portland

the last three days were spent in Portland, Oregon, getting to know a new sales team, manager and owners. Having only been to Portland once before when it was sunny and warm I was once again welcomed with perfect weather. It was only the stories from the sales reps that told me that it's really not always like that. The downtown scene is amazing with the plethora of restaurants, the new lofts and the sidewalks full of strollers in the evenings. The advantage of doing sales throughout the city is getting to see, and eat in the quaint little neighborhoods. There was a wonderful cheese plate at Curds and Whey, served with a dense fig bread and a fennel puree. The final dinner was at Olea, where the bowls of fresh corn soup were scraped up by all who had ordered it. The seared ahi tuna was served over a diced panzanella salad and the contrast in textures and flavors were fabulous. I am anxious to return and revisit the new wine bar that is just opening where one of the small plates is to be salads on a stick, which is such a great idea I am going to steal it for use at the winery. Thanks to all who dragged me around the city and wined and dined me.

low alcohol wines

Oh please........... all of a sudden there are myriad articles being written about 'low alcohol' wines - meaning anything under 14 per cent alcohol, where it should have been in the first place. These winemakers are saying they are doing something 'special' by making lower alcohol wines, by making them drinkable if you ask me. Wasn't/isn't that the goal all along? When did the public get the shaft by being told/convinced that huge alcohol wines were the ones that had flavor? The high alcohol wines became darlings of the media who traded balance, taste and elegance in for the big bullies of the wine world.
Let's go back and look at a history of GustavoThrace wines from the start in 1996. A simply graph would show that 98% of our wines have been at 14% or under, well balanced and designed specifically to compliment and, indeed, show off the foods you are pairing with them. The one 'huge' wine we made, a 15.8% petite sirah, was repeatedly tasted blind and the highest anyone ever guessed was that the alcohol was, perhaps, 15%. Which is to also say that one CAN achieve a balance with huge, overripe fruit but it isn't the goal to let the fruit get so ripe that you have to even deal with itin the first place. Now wineries are jumping on the bandwagon to shout that they are also making lower alcohol wines and we are just maintaining that we've been doing it all along, sorta nice to be imitated.............