Subject:
Orangewood Wines Newsletter - Volume 3, Issue 27 – May 18, 2009
Sent: Monday, May 18, 2009
6:48pm
Introduction
It’s May and the temperature in Cave Creek jumped to 10
degrees above normal, causing thermal shock to our systems (just in case this
newsletter sounds more bizarre than usual). Jim
Wallace is always a fount of good ideas, to which mostly I am deaf.
However, this month’s newsletter includes some information about one of the
less common wine varietals. We’re starting with Viognier.
Box Score
New
Restaurants:
5
New Retail/Wine Bar
Outlets:
2
New Sales
People: 1
Contents
New
Restaurants
New
Retail/Wine Bar Outlets
New
Sales People
Wine
Varietal of the Month
Rambling
New Restaurants
Amara Hotel, Restaurant & Spa
310
North Highway 89A
Sedona, AZ
86336
(866) 455-6610
Bamboo Café
6615 West Happy Valley Rd
Glendale, AZ 85310
(623) 376-8803
Diamond Point Shadows
East Highway 260 at Milepost 258
Payson, AZ
85541
(928) 474-4848
Phoenix Country Club
2901
North 7th Street
Phoenix, AZ 85014
(602) 263-5208
Switch
2603
North Central Avenue,
Phoenix, AZ
85004
(602) 264-2295
New
Retail/Wine Bar Outlets
Tops Liquor
403 West University Drive # 104
Tempe, AZ 85281
(480) 967-5643
Beverage Place
111
East State Highway 260
Payson, AZ
85541
(928) 474-6300
New Sales People
Cecilia Swetland. Cecilia
has signed up to represent Orangewood Wines in the Flagstaff area. She has a day job at
Bin 239 in Prescott
and is one of the Prescott Vino Vixens – an informal group of wine
enthusiasts. Originally hailing from Michigan,
Cecilia worked in the hospitality
business in Florida and the Phoenix
area (including Harold’s in Cave Creek) before moving to Prescott.
Wine
Varietal of the Month – Viognier
Viognier? Why not? Well, that’s
what we had with our lobster ravioli last evening and it was simply
wonderful. First, how is Viognier pronounced? Vee
– ohn – yea. Viognier is the name of a grape that is made into
white wine associated with the Rhone Valley in France. Hence, it’s a Rhone varietal. It’s a primary ABC (Anything But
Chardonnay) varietal because it has some richness to it reminiscent of
Chardonnay. As a wine, it can be made to include oak and butter, but in
my experience, it’s usually not made that way. It is not as round as
Sauvignon Blanc and its richness takes a slight edge off. It paired well
with ravioli, and the olive oil added richness which contributed nicely to the
lobster's delicate flavors, balancing nicely with the Viognier. In
general, besides being a fine wine to drink by itself, it should be paired with
subtle food – as opposed to barbeque or steak with HP Sauce. Think white
fish, butter sauce, mild cheese…, candlelight, soft music - you get the
picture: Vee-own-Yay!!!
Orangewood Wines carries Viognier from Praxis (Lodi, CA), David Girard (El Dorado County, CA) and
Kestrel (Yakima Valley, WA).
Rambling
I was going to tell you that here in Cave Creek the Palo
Verde trees are blooming bright yellow, saguaro cactus have their crowns of
white flowers that are the Arizona State flower; and that the ironwood trees
have blossomed with a subtle lilac color with a hint of Bing cherry on the
finish – but I’m not going to. There are a couple more important things
for the ramble this month that occupy the next two paragraphs. First is
some coverage of a sales trip that four of us made to Oregon last month. Second is an
analysis of the responses we received to the last rambling about tag lines.
The trip to Oregon
was a three day affair that allowed us to visit each of the four wineries that we
represent there. Coincidentally, four of us went on the trip – Lena, Jim, Stanley
and myself. We flew to Portland and drove to the Stoller Vineyard,
where we stayed for the two nights we were away. Thank you to Cory for
making the accommodations available to us and hosting us on the first
afternoon. Stoller has a state of the art winery that was completed in
time for the 2005 Vintage wines. It and the vineyards are very
impressive. When we were there in late April, bud break was complete and
about an inch or so of leaf had emerged. On the second day we visited the
Bella Vida vineyard where Ted, the “tractor driver”, showed us around the
property and forced wine into us. That’s what breakfast is supposed to be
– thank you Ted and to Allison and Steve Whiteside for setting it up.
After lunch we found the Patricia Green Cellars winery. This by itself is
an achievement, because the winery is not well sign posted. Owners Patty
Green and Jim Anderson previewed the
2008 vintages from the barrels with us. They also were charitable enough
to help us to understand what “clones” are all about. We blithely
document or memorize what clones are included in a vineyard and what goes into
the wines, but we didn’t have a clue why there are all these clones and what
they were good for. So, Patty and Jim
simplified the subject to the point where we now have a clue. So listen
up, I am passing the clue on to you. Two of the clones that we hear about
are Wadensvil and Pommard. They apparently are the key clones. The
Wadensvil brings structure and the Pommard brings fruit. By themselves they are
good for lots of great Pinot Noir. Then there are the Dijon
clones that have names like Dijon
777. Dijon
is the only one with numbers, which was a revelation; it is the one that folks
experiment with, Mendel style, producing vines and grapes for specific
purposes, for example, for earlier ripening. A big deal
for northerly vineyards. That’s it, lesson over. You are on
your own from here and thank you Patty and Jim
for bringing this PhD topic down to us first graders. On our last day we
visited Apolloni Vineyards.
Somewhat further north, the bud break had been more recent and perhaps a third
of an inch of leaf had protruded. This would be a vineyard interested in
a faster ripening Dijon
clone! Alfredo and Laurene Apolloni showed us their vineyards and
arranged a spectacular lunch that showcased their existing released
wines. Afterwards they previewed the wine still in barrel. Thank
you to them and their National Marketeer, Laura
Gordon, for their hospitality.
On tag lines for Orangewood Wines…we had a tremendous
response to the last newsletter in which I rambled about this. Thank you
all who responded for your suggestions. First let me clarify, we
are not thinking of changing our name, Orangewood Wines. We have worked
hard on name recognition and as one respondent said, most restaurants have
heard of us. It is the tag line that we want to fix up. Currently
we have Orangewood Wines – Arizona Wine Distribution. “Arizona Wine
Distribution” is the tag line. We received 18 suggestions. Some
referred to the kind of wineries we represent, some the kind of places we sell
to, some the things that we do. Some were short, some long. I sat
down with the sales staff last week and asked for preferences – and got 11 more
suggestions. Laurie and I whittled the list down to 3 and we are asking
for your preference. Here are the 3 – in alphabetical order.
-
Excellent
World Wines
-
Small
Vineyard Specialists
-
Small
Wineries, Great Wines
Operators
are standing by…
The Rambler
rambles on…
From
all of us at Orangewood Wines,
Richard
(newsletter writer), Laurie (editor) and Jim
Wallace (another editor)
Orangewood
Wines