leave a bad taste in the mouth for years to come. But, of course, this is just speculation and the true history of this great wine making plan is yet to be written.

Wine Picks of the Week

              I have three interesting wines for you this week, a white and two reds.  The white is one of the recent wave of inexpensive and new world style wines from France.  It is the Gala Rouge 2004 Chardonnay.  This is a simple, straightforward wine with good clean aromas and flavors of pear and ripe yellow apples.  This is one white wine that is far better at about 60 degrees because it is fairly delicate and refrigeration wipes out almost all of its fruit aromas and flavors.  It has no oak to suffocate the fruit flavors and with the alcohol content at just 12.5%, this is a great party wine.  Vin-Test scores:  Sweetness:  0.3; Crispness: 6; Tannins: N/A; Body: 4.  About $11.

              Next is the cousin to the white, the Gala Rouge 2004 Pinot Noir, which bears no resemblance to any Pinot Noir I have ever tasted.  Tasting it blind I would have thought it was a Syrah or a Rhone blend.  So don’t buy this because it is a Pinot, but because it is a great sipping wine with lots of fruit flavors of red cherries and a little bit of smoky earth.  As with the Chardonnay, the alcohol is 12.5%, and it has a nice balance of acidity to give it a little snap on the finish, and very soft tannins, so no pucker.  This could be a good every day dinner wine or just as a cocktail.  Vin-Test scores:  Sweetness: 0.2; Crispness: 5.5; Tannins: 2.5; Body: 5.  About $11.

              Going up a notch is the 2003 Wildhurst Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon from Lake County California.  This is a classic California Cabernet Sauvignon with rich velvety textures and aromas of cedar, nutmeg, leather, and coffee that come through on the palate.  At about $13 it would be difficult to find a better Cabernet with this kind of complexity and richness.  Great food wine for beef.  Vin-Test scores: Sweetness: 0.3; Crispness:4.5; Tannins: 7; Body 9.

Cheers.

Cult wines. America’ devotion to the iconic and expensive.

© John Juergens

America truly is a bountiful land, but from a foreign perspective we Americans justifiably often are viewed as conspicuous consumers of just about everything.  Not only does it show in things like energy, food, and automobiles, it applies to wine as well.  Where else in the world would there emerge the notion of “cult wines?”

While not limited to the U.S., the fascination with cult wines is largely an American phenomenon.  Most European wine drinkers focus on finding the most exquisite combinations of wine and food rather than rating scores.  But let’s back up a bit and try to come up with some sort of working definition for just what constitutes a cult wine.

Going to my trusty American Heritage Dictionary, a cult can be defined as, “Obsessive devotion or veneration for a person, principle, or ideal, or the object of such devotion.”  I ran this by several of my friends who are in the wine business to get their opinions about what constitutes a cult wine.  Robin Garr of The Wine Lover’s Page gave me this definition: “It’s a wine that creates a fanatical, almost religious devotion in its followers, which may be based as much on emotion as rationality.”

Anna Maria Knapp of Celebrations Wine Club suggested other factors that contribute to raising an individual wine or even a winery to the level of possibly irrational devotion.  These include limited quantity or scarcity, and an initial high price that is driven to unrealistically high levels because of attention from the press and the wine media.  According to Anna Maria, the press is crucial in first bringing attention to a wine or winery, and for continuing to fan the flames of popularity and exclusivity.

For regular wine drinkers and readers of the wine press, some of the more notable cult wines include names such as Opus One, Penfolds Grange, Screaming Eagle, and Cristal Champagne, which might be considered a double cult wine because it is the preferred wine of drug dealers and gangsta rappers.  All of these wines are very expensive and made in relatively small quantities, that is, less than about 1,000 cases – 12,000 bottles.  Many cult wines are fairly obscure because they are limited to just a few hundred cases, which usually are sold even before the wine is made.  When I did a Google search on cult wines I got pages and pages of wines from wineries in California I had never heard of. 

From what I understand, there is a group of wineries in California that actually focus on making just one or two cult wines, or what some wine writers call “formula wines.”  These manufactured wines are highly extracted, that is, every bit of color, fruit flavor, and tannin is pulled out of the grapes, they have high alcohol content, and low acidity to make them velvety smooth to drink.   However, this is a formula for wines that do not age.  All of their charm is right up front and it quickly fades after about 5 to 8 years or so.  This is analogous to day old catfish and French fries.

But what about something like Dom Perignon Champagne, which is the clichéd icon wine for toasting success and great events?  The total production levels of Dom are a closely guarded trade secret, but it has been estimated that several millions of bottles are produced at each vintage.  I wouldn’t call that a limited production, but the wine still has something of a cult-like reputation.  Other examples might include legendary wines such Lafite Rothschild, Chateau Latour, Romanee-Conti, La Tasche, and Chateau d’ Yquem.

The part I struggle with is when does a wine cross over from being “just” an excellent wine, usually of limited production and high price (maybe starting around $40 or more) to something that has people camping out in front of the winery overnight to get a single bottle as if it were the latest generation of Play Station or the Wii machine? Garr suggests that when a wine grabs the attention of wine collectors and investors, the press takes notice and the wine can be catapulted quickly into a position where its value is driven into those irrationally high prices because of high demand and small supply.  This only helps to fuel the wine’s mystique and the buying frenzy, never mind that the wine might be just a pretty good wine, but not that much better than others in the $20 to $30 price range.  And, as I mentioned above, these wines usually don’t age well, so the collectors and investors frequently never intend to drink the wines, but just trade on their notoriety.

I know I will get blasted with hate mail for this, but as I have mentioned in the past, I don’t believe any wine is really worth more than about $30.  That is, thirty dollars can cover the extra expense of making a truly handcrafted wine where only the best quality fruit is used and each grape is selected for consistent ripeness, along other special handling techniques to produce a superbly complex wine.  In many ways it is the same as making a fine watch.  It is possible to get only a certain level of accuracy in a wristwatch, which you would think is the most important function of the watch.  However, a $5 digital watch from WalMart can keep better time than an analog watch made by Rolex, which definitely qualifies as a cult item.  In other words, after a certain point in quality, the rest of the price of a watch, a car, or a wine is just hype.

Cult wines appeal particularly to wine snobs who might know a little something about wines, but have more money than wine sense.  These Nouveau Richenecks don’t want to miss out on any opportunity to accumulate bragging rights for being among the privileged who have tried such wines or have a bottle or two in the wine cabinet.  Never mind that they probably wouldn’t know the difference between a cult wine and one of those fruity critter wines from Australia if they tasted them blind.

Sometimes people like this can drive an entire grape type into at least temporary cult status.  This happened to Pinot Noir when the movie “Sideways” came out.  Millions of fans devoted to overpriced Merlot flocked to Pinot, even though they had no idea what to expect from the grape.

So, what constitutes a cult wine?  Hell, I don’t know. If I did, I probably would be writing this from my chateau in Burgundy. I’ve been lucky to taste some cult wines, and while most of them were really good, I still didn’t think they were worth more than $30, and certainly not the going prices of $100 to $1000 or more.  For those of us who came of age in the 1960s, Lancers and Mateus seemed to have a sort of cult status in those days, as did things like Blue Nun, and maybe even Boone’s Farm Strawberry Hill.  So don’t be intimidated by what you read and hear from the media.  Go ahead and create your own cult wine if you really like White Zinfandel.

Cheers

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Book Review:

Red, White, and Drunk All Over. By Natalie MacLean.  Bloomsbury USA, New York, 2006. 279 pages

This new wine book with something of an iconoclastic title by award winning author Natalie MacLean is exactly the kind of book I wish I had written.  It is a lively and refreshing tour of all things related to wine, from the earth that nurtured the vines to the containers that deliver the “translation of the soil and the weather” to our senses. What makes this book unique among the many others out there is MacLean’s straightforward, no-snobbery approach to the subject. She has an unjaded passion and a sincere sense of humility and awe for the entire process of wine production and its enjoyment, which come through in every chapter.

One of the other things that grabbed my attention on the front end of the book was her honest and unapologetic admission that she loves the sensuous nature of wine and how the buzz from the alcohol makes her feel invigorated and animated.  This is the first wine book I recall where the writer states right up front that if it weren’t for the effects of the alcohol she wouldn’t even be writing about wine.  For me, that gave her instant credibility for the rest of what she had to say.

MacLean has an easy conversational writing style, yet rich with sensuous and vivid descriptions.  She masterfully weaves historical and moderately technical information into contemporary stories of her journeys through the world of wine in search of a deeper understanding of its mystique. This approach puts what could otherwise be dull facts into a living and relevant context that I have seen only in books such as those by Peter Mayle, author of A Year in Provence, French Lessons, and other stories that glory in the gastronomic joys of wine and food. 

Key concepts are illustrated in chapters that cover topics such as the importance of terroir; the harvesting and production of wines; making Champagne; how wine is sold; the importance of glassware; pairing wine with food; how to conducting wine tastings; and how to buy and store wines.  She also gives us a peek under the circus tent at wine in the context of the restaurant, and offers clever tips on how to navigate those treacherous waters from a sommelier’s perspective.  But one of my favorite chapters is her exposé of the ongoing and sometimes personally contentious trans-Atlantic debate on the evaluation and rating of wines by powerful writers such as Robert Parker, Jancis Robinson, and Hugh Johnson.  Even the great ones have some stains on their shirts.

Every chapter is rich with useful and interesting information, but it never gets bogged down in esoteric detail.  This is a great read for both novice and experienced wine drinkers.  Natalie has a very nice website where you can find all kinds of additional information, including a free newsletter: http://www.nataliemaclean.com.

© John P. Juergens

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Sorting out sweetness and the pucker factor.

©By John Juergens

In my last column I described the basics of my Vin-Test Wine Evaluation System and how it can be used to find the kinds of wines you prefer by developing a taste profile. Now I want to illustrate how it can be used to sort out the difference between the sense of sweetness that comes from the natural sugars in wine as opposed to that which comes from the fruit flavors of the grape.  Also, I will try to show how to distinguish between the mouth puckering effect caused by the acids in wine and that caused by the tannins.

As I write this I am sipping on an interesting rosé wine from South Africa I picked up at the surreal Winona (Mississippi) Wine and Spirits shop (folks who have gone to a “wine contest” at the so-called Country Club down there know what I mean by “surreal”).  It is loaded with fruit flavors that give the perception of sweetness, but when I measured the residual sugar, that is, the amount of natural sugars left over after fermentation, it is below the normal threshold for most people.

Sorting this out this sugar-fruit sweetness thing probably is one of the most difficult tasks for a wine drinker, and, as much wine as I drink, I still have to really focus my attention to distinguish the two. 

Here’s a little exercise you can do to help illustrate the difference.  Get a bottle of Castle Rock Sauvignon Blanc and chill it down to a little above refrigerator temperature. This wine has bold fruit but almost no residual sugar. Taste the wine as is to get a good sense of what it tastes like, and note especially the sense of sweetness or fruitiness you perceive. 

Next, pour about three ounces of the wine into another glass and dissolve about one-quarter teaspoon of ordinary sugar in it.  Take one more sip from the straight wine, and note where in your mouth you perceive the fruitiness or sweetness of the wine.  Now take a sip of the sugared wine and note where you perceive the sweetness.  The sugar should be perceived mainly right down the middle of your tongue, while fruitiness seems to be sensed all over your mouth.  Go back and forth between these two wines several times to imprint the perceptions on your palate memory.  Of course, if you knew the sugar content up front it would be a lot easier to get your palate around these differences.

Next, let’s try to sort out the pucker factor associated with acids and tannins.  While white wines have a puckery sensation from the acids, the tannins in white wines are well below the sensory threshold for detection, so you don’t have to be concerned about them.  Red wines, on the other hand, have a pucker factor associated with both the acids and the tannins, which come from the grape skins, seeds, and stems.

Students who have taken my basic wine course are familiar with the following exercises to help illustrate how pucker works.  It is a two-step process.  First, get a piece of fresh lemon and a pecan.  Brace yourself and take a good bite of the lemon.  While your eyes close involuntarily and you make funny faces, focus on the kind of puckery sensation you get.  The acids cause a sense of constriction just under your jaw, and while you might experience a small amount of pucker on the sides of your mouth, the predominant effect is on the sides of your tongue.

After you have recovered from the lemon shock, rinse your mouth and then thoroughly chew the pecan and move it all around your mouth. You should experience a strong sense of dryness across the entire surface of your tongue and on any other parts of your mouth the nut mush touches.  That is the kind of pucker you get from the tannins in red wine.  A certain amount of tannin is necessary to give the wine a good mouth feel or “structure,” otherwise it would be flat and flabby, like me.

There are a couple of other things to notice about these effects.  The acid from the lemon will cause intense salivation, which dilutes the acid and diminishes the puckery effect fairly quickly.  The tannins from the pecan, however, do not induce salivation, and, therefore, the puckery effect tends to linger for a much longer time.  If you can stand it, rinse your mouth, give your palate a short rest, then try it all again to get a good sense of the relative pucker effects of acid and tannins.

Now you can move on to try this with wines.  In this case, you will want to compare a dry white wine, such as a Sauvignon Blanc with a big red wine like a Cabernet Sauvignon.  The wines I suggest in my picks of the week will work nicely.  Really swish the wines around your mouth so they touch all surfaces.  Since the white wine will have no perceptive tannins, all of the pucker will come from the acids.  When you taste the red wine you will have both the acids and the tannins at work, but you should be able to distinguish between the locations of the two main pucker sensations, that is, the sides of your tongue for the acids, the top surface of your tongue, around your gums, and on the sides of your mouth for the tannins. 

Where Vin-Test comes in handy is that you can have a sense of the levels of sweetness and pucker that can be expect from a wine so that you don’t end up with a loser that is cloyingly sweet, or one that has high acid, high tannin, and low sugar, and tastes like it has been filtered through the Sahara Desert, making your toes curl up like the witch under Dorothy’s house.

I have four wine picks this week that should help illustrate the concepts of fruity sweetness and pucker from acids and tannins, and which can make nice party wines.

The first is Ray’s Station 2002 Merlot from Sonoma, California.  This is a big, full-bodied wine with aromas of black cherry, leather, and eucalyptus that roll out of the glass.  It tastes more like a Cabernet Sauvignon than a Merlot, and its ample tannins offset the big fruit flavors and slight amount of residual sugar to make it dry on the tongue.  It also has a bit more acid than most red wines, which tends to contribute to its sense of dryness.  However, this drying effect is nicely subdued when the wine is paired with robust cheeses and red meat.  It’s Vin-Test profile is: Sweetness 0.8 ; Crispness 5.0; Pucker Factor 7; and Body 10.  About $15.

Next is a very stylistic 2005 Sauvignon Blanc from Guenoc of Lake County, California.  What makes this wine distinctive is its very obvious white grapefruit aroma and flavors with a hint of pear and pineapple.  It is bone dry as indicated by the lack of sugar, but the fruit gives the same effect as eating a fresh grapefruit; sort of a sweet-tart effect.  It works well with salads and vinegar based dressings, and, of course, grapefruit at brunch.  It’s profile is Sweetness 0.4; Crispness 6.0; Pucker Factor n/a; and Body 6.4.  About $8.

Next is a pair of wines from KitFox Vineyards of California, which make excellent candidates for holiday parties.  These are the new kids on the block and this is only their second vintage. The white wine, called Foxy White, is a blend of no less than seven different grape types to give a very complex and appealing wine with aromas of ripe pear and citrus in the background.  It has a conundrum of flavors including white peaches, apricot, pineapple, honeydew, and maybe a hint of banana, with lingering honeysuckle.  It’s relatively low alcohol content of 12.5%, low acidity, and about 1% residual sugar makes this a light, easy drinking wine.  It’s profile is Sweetness 2.0; Crispness 4.5; Pucker Factor n/a; and Body 4.1.  About $12.

Its sibling is a 2003 red blend of 75% Cabernet Sauvignon and 25% Syrah, called, what else, Foxy Red.  It has a nose that reminds me of some Zinfandels with a mixture of raspberry, dried red fruits, and a hint of some kind of green vegetable.  Some of these come through on the palate, and the modest tannins make it kind of a silky wine that coats the inside of the mouth and lingers there.  It’s profile is Sweetness 1.0; Crispness 2.8; Pucker Factor 5.0; and Body 6.6.  About $12.

Cheers.

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Brief Summaries of Selected Abstracts from the

American Heart Association Scientific Sessions

November 12-15, 2006

3885:  Suh, et al.  Alcohol consumption and 12-year risk of stroke by subtype in Korean Men.

              In a 12-year follow up of 108,461 men, initially aged 35-59 years, a total of 3,083 strokes occurred.   Among these were 1,840 ischemic strokes.  All levels of alcohol consumption significantly reduced the risk of these strokes, by 17% for men reporting

< 20g/day and by 30% for those reporting 20-79 g/day (the latter being the equivalent of about 1 ½ to 5 typical drinks).  Even for men consuming ≥ 80 g/day, there was a slight decrease in risk of ischemic stroke of 11% (not statistically significant).  For 686 subjects having a hemorrhagic stroke (from intracranial hemorrhage), there was no effect of alcohol consumption for subjects consuming up to 59 g/day, then slight but insignificant increases of 23% for men consuming 60-79 g/day and 30% for those consuming more.

These data are very much in line with previous reports of a reduction in the risk of ischemic stroke (the most common type in Western countries) from moderate drinking.  While some studies have suggested that the risk of hemorrhagic stroke increases with any alcohol intake, these results closely match the findings from Arthur Klatsky’s recent study from California.  In the Klatsky study, an increase in hemorrhagic stroke appeared among consumers of 5 or more drinks/day, but not among moderate drinkers. 

3886:  Bazzano, et al.  Alcohol consumption and risk of stroke among Chinese men.

Among a population-based cohort of 68,036 Chinese men aged 40 or greater, 3,553 incident strokes occurred over an 8 to 9 year follow up. The table shows the relative risk (RR), versus non-drinkers, of stroke and stroke mortality by reported alcohol intake (drinks/week).

              The authors report that there were statistically significant “j-shaped” relations for both stoke and stroke mortality, and conclude: “These results suggest that moderate alcohol consumption may decrease risk of stroke, while heavy alcohol consumption may increase the risk of stroke in Chinese men.”  Although the type of stroke was not known, these findings are similar to previous reports of alcohol and total stroke from the West, and similar to the report from Korea summarized above.

3934:  Makaya, et al.  Gene-environment interaction regarding ethanol metabolizing enzymes in the Japanese general population. 

              Because polymorphisms of certain genes, especially alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH), affect the absorption and metabolism of alcohol, the authors measured certain forms of these genes in 5,724 Japanese subjects in a general medical clinic.  Two polymorphisms (of ADH1B and ALDH2) related to drinking habits, in that all 318 subjects who were homozygous for the 487lys form of ALDH2 reported that they were non-drinkers.  Another polymorphism modified the effects of alcohol consumption on both blood pressure and blood lipid levels.

This study found rather striking effects of certain forms of the ADH and ALDH genes on drinking behavior and alcohol effects.  However, data from epidemiologic studies have not been consistent.  As of now, the overall effects of genes on a person’s decision to drink alcohol, on the chances of becoming an abuser, and on the effects of alcohol on many biologic factors and disease outcomes are still poorly understood. 

Traveling with wine: Dealing with the new airline regulations.

© by John Juergens  August 21, 2006

I routinely get questions about ordering wine on the internet and through mail-order directly from wineries and the many wine clubs that have sprung up around the country.  Unfortunately, despite the Supreme Court ruling that should have opened the way to more direct shipping between wineries and consumers, there are only a handful of states that have taken the enlightened approach to allowing reasonable amounts of wine to be shipped directly to consumers.

To compound the problem of getting wine from there to here, the new Homeland Security regulations banning all liquids in carry-on luggage have established additional obstacles in the personal transport of wine, and both consumers and wineries are feeling the pinch.  For some wineries in California, sales at their tasting rooms can amount to fifty percent or more of their total income.  There have been reports of substantial reductions in sales at winery tasting rooms because of the new air travel restrictions, and some airlines will not allow passengers to check wine in shipping containers as luggage.

As a wine writer and wine consultant, I frequently travel to wine producing areas throughout the U.S., Europe, and South America.  When I come across new and interesting wines I usually like to bring back samples to share with friends to get their opinions before I write about them.  Of course, some I bring back just for my own enjoyment.

For many years I transported wines home in my carry-on luggage or in cardboard wine shipping boxes provided by the wineries.  But I also learned how to pack bottles in my checked luggage to increase the amount of wine I could bring back with me, or because I was not able to accommodate the wine as my carry-on baggage.  On the flip side, I almost always carry wine with me on the outward-bound portion of my trips.  I like to have something to sip on when I reach my destination without having to roam around the city looking for a wine shop.  And I don’t want to even get started on the irritating issues involved in trying to get a decent glass of wine at a reasonable price in hotels.

Naturally, my primary concern in packing wine in my checked bags is having a bottle or two break, which is a very real risk given the way baggage handlers seem to believe each bag is in need of a stress test.  But I am proud to say that in more than twenty years of packing wine in my luggage, I have never had a bottle break.  So I want to share some of my packaging strategies, and offer wineries some ideas on how to assist consumers in safely transporting wines without running afoul of the Homeland Security rules.

First, let’s take a look at the situation where you have been roaming around the California wine country and have picked up several bottles of wine you want to take back home, and don’t have any kind of shipping materials.  When packing the wine in your suitcase the important thing is to prevent the bottles from shifting around and getting banged against something hard enough to break the bottle.  What I do first is slip each bottle into a sock, and then roll that up in a dirty undershirt.  You can use any sort of clothing to do this, but you might consider getting some inexpensive athletic socks just for this purpose.  I never wrap the bottles in any piece of clothing I would not want to get ruined if a bottle did break.

Next, I use a plastic bag, usually the laundry bag provided by the hotel, and put as many of the wrapped bottles in it as will fit snuggly side by side. You can use small plastic trash bags as well. Then I fold the top of the plastic bag over and tape the package securely with clear cellophane type packing tape, which I either take with me or buy locally.  I make sure the package is sealed so that if a bottle did break any liquid not absorbed by the socks and clothing will not leak out.

Now you have a sort of "wine mummy" that is all trussed up and ready for burial in your luggage.  The idea is to isolate and insulate the wine on all sides as much as possible, particularly on the sides with the least protection, that is, the broad, flat sides of the bag. This includes both soft-sided and rigid luggage.  I would discourage the use of luggage that does not have some kind of rigid frame, such as duffle bags, for transporting wine.

 Most suitcases these days have wheels that dictate their vertical orientation, and it is important to position the wine parallel with the vertical axis of the suitcase. That is, orient the bottles so that the bottom of the bottles face the bottom of the bag in its normal upright position.  But, first, you want to put things like shoes at the very bottom of the bag just above the wheels, and put down several layers of clothes in the sides of the bag.  Position your wine mummy so that the bottom of the wine bottles rest on top of the shoes or other padding that will absorb shock from that direction.  Then surround the wine package on all sides with clothes and a final couple of layers of clothes on top before you close the bag.  Give the suitcase a few good shakes to make sure the wine package can not move around and come into contact with any of the sides of the suitcase.

That is basically how I have done it for more than twenty years without any mishaps.  If I know there is a chance of bringing back more than three or four bottles, I will take an extra suitcase that is loosely packed with clothes in anticipation of using it to pack wine.  I have brought back up to fourteen bottles of wine this way.  Sure, the bags tend to get pretty heavy, and you might even incur an overweight charge if you try to bring pack more than a few bottles, but that charge still will be less than the cost of shipping the wine by FedEx, DHL, UPS, or by the winery, assuming it is legal to ship wine back to your state.

If you really want to be prepared and not risk damaging even a dirty undershirt to wine stains, you can take with you a roll of bubble wrap available at any mail service store such as Mailboxes, Etc and the UPS Store.  I would use the kind with the small bubbles to conserve space and tape them closed, but I would still seal them inside some kind of plastic bag with some kind of absorbent material.

This is where the wineries can help consumers and themselves to maintain those valuable tasting room sales.  In addition to providing the traditional cardboard carriers, they can carry the bubble wrap, tape, and plastic bags that are easily sealed to make the luggage packing that much easier.  They can have demonstrations or hand out materials that illustrate the best ways to pack wine in luggage as I described above.

As a passionate wine consumer, I have vowed to never let anything get in the way of my wine enjoyment.  When the new travel restrictions on liquids were announced, I did not worry for a moment about traveling with wine because I knew I had a tried and true way around that obstacle.  I hope this works for you as well.

Cheers.