Stefania Wine
San Jose, CA
Grape Puncher
Posts:725
 | | 01/22/2004 11:29 PM |
| I had to share this with someone, just because it pissed me off so much.
So I'm on all these email groups for grape growers. And usually it's none stop prattle about their spray programs and how many and much bio-hazards they are going to dose on their vines to keep them alive in Pennsltucky, and who has Norton, or if Marchel Foch will grow in North Dakota. But every now and then someone has a Vitis Vinifera question, and I'll reply.
So today some guy in Missouri asks where he can get Syrah cuttings. Now I just ignore the fact that you can't grow Syrah from cuttings, and give him the benefit of the doubt that he's not just going to stick the cutting in the ground like you do with all the hybrid grapes they grow, but that he's really going to graft it on to good rootstock. And I provide him with information on where he can get Estrella clones or Tables/Beaucastel clones. The very best you can get and I clue him into places that have them in small quantities and for under $3 a piece.
And he decides that some guy in New York has some for free and he'd rather save the money and get god knows what kind of plant material rather than get the best possible.
Why is so much wine plonk. Because growers and winemakers who give a rats ass are few and far between.
There I feel better now. | |
Paul Romero - Owner/Winemaker Stefania Wine
www.stefaniawine.com | |
|
ChangeMe
Grape Truck Driver
Posts:27
| | 01/23/2004 2:07 AM |
| | OK, I'm intrigued. Why can't you grow Syrah from cuttings? Why is it different from other grapevines? | | | |
|
David Niederauer
Los Gatos, CA
Master Sommelier
Posts:15708
| | 01/23/2004 5:35 AM |
| I have been amazed more than once while walking through a vineyard or winery with some (big name) vintners and really how little they know about what they are doing.
Not that I'm smarter but it just seems they sometimes don't give a damn. They don't have the passion needed for producing better-than-good wines. | | | |
|
JimmyV
Central Connecticut
Wine Connoisseur
Posts:5015
| | 01/23/2004 2:44 PM |
| Quote:
Why is so much wine plonk. Because growers and winemakers who give a rats ass are few and far between.
I know that I am preaching tothe converted, but the thing that struck Mrs V and I during our trip to Napa/Sonoma last summer was how much the "fine" wine industry is about farming. The glossy websites, fancy labels and limosine charity events are a lot of what the industry portrays. But when you walk out the back door of the tasting room and into the vineyard, it is all about careful and precise farming. It's dusty pick-ups and muddy Red Wings. These folks (at least the wineries that we visited) care about the crop, its heritage, source and improvement.
When I read a story like tlily's, it just sharpens the focus that if you start out with a "Who gives a crap" attitude about what's in the field, you sure as hell will put crap in the bottle. | |
Beta testing a new signature. | |
|
dinwiddie
Barrel Sampler
Posts:2155
| | 01/23/2004 2:49 PM |
| | Back to the main question - because that is what most of the people who drink wine drink, cheap, ordinary wine. | | | |
|
Pool Boy
Laurl, MD (DC suburb)
Master of Wine
Posts:13660
| | 01/23/2004 2:53 PM |
| Quote:
Back to the main question - because that is what most of the people who drink wine drink, cheap, ordinary wine.
DW's right. We all are the exception... | |
www.roguefood.com -- www.cellartracker.com | |
|
gus fleener
gilroy
Barrel Filler
Posts:1342
| | 01/23/2004 5:19 PM |
| but, then, i have always preffered the company of exceptional people  . | | | |
|
Stefania Wine
San Jose, CA
Grape Puncher
Posts:725
| | 01/23/2004 10:39 PM |
| Thanks all, I needed that rant, and I think you hit it on the head Davidn
Wishbone_C , Vitis Vinifera vines on their own roots have no resistance to a louse native to most of North America called Phylloxera At one stage of it's life cycle it feeds on grape plant roots, eventually killing the entire plant. So you are in effect planting a vine that will eventually die from pests.
It's actually a common thing here in the Santa Clara Valley and I do a lot of informal consulting to people who are trying to grow grapes in their yards. It's always the same story. They bought the vines at Home Depot. They where fine for 9-12 months, then they just started to wither up and they die by 18 months. Every year I order a few hundred resistant plants and pass them out to people who've called me the year before with dead vines. | |
Paul Romero - Owner/Winemaker Stefania Wine
www.stefaniawine.com | |
|
Jeremy Matthew
Barrel Sampler
Posts:2067
| | 01/23/2004 11:07 PM |
| IN Chile, Argentina and NZ they have planted ungrafted vines with varying levels of success. Chile is the most successful with no evil little reds mites infecting their vines. Argentina is next although they have become concerned with recent outbreaks, and here in NZ everything was good up untill 1990 when it broke out here in Marlborough. Believed to be from contaminated root and cutting brought in from Europe and the US.
Now 90% of all NZ vines are grafted to US root stock. | | | |
|
Stefania Wine
San Jose, CA
Grape Puncher
Posts:725
| | 01/23/2004 11:45 PM |
| It's very variable here. The plants the Home Depot sells come from Washington state, which has no problem. Even in the Santa Clara Valley there are big variations. I've got two neigbors growing vines on thier own roots with no problems and I have another nieghbor about 1/2 mile away that's got problems and I'm helping him replant in a few weeks. My sister's 10 miles away in the city of Santa Clara and her Home Depot vines all died at 12 months, which is the same story I got from my tree guy who lives in the same area, who happily excepted a trade of 10 good Syrah vines for his wife in exchange for pruning my mulberry tree  | |
Paul Romero - Owner/Winemaker Stefania Wine
www.stefaniawine.com | |
|
gus fleener
gilroy
Barrel Filler
Posts:1342
| | 01/23/2004 11:54 PM |
| Quote:
a trade of 10 good Syrah vines for his wife
really  | | | |
|
Jeremy Matthew
Barrel Sampler
Posts:2067
| | 01/23/2004 11:57 PM |
| Depending on his wife that could be a good trade?  | | | |
|
ChangeMe
Grape Truck Driver
Posts:27
| | 01/24/2004 1:32 PM |
| Quote:
Wishbone_C , Vitis Vinifera vines on their own roots have no resistance to a louse native to most of North America called Phylloxera At one stage of it's life cycle it feeds on grape plant roots, eventually killing the entire plant. So you are in effect planting a vine that will eventually die from pests.
OK, I misundersood your statement. I understand phylloxera, rootstock and grafting, I thought you meant that Syrah would not grow from cuttings, when I know that is a way to propagate vines. That is why I was intrigued by your statement. | | | |
|
ChangeMe
Grape Truck Driver
Posts:27
| | 01/24/2004 1:34 PM |
| Quote:
Depending on his wife that could be a good trade?
I don't think so. The Syrahs will bring him at least 10 evenings of enjoyment. The wife? Maybe 2-3.  | | | |
|
David Niederauer
Los Gatos, CA
Master Sommelier
Posts:15708
| | 01/24/2004 6:54 PM |
| A great joke.
Clinton comes walking down the ramp of Air Force One with a beautiful new Golden Retriever. The Secretary of State steps up and says, "Welcome home Mr. President. Very nice dog".
Clinton says, "I got it for Hillary".
The Secretary says, "Good trade!". | | | |
|
Jeremy Matthew
Barrel Sampler
Posts:2067
| | 01/24/2004 10:54 PM |
| Wishbone and David,
| | | |
|
Pool Boy
Laurl, MD (DC suburb)
Master of Wine
Posts:13660
| | 05/26/2005 1:56 PM |
| *bump*
Quote:
Why is so much wine plonk. Because growers and winemakers who give a rats ass are few and far between.
I enjoyed my trip to wine country this time so much more this go around than on prior trips. Well, in a different way at least. I consider much more knowledgeable than I was 5 years ago anyway. But some of the most fun I had on the trip was talking with people who really knew their stuff and who really cared about what they were doing and were passionate about it. Walking the vineyards with Nick Peay can do this to you.  | |
www.roguefood.com -- www.cellartracker.com | |
|
ChangeMe
Master of Wine
Posts:12891
| | 05/27/2005 2:04 AM |
| | no matter the industry you will always have certain levels of "plonk" and there will always be a market for it. | | | |
|
Appreciative
Beaverton, OR
Grape Fermenter
Posts:415
| | 05/27/2005 2:28 PM |
| | I heard stories about a winery owner who was more of an "accountant". He knew about profits, costs, and how many tons/acre he needed. | | | |
|
ChangeMe
Master of Wine
Posts:12891
| | 05/28/2005 1:40 AM |
| | did you say "a" winery owner? i am sure there are many of them out there like that. never forget that the bottom line is to turn a profit. if a winery can consistantly do that while producing low cost plonk, then god bless 'em. remember we are in the minority, the average wine drinker is happy with a $10 bottle that tastes decent. | | | |
|