CRUSH: December 2008 (bin #069) - 2008 Harvest Report

2008 HARVEST REPORT

By Laurie Gilchrist

With Kristin Belair | Clay Mauritson | Sal De Ianni

EXERPT | If one word had to be chosen to sum up this year's wine grape growing season in California, it might be "chaotic." Vintners rode a roller coaster ride of emotions fueled by Mother Nature's unpredictable sense of humor… The worst frost in 30 or 40 years, followed by merciless heat spikes and then rain. In the game of winemaking, a few miles north or south, east or west can make an enormous difference in crop damage, yields, and flavors when the weather turns foul. CRUSH magazine spoke to a few top producers in Napa, Sonoma, and Carneros to get a glimpse of the challenges 2008 brought for these winemakers specifically, and the California winemaking community as a whole, as well as their hopeful predictions for this season’s wines.

EXERPT | Kristin Belair, Napa Valley, Honig Vineyard & Winery | "The growing season, as a whole… was completely random. We had early bud break and late frost, we had heat, cold, lots of wind. The crop levels were all over the board, depending on how much they got affected by frost and vineyard location, and varietals didn’t come in a (normal) order."

EXERPT | Clay Mauritson, Sonoma, Mauritson Wines | "By no means was it disastrous, it wasn’t like ’89 when we got rained on and it wasn’t like ’98. It was just a year (to be) diligent in the vineyard, and it’s going to be a year when winemakers are certainly going to earn their paychecks."

EXERPT | Sal De Ianni, Carneros, Truchard Vineyards | "...but I think they are going to be pretty well-aging wines. The general impression is lower yields but extremely good quality."

LIQUID GOLD: The Divine History of Olive Oil

By Laurie Gilchrist

EXERPT | Throughout history, olive oil has held a place of divine importance to the peoples of the Mediterranean. It has anointed the heads of kings and covered the lithe bodies of Olympic athletes and Roman gladiators. Olive oil was a source of wealth and power, and the olive tree was a symbol of peace, purity, and healing. Hippocrates, the "Father of Modern Medicine" prescribed it for curing muscular pain, ulcers, and cholera. The great historian Pliny (AD 23 – 79) wrote, "Except the vine, there is no plant which bears a fruit of as great importance as the olive." Homer called the oil of the olive "liquid gold," singing its praises in his poetry, while the Prophet Muhammad advised, "Consume olive oil and anoint it upon your bodies since it is of the blessed tree." In the Hebrew Bible, olive oil was used to consecrate one chosen for God’s work, and the Jewish Menorah traditionally used olive oil as fuel for the fires that lit its seven branches (not candles).

THE SCIENCE OF BEER

By Sir Lucky Day

EXERPT | Welcome back, friends. This is your beer-buddie's first correspondence from Nashville, Tennessee; Home of country music, the Titans, and a titillating selection of brews one can't help but take a nip of on a regular basis (those are nipple jokes). It's also really chilly here. Actually, it's downright cold. Cold enough to warm the hearts of the ad execs who recommend consuming beer at temperatures just above freezing. Sooner or later we're going to see beer commercials with their perfect 10 models telling us to just freeze our beer into little cubes and skate on it. The colder the beer, the less you taste it, right? Frankly all this frosty fodder makes me want to reach for a room-temp, heavy, dark beer... one with a thick frothy head and the distinct taste of something burnt. That kind of beer seems natural as we plow through winter. It has a very real warming effect, right? Friends, I'm a lot of things, smart is not one of them. So when it came time to separate the hot air from the cold hard facts I turned to my friend Eric Elmquist (My boy's wicked smart). Eric is a scientist, beer lover, and prolific cornhole player.

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Region: Alentejo, Portugal

Retail wine selections

Recipes | Peppered Tuna by Wyld's

The Cigar Bar's Cigar of the Month: Renaissance by Rock Patel

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