 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
More QRW Winter 2007/08 feature articles:
All Things Grape and Small/Randy Sheahan
Tasting: Crème de La Champagne/QRW Tasting Panel
Rhône Sans d’Argent/Clive Coates, M.W.
QRW Writers Offer Their Top Quaffs of 2007
Port: Make Mine Tawny/Richard L. Elia
Wining and Dining: Orlando/Edward and Mireille Guiliano
A Really Good Buy at Rutherford Ranch/QRW Tasting Staff
Dernier Cri: Much Ado/Randy Sheahan
QRW Crossword: Hold Onto Your Drink/Todd McClary
QRW Staff
JACKSON HOLE WINE AUCTION |
Music Festival Director Tracy Jacobson (left) enjoys the festive dinner with Jerry Blann, President of the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, Rebecca Ryan, and Vince Parrotta, General Manager of the Four Seasons Resort Jackson Hole.
There are fewer more worthy wine events benefiting the arts and charitable organizations than the Jackson Hole Wine Auction. For years, it has attracted some of the most important wine and culinary personalities of the world – think Robert Parker. We admit, as well, to our partiality toward this Wyoming outpost. This year’s Jackson Hole auction was held in July, assisting the Grand Teton Music Festival’s youth education, which raised $215,000 (top lot was a 2008 Lexus GX 470 Luxury Utility Vehicle). Mozart in the mountains – not just any mountains, mind you, but the foothills of the glorious Grand Tetons – makes the works of any classical composer ethereal, angelic – like little else you may have experienced musically. The venue this year was Bridger Restaurant, atop Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. Auction guests received a gondola ride up the mountain to Bridger, which is a mere 9,095 feet above sea level. Welcome to the great outdoors! Bo Barrett of Chateau Montelena was the featured wine personality, offering seven of his library wine collection at the main dinner, along with two exceptional auction items: 20 cases of wine from Chateau Montelena, along with a weekend for six couples at his wine estate. Another attractive lot was a 12-year vertical of Château Palmer with a dinner for six with winemaker Thomas Duroux. Chefs Michael Mina (Michael Mina San Francisco), James Boyce (Studio at Montage Laguna Beach), and Manhattan restaurateur (and auctioneer for the event) Drew Nieporent were also on hand for the sounds and support of the music festival. For information about next year’s event: lea@gtmf.org
TANGLEWOOD WINE FESTIVAL |
Left photo: Celebrity wine principals: (left to right) Frank Neer, executive director of Nantucket Wine Festival; Jack Bittner from Cliff Lede Vineyards; Carmine Martignetti from the Martignetti Companies; Leonardo Locasio from Winebow, Inc.; and Larry Maguire from Far Niente, Nickel & Nickel and Dolce; Right photo: Denis Toner, president and founder of the Nantucket Wine Festival and the Tanglewood Wine Festival
Since we’re addressing the subject of music, let us turn to Tanglewood, which does for the Berkshires in Massachusetts what Jackson Hole does for the Grand Tetons in Wyoming. Tanglewood is the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Denis Toner and Frank Neer, producers of the Tanglewood Wine Festival, are also the brains behind the Nantucket Wine Festival (one of the most successful wine events in the country), which also benefits classical music on the island some 30 miles off the coast of Cape Cod. What Toner and Neer have done is to bring the rustic and oceanic experience of Nantucket to the high tone idyllic funkiness of the Berkshire Mountains, which basically is how Toner describes the two events. Whatever, in both cases, well-heeled wine lovers want the ocean and the mountains, and have no trouble finding their way there each year. In fact, this year the Tanglewood Wine Festival tripled the revenue it gives to the Boston Symphony. The premier wineries on hand were Chapoutier (Antoine Chapoutier) and Elyse (Ray Courser); the star chefs were Antoine Camin (La Goulue, Manhattan) and Jeffrey Thompson (Wheately, Berkshires). The auction was conducted by Richard Brierely of Christie’s. The Tanglewood-Nantucket formula has been imitated throughout the country, but not necessarily duplicated. Where else in the east coast can you find splendid music, a fine wine auction, wine dinners at posh homes, splendor on the grass picnics in Edenic settings, even the roasting of a pig ...
AN AFTERNOON IN THE COUNTRY THE 28TH SONOMA COUNTY SHOWCASE |
It was a glorious July weekend of wine and food Sonoma style, which is to say family style, down home, with grace and generosity. For four days, more than 3,000 guests enjoyed the good stuff: wines from 110 wineries, and food from 75 chefs. It was billed as the “Taste of Sonoma,” and they weren’t exaggerating as the region has much to offer. Phil Bilodeau, Director of Communications, spoke about this: “it offered a chance to showcase our diversity and quality: chefs, wares, wines, comparative tastings, cooking demonstrations, recipes from winemaking families cooked by leading area chefs, a grower pavilion, and a Bubble Lounge” [Sonoma sparkling wine lounge]. A silent wine auction of Big Bottles raised $75,000 for charity – the boys and girls clubs, and for education. The Sonoma Showcase is nothing like its Napa neighbors, whose auction has more style than soul, more personality than folk. For information about next year’s event: phil@sonomawine.com or 707-522-5849.
THE 23RD ANNUAL WINESONG! MENDOCINO |
Auctioneer DawnMarie Kotsonis presides over the auction supporting the Mendocino Coast Hospital during WineSong! 2007.
Setting a WineSong! single lot record, Jose Nazar, with his guest Claudi Okuinghttons, was the winning bidder of a ten-day trip to Portugal and Spain for $62,000. He also anted up $50,000 for another custom-made vacation package to Chile and Argentina.
There’s perhaps more rugged beauty in Mendocino than in most of California wine country, and last September hundreds of guests had no trouble finding their way to the gorgeous 54-acre Mendocino Botanical Gardens, the venue of the annual WineSong! auction, an event that raised $653,000 (the silent auction raised another $38,000) which benefits the Mendocino Coast Hospital. America’s best wine auctioneer, Dave Reynolds, and DawnMarie Kotsonis hammered home the final lot, which exceeded last year’s take by 15 percent. Like Naples and Napa, this auction attracts big rollers who were eager to buy international wine trips to Bordeaux, Rhône Valley, and Chile. A ten-day trip to Spain and Portugal with airfare sold for $62,000. Perhaps the biggest lot of the day was an 80-pound wheel of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese that sold for $2,600. Added to these were cult/trophy wines like Colgin, Bryant, Araujo, Harlan, Phelps Insignia, Spottswoode, and Marcassin (a mixed case of all these wines sold for $11,000; a double magnum of 2005 Grace Cabernet sold for $8,000; and two bottles of Screaming Eagle sold for $4,500 – pocket change to some of the guests here).
THE 28TH L’ETE DU VIN |
Marimar Torres, winemaker, Marimar Estate, joined fellow auction-goers during the “Raise Your Paddle” lot, which raised more than $15,000 in support of the fight against cancer. (Photo: John Russell)
Wine events and auctions don’t just attract the rich: they also attract the generous. Nashville’s l’Eté du Vin is just such an example. For more than a quarter century, this grand wine auction has been raising funds to fight cancer. This year it collected $855,000 at the annual July event, held at the Loews Vanderbilt Hotel. Generous Nashvillians opened their purses as they do every year. Top auction items were a trip to Madrid for $25,000, a Cheval Blanc and a La Mission Haut Brion dinner for – get this! – $60,500 and $60,000 respectively. Wine guests included Emilia Nardi (Tenute Silvio Nardi), Clement Reid (Wine Ambassador for Veuve Clicquot), Marimar Torres (Marimar Estate), and Zelma Long (Vilafonte Vineyard).
WASHINGTON STATE WINE AUCTION |
More wine community generosity. Washington wines gain in immensity, character, and price (a Woodward vertical raised $19,000; a DeLille large bottle format special release fetched $15,000; and a 3-liter Cayuse realized $15,000). Witness further the results of the 20th Washington State Auction, which raised in three days last August $1,950,000 for uncompensated care at Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle and the Washington Wine Education Foundation. This is the primary fundraising event in the state, which featured picnics, winemaker dinner, a barrel auction ($40,000), a Super Bowl package ($85,000), a BMW 328-i convertible ($40,000), even a 10-K road race, plus the Seattle Seahawks Cheerleaders to encourage bidding. Ted Baseler, President and CEO of Chateau Ste. Michelle, and Tod Leiweke, CEO of the Seattle Seahawks, were co-chairmen. For more information about next year’s event: 206-667-9463.
KRUG’S ESCAPE ARTIST COLLECTION |
What are you getting for Christmas? How about a collector’s item with panache and not a little decadence? If so, check out the House of Krug, Champagne producer in Reims since 1843, which has teamed with trunk maker and leather goods designer Pinel & Pinel of Paris, to create a limited edition of 30 trunks, ten each of three different designs. Fred Pinel is a master trunk maker whose exquisite creations are haute and hot, inspired by the retro 1930s, when the art of travel prevailed. One trunk is described as “dangerously red,” and it’s surely for big rollers. Inside this trunk is, among other things, a drawer, two packs of poker cards, five casino dice, and 200 professional chips. There’s also a midnight blue trunk for the “hedonist,” consisting of a pair of cigar holders, XCAR cigar cutter, a Dupont lighter (which is still a status symbol in Paris), along with two bottles of 1995 Krug, which coincidentally is listed as our “Best of The Best Champagnes” in this issue. The third, according to Krug management in Manhattan, is designed for the “true aesthete,” and it conceals a state-of-the-art Samsung TMP3 video player, with Bluetooth technology and JBL “On Tour Sound System.” All three trunks contain two bottles of Krug, four Baccarat crystal glasses, four nickel plated Pinel coasters (in a secret drawer), a Krug stopper and Champagne cooler, designed by Francois Bauchet. For information contact Remi Fritsch at: remi.fritsch@mhusa.com
RITZ-CARLTON BOSTON COMMON HOTEL |
General Manager Erwin Schinnerl
The Ritz-Carlton Hotel is very much alive and well and thriving in Boston. When it sold its flagship hotel across the Public Gardens, negative nabobs were quick to predict the demise of The Ritz-Carlton as emperor of the city. Erwin Schinnerl, General Manager, heard the choral cries, and admits that “getting going was slow, but that’s in the past.” The hotel is presently undergoing an $11 million upgrade, and reclaiming its title as Boston’s destination property. To that end, Interior Designer Frank Nicholson is overseeing things, adding understated opulence and modern/contemporary design. The effect, thus far, is elegant. When asked to assess developments, Schinnerl said the hotel is “further recommitting itself to the city, reinventing itself – as fine hotels must – to do things better, to develop still finer service.” Schinnerl is still a product of the Ritz-Carlton school which would, in the words of a former CEO Horst Schulze, “move heaven and earth to make Ritz-Carlton guests happy.” There will be a new ballroom with panoramic floor to ceiling windows that overlook historic Boston Common and the city’s skyline. The ballroom has already been reserved for a number of upcoming weddings and events. The enhanced lobby area is now called the “Gallery.” The meeting rooms and the 193 guest rooms are being upgraded – new carpets, desks, armoires, lamps, HD flat screen televisions. The effects are inspirational and designed chiefly, we feel, to reflect modernity amidst stylish serenity. All around the property and its next door neighbors swirl movement and excitement. Things are going well, and the occupancy rate is in the mid-80 percentile and higher. “It will all be finished by early ’08. It will be a newer and finer Ritz,” says Schinnerl excitedly. “It reflects changing guest needs, yet retains the essence of a great tradition.” The Ritz-Carlton is not emulating an “old school” ethic as much as a “good school” one, something that the best hotels in the world never ignore.
PS: The Ritz had four World Series “Red Sox Packages” (full suite, a view of Fenway Park, Red Sox robes, caps, jerseys, club level, dinner, amenities) for $2,004 – the year the Red Sox won the World Series, breaking the “curse,” and all sold within hours of the offering, even though tickets did “not” come with the package.
IN MEMORIAM |
Barbara Griffin
BARBARA GRIFFIN a QRW staffer (editor and proofer) passed away last September of cancer. She was the most recent hire, having joined the magazine just a few years ago. She had formerly been a teacher; she was a wife and a parent of five children. She was QRW’s compositional conscience. For Barbara, the English language – its punctuation, its style, its very composition – mattered very much. She was passionate about words, about phrasing – things that seem to matter little these days. She reminded the cognoscenti at the magazine that their prose could be severely wanting, and she was invariably right. Passion like hers for language and for wine writing are not easily replaced.
TODD WILLIAMS, otherwise known as “Dr. Toad,” a Sonoma Vintner and founder of Toad Hollow Vineyards (Russian River), passed away of heart failure at age 69 last August. Williams created Toad Hollow in 1993 with business partner Rodney Strong, who died a few years ago. Prior to this Williams served as Shafer Vineyards national sales manager. Williams had an acerbic wit; he was the author of the Toad Hollow Gazette, and had a no-nonsense, no-holds-barred approach to life. He wanted to spread his “gospel according to the Toad,” which, among many other things, manifested an advocacy for small, premium producers. Toad Hollow wines appeared in 1994 producing some 3,000 cases of Chardonnay. He grew the brand and several other varietals to 100,000 cases by 2007, and had an appreciative consumer audience asking for more. The wine industry has lost an affable and dynamic personality.
CALENDAR |
The 19th Boston Harbor Hotel Wine and Food Festival starts in January 2008 and concludes in April with Chef Daniel Bruce creating more than 50 wine-dinners, rarely replicating dinners, preferring to craft each dish to a specific winery being represented. This is the longest running hotel wine festival in the country, which has proven so popular that the hotel is prepared to take its act on the road. Chef Bruce is the founder of the French Quarter Wine Festival in New Orleans, now in its second year. For information: 617-439-7000.
Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America has its annual meeting from April 6 to 8, 2008 at Paris and Bally’s Hotel in Las Vegas. For information: Stephanie Shafer at 202-371-9702, x301.
ResourcePlus and Reed: New York Expo. ResourcePlus, the highly successful show and management company (it handles the Boston Wine Expo) is teaming with Reed Exhibitions to launch the New York Wine Expo on March 7 to 9, 2008 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in Manhattan. This event will also be in conjunction with the International Restaurant and Foodservice Show of New York. Grand tastings, seminars, chef demonstrations and more. For information: Ed Hurley at ed.hurley@resource-plus.com
QRW’S 30TH ANNIVERSARY |
Front row, left to right: Donna Iovinelli, Quebecor World; Joe Cabrera, LMY Studio, Inc.; Lily Yamamoto, LMY Studio, Inc.; Randy Sheahan, Editor; Harley MacKenzie, Managing Director; Richard Elia, Publisher; Lisa Amore, Senior Editor; Deana Nelson
Back row: Joe Iovinelli; Herb Cares, Photographer; Jim Scherer, Cover Photographer; Elena Scherer; Karen Cares; Judith Grice Sheahan, Illustrator; Christopher Rule, Sales & Circulation; Orly Nelson, Quebecor World (Photos: Herb Cares)
Chef Daniel Bruce toasts QRW.
No one quite recalls how it all happened, how the magazine was initiated, how staff was assembled, how it developed, how it got so large. Nonetheless, that didn’t deter the merry making staff from partying and from recalling the past – historically, apocryphally, or otherwise. In fact, the more outrageous our memories were that September 7, 2007 evening, the greater our joy, the more exuberant our gusto. We gathered in a private dining room at the Boston Harbor Hotel, whose gorgeous floor to ceiling windows overlook the city’s harbor, offering views of fabulous flotilla – yachts, sailing boats, steamers, even the “Iroquois,” the floating hotel (with crew of 11) owned by John Henry of the Boston Red Sox who docks there seven months of the year. The dining room was an elegantly prepared, candle lit table for 16, with a sea of wine glasses and crystal, and an eye-popping array of floral decorations and classical music put together by the magazine’s managing director, Harley MacKenzie. Boston Harbor Hotel is where Chef Daniel Bruce presides. He is the best chef in a city of fine chefs, and one of the best known culinary personalities in the country. Chef Bruce said he wanted “to cook for QRW’s 30th Anniversary Dinner.” Needless to say, who were we to say no? We only cautioned him to prepare a “safe” dinner to satisfy the cravings of 16 very diverse palates. Appetizers of oysters, shrimp in varied sauces, and an array of Asian accented foods arrived and were consumed with magnums of 1996 Roederer Champagne. Then came dinner and wine pairings:
Char Seared Diver Sea Scallops, Spinach and Lobster Cannelloni
2005 Pierre Matrot, Meursault
Wood Grilled Shallot Crusted Prime Filet Mignon, Roasted Late Summer Vegetable
2000 Heller Estate Meritage, Carmel Valley
2001 Beringer Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley
Trilogy of Artisan Cheese, Fresh Black Figs, Slivers of Walnut Bread
2004 Ca’ Marcanda Promis, Angelo Gaja
Duet of Warm Chocolate Orange Cake and Raspberry Mocha Tart
1977 Warre’s Vintage Port
What has kept QRW together is the loyalty of its staff, most of whom have been with the magazine for decades. In one sense, QRW has no actual boss. It has a publisher who has too much respect for the staff to give orders, which are unnecessary because everyone knows exactly what to do and when to do it. Thirty years plus are upon us, but we all decided to stop counting and to start toasting something beautiful everyday.
QRW, 24 Garfield Avenue, Winchester, Massachusetts 01890
Phone: 781-729-7132 Fax: 781-721-0572
Copyright ©1978-2008 Q.R.W. Inc. All rights reserved.