Time.  Does anyone really have enough of it??

 Hello and welcome to Fluid Occasions, a podcast series designed to help busy tech-savvy professionals educate themselves on quality wines and get recommendations on which ones give you the biggest bang for your buck.  My name is Patrick and I’ll be your host as we master a multi-faceted topic – as efficiently as possible!

Okay, so here’s how I used to buy wine.  Knowing almost nothing of the subject, I’d go to the store and look at the prices.  When I was younger, I’d look for something around $10 or $12.  But I’d look for more than that.  I’d look to see which wines were on SALE for that price.  Then I’d look at the original price and select the wine with the highest original price, yielding what I thought was the best value.  More recently, I’d look for something around $20 or $25 but the underlying strategy was the same.  Sales Price compared with Original Price equals assumed value.

But let’s look at the market forces behind this rationale.  All of the wines I was considering were marked down.  That means they WEREN’T selling at their original price, MAKING that original price virtually irrelevant.  If they were flying off the shelf at their regular price, they wouldn’t be on sale.  Bottom line.  So that’s obviously not a very good sign.

But taking it a step further, the decision of how MUCH to put a wine on sale is another “tell” (if you don’t mind me using Poker jargon) of its quality.  If the store manager believed a $2 or $3 savings would be enough to get the product moving, that’s what he or she would’ve sold it for.  But NO.  They marked it down even more.  Why do you think that is?  Probably because it’s not very good wine, that’s why.  But here I am selecting exactly that wine, thinking it’s a bargain.

Bottom line, selecting wines based on discounted sales prices is a bad strategy.  Admittedly, you find a good wine from time to time.  Other generally speaking, you end up with an average wine, if even.  Here at Fluid Occasions, we’ll identify some true values, based on objective ratings provided by professional wine tasters.  And that brings me to this week’s selection.

We’re looking at a Clos Pepe 2004 Pinot Noir – it’s called the Ken Brown “Clos Pepe” 2004 Pinot Noir.  So here’s a wine that’s received a 92 rating; not by me, but by someone whose profession it is to taste wines.  92!  That’s a great rating.  And it turns out the AVERAGE 2001-2004 Pinot Noir with a 92 rating costs about $84 per bottle!  That’s the average.  Not this one.  The Ken Brown Pinot Noir costs just $42 per bottle – about half price.

Now that’s what we’re talking about!  That’s value!  You guys see where we’re going with this??  We’re talking about a wine whose quality normally commands $84 per bottle and we’ve found one that costs HALF that.  That’s brilliant.  And that’s what I plan on doing here with Fluid Occasions each and every week.  That’s what you’re signing up for.

Now, considering it’s a 2004 – a fairly recent vintage – I suggest you buy a couple bottles and let them sit for a while.  This wine promises excellent development of flavor and complexity with additional cellaring.  Critics describe it as balancing pure fruit expression with superb structure and rich tannins.  Sounds pretty good, right?  It’s aged for 15 months in French oak barrels with 40% new oak in the blend.

So what does that mean?  Well, it means that 40% of the barrels they used for this wine were new at the time they were used.  Obviously, after a barrel’s been used, its flavor contribution to the wine aging inside it diminishes.  So the use of new barrels keeps the oak contribution fresh, adding to the flavor.  It costs more but it benefits the wine.

Here’s another tidbit for you.  Turns out, the price per ton of grapes right here in California varies between about $200 per ton on the low end up to $8000 per ton on the high end.  That’s the difference between mass-produced grapes from the central valley and those grown on old vines in perfect conditions in the Napa valley.  In fact, some high-end growers will intentionally cut off and waste a certain percentage of the fruit during the growing phase to intensify the flavors in the final harvest.  Obviously, this directly adds to the cost but it also adds to the flavor.  So if you’re curious what drives these wide variations in wine prices, that’s a good place to start.  It’s not just marketing.  There are some very real differences between $10 wines and the more expensive labels.

Here’s another interesting fact.  Pinot Noir wines use Burgundy grapes.  Actually, they’re called the Noble red grape of Burgundy because they’re capable of ripening in the cooler climate of Burgundy (which is a region in eastern France, by the way).  Cooler climates are generally less predictable so the grapes are more difficult to grow but when done properly, they produce some of the finest wines in the world.  Anyway, the same grapes are used in the production of Champagne.  Yes, indeed.  In fact, more Pinot Noir goes into Champagne than is used in all of the Cote d’Or, a region within Burgundy.

Anyway, back to our selection.  This particular wine wasn’t produced in France.  It’s from right here in California, produced in Santa Barbara county.  That area has a similar cool climate as Burgundy and by the way, so does San Luis Obispo, San Benito and Willamette Valley up in Oregon.  What they call “new world Pinot Noirs” (which are labels produced here in North America) tend to be slightly fuller in body and flavor than red Burgundies from France.  They’re known to be soft and smooth but intense and long-lasting.  In other words, they leave an impression; and that’s a good thing.  You want people to take one sip and stop cold in their tracks, blown away by your selection.  This wine will do that.

Okay, food suggestions.  This Ken Brown “Clos Pepe” 2004 Pinot Noir is perfect with beef stew, roast beef, roast turkey and dark-meat poultry like duck or quail.  Believe it or not, it’s also great with salmon so don’t think that fish always requires white wine.  Salmon in particular can work great with red wines.  And this Pinot is also great with mushroom risotto but then again, what isn’t great with mushroom risotto?!  One of my favorites.

Anyway, I try to select wines that are readily available for you guys to buy.  Indeed, this one IS but it’s not carried by Wine.com so I’ve included a link to the company’s website on the Fluid Occasions website (that’s FluidOccasions.com).  I think they’ve got it for $42.75 per bottle.  But compared to its ratings equivalents, it’s a great value.

If you like what you hear so far on this podcast, please tell a friend about it.  Technology like podcasts can help elevate new and innovative thinkers but we all have to play our part to help spread the word for those who deserve our endorsements.  If I am deserving of yours, my thanks.

See you next time for Chapter 2.  We’ll be reviewing the Robert Mondavi Oakville District 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon.  If any of you have tried it in the past, please visit the website – again, it’s FluidOccasions.com – and submit a review on the Contact page.  I’ll read two of them during next week’s podcast.

Until then, work hard, live well and drink safely.  Bye for now.

Buy it now at the Clos Pepe website.