Steve Heimoff

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WARNING: This post is waaaay more heady than a meadowlark warbling (my last post).

Was at the best lunchtime presentation about the power of story last week, where the presenter, the creative mastermind behind the Portland Timbers advertising, Jelly Helm, a former Executive Creative Director at Wieden and Kennedy, shared some of his expertise. Even now it’s all still swirling in my head: the idea of story deficit in our culture (what we do have is way too shallow), about how the stories we’ve all depended upon as a society have been challenged and are in many cases no longer valid, the hero story — lots of heady stuff that I just LOVE, having a brand storyteller/writer background.

As I sat there and listened, I started thinking about the wine industry, the industry I now write for, and work in, and The Grande Dalles, and Scott and myself. And Steve Heimoff. What stories are now being told in the wine world, what stories aren’t, and at this junction the industry finds itself at, because it’s clear the wine world is going through something, what  scenarios will characterize the wine world and its stories moving forward?

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Steve Heimoff’s recent blog hits close to home, and the point is not about Cosentino Winery apparently closing. The point is about what probably led to its closing. The quote from the owner, Mitch Cosentino, was he would “do it all myself again, like I did in the beginning,” this in reference to his new wine venture where he personally will focus on making small production wines. From the sounds of the article, Cosentino had spread himself too thinly—across too many SKUs, across too many purchased grapes—to where there was nothing recognizably Mitch Cosentino in the wines; his wines became just like everybody else’s.

As I’ve mentioned before the only hope I have for our wines is when you taste them you know they could only have come from us – from our vineyard, our hands, and our hearts.

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Steve Heimoff blogged today on the cool 2010 California vintage and how critics will rate it since it likely will produce few super ripe wines. I often like what Heimoff has to say, but I think he has it wrong here. I’ve seen over and over from Laube and Steiman at Wine Spectator that they, too, have it wrong. These guys seem to always equate super-ripe wine to big-flavored wine; and more restrained or balanced wines as lean, or light, or maybe even elegant, but all-in-all lacking in something comparatively. To me it’s ridiculous.

What you can get with well-made, non-super-ripe wines is complexity because one characteristic (e.g., sweet fruit) doesn’t overshadow the other many possible characteristics. A wine with complexity can deliver an intense experience for the nose, mouth and mind. There is power in complexity, but most of the wine journalist gurus find power, and therefore goodness, in ripeness.

A couple of recent notable articles would tend to agree with my point of view. One by Dan Berger, about overripe wines becoming a bad trend, and one in Saveur.

Our wines? The year gives us what the year gives us, and we do what we can in the vineyard and the winery to highlight complexity because that’s what interests us.

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HIGHLIGHTS: More encouragement from our fan. Wasco County Regulations. Arse-dragging.

COUNTDOWN: 41 WEEKS

With Week Two of The Little House On the Hilltop (TLHOTH) project now behind us, let me share what’s happened.

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