Smoking Loon Current Releases

I was recently sent the new releases of Smoking Loon, another project of Don Sebastiani and Sons, to review. You may recall previous blog features on the Don Sebastiani wines that I posted, in 2011, where I explored the brands "Project Paso" and "The Crusher". In this lineup, the wines are each at a suggested retail price of $9, though often can be found for a few dollars less. The bottles are all labelled California, meaning that the grapes can come from all over the state. Similar to the other brands, the Smoking Loon wines are made with grapes purchased by the company.

According to the press materials I got, the name derives from Don's love of cigars and his father's (August Sebastiani) love of waterfowl. Interesting amalgamation to say the least. The PR stuff also says this is the largest and most popular brand in the portfolio. When I worked for Trader Joe's, we sold the syrah and I think the pinot noir. Both were popular wines priced around $6.

2009 Smoking Loon Pinot Noir:
Nose: Cherry, strawberry, candied fruit, touches of spice and pepper. Fairly one dimensional though. A bit of heat on the nose distracts from what could be a rather complete bouquet.
Palate: Soft initially with ripe red fruits appearing first. Spices come through in the mid palate, some nice acidity too. Tastes light, clean. Hint of dusty earth on the mid palate that disappears on the finish. Solid wine, not overly complex but a very drinkable wine. Lacks soul and any expression of terroir but for $10 what do you expect? 13.8% abv.

2009 Smoking Loon Merlot:
Nose: Blackberry, black cherry preserve, red licorice. Touch of earth and oak.Very simple nose, even more one dimensional than the pinot noir.
Palate: Soft tannin, light body. Red candied fruit, earth, strawberry licorice. Light bodied, not hard to drink, but not exciting. Rather unappealing to me but I can't detect any flaws. Seems like an attempt to add a bit of dimension to merlot through the addition of tannin and oak chips. This will please people who just want something red in their glasses. 13.5% abv.

2009 Smoking Loon Cabernet Sauvignon:
Nose: Very ripe dark fruit, blackberry, blueberry, candied cherry. Slight green note lurks in the background. A little more complex than the merlot, and one that perhaps could stand to age a year or so. Yes, I realize I'm recommending aging a $9 wine.
Palate: Firm tannin, dries the mouth out. Medium bodied. Darker fruit flavors and acid combine for a nice texture. The finish is nice and clean, a pleasant surprise. Biggest disappointment was the hollow mid-palate, I felt like the wine evaporated. Flavors came back on the finish, dark chocolate predominantly. 13.5% abv.

2009 Smoking Loon Old Vine Zinfandel:
Nose: Juicy plum, hint of raisin, cherries. Lots of ripeness, no zin spice or pepper that I could detect. Was really hoping for more, especially if this truly an "old vine" zinfandel.
Palate: Full bodied ripeness, hints of vanilla and a fine grained tannin are the first to appear. Plenty of fruit, like a mixed bag of summer berries. A touch of cracked pepper meanders through the mid palate along with a touch of dusty soil. Pleasant, but not exactly expected for an "old vine" designation. Finish evaporates quickly, leaving a bitter tannic note. I had the highest hopes for this wine but it just failed to elicit any excitement. 13.5% abv.

The pinot noir and cabernet were the two here I could see having a glass of, if the only other option was Kendall-Jackson chardonnay. None of these wines were unique expressions of their component grapes and they each tasted like they'd been designed to fit a certain profile. Therein lies the secret to the success this brand enjoys though. For the people desiring a bottle of wine that drinks easily and is very non-threatening, the pinot noir and cabernet sauvignon are just fine. Taking any of the Smoking Loon wines to a casual party won't make you look like a buffoon. Just don't bring any of these to a gathering of wine geeks. Don Sebastiani and Sons has created a brand that doesn't necessarily open up the world of wine to anyone, but it does quench their thirst.

I'll give a lot of credit to the winemaker, Greg Kitchens, for keeping the alcohol levels reasonable in each of these wines. While I cannot tell if that's from using spinning cones or just naturally using less-ripe grapes, it's encouraging when a big producer puts the brakes on the runaway booze levels in California wines.

These wines were media samples from Balzac Communications & Marketing.

Beau Carufel

Pinot Grigio and Pinot Gris, The Real Story!

Today at work we had a small wine tasting, four bottles ranging from a white blend by Columbia Crest, two domestic pinot grigios, and the 2010 Nobilo sauvignon blanc from New Zealand. The pinot grigios come from the Central Coast and the Willamette Valley and are under our own label. I won't name names right now for fear of getting fired, but if you know me and/or connect the dots, it should be easy to figure out where I work.

The tasting was interesting in that it showed multiple differences between the two pinot gris (grigio) versions, as would be expected. Those differences were caused (in part) by terroir and by the respective winemakers. During the tasting discussion, I pointed out that pinot grigio and pinot gris were the same grape variety, and the difference in name stemmed from regional preferences. I compared the names to the shiraz/syrah in order to help my crew use a familiar reference to understand the concept. Unfortunately a lot of them are still very intimidated by wine and think it's far too complex to ever comprehend.

img src http://wine-flair.com/

After making my comparison, my boss, who considers himself/herself knowledgeable about wine, said I was wrong about pinot gris/grigio and that they were cousins. He claimed to have read it in a book and held up his fingers an inch apart to imply it was somehow an authoritative tome about wine. Now this went contrary to everything I've learned about wine, but I was interested in what he had to say because I've been wrong many times before. He said that in his authoritative tome, the author wrote that pinot grigio and pinot gris were cousins, akin to the zinfandel-primititivo relationship, or at least what we used to think of the zinfandel-primitivo relationship.

I texted my friend Becky at Kramer Vineyards with the question, who confirmed what I originally believed and also pointed out that years ago, pinot grigio was the name used for cheaper versions of the wine whereas pinot gris was an attempt to take it up-market. After relaying this back to my boss, I was now informed that the Italians grow a clone of pinot grigio and he cited Wikipedia as his source. Again this seemed a bit off, something I hadn't heard much if anything about, but I didn't want to challenge him in front of any coworkers.

Back to Becky I went, with the new factoid, then she said she'd ask her sister Kim, the winemaker at Kramer Vineyards. Kim and I went back and forth on Facebook and I'll post that below.

Kim: "Becky tells me you're looking for comments on the difference between Pinot Gris and Pinot Grigio?"

Beau: "Yea I was wondering, we had a question about it at work, whether they're the same grape with a different name or are genetic cousins the way Zin and Primitivo are."

Kim: "Pinot Gris and Pinot Grigio are the same grape. Although, I believe Pinot Grigio implies a lighter, crisper, and often drier style (Italian grigios are more austere) than most of the Pinot Gris made here.

I believe the US producers who use grigio rather than gris are doing so primarily because of marketing. However, I would expect a wine that is labeled 'Grigio' to be light and crisp as opposed to the textural, fruity Alsatian Pinot Gris."

Beau: "So genetically they're the same, are there any clonal differences like pinot noir has? Reason I ask is that my boss claims to have read a wine book saying that they're cousins, I think he's wrong. I've never heard that before and have always been told it's a regional name difference and an implied stylistic difference."

Kim: "I think he's wrong too. There are different clones of Pinot Gris, but I am unsure as to what they are or where they are grown. I don't know what clones we grow here. I've never heard a single winemaker discuss clonal selection of Pinot Gris, so perhaps they aren't particularly important. My experience with Pinot Noir is that terroir and winemaking style often trump clonal differences in the finished wines anyway. My suspicion is that the Italian grigios are so austere because the Italians prefer them that way, like most of their whites. So, unless there has been some groundbreaking genetic research in the last few years that I'm completely ignorant of, your boss is mistaken."

Kim gave me permission to quote her in this blog post, so I thank her for taking the time to answer my questions. After emailing with Kim I also posted the question to my Twitter followers and got a couple of responses, they are below:

ReturnToTerroir: Transalpine brotha. Same grape.

KramerWine5 (Trudy Kramer): Pinot Gris is the same thing as Pinot Grigio. French vs. Italian wording. PG is a mutation of Pinot Noir.

KramerWine5 (Trudy Kramer): Pinot Gris has many other names throughout Europe.

Grooner: Pinot Grigio is the Italian name for "Grey Pinot"; Pinot Gris is the French. In Austria, it is Grauburgunder.

Again this basically confirmed that pinot grigio and pinot gris are the same grape, not cousins like my boss thinks.

My point isn't to say that I'm right and he's wrong, it's that there is a lot of false information out there even in wine books. For example, out of the wine books I own, one slightly older version says that primitivo and zinfandel are cousins, whereas a newer book says that they're genetically the same, and I've been told that primitivo is the grandfather of zinfandel by a Master of Wine before. Just goes to show you, there is information out there but you should take it all with a grain of salt.

Beau Carufel