Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/235941
WINEMAKING Sauvignon Blanc we have a 20-year history. We get information from tastings, from customers, from winemaker tasting groups with outside winemakers, and from keeping up with trends in the wine market." Parker-Garcia says that he might like to make some of the Claiborne & Churchill Alsatian varieties a little racier, a little more acidic, but he knows the winery's customers expect the slightly softer style the winery has been successfully associated with for many years. Parker-Garcia also makes a point of having women taste all the wines he makes, since women dominate the winebuying marketplace. Some of the smaller operations in my sample have the luxury of making wines the way they want to make them because they have managed to find a small but devoted audience for that style of wine. Corison says, "There's a wine inside of me trying to get out, and that's what I'm trying to make, not doing consumer studies. A label needs to stand for something and not be chasing fashion." She has made 2,000-3,000 cases per year for a quarter-century, and it seems to work. Peterson-Nedry says that he, like many Oregon winemakers, revels in the details of vintage variation, which works for 18,000case Chehalem because it has a following 40 W in e s & V i ne s January 20 14 "The longer I make wine, the more I rely on my taste buds." —Coby Parker-Garcia that thinks and drinks that same way. Back to Tim Hanni for a moment: The certified wine educator is on a crusade to convince wineries that there is a huge, untapped market out there for high-quality, softer, sweeter wines, and that the industry is making a big mistake by only catering to the big, dry red palate. That market certainly exists, but what would Corison or Peterson-Nedry gain by catering to it, when they can sell every bottle of the distinctive, sharply etched wines they make at prices that keep them in business? They can follow their personal palates and get away with it. Chattan, on the other hand, has read the news about the army of consumers who like sweeter wines, and already her Geyser Peak label has a sweet red entry on the market. Several of these winemakers said the last thing they wanted to do was make wine for the palates of wine critics, even though that may be part of the job description at some labels. Maybe if wineries started insuring the organoleptic apparatus of their winemakers, the way some critics have done, everyone would have a better appreciation for the living equipment that makes wine wonderful. Tim Patterson is the author of "Home Winemaking for Dummies." He writes about wine and makes his own in Berkeley, Calif. Years of experience as a journalist, combined with a contrarian streak, make him interested in getting to the bottom of wine stories, casting a critical eye on conventional wisdom in the process. See us at Unified booth #G