Subject: Orangewood Wines Newsletter - Volume 3, Issue 28 – June 22,
2009
Sent: Monday,
June 22, 2009,
10:43am
Introduction
The votes are in and they have been counted. Orangewood Wines will be transitioning to use
the tag line “Small Wineries, Great Wines”.
Box Score
New Restaurants: 2
New Retail/Wine Bar
Outlets: 1
New Sales People: 0
New Wineries 1
Contents
New Restaurants
New Retail/Wine Bar Outlets
New Winery
Wine Varietal of the Month
Rambling
New Restaurants
Buffalo
Pointe Restaurant
437 West Route 66
Williams, AZ 86046
(800)
973-6210
Pasto Cucina
Italiana
19 East Aspen Avenue ·
Flagstaff, AZ 86001
(928) 779-1937
New
Retail/Wine Bar Outlets
Uptown Billiards
114 North Leroux Street,
Flagstaff, AZ
86001
(928) 773-0551
New Winery
Riverbench
Riverbench Vineyard was established in 1973, when its first Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes were planted on
the property. For years since then, some of the most renowned wineries in Santa Barbara
County have purchased
Riverbench fruit for their own wines. Over time Riverbench has become a
prominent name for high quality Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in the Santa Maria Valley.
In 2004 a group of local families purchased the property.
Wine drinkers themselves, the owners quickly became enamored with the wine
industry and decided to start producing their own wine label using small
quantities of their exceptional fruit. Riverbench Winery was born.
Chuck Ortman is their consulting winemaker.
Wine
Varietal of the Month – Merlot
Merlot, the varietal much maligned in
the movie “Sideways”, is one of the five Bordeaux
varietals. Bordeaux
varietals are so called because they are the ones permitted in the great French
wines from Bordeaux. (The other four are Cabernet Sauvignon,
Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Malbec – but you know that.) Merlot was formerly used primarily as a
blending grape, its softness offsetting the sometimes harsh Cabernet
Sauvignon. Then it became a popular
grape in its own right as more people began drinking wine and liked the easy
drinking that came with its softness.
When a market trend emerges it takes several years for wineries to
re-graft their vines and get a new wine to market. Not all the efforts were successful and a lot
of mediocre Merlot appeared on the market.
I was taking a Merlot around a few years ago and Tom
Hamilton at phoenixwine
said “another weak flabby Merlot?” No, I
said, try it. After he found the sample
to be worthy he started complaining about the price. There is no pleasing Tom!
Ask your trusted wine supplier to
recommend a good Merlot with structure.
Take it home; make sure that it is not too warm. Phoenix
room temperatures are too warm, so pop it in the fridge for half and hour. Now it is ready for whatever you have in
mind. It is a perfectly good wine to
drink without accompaniment but will also pair very nicely with non-spicy
dishes. I think of good Merlot like a
good Cabernet Sauvignon – in fact, I once opened and served a Merlot instead of
a Cab by mistake – no one noticed. I
sometimes slip one into a blind tasting of Cabernet Sauvignons at our staff
tastings…
Incidentally, the revered wine in
the “Sideways” movie was Château Cheval Blanc, a blend of Merlot and Cabernet
Franc. It was an inside joke. The Merlot producers were not amused.
Orangewood Wines carries several
stunning Merlots:
Praxis (Alexander
Valley, CA),
Barlow Vineyards (Calistoga,
CA)
Kestrel Vintners (Yakima Valley, WA).
Culley Collection (Waiheke
Island, New Zealand)
Jenke Vineyards (Barossa
Valley, Australia)
Rambling
Our backyard in Cave Creek has been the site of several
birds’ nests. One pair of Cardinals
decided that our Bougainvillea was a good site.
For my taste their orange-red colouring clashes with the purple-red of
the bush. I guess feng shui is not
important to some species.
As mentioned in the introduction we have selected the tag
line “Small Wineries, Great Wines”. All
of the tag lines suggested and the additional ones proposed can be viewed as
ambiguous if viewed in the wrong context.
As our primary customers are restaurants and fine wine stores they know
we are distributors so for them there is no confusion. I also liked this particular tagline because
the cadence is a little different.
Laurie is going to send a case of wine to the winner with the message
“Thanks, Dad”. I want to thank all of your
for taking the time to give us your thoughts and opinions.
The Rambler
rambles on…
From
all of us at Orangewood Wines,
Richard
(newsletter writer), Laurie (editor) and Jim
Wallace (another editor)
Orangewood
Wines
www.orangewoodwines.com