I didn't mention this in my NEDS review, because the capsule was already long enough and had enough personal diversion. But several times during the film, I became quite annoyed by a practice that's aggravated me every time I've seen it — subtitled Scots, specifically subtitled Glaswegian.
Now I'm not gonna pretend there's not a small element (OK, a large element) of personal pique in the fact that nearly every time I've seen my native English dialect used in movies, it's been subtitled as if it were a foreign language that needed translation. And this is compounded by the fact that for the most part, films set elsewhere in Scotland or among Glasgow's upper-classes — SHALLOW GRAVE, all but a couple of scenes in TRAINSPOTTING, LOCAL HERO, COMFORT AND JOY — don't get subtitled for US exhibition.
While obviously I am by definition the perfectly worst judge of whether subtitling Glaswegian is necessary for American audiences, I really think there are gradations. I didn't think the accent/dialect in RED ROAD or ORPHANS was nearly as thick as in RIFF RAFF, SWEET SIXTEEN, MY NAME IS JOE or NEDS. At least those first two movies, so says my memory, were not unintelligible to anyone paying attention after maybe 10 minutes, the amount of "ear adjustment" time I need to get accustomed to a working-class English or Australian dialect. Yet those movies all were subtitled … grrr.
Still I try to be a clear-eyed realist, and so I have to acknowledge that Glaswegian seems to pose more difficulties for other Anglophones than other English dialects do. In fact I can "code-switch" into Glaswegian upon command (or the impetus of another British accent) and lose Americans within five seconds.
But … if you're going to subtitle on the assumption that Glaswegian needs translation — actually "translate." Several times during NEDS, I couldn't believe what I was reading, thinking "how would this subtitle help anybody for whom Glaswegian is too foreign to follow in the first place?" Very early on, there is a line that sounds like "doant start greetin own meh," which the subtitles render, accurately enough, as "don't start greeting on me." But, for the non-Glaswegian who doesn't know that the verb "to greet" means "to cry," that subtitle would just be mystifying, especially since "to greet" is a verb in standard English, but with a very different meaning. Other slang terms go untranslated throughout. You can probably figure out what a "cheeky wee sod" is or the meaning of "brainbox." But I'm not sure the same is true for calling someone or something (and which of the two it is matters for meaning) a "stoater" or referring to a bunch of "eejits" (which is not its own word, but a colloquial pronunciation of a standard English term, "idiots").
At other times, you just have to scratch your head wondering how familiar the subtitler actually was with Glaswegian speech. Late in the movie, there is a line that sounds like "gawen away aggen thamawrra," which the subtitle translates (hilariously) as "going away again the mawrra." I snorted and giggled at the same time — even Glaswegians don't *write* "the mawrra," however we may pronounce the word we and everyone else spell "tomorrow." Again … for whom can "the mawrra" be clearer? On another occasion, one character says to another what sounds like "ahll gie ye a coalcarry" and the person addressed leaps onto the speaker's back for a ride, what Americans call a "piggyback." The subtitle translated that line as "I'll give you a co-carry." I'm aware that in actual speech, syllable-ending l-sounds like that are often ellided or unvoiced. But if you're going to spell out the word, it's a "coal-carry," so called because of how coalmen used to deliver bags of coal to Glasgow tenements by carrying them on the their backs, slung over the shoulder. Maybe coal is now used so rarely that the term's origin is lost to today's Glasgow youth and the "l" sound has been dropped entirely. But I know I *heard* "coal-carry" right away, and the movie was set in the 70s when coal was still widely used for home-heating.
This probably sounds a little dyspeptic and is obviously about more than NEDS. I know and appreciate that Peter Mullan has done more, as a director and actor, to portray working-class Glasgow in feature films than any man alive. But … Peter … subtitle idiomatically or don't subtitle. Dae it rit or no attaw.


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The Esprit de Tablas Blanc is having a moment
I know, you're supposed to love all your children equally. But it's an open secret to the people I work with that year in and year out, my favorite wine that we make is our Esprit de Tablas Blanc. That's not an indictment of any of our other wines. And it's not even that I open more bottles of Esprit Blanc than I do anything else (that honor goes this year to our Vermentino). But I feel like the Esprit Blanc is a wine that year after year we can stand up against the best examples of rich, textured whites made anywhere in the world, from any number of different grapes, and have it shine.
So, it's pretty cool that in this end-of-year holiday season the Esprit Blanc (both 2017 and 2018 vintages) has been getting some serious love from writers. I don't usually write much about the press we receive here on the blog, but I thought it was worth highlighting some of the honors it's received in the last few weeks. Roughly in the order in which they were released:
2017 Esprit Blanc in Wine Enthusiast's "Top 100 Cellar Selections of 2020"
There is a visceral assumption in America that white wines (or at least dry white wines) should be drunk young. This may be true for many white grapes, but there is a long list of exceptions. Still, Wine Enthusiast deserves serious kudos for including so many whites in this year's Top 100 Cellar Selections list: 20 dry whites in all, not counting five sparkling wines and two sweet whites. Those selections are drawn from grapes you would expect (Riesling, Semillon, and Chardonnay, from multiple regions) as well as those you might not (Gruner-Veltliner, Albarino, and Garagnega). And it's great to see the 2017 Esprit de Tablas Blanc bringing Roussanne and Rhone-style to that party. This summer, we opened and tasted every vintage of our Esprit de Beaucastel Blanc and Esprit de Tablas Blanc for our annual summer vertical tasting, and the longevity of the wines really stood out. In my notes from the tasting, I shared that the list of favorites spanned nearly two decades:
I asked everyone around the table to pick four favorites, and the wines that got multiple votes were 2001 (3), 2006 (3), 2009 (3), 2013 (2), and 2017 (5). But there were wonderful vintages that didn't get "favorite" votes too. The wines do change and evolve, and you should do your best to explore if you prefer your Esprit Blancs older, younger, or somewhere in the middle. But across the board, we thought that they were great showcases for the texture, richness, structure, spice and minerality we think this property imbues in our white wines.
Rhone-style whites can age well, as a rule, but do so a little differently than many of the whites that are famously ageworthy. Grapes like Riesling or Chablis-style Chardonnay age based on their acidity, with texture playing a secondary role. Rhone whites, particularly Roussanne, age based on their texture, with acidity almost irrelevant. The 2017 Esprit Blanc is intensely Roussanne in character, with density, structure, and texture galore, and flavors of honey and mineral that we expect to deepen into caramel and nuts over time.
2018 Esprit Blanc in Wine & Spirits "Top 100 Wines of 2020"
Wine & Spirits Magazine does their Top 100 a little differently than most. In addition to a list of wines, they publish a list of Top 100 Wineries. We were proud to be a part of this year's list. And in their list of wines (which I can't find online anywhere, though there's a link to the issue in which it appears) they don't rank them. Instead, they choose the best wines from various categories throughout the year. That ensures that instead of a list with a dozen Napa Cabernets, or white Burgundies, or German Rieslings represented, a broad range of types of wines and regions of origin is represented.
We were excited to see one of our wines make the list for the second year in a row. Last year it was the 2016 Esprit de Tablas. This year, it was the 2018 Esprit de Tablas Blanc honored as "Best California White Blend". As I find generally true of Wine & Spirits' reviews, Patrick Comiskey's tasting note is almost lyrical:
Tablas Creek's top white has been roussanne-dominant for several vintages now, and they've learned how to capture the variety's elegant fleshiness without letting it get blowsy, propping it up with higher-acid whites, like grenache blanc, picpoul, clairette, and picardan. This wine smells of apple pulp and honey at first go, giving up little but seductive texture. On the second day open, the wine becomes grand, the weight of roussanne comfortable and powerful, with a lemony, crisp apple contour.
94-95 point Reviews for 2018 Esprit Blanc from Vinous, BevX, Owen Bargreen, and Blue Lifestyle
Sometimes a wine will really resonate with one reviewer, but not so much with others. It's been noteworthy to see the consistency of the reviews that the 2018 Esprit Blanc has gotten. The 93 from Wine & Spirits Magazine (a famously conservative grader) was good enough to get it into their Top 100 wines of the year, and the other recent scores the wine has gotten have been a point or two higher. Each reviewer pulls something different out of the wine, but the consistent mid-90s scores that the wine has received the last couple of vintages feels like a small but significant step up from what we've seen before. I won't bother repeating the different notes, but if you're curious, they're all linked from the 2018 Esprit Blanc's page on our website.
2017 Esprit Blanc in Bloomberg's "Top 10 Wines of 2020"
Top 100 is great. But top 10? That's new territory for us, for any of our wines. So when we saw that the 2017 Esprit Blanc had made Elin McCoy's Top 10 Wines of 2020 list for Bloomberg, alongside icons like Krug and Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, we were floored. Even better, her description of the wine and of Tablas Creek encapsulates maybe better than any other short profile we've gotten what we're all about:
This showstopping California blend of five white Rhône varieties from Paso Robles is a vivid reminder that you don't have to compromise on quality to support wineries consciously working to make the world a better place. The stunning Esprit de Tablas white has salty minerality; zesty acidity; rich, complex flavors; and serious aging potential—a grand wine for a reasonable price. Tablas Creek became the world's first Regenerative Organic Certified winery this year, embracing a new comprehensive program that includes social responsibility for its workers.
A "grand wine for a reasonable price"? That's an epitaph any wine would want on its Hall of Fame plaque. And from my perspective, it couldn't happen for a more deserving wine we make, or at a better time.
Cheers, everyone.
Posted at 02:10 PM in Reviews, Awards, and Press, Wine Marketing | Permalink | Comments (1)
Can rosé wines age? It depends on the grapes they're made from.
Over the weekend, I saw a really nice review of our 2017 Dianthus Rosé on Kerry Winslow's Grapelive blog. I found it interesting that Kerry, although he loved it, felt like he needed to address it being a 2017, adding the comment that it "is last years wine, but still vibrant and the maturity hasn't slowed down this fabulous wine". I don't think you'd find a caveat like this for a white wine, and a 2017 would be considered maybe even too young to drink for most reds. But it gets at a common perception of rosés: that they need to be drunk the year that they're released.
Is it true? There are definitely some, maybe even many, rosés for which I'd say yes. But, and this is important, like reds and whites, the grape(s) that the wine is made with matters. The dominant model for rosés is that of Provence, which is based on Grenache, always an oxidative grape, and they tend to have very pale colors from minimal time in contact with the skins. In the cellar at Tablas Creek, we are careful to keep even red Grenache away from too much oxygen. We ferment it in stainless steel or large wooden tanks, and avoid 60-gallon barriques (what you probably think of as a "normal" wine barrel) for aging. And you'd expect a rosé made from Grenache to have a shorter aging curve. Tannins act as a preservative in wine. So, if you start with Grenache, already an oxidative grape, and pull it early off the skins, which are the source of a wine's tannins, you're likely to end up with something that's even less resistant to oxidation. My experience with most Provence rosés (and the American rosés that are modeled off them) bears that out. The wines are at their best the summer after they're made. The best ones are still good the next summer, but they've already started to fade.
But it's equally important to remember that Provence is not the world's (or even France's) only rosé tradition. Bandol, arguably the source of the world's greatest rosés, uses Mourvèdre as the lead grape. And Mourvèdre is a very different beast from Grenache. In our cellar, we do everything we can to make sure we get Mourvèdre air. We ferment it in open-top fermenters. We age it in oak, and still have to make sure to rack it fairly often so it doesn't get reductive. Some of that comes from Mourvèdre's skins, but not all does. And it's worth mentioning that, depending on how your rosé is made, it's going to get at least some of the tannins (and their powers of preservation) from the skins. In the case of our Dianthus, the juice spends between 24 and 36 hours on the skins, giving it a deep pink color and providing a hint of tannic bite that brings counterpoint to the wine's lush fruit.
I remember learning, to my surprise, that as recently as a decade ago many Bandol estates didn't even release their rosés until the fall after harvest, because they felt that the wines took that much time to really open up and come into their own. I don't think that happens much any more. Producers in the (dominant) Provence model compete to be first into the market in the springtime to lock up the lucrative summer rosé placements, which has created a market and consumer expectation that you want the newest, freshest rosé you can find. That means that for a tradition like Bandol, even if the wine is better in the fall, a producer is likely to make a market-driven calculation that they should release the wine early.
Although the growth of the rosé market has meant that it's more of a year-round item on wine lists, there is still definitely a rosé high season in the spring and summer, and restaurants and retailers all look to feature the newest vintage. So, there are three significant disincentives against fall releases. First, you're releasing a wine into a market that is saturated with earlier releases (many of whom are likely looking to close out any remaining inventory with deep discounts). Second, you're releasing a wine into a category that is going off season. And third, by the time the season opens back up in the springtime, you look like old inventory compared to the new crop of the next year's rosés.
But those market realities don't change the fact that the fall release tradition gets at something important about rosés made from these oxidation-resistant grapes. They improve in bottle, are likely just reaching their peak in the cooler fall and winter seasons, and can be just as good or even better the next summer. Their deeper flavors also make for better matches with the richer foods of chillier seasons.
That's why seeing a review like this for this wine makes me happy. It recognizes that these rosés can improve with time in bottle, and can be great winter wines. In our tasting room, we switch in October from showcasing our Patelin Rosé (which we poured for guests in spring and summer) to our Dianthus, which we'll continue to feature through the fall and into the winter, as long as it lasts. It also helps people learn that rosés are not a uniform category, and different base grapes produce different profiles and different life paths, like with reds and whites. For all the growth of the rosé category, the idea that rosés can be diverse is still something that's not well enough understood.
Posted at 09:46 AM in Library Wines, Practical Wine Advice, Reviews, Awards, and Press, Wine Marketing, Winery & Winemaking | Permalink | Comments (7)
So, what makes people join a wine club, anyway?
I had a first for me a couple of weeks ago: I closed the deal on a wine club signup via Twitter:
This wasn't a Herculean feat; it sounds like Amber LeBeau, who writes the SpitBucket.Net blog, was interested already. I just connected the last few dots. But I was fascinated to read the blog that she posted the next day, about why she signed up. After all, there are thousands of American wineries, most of whom have wine clubs, and thousands more clubs available from retailers, magazines, newspapers, and even NPR.
It started with a tweet from @enobytes and then I ended up a wine club member @TablasCreek . Along the way I ponder some of the traits that make a wine club compelling enough to join. https://t.co/GycELb3F3Y
— Spitbucket.net (@SpitbucketBlog) January 15, 2018
Now we spend a lot of our time thinking about how to make our wine club (or, more accurately, wine clubs, since we offer three different flavors) as appealing as possible. We research how other wineries who we respect craft their club offerings. And we try to listen (and to ask) our own customers about what they want out of a club. Still, each customer's reason for joining a club is ultimately personal, and what may be appealing to one customer may matter only a little to another. In Amber's piece, she outlines three main factors she uses in deciding whether to sign up for a club or not:
How easy can I get your wines at home?
How many bottles am I committing myself to?
How likely is the style of wine going to change?
Happily, we fared well on all three factors. While some of our core wines are available in Amber's hometown of Seattle, we make more than a dozen wines each year that don't make it into distribution, many of which are exclusively available to wine club members. We think of our wine club as an introduction to our wines, not a means to move large quantities, and so typically send out twelve different bottles per year, six in the spring and six in the fall. And we are family-owned, with so much continuity in our philosophy and winemaking team that we've had the same winemaker for more than two decades. So, we passed. (Thank you, Amber!)
Still, because of this conversation and the blog that resulted, I've spent more time than usual recently thinking about what makes for a great wine club. I thought I'd put my thoughts down here, and encourage you to chime in in the comments if you think there are things I've under- or over-emphasized, or that I've missed entirely.
Wines that you love, consistently. This is, I think, the core of it all. If a winery makes wines that you love across the board the chances of you loving what they choose to send you is a lot greater than if you like a few wines a lot and others less.
Wines you otherwise can't get. I think it's important that there be wines that are made especially for club members (or, at least, set aside exclusively for club members). When we started, and our wine club was small, this was easy. Now, we have to plan for it, and make wines that we know are going to be dedicated to our members. This can be lots of fun. [Read, if you haven't, our blog from last spring about making a new wine around Terret Noir for our club members.]
Savings. Now, maybe if your wine is otherwise unavailable (i.e. all sold on allocation) this isn't a key. Getting the wine at all is the important thing. But for most wineries, you don't have to be a member to get their wine. Making sure that club members get good prices on what they buy is really important. There's not much that will make a member into an ex-member faster than seeing your wine sold cheaper than they can get it at a nearby store.
Special treatment. I think "club" is the key word here. You want to know that when you visit a place where you're a member, you'll be treated like an insider. There's not one specific way in which this has to be done. But knowing that you'll get more than the basic experience everyone else gets is important.
Flexibility & convenience. I've lumped these two things together, because while they're probably not positive decision factors, they can definitely be deal-breakers. A shipment every two months? Probably not a convenience if you have to be home to sign for the packages. A single set configuration which can't be adjusted depending on your likes? Probably ditto (though less so if you really love all the wines). And any particular wine in quantity? Probably less appealing than a variety.
Fun other opportunities to connect. Whether this includes member-only days at the winery, excursions (hey, how about a Rhone River cruise?), or just making the point of sending out information and invitations to club members when you're doing an event in their neck of the woods, opportunities to connect outside the tasting room can be lots of fun for everyone.
We are always honored when someone joins one of our wine clubs. It's a meaningful gesture of faith in what we do that a customer will give us their credit card and say, in essence, we trust you to pick some wines we'll love. We want always to make sure that we're worthy of that trust, and are proud that our wine club members stay members for more than three times the industry average. If you have things that you particularly value in a club membership that I haven't mentioned, or another way you look at value, please share it in the comments.
And, once more, to any members out there, thank you.
Posted at 04:29 PM in Reviews, Awards, and Press, VINsider Wine Club, Wine Blogs, Wine Marketing | Permalink | Comments (7)
San Luis Obispo County: the Little County that Could
This week, the San Luis Obispo Tribune posted a nice article pointing out the terrific representation of San Luis Obispo County in the two most influential year-end "Top 100" lists published by the Wine Spectator and by the Wine Enthusiast. The Wine Spectator included seven local wines in their Top 100, while the Wine Enthusiast added three more in their Top 100. Let's stop and think about this for a moment. That's 10 of the 200 wines represented in the two lists from our little county, or 5%. And even better that most of the wines listed were toward the tops of the lists. Already pretty satisfying, right? It's actually even better than that.
How much wine does San Luis Obispo County make, compared to the rest of the state, country, and world? In 2016, San Luis Obispo County ranked seventh in the state of California by bearing acreage according to the USDA:
San Joaquin: 68,210
Sonoma: 58,007
Monterey: 44,095
Napa: 43,589
Fresno: 37,831
Madera: 32,763
San Luis Obispo: 31,480
Overall, our county represents 6.8% of the 459,629 bearing acres in the state of California. So, 5% doesn't seem like that great a representation.1 But of course, not all the wines in the two "Top 100" lists are from California. In fact, just 39 of the 200 wines in the two lists (17 in Wine Enthusiast and 22 in Wine Spectator) are from California. So, that's 25.6% of the state's "Top 100" representatives that come from SLO County. Not bad.
Perhaps you'd prefer to look at what percentage of American wine our little county represents? Opening up the list to wines from Washington, Oregon, and New York adds an additional 22 wines. That reduces SLO County's percentage from 25.6% to 16.4%, still well above the 3.45% of the country's total production that San Luis Obispo County represents.2
Or perhaps you're prefer to look internationally. In 2015, the United States produced 10.48% of the world's wine. So, San Luis Obispo County produced 0.36% of the world's wine: just one out of every 277 bottles made. That means that in the two "Top 100" lists, the 5% that SLO County represents is overperforming by something like 14 times, measured as our percentage of world production.
However you choose to measure it, we punched way above our weight class in 2017.
You go, San Luis Obispo County.
1. It's actually a little better than it sounds, since although SLO County represents 6.8% of California's acres, it represents something less than that of its production. That's because coastal regions like ours generally produce many fewer tons per acre than counties in the Central Valley. Figuring out by how much is a little tricky, since production isn't tracked by county, only by Grape District. In the California Grape Crush Report for 2016, District 8, which includes San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura Counties, produced 224,584 tons. If SLO County represents the same 67% of tonnage that it represents of the district's bearing acreage, which seems reasonable, it would produce 150,471 tons, or about 3.7% of the state's 4,031,000 total tons produced.
2. This calculation required a bit of cross-referencing, since grape acreage statistics in states outside California, Washington, Oregon, and Texas are hard to come by. I used instead the tons estimate I calculated in the above footnote, and calculated the percentage of total national production based on the Wine Institute's data that California represents roughly 85% of the United States' total national production.
Posted at 03:48 PM in Community Roundup, Paso Robles, Reviews, Awards, and Press | Permalink | Comments (0)
Should a Vermentino ever get 98 points?
Yesterday, we posted to our Twitter feed a great review that our 2016 Vermentino received from the trade publication BevX:
Definitely the best score we've ever seen for Vermentino: 98 points. Thank you, @Sean_BevX. On feature this month! https://t.co/3Y4nJoReZw pic.twitter.com/DPRDqbiPn5
— Tablas Creek (@TablasCreek) June 5, 2017
I then had a brief exchange on Twitter with Sean Ludford, who runs BevX:
Hard to believe that everyone was not in the 98 to 100 range. I love Vermentino and this one is in the rare top tier.
— Sean Ludford (@Sean_BevX) June 5, 2017
I feel like there's a glass ceiling around 90 points for Vermentino because it's not "serious" (read ageworthy). Like rosé. #allthemoreforus
— Jason Haas (@jasonchaas) June 5, 2017
Likely so. I've never suffered from this problem. Vermentino is as serious as Chardonnay. Excellence is excellence.
This got me thinking. What is it about certain grapes or styles that allows them to be great? I wondered how many Vermentinos had received 90+ scores from larger publications, so I looked in the Wine Spectator's database. They've scored 430 Vermentinos over the years. Of those, 17 have received 90+ scores, including just two 91s and one 92. That's less than 4% of the Vermentinos reviewed (which, presumably, are the better ones) that received an "outstanding" or "classic" score.
Thinking about other grapes that fit a similar profile (bright, crisp, generally best drunk young) I looked up Picpoul. Of the 60 that they tasted, only one (from our neighbors here in Paso Robles, Adelaida Cellars) got a 90. That's 1.7%.
Going more into the mainstream, Chardonnay returns 25,485 results in the Wine Spectator database. Of these, 5,206 have received 90+ ratings (20.4%). Sauvignon Blanc returns 10,706 results, with 935 (8.7%) receiving 90+ scores. Pinot Grigio returns 2,204 results, but only 82 90+ scores (3.7%).
Rhone whites as a whole score well. Take Roussanne, for example. Of the 456 Roussannes reviewed by the Wine Spectator over the years, 70 (15.4%) received 90+ ratings, with our 2014 Roussanne being one of three that topped the list at 93 points. Viognier has 362 90+ wines out of 2,404 (15.1%). Marsanne has 33 90+ scores out of 269 wines (12.3%). And Grenache Blanc, which only returns 212 results, has 24 90+ scores, four of them ours (11.3%). Only Picpoul is an outlier here.
So, what does it mean that 20+% of Chardonnays can be "outstanding" or "classic", 11-15% of most of the Rhone whites, but only 4% of Vermentinos? I think there are a few factors at play.
Ageworthiness. I do think that reviewers put a premium on wines that can be aged into something greater than they were in their youth. This makes some sense to me. A truly great wine should be interesting over time, and assume different personalities. Just as a great book is something that you want to return to at different stages of your life, and from which you can gather different insights depending on your own life experiences. Vermentino, as beautiful as it can be, is not a wine that we think improves with time in bottle.
Richness. There also seems to be a correlation between a wine's body and high scores. Most Rhone whites (with the possible exception of Grenache Blanc) show a lot of body. And even Grenache Blanc can have plenty of body; it's just balanced by high acids. But grapes that are lighter in body, like Picpoul or Pinot Grigio (or Vermentino) tend not to be treated the same way. Sauvignon Blanc, which can be made richer but is typically bright and lean, falls somewhere in between. If we were able to taste the styles of the highest-rated wines in the category, I would guess that they'd tend toward the richer side of the grape's spectrum. Here is a case where I think there's room to debate. Is there a place for rich wines? Of course. But I know that I value refreshment in wine as much as I do power. And yes, great wines should offer at least some of both.
Oak. What else distinguishes white wines with more body from those with less? The more substantial wines are more likely to have been fermented in oak, and to have a higher percentage of that oak be new. Does this mean that a category that typically isn't made with oak has to be oaked to get high scores? I hope not. You're starting to see this with some luxury rosé cuvées, most visibly Chateau d'Esclans, whose top-of-the-line Garrus rosé, aged in new and one-year-old French oak, has on its Web page a litany of reviews calling it the "best rosé in the world". But is the wine better, or is it the oak that tells people they should value it more? I think it's at least partly the latter. I tasted Garrus along the other three tiers from Chateau d'Esclans, and I preferred the freshness of the less expensive wines to the creamy oakiness of the elite levels, not least because the oak to me worked against the freshness and charm that I look for in rosés. That said, the richer style clearly has its adherents. A grape like Vermentino is not likely to be put into new barrels, and thank heavens for that. But the sweet spice and weight that new oak brings to a wine is at least a part of what cues reviewers to identify wines as elite.
Provenance. Looking at the scores, the percentage of high scores is correlated with the percentage of each wine that is made in California. Now, before I dive into this potential land mine, let me make it clear that I do not believe that California wines are held to a different (lower) standard, that the Wine Spectator is biased in favor of California, or that all California wines are better than wines from the Old World. That said, I do believe that California winemakers have taken a new look at many grapes which in the Old World were made in a certain way by tradition. Take Picpoul:
In France, the Picpouls (mostly from the Pinet region, in Languedoc) are generally produced plentifully, harvested early with modest sugars, fermented fast and bottled young to showcase the wines' bright acids. And they are all so cheap (generally under $10 retail) that there is little opportunity or incentive to innovate.
At Tablas Creek, we farm the same grape at lower yields, in a climate with colder nights, and those combine to produce wines with just as much acidity, but more concentration and texture than the French versions.
It's noteworthy that just 9 of the 70 Picpouls are from California, and yet most of the ones that received the high scores were. Same with Vermentino: just 9 of the 430 reviews are for California wines (6 of these are ours).
Are the wines principally different because of climate? Sure, in part. But I think it's at least as much in the freedom that we have from tradition, and the higher price point of most California wines, that has encouraged and rewarded a new approach to these formerly unfashionable grapes.
The wines with longer histories in California have more reviews but tell the same story; thirty of Roussanne's seventy 90+ scores come from California.
Ultimately, the ceiling score for wines is determined by the accumulated reputation of a category over the years. And I don't think this is a bad thing, or that all grapes are created equal. Cabernet, Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir command the world's highest prices and the lion's share of many magazines' top scores because the market has decided that their best examples are worth the high prices they command. Is there an extent to which this is tradition? Sure. But these are great grapes, which have proved their value and reputation over generations. There is a reason why I reach for a Chardonnay a lot more often than I do for a Pinot Grigio, and I don't want to suggest that the same percentage of every grapes should receive 90+ scores.
That said, remember that loving unfashionable grapes is a tremendous opportunity to enjoy a category's great examples on the cheap. What the best Chardonnays from Montrachet or Cabernets from Napa Valley will set you back can be measured in hundreds or thousands of dollars. This 98-point Vermentino? $27, and less since June is the month it is our featured wine.
In the end, I find it refreshing to think that a grape can be celebrated for being outstanding in its own right and not bump up against some glass ceiling of worthiness. Is there really no such thing as a "classic" Vermentino"? Maybe not, if the definition of a classic is one that will stand the test of time; I know I'm going to try to drink all my 2016 Vermentino before the 2017 is even picked. But I hope there is the opportunity to identify a wine that is outstanding at a moment in time, even if (especially if) it's now the best it will ever be. And as Sean Ludford said in his last tweet, "excellence is excellence". Amen to that.
A Rebuttal: Drink what you like. And celebrate wine's diversity.
It's rare enough that the mass media writes about wine that I was pleased to see an opinion piece on wine in this Sunday's New York Times, called "Ignore the Snobs, Drink the Cheap, Delicious Wine". In the piece, author Bianca Bosker begins with a visit to Treasury Wine Estates. One of the world's largest wine companies, Treasury is best known for owning flagship brands like Penfold's, Stag's Leap, Lindeman's, Beringer, and Chateau St. Jean, but those are just a few of the wines they make. Between all their brands, according to their Web site, they sold over 30 million cases of wine in 2015. Ms. Bosker is impressed enough by their wine creation process (which she describes as "created from the consumer backwards") that it encourages her to rethink the place of wines that are, like those she saw, more engineered in a lab than grown in a vineyard. If you haven't read it, go do it now. OK, welcome back.
Copyright: freeprod / 123RF Stock Photo
I don't at all disagree with the idea that people should drink what tastes good to them. I think it's great that the wines that are being made for the masses are better than they were a generation ago. I do hear, again and again, that the chance of finding a truly flawed wine is the lowest it has ever been. That's all good. It's a noble goal to make people feel better about drinking the wines they like, and to dispel the intimidation factor from wine. But while this is just an excerpt from what will surely be a more nuanced book, I fear that her central conclusion is wrong, and wrong in a way that will discourage, rather than encourage, the creation of a new generation of wine lovers.
Let's address the cringe-inducing op-ed title first. I hate that wine knowledge is -- so often -- conflated with snobbery by the general media. The sommeliers I know are eager to share that knowledge, genuinely enthusiastic about wine, accepting that people have different tastes, and explicit that their goal should be to unite their customers with wines they'll love. That said, from my experience with publishers, I'm guessing it was the Times's editors who chose that title and not the author, so I'll leave that there. The second half of the title ("Drink the Cheap, Delicious Wine") seems like something that no one should object to.
And yet... the challenge is, of course, who gets to define delicious, and what that means for the wines that result. I love finding great wines that are steals for their quality, often from overlooked grapes or lesser known regions.1 The process of experimentation and discovery with these sorts of wines tends to lead people to understanding: these less heralded wines are often quite different from one another, and people may well learn that they love the freshness of Gamay but hate the herbal character of Cabernet Franc. Or vice versa. So, as consumers experiment, the diversity of what they taste also helps them better define what they like.
But rather than use modern techniques to create homages to the best simple village wines that a novice drinker might have enjoyed a generation ago, it seems from the author's descriptions that what she found were caricatures of expensive wines. Perhaps this is unsurprising. The production techniques that many elite wineries use for their highest-end wines are expensive: think very low production, to produce intensity; late harvests, to produce luscious flavors; aggressive sorting, to ensure that only the highest quality grapes begin fermentation; and new oak barrels, to provide sweet spices. These together result in wines that tend toward being rich and dense, with sweet fruit, low acid, and soft tannins. That's clearly a flavor profile with its adherents, even if it's not particularly mine.
It doesn't seem like it particularly is the author's taste, either. She describes the wines as "rich, syrupy and heavy", which sounds like a nice thing to pour over your pancakes, but maybe not to accompany your rib eye. Or maybe it does, to you. But even if so, all this reliability comes at a cost.
The rub is that, in a crowded marketplace, these focus-group-engineered wines necessarily displace wines of more interest and more diversity. The process by which focus-group wines are made means that they taste much the same, whatever their varietal makeup or their appellation of origin. Maybe this is OK, if these sorts of wines act as a gateway, getting people on a path that leads (eventually) to wines of more character and diversity. The author (and the Treasury spokesperson she interviews) asserts that. But I'm not sure. While any one of these wines may have a greater chance of appealing to any individual consumer, it seems to me that their sameness -- and the fact that these wines are the (often overwhelming) majority of what's on the shelves in supermarkets -- limits their ability, as a group, to connect with a range of potential wine lovers with different tastes.2
Wine can be a challenging thing. Many consumers who love wine are still intimidated by the arcane (and often foreign) names of places and grapes, the mysteries of fermentation and aging, and the often high prices that come alongside some famous names. But what is the solution to this? Is it to celebrate the elimination of wine's complexities, where wine all follows a specific taste formula designed to please the maximum number of novice drinkers? That seems a shame. Think of food. Is there a place for a Big Mac in American dining? Sure. But does it matter that food can be more than that, or that there are social implications of settling for what's mass-produced for focus groups? Also yes.
And should people aspire to drink better than "root beer with a splash of Hershey's syrup and vodka," as the author described the wines she tasted in the lab? I don't think that's too much to ask, and I reject the idea that a sommelier (or winemaker) who is trying to lead people along a path to something more meaningful (even if it's more challenging) is somehow doing their customers a disservice.
So does every wine writer I read, from Robert Parker to Eric Asimov, who like very different sorts of wines. We try to make wines that fit into this basic criteria with our Patelin de Tablas line.
It also seems to me a shame that you also lose what makes wine unique among beverages: that it is a window into the grape(s) that it came from, the place in which it's grown, and the people who made it. But maybe that's just me being romantic.
Posted at 03:39 PM in Practical Wine Advice, Reviews, Awards, and Press, Wine Marketing | Permalink | Comments (19)
On being a kid-friendly winery
I was pleased to see us mentioned in Mother Magazine's Paso Robles Guide, published online today. I was even more pleased to see Paso Robles recognized:
We moved out to Paso Robles in part because we were ready to start a family, and we haven't been disappointed. From the great downtown park to a terrific library system, the different children's museums to an active youth sports community, it's been a great place to raise our two boys. But I think that the kid-friendliness of the food and wine community has been noteworthy as well. It's been fun to see the enthusiasm of the servers in the restaurants we visit, taking the kids seriously as they learn how to navigate their way around a real menu. And the bartenders we ask to make up fun kids' cocktails. We've never felt like we attract dirty looks by bringing the kids into the many great restaurants here, and for that we're grateful.
So it's really nothing more than paying it forward to do what we can to help make parents who visit Tablas Creek with kids feel welcome. And, having been a parent in the shoes, so to speak, of our visitors, it's easy to remember how grateful even simple accommodations made us feel. What do we do? It's not rocket science.
Offer an activity for kids while parents taste. In our case, we have a kid-sized coloring table in the corner of our tasting room, with pictures of grapes and vines that they can color. Heck, you don't even need to be a kid to use it, though if you're more than about 5'2" your knees may complain. But giving parents the chance to focus on your wine instead of corralling a bored kid who otherwise is underfoot is good for your customers, your bottom line, and your sanity.
Offer events for families to do together. Clearly, many or most of the events you're going to offer as a winery are going to be focused on wine drinking (or pairing, or making) and won't be appropriate to kids. But much of what a winery does is agriculture, and it's important and typically fun to get kids involved in how things are grown and made. We use animals as a part of our biodynamic program, and have created events to bring families out to meet the animals and learn their role in a healthy vineyard.
Be inclusive where you can. We take as many people as are interested out on tours to see the vineyard, our grapevine nursery, and the winery. All of this is interesting to kids, in my experience. Have them taste different grapes and see if they can describe what makes them different. Explain why you plant, or graft, or farm the way you do. It costs nothing, builds goodwill, and gets kids involved in important conversations.
Be involved in your community. The work that we do here is only one way that we interact with our customers. Many of them live in our community, and most of them visit. We have made it a point to get involved in the community activities that enrich the life experiences of kids who grow up here, from creating a partnership with the Performing Arts Center, to donating wine to raise funds for art in schools at the Paso Arts Fest, to creating a program with must! charities to support the Boys' & Girls' Club here in Paso and a local expansion of the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. There are so many ways to make a difference... and many of the most compelling focus on kids.
It's really not the case where in making your winery family-friendly you have to choose to somehow make it less adult-friendly. In general, thinking of the needs of kids who may be (unwillingly) accompanying their parents when they come out to visit you is going to make for a better experience for not only their parents, but also the kid-free customers who might otherwise be caught in the crossfire.
And if you can create an experience that involves an alpaca, some donkeys and a whole passel of sheep, so much the better.
Former Viticulturist Levi Glenn at our "Meet the Animals" family event a few summers ago
Posted at 03:03 PM in Advice to Wineries, Biodynamics, Events, Paso Robles, Reviews, Awards, and Press, Tasting Room | Permalink | Comments (2)
Outtakes from my Decanter "My Paso Robles" article
Earlier this year, I was flattered to be asked by Decanter Magazine to write an insider's guide to Paso Robles for inclusion in their annual California supplement. My goal was not to recommend wineries, but instead to give potential visitors an idea of some of the other gems of the area: things to do that you might not know about, or that might not appear in a guide book. What fun. The article was published last month:
Unfortunately, it isn't available online. So, I wanted to share it here. This also gives me the opportunity to provide some additional details on my recommendations that weren't able to fit into the magazine due to space constraints. So, here goes:
My Paso Robles
I was sitting in our downtown park last summer on a warm Thursday evening, listening to a local band play and watching my kids thread their way through the crowd with their friends, when I realized that this is what people look for when they come to wine country, and more than that, what we were looking for when we moved out fourteen years ago from a city life to join my family in working on our Tablas Creek project. We were drinking local rosé out of plastic tumblers, sitting with two other winemaking families on blankets, and eating caprese sandwiches from tomatoes we'd gotten at our local farmer's market that week. And it's not just that concert series. Paso is like that: few pretensions, still country, but with an appealing overlay of cultural opportunities brought by the wine community over the last three decades.
Justin Baldwin, the founder of the pioneering Justin Winery, is fond of saying that when he arrived in Paso Robles in 1983, the best meal in town was the tuna melt at the bowling alley. When I first started spending time out here in 1995, it wasn't quite that bleak, but still, when you wanted a great meal, or interesting shopping, you went over to the coast, or down to San Luis Obispo. No more. Our little town, which locals just call "Paso" (population, about 30,000), is now home to a remarkable collection of restaurants, hotels, and shops, driven by the dramatic growth of our local wine community, from 17 wineries when we started Tablas Creek in 1989 to some 260 today.
Local agriculture means more than wineries. The area has a long history of ranching, and the ample (for California) natural rainfall west of town made it a historical centre of both grain and nut production. Several local olive ranches are producing some of California's best olive oils. Just 20 miles away, the coast offers fishing, kayaking and surfing, a milder climate in which citrus and avocado orchards thrive, and Hearst Castle, the most visited state park in California.
In Paso, you have a vibrant mix of three communities, which interact in interesting and rewarding ways. You have the old ranching community, many of whose members have in recent decades dedicated a portion of their ranches to vineyards. Cowboy hats here are not worn ironically. You have the wine community, which has attracted a mix of new graduates, young families, and second career refugees into the area from (mostly) other parts of California, bringing a more urban, multicultural aesthetic. And you have a vibrant Hispanic community, both first and second generation, with taquerias and mercados, some of which play it straight and some of which incorporate influences from California and beyond.
Whatever you do, plan to stay for at least a few days. We're not near any major cities (or airports, for that matter, although the one-gate San Luis Obispo airport makes for a convenient arrival point) and the pace here isn't one where you should try to do it all in a day or two. Slow down, limit your winery visits to 3 or 4 per day, and take in some other attractions. And then plan to come back.
Stay at Hotel Cheval. When this 16-room boutique hotel opened in 2007 it brought a whole new level of luxury and professionalism to lodging in Paso Robles. It's still the town's classiest spot to stay, with live music evenings in their great bar (the Pony Club) and the benefit of being just half a block from the downtown park: an easy walk to (and more importantly back from) the town's restaurants.
Visit the Abalone Farm in Cayucos. San Luis Obispo County's agriculture isn't all wine. Ranching is big here too, as are strawberries, citrus, and avocados. Abalone fishing has a long local history, but decades of overharvesting from which wild populations are only beginning to recover means that if you want to try local abalone you should come here, just up from the kelp forests of Cayucos, to one of just three licensed fisheries in the state. You have to call and make an appointment, but a visit is a fascinating look at the five-year journey this mollusk makes from spawn to plate.
Shop like a local at General Store Paso Robles and Studios on the Park. Less than a block apart from each other are my two favorite places in town to shop. Studios on the Park is a cooperative work space and gallery for a dozen local painters, sculptors, and printmakers. It even offers classes if you're feeling creative. The General Store is the place to go for anything Paso Robles-themed, as well as a curated selection of cookbooks, housewares, and picnic items. I'd go even more often if my wife Meghan hadn't already bought everything there.
Play a round of disc golf at Castoro Cellars. I played Ultimate Frisbee competitively for two decades. Disc golf is more my speed now, and the Udsen brothers Max and Luke built a course that takes players through the gorgeous hillside vineyards of their family's winery.
Try the cider at Bristol's Cider House. Made by our winemaker Neil Collins in homage to his Bristol, England roots, the line of Bristol's Ciders is available to taste at his Atascadero cider house. The ciders are creative and delicious, and the themed food nights (curry Thursdays, anyone?) are great fun.
Eat a plate of al pastor tacos at Los Robles Café (no Web site; 805.239.8525). Don't be put off by the bare-bones exterior, a few blocks north of the park on Spring Street. This is the kind of place you think should be everywhere in California: a great, inexpensive local taqueria, where they're equally comfortable taking your order in Spanish or English.
Go to the railroad station for the best sushi in town at Goshi (no Web site; 805.227.4860), and know that half the tables there will be winemakers out with their families, refreshing their palates with beer, sake, and amazingly fresh fish.
Go for cocktails and appetizers around the square, hitting Artisan, Villa Creek, Thomas Hill Organics and La Cosecha. Everything is within a few blocks, so rather than spend all night at one restaurant, try several. At each stop, try an appetizer and a drink. If you're wined out, sip cocktails made from local craft spirits, like Alex and Monica Villicana's re:find distillery.
Order the cauliflower at The Hatch or the French onion soup at Bistro Laurent. New classic, or old? Chef Laurent Grangien was the first to open a fine restaurant in Paso Robles back in 1997. His onion soup has been a staple on the menu ever since, and is a requirement for my boys if we've been out shopping. Meanwhile, the Hatch, started by Maggie Cameron and Eric Connolly just in 2014, is Paso's newest culinary hotspot, with southern-inflected sharable plates and particularly delectable cauliflower with their version of hot dip.
On a summer Thursday, bring a blanket, a picnic (try 15degrees C in Templeton), a bottle of local rosé, and join the rest of the community for one of the concerts in the park. Fun for all ages.
So, that's my Paso. What are the can't miss stops in yours?
Posted at 01:26 PM in Food & Wine, Paso Robles, Reviews, Awards, and Press, Travel | Permalink | Comments (4)
A Wonderful Article on Robert Haas's Remarkable Career and Legacy
My dad generally avoids the spotlight. So it was particularly nice to read a wonderful article on his career that was published this week by Warren Johnston in the Valley News, a daily newspaper serving the portion of the Connecticut River Valley where he and my mom spend their summers.
Most readers of the Tablas Creek blog likely know him from his impact on the world of Rhone grape varieties, both from his long history representing Beaucastel and the other wines made by the Perrin Family, and from his work with the Perrins in bringing Tablas Creek Vineyard into existence. That work -- and particularly the decision to make available the high quality Rhone clones that we imported into the United States -- was influential enough to earn him a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014 from the Rhone Rangers.
This article focused equally on other aspects of his career, particularly his time with Vineyard Brands when he ran one of America's most influential wine import companies out of a converted barn in a Vermont town of 2700 residents. We still have this poster hanging in our tasting room:
His career in wine has spanned nearly seven decades, and has included stints in nearly every aspect of the industry. A few highlights:
As a retailer, he worked with his father at M. Lehmann in Manhattan to offer the first-ever futures offering on Bordeaux.
As a broker, he represented some of the top estates in Burgundy and Bordeaux, like Domaine Gouges, Mongeard-Mugneret, Domaine Ponsot, Chateau Lafite and Chateau Petrus.
As an importer, he built a company in Vineyard Brands that added dynamic brands like La Vieille Ferme and Marques de Caceres to his venerable list of estate producers. This balance of estate wines and larger brands (unique at its time) gave the company the diversified range of products that allowed it to thrive across different economic cycles.
When he was ready to retire and invest in Tablas Creek, rather than sell the company, he was one of the first American small businessmen to use an employee stock ownership plan to turn the company over to its employees. Today the company continues to thrive, with much of the senior leadership hired two and even three decades ago by him.
An early advocate of California, he represented wineries like Kistler, Joseph Phelps, Chappellet, Spring Mountain, and Clos du Val in the 1970s, and helped launch Sonoma-Cutrer in the 1980s.
He co-founded Winebow with Leonardo Locascio and Peter Matt in 1980, to provide Vineyard Brands with a high quality wholesaler in New York. Winebow has grown to be an influential importer as well as a distribution powerhouse.
His work in founding the Tablas Creek nursery -- and his decision not to keep the clones we'd imported proprietary -- has allowed California's Rhone movement to blossom in a way otherwise impossible. More than 600 vineyards and wineries around the United States use Tablas Creek cuttings.
He's even growing grapevines at his house in Templeton to make our Full Circle Pinot Noir.
In writing that list, I was struck by the extent to which the things he creates (or helps create) outlive his involvement with them. That's a testament to his determination in putting companies on a firm foundation, as well as his judgment in choosing people to work with and, when necessary, to succeed him.
One of my great pleasures in working here at Tablas Creek has been to get to see my dad through the eyes of the many people he has influenced. Yesterday's article was a good reminder for me that as he gets ready to enter his tenth decade, his influence is as enduring as ever.
Posted at 11:39 AM in Reviews, Awards, and Press, Tablas Creek 101 | Permalink | Comments (3)
Tablas Creek is a 2016 Wine Blog Awards Finalist
I was excited to learn today that we are a finalist for the 2016 Wine Blog Awards. These awards, created in 2007 by the tireless Tom Wark to honor the growing number and quality of wine bloggers, have been awarded each year since.
This is the tenth year of the awards, and the eighth year where we've been a finalist. Our consistency is the accomplishment I'm proudest of. Blogging can be a slog at times. There is a start-up period where no one much is reading what you're saying. And then, after a few years in a seasonal, cyclical endeavor, it becomes a struggle to feel like you aren't just repeating yourself. In order to keep the blog feeling fresh and relevant, I've tried to bring new voices into the mix, and this past year, we've added two new series, both of which I think add fresh perspectives: the Eat Drink Tablas series featuring food & wine pairings by Suphada Rom, and the Q & A with Tablas series, where Lauren Phelps interviews some of the key members of our team.
Like last year, our category is "Best Winery/Industry Blog". There is one other returning blog from last year's finalists (last year's winning Berry Bros. & Rudd blog, from the venerable UK retailer). The other finalists are all new to the awards, though I was excited to see a personal local favorite (the Wine Lohr blog, from J. Lohr, which should win for its name alone). The other three entries are new to me, and I look forward to getting to know them over the next few days. And, of course, ours is just one category; there are seven categories in all. Getting to know the other finalists' work [click here] is always my favorite part of the whole process. I hope that you will as well. If, after doing so, you'd care to vote for us, we'd be honored. The winner will be determined half by the voting of the judges, and half by the votes of the public. Voting ends June 13th.
I like to celebrate these nominations by looking back at some memorable posts from the last year. Here are ten of my favorites of the 62 entries we've posted in the last year, with a little about why each has stuck with me:
The Early Years of Tablas Creek. Last summer, I received a treasure trove of photographs from Dick Hoenisch, our original nursery and vineyard manager who has since moved on to a career in academia. These photographs, from when we bought the property in 1989 through the original construction of our winery building in 1997, were like a time capsule that I think anyone who only knows us as a mature winery will find fascinating.
On the Rhone: a Post-Cruise Appreciation. My dad helped lead the Tablas Creek Rhone River cruise last August. When he came back, he wrote up the experience vividly enough that you'll feel like you were there. The amazing photographs provided by Jeffery Clark, a wine club member on the cruise, are the icing on the cake.
Coming (Soon) to Fruition. I always love Chelsea Franchi's blogs because of their combination of intimacy and humor. Read this, and you'll know what it's like to anticipate (and dread) the onset of the harvest season.
What's Next for the New Paso Robles AVAs. I was invited late last year to present at a continuing education law seminar, focused on the AVA approval process and prospects for the 11 Paso Robles sub-AVAs. It gave me a chance to look forward at what the future might look like. What these new AVAs mean (and should mean) in the marketplace is a fascinating question, and I enjoyed delving into it in some depth.
Customer Service Lessons from an Overcrowded Restaurant. I think this is one anyone can relate to: a favorite place that's just not on its game one night. But in the age of Yelp, the consequences to that place can be lasting. Hopefully, I helped someone, somewhere, avoid this.
A 60 Year Career in a Bottle of Delaporte Sancerre. A second piece by my dad, reflecting on opening a bottle of wine he'd first encountered (many vintages earlier) on his first buying trip to France. Even more fun: that same day, the original proprietor's great-grandson had presented the estate's newest wines to Vineyard Brands, the company he founded.
Braised Short Ribs: A Cold-Weather Pairing Fit for Rain or Snow. I could have picked any of Suphada's Eat Drink Tablas entries, but this was maybe my favorite: seasonal and delicious, with her super photographs illustrating every stage of the recipe.
Why the Future May Look a Lot Like the Crazy 2015 Vintage. This came out of my being invited to give the keynote address to a viticulture conference held here in Paso Robles. The opportunity to go back and look at what made 2015 so unusual was, I think, both instructive and unsettling.
The Swarm, the Hive, and Tablas Creek Honey. Viticulturist Jordan Lonborg's first blog was a knockout, taking you inside the quest to catch a wild swarm of bees. The photographs that accompanied the piece were equally amazing.
Grenache Blanc's Moment in the Sun. Some blogs take work to write. This was one that sprang onto the keyboard almost fully formed, thanks to conversations I'd had in recent weeks with both the Wine Spectator and Wine Enthusiast. Love seeing the attention for this grape that we introduced into California more than two decades ago.
Thank you for coming on this journey with me and with us: 660 posts in all since we began the blog in November of 2005. As we pass our ten year mark, it's gratifying to know that we're still going strong. And if you're still reading, but haven't checked out the other finalists, go do that now. Wine blogs, at their best, plunge you into the inner workings of a world that is still too often shrouded in mystique. Dive in.
Posted at 09:56 PM in Articles by Robert Haas, Eat Drink Tablas, Notes from the Cellar by Chelsea Franchi, Reviews, Awards, and Press, Wine Blogs, Wine Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Parents and children have a special relationship. At times, children will tell you things about themselves or their experiences at school that they have been unable or unwilling to discuss with us. If your child shares information with you that you feel could help us to be more effective, please share that information with us. If you have concerns, needs or suggestions please call your child's teacher or the director at school or at home. Please keep in touch with your child's teacher by phone or note or e-mail about events in your child's daily life – a parent's trip, a family illness, a special vacation, etc..
A successful nursery school experience is based on the partnership of home and school.
The teachers' phone numbers (and e-mail addresses) will be available on the class list and we encourage you to call if you just need to check in or discuss something of concern to you. In most instances we prefer not to discuss your child in front of him. If necessary the teacher will get coverage after children have arrived and discuss your concerns in the office or elsewhere if a phone call just won't work. Discussions in front of your child are usually not productive and can cause embarrassment or anxiety for the child, so wait until you have a moment to call or arrange a time to speak with her in person away from the class. Please feel free to contact her at any time. Regular communication in person, by phone, e-mail, or by letter between you and your child's teacher is vital in building mutual understanding.
The teachers write weekly newsletters about events in the classroom. These newsletters are intended to keep you informed and involved in your child's classroom activities. This information gives you a starting point for conversations and finding out what really peaked his interest. You can enhance and extend this interest in the curriculum in many ways. At home you can re-read the books we have read, sing the songs (Who doesn't know "The Itsy Bitsy Spider?"), glue, cut, paint, make playdough, cook, explore the grocery's vegetable section when we make soup, etc. Although we have curriculum planned there are many times when the children have another interest and we go there, so outlines of what our day may be much before it happens can not be reliable indicators of what the future will bring that week.
The director puts together a monthly newsletter filled with dates, local news and informative article on issues and topics for parents of pre-schoolers.
The office staff puts together a directory of all students and staff about 3 weeks into the school year. Because of reproduction costs and time only one directory per family will be distributed. Updates will be sent out as changes occur.


Is this what online dating is like?
I'm also going to assume that he doesn't know my mom wants us to be a romcom, because that would make his second message much weirder.
Also, I hate "tell me about yourself". What am I supposed to say, that I'm a crazy feminist who's loud online and quiet IRL? Assorted facts easily gleaned from a brief glance at my profile? That right now I have half a dozen pairs of underwear on my radiator and I'm just killing time until my sheets are dry and I can go to bed?


Let's talk about the difference between a reference type and the ByRef modifier on a passed parameter. I'll start with something simple, an integer.
Following along, before the call i is set to 1. Then the call is made and because i as not passed ByRef, it is passed by value (ByVal), a copy of the value is sent to MyMethod in a temporary variable also named i – but this a copy not an original.
The method is run, i is altered to be 2 and the message "MyMethod i = 2" printed to the log. Then the method ends, the temporary variable is disposed of and the main code still has the original copy of i so the last message printed showing i is unchanged. To preserve the method's change back in the caller you need to make the parameter be ByRef and then the actual variable is passed instead of a new temporary being created.
So just like with the previous integer example, the reference is not permanently altered despite the effort to do so. Again, in order to change what the parameter refers to you must use ByRef.
If MyMethod were written as such you would be altering the reference that the caller refers to.


The Student Senate is the voice of the student body on the Trinity Valley Community College campus. We are raising money to attend a leadership conference in Boston, Massachusetts. The 5 students that will be attending this conference are very promising, dedicated, and adept student leaders who will take what they learn at this conference into their future.


text:
Q: Проблема с Cors в IE: not found in the header Access-Control-Allow-Origin При использовании русских доменов получаю ошибку

not found in the header Access-Control-Allow-Origin

Но это связано только с IE. Chrome и другие браузеры отрабатывают хорошо.
Сайт тест.головинский.рф. Проект на asp.net core.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: Проблема с наложение градиента на картинку (Background) На заднем фоне картинка и поверх должен быть наложен градиент. Но градиент перекрывает картинку, если делать через RGBA, то цвет становится грязным за счет добавления асфальта. RGBA со значением 0.9 работает, но даже так существенно отличается цвет.
Прошу помочь решить проблему.
Вот код.
/*html*/

<!DOCTYPE html>

   <meta charset="UTF-8">
   <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
   <link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css">
   <title>Document</title>

Lorem ipsum, dolor sit amet consectetur

/*css*/

.header {
   margin: 0 auto;
   width: 800px;
   height: 200px;
   background-image: linear-gradient(-53deg, #00b8d4 0%, #1de9b6 100%), url('https://svetvmir.ru/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/8d5d1a1fb6eeb2615019bb1a3c4.jpg');
}

A: Это то, что вам нужно?
Разумеется, можно вместо opasity непрозрачность градиента задать при помощи процентов в самом градиенте. Я использовал псевдокласс after, чтобы разнести картинку и градиент по разным слоям.

.header {
  position: relative;
   margin: 0 auto;
   width: 800px;
   height: 200px;
   background-image: url('https://svetvmir.ru/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/8d5d1a1fb6eeb2615019bb1a3c4.jpg');
}
.header:after {
  position: absolute;
  top: 0; left: 0; right: 0; bottom: 0;
  content:" ";
  background-image: linear-gradient(-53deg, #00b8d4 0%, #1de9b6 100%);
  opacity: .5;
}
<!DOCTYPE html>

   <meta charset="UTF-8">
   <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
   <link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css">
   <title>Document</title>

Lorem ipsum, dolor sit amet consectetur

Второй вариант:

.header {
  position: relative;
   margin: 0 auto;
   width: 800px;
   height: 200px;
   background-image: url('https://svetvmir.ru/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/8d5d1a1fb6eeb2615019bb1a3c4.jpg');
}
.grad {
  position: absolute;
  top: 0; left: 0; right: 0; bottom: 0;
  background-image: linear-gradient(-53deg, #00b8d4 0%, #1de9b6 100%);
  opacity: .5;
}
.header p {
  position: relative;
}
<!DOCTYPE html>

   <meta charset="UTF-8">
   <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
   <link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css">
   <title>Document</title>

Lorem ipsum, dolor sit amet consectetur


Beginning December 7th, The Hemingway will be open 1-5pm on Sundays through the 2014 holiday season. Please stop by and shop our exceptional cigars, fine wines, craft beers, huge selection of pipes and pipe tobacco, along with a great selection of gift ideas. We also hand make custom gift baskets to your specifications, just let us know.
This entry was posted in Hemi News. Bookmark the permalink.


Taylor Wimpey has taken the last of the remaining space at IM Properties' (IMP) One Central Boulevard at Blythe Valley Park (BVP).
Now fully occupied, Taylor Wimpey's new 9,393 sq ft training facility opening Q1 next year, completes the occupancy of 113, 914 sq ft of space, in what is the largest multi-let office building on the M42.
Taylor Wimpey have chosen the location of the new training facility for its first-class connectivity on junction 4 of the M42 and close proximity to Birmingham airport and nearby train stations.
Rob Hemus, asset director for IM Properties said: "It's good to have yet another great name take the final space at OCB.
"When we embarked on its £5m refurbishment, we wanted to create a building with a unique identity to appeal to a wide range of occupiers and it's done just that, attracting leading names from the professional services and tech world.
"Whilst the building is a strong statement by itself, the wider environment of BVP also appeals to occupiers as the Midlands first truly mixed-use business park, including commercial, industrial, residential and leisure.
"Blythe Valley Park continues to be regarded as the premier business park in the Midlands and the calibre of occupier mix has been enhanced further with this latest letting to leading housebuilder Taylor Wimpey.
"The park continues to go from strength to strength with the delivery of new homes now well underway, offering an enviable labour pool for local employers, and plans being implemented for the next phase of high quality offices being delivered in 2019. These are exciting times for the park and early expressions of interest are positive".
Knight Frank acted on behalf of Taylor Wimpey.


Order and Purchase Sterling Silver Hawaiian Sand Dollar White MOP Pierced Earrings by Paradise Collection for only $80.00 .
Sterling Silver Hawaiian Sand Dollar White Mother of Pearl Shell Pierced Earrings. 3/4' by 3/4' with White MOP Inlay. These earrings are made with sterling silver and finished with Rhodium to avoid tarnishing.


I went to Kikki's house after school.
Alexis is approachable, isn't he?
I found out that Maureen had lied.
Knapper is definitely having problems.
Oleg is a very angry boy.
Brenda is crying like a baby.
Janice was brought back from the very brink of death.
I don't know why Toby is late.
Say "hi" to Hui, everyone.
Whatever the problem is, Vernon can handle it.
I had to give Earle time to think about it.
Gypsy told Valerie she was cute.
Hein is foolish, isn't he?
Mick is sitting by the campfire.
Lynne got out of bed and quickly put on his clothes.
Donne and Juha are both very kind and will help anybody who asks.
Tell Bill that Knapper wants to see him.
Saumya called Julianto and pretended to be me.
Did you get in a fight with Pravin?
Did you say that Vijay is your friend?
It's very unlikely that the teacher will believe Kaj's excuse for not having his homework done on time.
Most of Sal's friends know that he's a recovering alcoholic.
Well then, can you explain that to Sanjay?
Jess deserves to be in prison.
Darci tried to blame me for everything.
Amos was a tall slender young woman with dark hair.
I think Lorenzo wants to stay.
I thought Ole would give up.
Morton escorted Cristi out of the building.
Murthy is a sloppy painter.
You didn't know Stephanie was going to Boston, did you?
Angela and I aren't fools.
Saiid didn't care whether he made a noise or not.
Did Kristin ever ask about Gilles?
Sonny pretended not to know Erik's email address.


Absolutely love The Clock Keeps Turning!
Any chance of a tracklisting for the Softwar mix?? I'm all over it like a cheap suit.
sorry i was meant to post the tracklistings up!
damn!, killer tune this yam who - you can do it....is it possible to re-up it @320kbps?


text:
Q: C# getting my program to run on a .Net 1.1, win XP system So I've made the program on windows 10 Visual studio Version 10 in c# as a console application. The program is just monitoring file changes with fsw. I'm now faced with the challenge of doing literally everything in my power to not have to install anything on the PC of which this program will have to run (as in company they don't normally like us installing anything on the old pc's). So I believe I need to compile the program in a lower version of .Net if possible?
Any help regarding the matter would be appreciated as most things I find is people wanting to move from 1.1 to higher versions or the odd reference to web applications or c++.
Also, (though it may be obvious) I'm not a coder, not even my job really and thus I am quite inexperienced so any answers dumbed down a lot would be incredibly useful.
Thanks in advance!

A: First of all, check if .Net framework is installed if you have not already, and in that case what version it has.
According to .Net version and dependencies windows XP does not include any .Net version. That page also include links on how to check version. The last .net release for windows XP is .Net 4.0. See .Net system requirements.
So there is no indication that you should use .Net 1.1. Either you would use whatever version is installed, or you install some version you want (i.e. the highest supported), or you do not install any version, and do something else.
Modern versions of Visual studio allow targeting of .Net framework from 2.0 and onwards. And I'm fairly sure you can run .Net 2.0 and later version on windows 10 if you install the framework. Using .Net 1.1 would probably require you to use windows XP as the development system, so I would avoid this if at all possible.
I would recommend using a virtual machine for testing, since it allows you to test on windows XP on your machine, and makes it easy to revert any failures. I would probably recommend migrating the entire PC to a virtual machine it at all possible, since this would reduce magnitude of hardware failures, and make backup and restoring much easier.


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Discovered one friend was knocked off her bike by a car, and has broken her back in 2 places. This happened over a month ago, but I've only just caught up. Photo of her in hospital looking very bad indeed, and thank the goddesses she was wearing a helmet.
And I also found out that the boy I used to be best friends with from about 11 to 18, has had 3 heart attacks, is huge, has diabetes and apparently people are "after him" (I spoke to his brother, didn't ask why). A huge shame as he was so good looking, fun and vibrant all those years ago. I can't even contact him as he doesn't have a phone and is now back living with his elderly Mum n Dad.
So all in all, grateful for the health that I have, and for the fact that gym is an option open to me. Very grateful indeed. Luckily, I had already put some extra effort tonight, and I am currently ranked 26th in the gym. Pretty pleased with that, and that I've managed to keep it up.
Now Ima gonna make a killa chilli con carne!


Tonight at 19.30 hrs at Plaza Futura, Eindhoven the documentary Rouge Parole. In Tunisia, where the Arab Revolution started back in 2010, tyranny and oppression have been replaced by democracy and freedom of speech. Passers-by gaze at the multitude of books that have long been banned in the shop-window of a bookstore. Small groups of people in the street are engaged in heated discussions. Journalists can finally practise their profession, yet they are searching for the right words. Rouge Parole is a poetic documentary about the 'explosion of words' that resulted from this regained freedom. Reservations: 040-2946848.
Go here for the other screenings of Rouge Parole.


text:
JAPCC Annual Report 2009
By Lieutenant General Friedrich Wilhelm Ploeger, DEU AF, Executive Director, JAPCC
In 2009, the JAPCC built upon its hard-earned reputation as NATO's pre-eminent advocate for the development and enhancement of Joint Air and Space Power today and into the future. The year started in fine fashion with our reaccreditation by HQ Allied Command Transformation – we were the first Centre of Excellence to undergo this process and, subsequently, received a glowing report. We continue to maintain a close relationship with both HQ Allied Command Transformation and our Sponsoring Nations, providing them with timely and relevant advice and products.
We are proud of our achievements this year, which you will see summarised within this report. I would like to highlight especially our work in encouraging NATO to move forward in respect of Space. The JAPCC Assessment on NATO Space Operations set the scene, but it was through numerous speaking opportunities and the vigilance of our staff that the message on the criticality of Space to contemporary NATO operations was well and truly transmitted.
The year was also characterised by our increasing engagement with HQ Allied Command Operations in delivering effects focusing firmly on current operations. This served to ensure that our strategic perspective on Air and Space Power transformation is fully informed by the complexities of real-world operations, and demonstrated the JAPCC's ability to provide relevant, timely support to the contemporary war-fighter. The work undertaken this year on the Air and Space Power contribution to Countering the IED threat in Afghanistan thus represents a significant additional, symbiotic, line of development for the JAPCC, as well as presenting us with a number of practical challenges to overcome. Similarly, the 2009 Force Protection review of the Kabul International Airport Ground Defence Area, delivered by the JAPCC, provided planners and incoming Force Elements with the best and most recent advice with which to prepare, equip, train and deploy relevant capabilities. It is no coincidence, therefore, that our 2010 Conference takes as its theme the Role and Challenges for NATO Air and Space Power in Contemporary Operations.
As you will see, there are many other key products that the staff from our 17 Nations have produced. I encourage you to read the summary and, should you have any questions, to either visit our website or call us to discuss them.
I am pleased to report that our staff numbers have remained stable this year, with our manning maintained at around 87%. Our key leadership positions are filled. We anticipate a new Director within the first quarter of 2010 as General Mark Welsh III takes over from General Brady. I am thankful for all the advice and contribution from General Brady to endorse and promote the work of the JAPCC. We have reviewed the balance of our Subject Matter Experts and are making adjustments in order to ensure that we continue to attract the right people with the necessary knowledge and experience. During 2009, Italy filled the vacant Future Space position, the United States filled the vacant Maritime Air, Carrier Ops post, and the Netherlands covered the vacant Information Operations position. While a degree of ebb and flow in our manning is an inevitable consequence of national requirements, it is clear that our Sponsoring Nations continue to provide highly competent personnel to fill a wide variety of positions, and for that I am most grateful.
Our Annual Air and Space Power Conference continues to grow, both in attendance and impact. This year, we were at maximum capacity and hosted over 240 participants from across NATO and many other nations. Furthermore, we published two editions of the JAPCC Journal and will continue the successful distribution of this product in order to share our ideas, and those of our contributors, as widely as possible. I want to especially thank our commercial partners, who have not only contributed to our publications, but have also provided sponsorship to allow us to produce and distribute these documents.
We look back on 2009 as another successful year in supporting NATO and our Nations. We now look forward to 2010 determined to continue to work on innovative ideas for the transformation of NATO Joint Air and Space Power.


text:
using System;
using System.Runtime.Serialization;
using AppKit.Core.Business.Entities;

namespace AppKit.Core.Ef6MssqlImpl.Security.Models
{
    [DataContract]
    public class UserRoleDb : IIdentificationEntity
    {
        [DataMember] public Guid Id { get; set; }
        [DataMember] public Guid UserId { get; set; }
        [DataMember] public Guid RoleId { get; set; }

        [DataMember] public UserDb User { get; set; }
        [DataMember] public RoleDb Role { get; set; }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Q: How to run a QT application in background mode? I created an application that moves the mouse cursor using keys on keyboard, but when I minimize the window it doesn't work anymore.
How to do it so that it works even if the app is minimized and even if I go to another virtual desktop?