Two Winners: Canned Beer and Central Coast Pinot Noir

If you buy beer at a supermarket, it’s probably safer to buy it in a can.

Joe Owades demonstrated this graphically last week during a two-day brewing symposium at the Anchor Steam Brewery. When he poured a number of commercial beers, one was badly spoiled with a skunky, hydrogen sulfide kind of smell.

“Lightstruck,” said Owades, a master brewer who has been a consultant to most of the nation’s major breweries and is president of the Center for Brewing Studies, based in Sonoma, Calif.

The spoiled beer was later identified as Heineken, one of a six-pack Owades bought from a refrigerated case at a local supermarket. The green bottles had been exposed to light from the ultraviolet bulbs in the case. “I wanted to show you this skunkiness,” he said. “Any form of light combined with a clear or green glass bottle creates a photochemical degradation and gives you this smell.”

He said that riboflavin in beer, when exposed to light, reacts with an element in the hops. Dark beers, he said, or those in brown bottles are less likely to have this skunky smell. Clear bottles, however, make the beer more vulnerable. “Just 10 or 15 minutes exposure to light, a half hour for sure, and the beer in a clear bottle can be ruined,” said Owades.

A few brewers who prefer, for marketing reasons, to have clear bottles have worked to eliminate this reaction. Miller Brewing Co., he said, uses a hop extract that has been specially crafted to make it insensitive to light. “But they do this at the expense of some flavor,” he added.

Owades said that light is not the only problem: It has recently been discovered that oxygen dissolved in the plastic liner of crown caps degrades into the beer and can oxidize it.

About 70% of all beer is sold in cans. Owades approves. “A perfectly made can,” he said, “is a perfect package for beer.”

“A year ago, everyone wanted to taste Chardonnay,” said Bruce McGuire, winemaker for Santa Barbara Winery, at a tasting of Santa Barbara wines. “Today all they want is Pinot Noir.”

The reason: A year ago, when the 1989 Chardonnays were released, some wine writers said those from the North Coast (Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino) were hurt by rains. “We didn’t experience any rain,” said McGuire, “so they thought ours would be better.”

Now, with the release of the 1990 and 1991 Pinot Noirs, Santa Barbara is once again being touted as one of the best regions in the country for this red grape of Burgundy. And the tasting here proved that.

Here is a random sampling from that tasting:

1990 Au Bon Climat ($30)--Intense, almost jam-like cherry and spice notes; deeply complex with anise and sandalwood. Powerful, long-lived wine.

1991 Babcock Vineyards ($25)--Stylish lighter-styled wine with elegant cherry and strawberry fruit, lush flavors and full, ripe finish. A wine with a big future.

1989 Cottonwood Canyon Vineyards “Barrel Select” ($25/500 milliliters)--Impressive clove and spice notes meld with deeply complex cherry/cranberry fruit and an enticing toasted element in the finish. A potent and most appealing wine. This is pricey, however, equivalent to $37.50 for a normal-sized, 750-milliliter bottle. Very limited.

1990 Byron Vineyards ($14)--Mild cherry notes and tasty, delicately structured wine that should improve over time. Good value.

1991 Foxen Vineyard ($20)--Hard to evaluate now because it was just bottled, so the aroma is “dumb,” but it shows hints of black cherry and mint.

1991 Lane Tanner ($20)--Clove and cinnamon wrapped around attractive lighter-styled cherry fruit. Softer and more appealing now than many younger wines.

1990 Meridian Vineyards ($14)--Light cherry and lean, classical flavors similar to Beaune. A fine, easy-to-like wine, excellent value.

1990 Sanford ($15)--Sprightly cherry and cinnamon fruit, lush extract in the mouth, and a sensuous finish. A most appealing wine and probably the best value of current releases.

1989 Santa Barbara Winery “Reserve” ($20)--Toasty, deeply complex black cherry. A high-extract wine with a surprising delicacy on the tongue. Lovely textures and tasty finish.

Wine of the Week

1990 Bearitage, Red Table Wine ($10 or less)-- Jim Bundschu has done it again. Over the years, the owner of Gundlach-Bundschu Winery in the Sonoma Valley has produced a series of hilarious posters. Now he’s released this red table wine, a take-off on Meritage wines, those lofty Bordeaux-style blends. Bundschu’s wine, which is 60% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Zinfandel, would not actually qualify as a Meritage wine, since it contains Zinfandel; besides, it’s not expensive enough. The back label tells of California’s brief status as an independent republic and reports that Gundlach-Bundschu “continues to operate with much the same independent spirit.” The wine is absolutely top-rate, with complex flavors of raspberry/cassis fruit and herbs, plus a bit of the spice that Zinfandel gives. Moreover, I tried to oxidize the wine by leaving a bottle without a cork, and the stuff refused to spoil. A stunning wine for the price.