I tasted our wines with probably the most pedigreed sommelier in Portland the other day. As usual we started off with ’09 Leroy’s Finest and the first comment was “Bone dry? Why would you make it bone dry? Don’t you know that riesling should have some residual sugar (RS)?….” He went on to lecture me on the virtues of RS and how I should change what I’m doing to make a wine with broader appeal and more flexibility with food. Now, I’m quite familiar with off-dry or semi-sweet riesling paired with spicy food, but to say a dry white wine somehow is less food-friendly than one with RS is frankly just stupid. The problem is he had a preconceived notion of what riesling should be, and Leroy’s Finest was unexpected and therefore wasn’t “right.” And he even said, “This doesn’t taste like riesling from the Northwest, it tastes French or Austrian.”
Then came ’08 Gampo and ’08 Home Place. He liked the wines a lot, but thought they were too young, too structured, too much tannin. “Bring them back in 3-4 years.” He went on to say that if we were known like a few of the original famous Napa wineries making similar style wines (i.e., not fat and not jammy) then he could sell them. But not from someone new and not wines that don’t taste like they came from the NW.
As a side note, one of the most celebrated chefs in Portland tasted and loved Gampo and Home Place. He conceded,“There are some tannins there, but nothing that a little fat and protein won’t take care of.” He got it, but was trumped by his wine buyer who said pretty much the same thing as the “pedigreed sommelier.”
People talk a lot of talk about wanting new and exiting things, but when it comes right down to it, people want what they’re used to. The expected is comforting and it reassures us in our assessment of the world. Our wines are the unexpected and may cause one to rethink things.
