No Thanks, Waiter, I’ll Open It Myself

Glen Ellen Winery is the first to do it: a wine without a cork that sells for $10.

The winery, best known for its multi-million-case production of Proprietors Reserve wines, also has a small line of wines called the Imagery Series. It features rare grape varieties and uses labels adorned with paintings by famous local artists.

In 1990, Glen Ellen bought Dolcetto grapes from Andy Hoxsey’s ranch in the Napa Valley. Dolcetto is an Italian variety that makes a light, dry red wine.

The 1990 Imagery Dolcetto turned out so light, however, that Glen Ellen nearly discarded it, feeling the public might not understand it.

“We didn’t want people to put this wine in their cellar and be disappointed with it,” says winemaker Bob Goyette. “It’s a wine to chill slightly and drink with spicy pasta.”

Then the winery hit on an idea: Why not put the wine out with a screw cap instead of a cork, to encourage people to open the bottle as fast as possible--no need to even look for a corkscrew.

To make it clear that the wine, which is light and quaffable, was made to be consumed quickly, the winery even printed the Parthenon-graced label upside down--to indicate that the best way to view the label was while the bottle was being poured. Or better yet, after the bottle was empty and inverted in an ice bucket.

The wine’s $10 price tag makes it unquestionably the world’s most expensive screw-cap wine.

Sutter Home, the winery that kicked off the White Zinfandel craze and has dominated the business since the early 1980s, has another wine worth looking for--but you may not be able to find it for a while.

Sutter Home’s Soleo (a proprietary name) is a pinkish wine made from quality red grapes. The 1990 version has a wonderful cranberry-strawberry aroma and a softness from 1.5% residual sugar. However, it tastes almost dry because of good acid balance.

Sutter Home winemaker Steve Bertolucci first made the wine in 1989, but that vintage wasn’t released. Company spokesman Stan Hock says the first effort was a bit too astringent. The first formal release of Soleo, from 1990, is a blend of five grape varieties, primarily Zinfandel (51%) and Barbera (22%).

The winery made just 50,000 cases, which wouldn’t accommodate all major U.S. markets, so Sutter Home released it in only six cities--Sacramento, Denver, Austin, Columbus, Indianapolis and Boston.

“But this isn’t a test market,” Hock says. “We stand fully behind this wine, and we plan to have a full national release (of the 1991 vintage Soleo) early next year.”

The wine, which sells for $5 a bottle, is also on sale at the winery’s tasting room south of St. Helena in the Napa Valley.

The 1991 Soleo will be released nationwide early in February at the same price.

Speakers representing diverse wine interests asked the House Agriculture Committee to assist the wine business as it faces attacks from a wide variety of foes.

In a rare meeting in mid-October, the Agriculture Committee held its first hearing devoted strictly to wine and what the government can do to maintain a healthy and competitive industry.

“Many wine-grape growers are also winemakers or vintners,” said Rep. Kika de la Garza (D-Texas), the panel’s chairman. “They are farmers who are processors, albeit a processor of a very regulated product. I might add that some of us who appreciate and enjoy wine would also call them artists.”

De la Garza has said he favors investigating whether wine should be separated from beer and spirits and be regulated by the Department of Agriculture.

“At present, wine is lumped together with alcohol, tobacco and firearms under the Department of the Treasury, which has as its principal objective the collection of taxes and the imposition of rules and regulations, some of which have been, in our opinion, unduly stringent and uncompromising, and not always serving our best interests,” said Richard Graff of the National Vintners Assn. He said the wine industry needs advocacy and support, “not mere policing.”

Industry representatives testified that the government’s focus has been to tax and regulate wine rather than promote it and that BATF has not always been responsive to industry problems.

John De Luca, president of San Francisco-based Wine Institute and one of 17 persons who made presentations, said he wanted to establish a stronger dialogue with the committee.

De Luca presented 12 studies on the cardiovascular benefits of moderate consumption of wine and pleaded for funds for further research into wine’s effects on the human body.

He said Agriculture already has some jurisdiction over wine--marketing orders, nutrition and consumer affairs, and the Foreign Agricultural Service. He said he was not taking a stand on whether Wine Institute favored regulatory control over wine by the Agriculture Department rather than Treasury.

Wine growers said they need marketing assistance, control of imports and government-sponsored research. “It is an embarrassing fact that despite the impressive size of our wine-growing industry we lag far behind many other countries in viticultural research and development,” said Graff.

Some speakers said federal regulations treating wine the same as other alcoholic beverages threaten to ruin many small family operations and that the Agriculture Committee should push for support of American wine because foreign sales could help improve the nation’s trade deficit.

Winemakers in Europe have their own complaints. At a three-day symposium in Strasbourg, France, a panel of scientists and industry leaders warned the European Parliament that stricter controls and the resulting higher taxes could have a devastating effect on the wine industries of Europe.

Bills restricting media advertising as well as arts, charity and sports sponsorships will injure society without reducing alcohol abuse, the panel said.

“There are positive and negative pressures for legislative action occurring in many EEC countries,” said Peter Duff, European consultant to the Wine Institute. In Sweden, high taxes and harsh controls have not led to reduced alcohol abuse, he said.

Dr. David H. Ingvar, past president of the Swedish Medical Academy, said scientific research shows a generally positive result of moderate consumption of alcoholic beverages. Dr. Agnes Heinz, director of Nutrition and Biochemistry for the American Council of Science and Health, defined moderate consumption as “three to four drinks a day for men and two for women.”

Wine of the Week

1990 Tiefenbrunner Pinot Grigio ($8.75) --Pinot Grigio is a synonym for Pinot Gris, a variety of grape that is a gray-colored mutant in the large and complicated Pinot family. Pinot Grigio has many synonyms and styles of production, making it one of the least understood fine wine grapes in the world. It’s called Rulander in Germany, where it can be made into a dry or very sweet wine. In the Alsace it’s called both Tokay d’Alsace and Pinot Gris, and it has made some superb wines in Oregon too. This Italian version is an excellent value. The aroma is earthy-spicy with hints of clove; the texture is warm and rich, with a complexity in the finish that is perfect with salmon or other full-flavored fish. I have tasted a lot of $10-and-above Italian Pinot Grigios that are not as interesting as this wine.