Dr. Harry Oldman on replacing Jeb Dunnuck in the Wine Advocate

Dr. Harry Oldman has been quiet for quite sometime here on the blog, but he hasn't quit quite yet. His last appearance was his rant on Andy Warhol wines a little over two years ago. He recently asked if he could respond to the paparazzi rumor mill about his supposed impending employment at a renowned wine publication (other than this one). I don't normally dabble in speculation, but I figure I should give the old man a chance to set the record straight.

It may seem as if I have been laying low for awhile now, but I actually been working real hard in the wine industry. I was quite surprised that I was able to gain employment in the wine industry with my background as a blogger. We all know wine bloggers never amount to anything in the wine industry.

Ever since January 21, I've been working as communications director and press secretary for a major East Coast winery. I know what you're thinking - East Coast wine is an oxymoron, kind of like affordable Napa Cab or affordable health care. But after working at the highest levels of the greatest winery on Earth, I've had change of heart - granted it was a medically necessary heart transplant - about non-California wines.

I was having dinner with my friends Jared and Sergei one evening last December when they told me that their boss' hand-picked personal assistant wanted me to be the public face of his I mean his son's winery. I've been busy ever since giving daily briefings to the Atlantic Coast wine media. I've of course banned all cameras and bloggers (No Fake Media Allowed) from attending, but Jim Acosta and Jay McInerney, who is usually drunk or high, show up everyday. I suppose dealing with these two losers is a part of making wine great again.

I've been amazed with how I've gone from being a retired computational physicist to being stalked by the wine paparazzi on the Interwebs. This rise of epic porportions almost didn't happen. I remember the day so clearly. August 22, 2016. That was the day I lost one of my best friends. He was there one day and gone the next. At my age it is bound to happen, but when a moderately notorious wine writer decides to stop writing about wine to write about Crooked Hillary it is a dark, dark day. I almost gave up wine myself. I was in a funk - thank god it wasn't a 12% Contra Costa Carignan-type funk - but an emotional funk that cracking open my 15-yr vertical of Harlan Estate was able to break. That's what friends like Jared and Sergei are for. Without them opening this backchannel for me I wouldn't be in the position I am in today.

And what position is that exactly? Well, approximately 12 people in the entire country have seen my name mentioned over on WineBerserkers.com as  the likely replacement for Jeb Dunnuck's beat in Robert Parker's Wine Advocate. Apparently Jeb decided that he actually wanted to review wine for consumers instead of traveling the world in the Singapore Dog, Pony and Wine Show. And what a pony he was. But now the speculation has turned to who will fill the heir apparent's shoes. Funny how my name got thrown into the mix. We must find the leakers! This is a big deal! Word even spread to the Robert Parker Bulletin Board. Now 14 people suspect that the one and only Dr. Harry Oldman will fill the bung-sized void to review the wines of Central California and the Rhône Valley.

Can you imagine a world in which that would actually happen? Oh boy, watch out when old Dr. Oldman strikes pen to paper in the fully made-over print editions with full-color photos, with over 25% more tasting notes and articles. I will personally guarantee that my writing will be more than 25% more colorful! If you thought the feud between the Hosemaster and Levi Dalton was epic, just you wait. I once saved Wine Spectator, why not add one more American literary icon to my resume?

Despite how much sense this move would make, I must deny this speculation. Seeing as I was instrumental in helping drive the creative direction of this site, it is possible I could have done the same for another even more prestigious wine publication. I can confidently say that I've been a wine journalist, editor and taster for over a decade and am a regular wine panelist, speaker and educator for events and organizations worldwide. Those qualifications alone would make me qualified to replace Jeb. Writing alongside Bob would give me a bigger podium from which to mock those who mock he who shall not be mocked.

No, Dr. Harry Oldman will not be replacing Jeb Dunnuck. Joe Czerwinski, former managing editor of Wine Enthusiast will be the new reviewer in Monkton. He will fit the corporate environment and bow down to the Master herself. For all those claiming end of days at the Wine Advocate better eat their shorts now. The ship has been righted and Joe will help Bob regain the glory of the early 1990s. This morning there is joy in Mudville! This all being said, I will not deny that I will not be joining the Wine Advocate in some capacity in the future. I better get back to my podium, I see McInerney waking up from his nap.

I will let the tweets speak for themselves.

Wednesday's Wines: California, Maryland and Uruguay

At a recent wine dinner one of the guests asked me what my favorite style of wine is. My response: new and different wines. Yes, I purchase more California wines than I probably should, but I really love tasting wine from new places and interesting cultivars. I did a pretty good job of that goal this past week.

Sterling Vineyards 2013 Heritage

California is America's wine country. That is just a fact. Most of the wine produced in the U.S. hails from sunny California. There is some terrific wine, and some not so terrific wine. The most recent wine I had from California, unfortunately, trends toward the latter end of that spectrum. The Sterling Vineyards Vintner's Collection 2013 Meritage (13.5% abv, Sample $14) left a bad taste in my mouth. No, really, it tasted a bit chemically, fishy and altogether unpleasant. It tasted like a $6 bottle of plonk - it actually shows up on wine-searcher for $6.99-$7.99. There is the requisite mocha and dark fruit flavors that come with a blend of  Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, but not a whole lot of other redeeming qualities.

Bodega Garson 2013 Tannat

On the other hand, the Bodega Garzón 2013 Tannat (14.5% abv, Sample $20) from Uruguay is a delicious wine. Garzón is owned by Argentine billionaire Alejandro Bulgheroni, whom I pegged as responsible for the Cameron Hughes Private Reserve wines made at Harlan Estate in the Napa Valley. I wasn't overly impressed by those wines, but this Tannat from Uruguay is truly tasty and perfect for Cabernet Sauvignon lovers. Tannat is perhaps Uruguay's signature grape despite its southwestern French heritage as the main grape in the Madiran region. This wine is powerful yet elegant. The deeply colored Tannat reveals the red and black fruit aromas you would expect in a Cabernet and accompanied by scents chocolate and tobacco. It is smooth on the palate with silky tannins – firm but not overwhelming – adding structure to the cherry, raspberry and mocha flavors. It paired well with our strip steak – which interestingly enough was also from Uruguay. I would expect this wine to hold up for a several years and impress those interested in Napa Cabernet and off-the-beaten path varieties alike.

Old Westminster 2014 Albariño

Finally, the Old Westminster Winery 2014 Two Vineyards Albariño (12% abv, Sample $28) is a lovely wine that other Maryland producers might want to consider looking at. Three years ago at the Drink Local Wine conference in Baltimore an Albariño from Black Ankle Vineyards opened my eyes to what this Iberian grape can do on the east coast of the U.S. Black Ankle and Old Westminster are about 10 miles apart just south of Westminster, MD not too far from Baltimore. You're not going to confuse it with a Spanish Albariño, but this wine comes across more like a blend between Rhône and Rías Baixas. It is crips yet rich. There is a good amount of citrus and tropical fruit flavors present along with a bit of spice. This is a tasty and unique wine.

Beatrice's Blushes: Lightning Rosé

16" of snow...

I'm sure if you turned on your television in the past two days you saw that the Denver metro area was inundated by snow on Wednesday. You got to love Colorado weather; Monday and Tuesday both saw high temperatures of 70 °F and then we were graced with 16" of snow on Wednesday between 4 am and 4 pm. At the peak of the storm, with visibility down to a maybe 100 m and winds pushing 40 mph my whole family ventured to a nearby park to play in the snow. Bea was strapped to mom and took a nap in the blizzard while Ben and I had a good wrestling match in the snow. Yesterday, it was almost 50 °F and most of the snow on the roads melted away! Such is life in Colorado.

Dr. Oldman channels Oprah to expose a doping scandal that will rock the wine world...

After his surprising Boxing Day interview, Dr. Harry Oldman thought that today would be the perfect day to share his next interview with us.

I had so much fun with my interview with my anonymous wine critic friend (though I hope the interview wasn't the real reason he is no longer a critic...), that I thought I'd try my hand again at asking another famous wine personality some tough questions. Bobby P and I go all the way back to his early days as the world's first blogger, a camp which I too have fallen into. Together, Bob and I would take on the heathens of the wine world on Prodigy's Wine Forum. It had been some time since we last talked, but I've long defended him from the many sheep of the Interwebs. When Bob agreed to sit down with me I decided that I had better improve my interview skills, so I watched countless hours of the best interviewer I could think of: Oprah. I've followed Oprah from her very start on AM Chicago, but spending a week straight of watching reruns gave me all the insight I'd need to make this a newsworthy interview sure to cause a ripple in the space-time-wine-blogger continuum. One day, I am sure that this interview will be as talked about as any interview Oprah did with Tom Cruise, Lance Armstrong or Lindsay Lohan. Make sure that you are sitting, because what I'm about to share with you will knock your tastevins off!

A Fortnight Without Wine

Last month, my beautiful wife went to Argentina for 16 days for a school trip. Naturally, I didn't drink wine while she was gone (mourning and all...). Well, that's not exactly the case. I did attend a Ribera del Duero tasting and I shared a bottle of J "Cuvée 20" Brut with George Rose (Director of Communications for J) over dinner. But at home, it was just beer or water that was in my glass.

Before they were stars, part 6 (as if Two Shepherds needs more praise)

Ok, so I may be a bit late in writing this given the recent attention William Allen and his Two Shepherds label has received recently. I had planned on writing this immediately after visiting with Allen last November (and before Meg Houston Maker's praise and being named one of the Top 10 Hot Brands by Wine Business Monthly). Now I'm not trying to say I discovered Two Shepherds before anyone else, as David White, Fred Swan and Jon Bonné all beat me to the punch, or perhaps shepherded me towards Two Shepherds. Nevertheless, I think I'm still ahead of the curve because Two Shepherds is going to be a star. Not a big star producing tens of thousands of cases, but a star for fans of Rhône varieties.

Allen is doing something that I've tried to urge Colorado wineries to do. He is focusing his efforts by producing only Rhône varieties. Sure, he has thrown a kink in that philosophy with his trousseau gris, but other than that aberration, he uses grenache blanc, viognier, marsanne, roussane, syrah, mourvèdre and grenache to make inspired wines. Not only is he making Rhône varieties, but he is making them from the Russian River Valley (the grenache blanc comes from the Saarloos Vineyard in the Santa Ynez Valley). The Russian River Valley isn't exactly known for its Rhône varieties. Pinot noir, chardonnay and zindfandel, yeah, sure. Syrah, maybe. The other Rhône varieties, not exactly. Allen decided to stake his claim in the wine world by using grapes originally from a Mediterranean climate, but sourcing them from a cool climate. Oh, and he uses all neutral oak. No new oak to be found. He makes wines that show their sense of place and not a barrel's.

A different 100-pt system compromise...

Image from http://www.arvi.ch/

Amongst the few of us who write about wine, the 100-pt system is a contentious topic. There are many reasons that people like me don't like it; it projects a false sense of precision, it implies a false notion of objectivity, it removes context from a highly contextual product, and of course there is the issue of score inflation. Oh, sure there are many other problems, but those were the ones I could easily think of off the top of my head.

With the release of the Wine Advocate issue #204 a few weeks ago, the problem of score inflation has come to a head. Mike Steinberger wrote a great piece about it on his WineDiarist blog and Antonio Galloni even chimed in on a heated discussion over on the WineBerserkers forum. To summarize the latest “scandal,” Galloni handed out 95-100 point scores to almost a quarter of the 2010 Napa Valley wines he reviewed. Robert Parker added 17 100-point scores from the Rhône Valley from the 2009-2011 vintages. Just in the past year, Parker has given 100-pt scores to more than 50 wines from Bordeaux, Napa and the Rhône! Perfection (and near perfection) aren’t that hard to come by anymore. Apparently it isn’t obvious to Galloni and Parker that giving too many high scores is going to make high scores meaningless. Like the boy who cried wolf, this duo is quickly turning into the critics who cried classic!

Meet the Winemaker: Erik Mohr (Snowy Peaks Winery)

Erik and Candice Mohr

I've only had a Snowy Peaks wine a few times, but each time I was impressed. Their Rhône-style reds and whites are some of the best of their kind in the state. One other they do well is not making a wine for every customer. Instead, they promote their Colorado wine colleagues and sell a selection of wines from other Colorado wineries. I think that this is something other wineries might want to consider. This way, a winery can focus on the wines and styles they are best at producing and support their neighbors by selling theirs wines made from different varieties or in different styles. Be sure to check out Snowy Peaks Winery the next time you find yourself in beautiful Estes Park.

Meet the Winemaker: Michelle Cleveland (Creekside Cellars)

Michelle Cleveland - Creekside Cellars

There is a misconception in Colorado that most of the state's wineries are along the western slope in the Grand Valley. It is true that most of the vineyards are located there along with a critical mass of wineries, but almost half of the state's wineries are spread out along the Front Range between Fort Collins and Pueblo. The reason for this is simple: the Front Range is where the consumers are found. While not surrounded by picturesque vineyards as the wineries in the Grand Valley, these "urban" wineries are found in Quonset huts, industrial parks and even in quaint little mountain towns. If you live in Denver, you don't have far to go to find a winery producing world-class wine. And if you haven't had the pleasure yet of having a glass of local wine along with a plate of charcuterie while overlooking Bear Creek, I suggest you get up to Evergreen to visit with our guest this week, Michelle Cleveland.

Getting to Know Mr. Brett Bruxellensis

Yesterday over at 1WineDude.com, the Dude proclaimed his disdain for wines affected by the yeast Brettanomyces bruxellensis. Piggybacking on his post seems appropriate as I was at a faults seminar last week at VinCo 2011 in Grand Junction, CO conducted by Lisa Van de Water of Vinotec Napa. While I've read about Brett, I had never really had the opportunity to taste the specific effects of this oft-maligned yet sometimes praised yeast. While Brett in and of itself is not bad, the resulting aromas and flavors of the compounds that it produces are. Terms often used to describe the effects of Brett are band-aid, smoked meat, stinky feet and barnyard. Not exactly what you want to think of when you think of wine.

Brett is not associated with soil or grapes but likes to live in wine barrels. Low sulfur levels, high pH, warm temperatures and old barrels are all conducive to Brett growth. These conditions are all associated with winemaking and therefore it CANNOT be attributed to terroir as so many people have tried to suggest. Bordeaux and the Rhône valley are wine regions often associated with Brett. Despite what should be an obvious flaw, these two regions are often associated with high scores from Robert Parker. Part of the growing opposition to Robert Parker and his 100-point rating system is that he obviously appreciates the characteristics that many people find off-putting.

Along with a group of local winemakers, I was able to smell and taste the three most prevalent compounds produced by this mean little guy. Lisa set out a variety of doctored wines that showed Brett flaws along with various other flaws such as 2-4-6 trichloroanisole (TCA), volatile acidity (VA), acetaldehyde, excess sulfur and oxidation. I learned that 4-ethyl phenol produces the band-aid aromas and isovaleric acid produces the funky cheese and barnyard scents associated with Brett. Those two were definitely deal killers for me. However, 4-ethyl guaiacol produces the pleasant (at least for me) smoked meat and spicy aromas. I do not think that the benefits of 4-ethyl guaiacol outweigh the gut-wrenchingness of 4-ethyl phenol and isovaleric acid. There are other ways to achieve smokey aromas than with Brett. If you're wondering exactly what this smoked meat smells like, find a bottle of liquid smoke at the grocery store and take a whiff.

In the seminar, we also tasted two actual wines from a mystery winery that had to be pulled from shelves due to excess faults. The first wine had moderate amounts of 4-ethyl phenol and 4-ethyl guaiacol. The smokey aromas and bacon flavors  were much more prevalent to me and I could barely identify any band-aid characteristics. While I was not completely put off by this wine, it was not pleasurable wine to taste. Judging by my experience with this wine, I'd be willing to bet that brettheads, such as Parker, are actually more sensitive to 4-ethyl guaicol than the other two compounds. The second sample was loaded with VA and isovaleric acid. This wine was so fully of vinegar and vomit aromas that I could barely bring myself to smelling it after my first attempt. So, next time you you smell or taste these characteristics, you are most likely seeing the effects of Brett.

While I am not trying to tell people that they are wrong for enjoying the effects of Brett, the idea that it is somehow a characteristic of terroir and not flawed winemaking IS incorrect.