ROSEN: Selfish winemakers vs. the committee

By Jennifer Rosen, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published January 30, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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I'm tasting with Stephane Vivier, winemaker at Hyde de Villaine (HdV), a California winery with dynastic connections to Burgundy's legendary Domaine de la Romanee Conti. Stephane is the only wine person I know besides myself who spends his spare time on a trapeze.

Trapeze work takes courage and enormous strength, but good fliers make it look elegant and easy. Stephane manages the same trick with his wines - they shimmer with elegant minerality, but it's all firmly backed up by tightly packed fruit.

"I make wines selfishly," he says.

Once, this would have annoyed me. I'd visit cranky old French winemakers who would say: "I make the wine for myself, and the hell with the public. If they don't want to drink it or don't understand it, that's their problem." I'd think, "Those French sure don't understand marketing."

And they don't. Every year French winemakers protest low sales by pour- ing wine in the streets and knocking over tollbooths, and the government responds by paying them to rip their vines out. But the great lake of surplus keeps growing, and they end up turning much of it into industrial fuel.

Bit by bit, though, youngsters are prying tradition out of Grandpa's death grip, changing laws to allow regional blending, simpler labels and the other tactics that have made their Australian and American rivals so successful.

I've always applauded these steps. But my love of marketing came screeching to a halt the other day when I came across a news item in the trade magazine Beverage Analyst announcing the birth of a new brand called HobNob.

"Produced in a new world winemaking style, HobNob wine aims to be approachable, contemporary and fun - and both appealing and relevant to a broad target audience," the copy says cheerily. "The cool and clean graphics, vibrant packaging and memorably irreverent, nontraditional name generate bright identity on the shelf and leave the consumer with a strong impression. This easy-to-pronounce, easy-to-remember wine label has been created to reflect the dominant message - coming together, socializing and even the clinking of glasses and drinking together."

Yeah, yeah, yeah, but what about the wine? For instance, where does it come from? Region? Country? Winemaker?

Ignoring me, the blurb continues, "Americans want new ideas, new wines to match their palates. In addition, our research tells us that young wine consumers are more conscious of packaging than ever before. . . . In 2006, 'fun' labels accounted for 63 percent of total growth." Next, an analysis of the tar- geted millennial generation, then prom- ises of ads, events, coupons and point- of-sale materials, and then it's done.

Since they won't tell me about the wine within all that glorious packaging, I'll speculate. Like the label, it's designed by focus groups and committees, with all controversial flavors and rough edges smoothed out. A bland, inoffensive wine that will receive exactly 85 points from the critics, all of them, year after year.

In contrast, Stephane tells me, the HdV wine I'm tasting was reviewed by the top two wine publications and received a 94 from one and an 80 from the other. It reminds me of a recent column I wrote about Italian laws and religion. Though it got kudos from around the world, a couple of readers were deeply offended.

That's the price of making something, as Stefane puts it, selfishly. To create something special, be it writing, painting or wine, you must forget the audience. You have to reach deeply within, trust what you find there and work on it until the result feels profoundly satisfying. And if it truly is great, people will receive it passionately - some loving and some detesting it.

The wine industry is betting you don't have the stomach to risk that sort of experience. To them, you're a bunch of otters, attracted by bright shiny things or cute animals, totally oblivious to the taste of the juice in your glass. I'm betting you're braver than that. That you're actually curious to venture into the world of wines of character - strong character you might love or hate. Sure, it's a risk, but not like investing your retirement fund in a mining deal or playing chicken with a train. It's more like that first breathtaking swing out over nothingness on the flying trapeze.

Jester@corkjester.com

Recommended wines of character:

White

* Jean Bousquet Chardonnay Tupungato Valley 2006 (Argentina), $13

* Kurt Hain Riesling Kabinett Piesporter Goldtropfchen 2006 (Germany), $19

* Willi Haag Riesling Kabinett Ruwer Brauneberger Juffer 2006 (Germany), $24

* Hyde de Villaine La Guerra Chardonnay 2006 (U.S.), $30

Red

* Bodegas Balbas Ribera del Duero Reserva 2001 (Spain), $45

* Hyde de Villaine Carneros Syrah 2004 (U.S.), $50

* Hyde de Villaine Belle Cousine Napa Valley Red 2004 (U.S.), $60

* Torre Muga Rioja 2004 (Spain), $88