If you happen to be in the Menlo Park, CA area on the 25th of this month, please check out this dinner event hosted by K&L Wine Merchants. You’ll have a chance to meet the maker, taste wines from his Achaval Ferrer brand and get a hint of what the future wines of Hand of God vineyards are shooting for. More details here.
Jon recently sat down with the Omaha Wine Examiner’s Kevin Lynch for a chat about wine, sports, Omaha and the good life.
August 25, 9:17 AM – Omaha Wine Examiner – Kevin Lynch
There seems to be a comparatively high number of successful people from Omaha relative to the rest of the country. Without any accurate way to measure the likelihood of success residents of one city will achieve versus another, we can safely say that Omahans stand a 83.6% higher chance of achieving their goals than the residents of other cities. Proof of this is Omaha-born Jon Staenberg. After getting a start at Microsoft, Staenberg has gone on to become a partner at Rustic Canyon Partners, a venture capital firm based in Seattle. He is also founder of Emicus.com, Chief Stub Collector at Staenberg’s Stubs where he is amassing the world’s largest collection of sports ticket stubs. And, he is the president/founder of Hand of God Wines in Mendoza, Argentina.
Hand of God Wines (Mano de Dios in Spanish) is a boutique winery located in the Uco Valley in the shadow of the Andes Mountains. Staenberg and one of South America’s preeminent winemakers Santiago Achaval, have teamed up to produce Malbec wines. The name of the winery comes from the controversial goal Diego Maradona scored on English goalkeeper Peter Shilton in the 1986 World Cup match. The goal, scored in the first six minutes of the second half, was the result of “un poco con la cabeza de Maradona y otro poco con la mano de Dios” (A little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God.)
Argentina’s Mendoza region is the ideal home for the Malbec grape. With its desert climate, rocky soil, and pure Andes mountain irrigation water this grape, largely ignored in its native France, has become an international varietal sensation.
Recently the Omaha Wine Examiner had chance to ask now Seattle resident and entrepreneur Jon Staenberg a few questions about wine, Hand of God Winery and Omaha.
Wondering what to do with the last little bit of a nice bottle of Viognier? Check out this simple and tasty cocktail that will strech the balance.
Adapted from the Avenue Restaurant in New York City.
Ingredients
Ice
2 ounces Campari
11/2 ounces Viognier wine
1 ounce chilled club soda
1 lemon wheel
Directions
1. Fill a pint glass with ice. Add all of the remaining ingredients except the lemon wheel and stir well. Strain into an cocktail shell or white wine glass and garnish with the lemon wheel.
Yes, that is stating the obvious. Specifically, new media and social networking is changing the way wine is viewed, reviewed, and promoted. We’ve talked about viral marketing of wine but this goes further. The old guard is starting to feel the crunch and they don’t seem to like it much. The ‘wine experts’ are starting to lash out at wine bloggers, questioning their merit. It used to be the case that if you started a wine publication or newsletter you could pretty much call yourself an expert and charge for that knowledge. All of that information out and about on the internet is changing the game. It’s now the reader that decides who is the expert by following their favorite writers … the rest get lost in the static.
Take a look here for some interesting insites on the wine blogging.
Fodor’s Travel announces the latest in their series of travel photography contests, “Show Us Your Argentina,” where visitors to Fodors.com will have the opportunity to upload and share their favorite photos of Argentina with other travelers and the chance to win prizes, including Fodor’s guides.
Until August 17, 2009, Fodors.com members are invited to “Show Us Your Argentina” by submitting their favorite vacation photos, and the stories behind them, of the hottest destination in Latin America. One grand prize winner will have his/her photograph featured in Fodor’s Argentina and will receive a suite of Fodor’s latest full-color guides. Ten runners up will win two Fodor’s guides of their choice and all winning photos will be featured in an online gallery at www.Fodors.com.
“From the elegant boulevards, bright colors, and sizzling culture of Buenos Aires, to the wine lovers unique malbec vineyards of Mendoza to the northeast’s stunning Iguazu Falls, the country is brimming with sights,” said Fodor’s Publisher Tim Jarrell. “We’re excited to see what our travelers come up with.”
Photo submissions will be accepted at www.Fodors.com from August 3rd through August 17th, 2009. Fodor’s has previously run contests for Chicago, Maryland, New Mexico, Costa Rica, California, Florida, Turkey, Israel, and Alaska photos. Winning photos from these contests can be seen on www.fodors.com.
Wine & Spirits has chosen Achaval Ferrer Winery of the Year!!!
Each year, Wine & Spirits magazine’s blind tasting panels review more than 9,000 wines and pass the best along to their critics. The annual Wineries of the Year list is made up of brands who produce a range of wines that score at the top of their categories. Achaval Ferrer performed in the top echelon–a great ambassador for the wines of Argentina.
Our lead winemaker, Santiago Achaval is widely recognized as one of Argentina’s premier vintners under his Achaval-Ferrer label. Achaval-Ferrer boasts four of the five highest rated wines in Argentine history, as judged by Wine Spectator, and the highest rated Argentine wine to date according to Robert Parker. As head wine maker for Hand of God, he will continue to bring out fantastic wines of Argentina.
Our young vines produced very promising but not yet fully mature fruit this year at Hand of God Vineyards. We expect mature, full bodied grapes in the next harvest. check out the 2009 harvest at Achaval Ferrer to see what we’re aiming for and what expectations we have for our next harvest.
If you’ve read any of our posts, you’ll have picked up on the fact that we love Malbecs and Malbec blends. It’s our passion, our primary planting on the estate, and the star red of Argentina with a secure foothold in the US market and beyond. For that reason, we feel we can be a little more experimental with our white varietal. Hand of God will release a blended Viognier. We’re excited by the quality of the Viognier grapes produced this year and look forward to their continued maturation. We’ve also planted small parcels Roussanne, Marsanne, and Sauvignon Blanc grapes that will be blended with Viognier to produce top notch, complex, and balanced whites. The distinctive Viognier perfume holds up even when blended with a large portion of other grapes.
Viognier is classic varietal from the northern areas of the Rhône valley of southwestern France. It has never been found in large amounts, but in the 1960s it became almost extinct. The grape is enjoying resurgence today, both in the Rhône and also areas of Australia and California. In Australia, the wines can range from firm and floral to rich and oily. In California Viognier has become somewhat synonymous with rich, easy-drinking wine with a touch of sweetness. It has been termed a cult wine in the US and accordingly has attracted relatively high prices. Argentina is beginning to have significant plantings of Viognier and has huge potential as a fine wine with the high and cool vineyards situated on the slopes of the Andes.
Viognier has a reputation for being remarkably difficult grape to grow. Though drought tolerant, Viognier is prone to mildew, produces notoriously low and unpredictable yields, and needs to be picked when fully ripe. If it is picked too early it fails to develop its classic aromas and rich tastes. When picked too late, the grape produces wine that is oily and lacks perfume. The Mendoza region is noted as one of the best areas for grapes in Argentina and uniquely suited to the growing such a delicate grape due to the high altitude and low humidity Argentine vineyards are rarely plagued by mildew or many other diseases. We keep our yields intentionally low to improve the character, complexity and power of the wines.
The wine is noted for its rich golden color, remarkable clarity, and a highly perfumed aroma that can be compared to roasted pineapple, peach, apricot or even fennel. Many talk of being surprised by the taste; the color and nose hinting at something sweeter but the actually taste being dry with a variety of nuances both on the tongue and afterwards. The wines tend to be viscous and rich, with low levels of acidity. Viognier is almost always at its best when young. We like matching it with spicy cuisine, Mexican dishes, mild to medium and salty cheeses, strong flavored fish dishes, pork and chicken and fresh fruit salsas.
It is a widely held belief that the longer you keep a bottle of wine the better it will taste. The first known wine review was of a 200 year old bottle and written by Roman Historian Pliny the Elder in 70 A.D. He rated 121 B.C. as a vintage “of the highest excellence.” Does that mean you should cellar your 2009 vintage until 2209? Should you bequeath those special bottles to your grandchildren?
Nope. Modern wines are different. Hooray! Of all the wines produced today, more than 90% are designed to be consumed within a couple of years after they are produced.
So what’s changed? Applying today’s modern technology to wine production and grapes cultivation produces wines that do not need decades of aging before maturation. Modern wines are aged in barrel to create an enjoyable tannin, fruit, acid balance prior to bottling and won’t necessarily improve with additional aging in bottle. In the past, there was less control over wine production and often the seeds, stems, and skins of the grapes, as well as the flavor of the barrel, created a bitterly tannic product. Aging was necessary because it took years for the tannins to precipitate, as sediment, and the complexity of the wine’s flavor from fruit, acid, and all the other elements that make a beautiful wine to come into greater balance. Take as proof the many old wines sold today (above 50 years or so) which are completely drinkable. That wine likely started off too harsh for consumption, so harsh that it took some 20-50 years to become palatable. Some need 100 years to become good wines and you can imagine how much money you will need to keep wine for so long in storage.
While most modern wines can be drunk almost as soon as they are bottled, some of the wines do benefit from aging a few years There are some wines which will need some 2-3 years to reach their peak potential while some take about 5-7 years to reach that level but understand that it is just as possible to age a wine for too long a time as it is to age it for too little a time. In general, more expensive red wines are usually designed to become better with age. Most inexpensive wines do not benefit from aging. It’s also good to note, that whites have less tannin so are less apt to age well. Getting more specific about some red grapes, rules of thumb might be for the very best wines: Cabernet, 10 to 15 years; Merlot, 4 to 7 years for many; Nebbiolo, 10 years or more; Pinot Noir, about 5 years to start.
If you are interested in aging some of your bottles take a look at this guide on cellarnotes.net. But in more cases than not, enjoy your wine as soon as you can!!
and cheers! Drink safe and be careful with fireworks around the BBQ.
