The Desert Wine Guy - Weather And It's Effect On The Vineyard

   

   With the weather starting to heat up and the Summer right around the corner I have decided to do an article on the Las Vegas weather and how Vineyards are effected by it. I studied and learned a lot of what I am putting in this article before actually putting in my Vineyards. I am still learning as I go. I guess you can consider this article a beginning teaching lesson for anyone who is thinking about putting in a Vineyard of any kind. Do some investigation into the weather conditions your area experiences. Check your “Climate Zone” of the are you live in. Look into a local College and see if they have a Vineyard program and are willing to offer assistance. Look into a professional winery in your area or even another area that has a climate similar to yours. I have learned so much from other winery’s like Sanders Family Winery (http://sanderswinery.com/) in Pahrump Nevada as well as One Acre in The Napa Valley (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXJt-06dZyY). Some items to consider are the following. Does it get very hot? Does it get very cold? Does it rain often?. If it does how much does it rain? Look at your soil, maybe you need to pay to have it analyzed before planting anything at all. How about animals that are present, are there deer that might require a fence? Once these things are looked into you can look at the varietal of grape you can plant in your area. Not every varietal

does well or can even grow in every part of the country. As an example if you want to grow Pinot Noir in Kentucky good luck. Some grapes like the Riesling will burn up in the heat of Las Vegas. By the way I was not happy about this since I do love a good Riesling. Some grapes such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc will do better in hot climates as opposed to cold climates. While Cabernet or Sauvignon Blanc may grow in some cold weather it might not produce much fruit or it might not stay green long before going dormant. These are just some things to be concerned about, there might be others that you can think of that are particular to your climate or situation. Having said all this let's move into the body of this article.

Those of you who have ever visited Las Vegas in the Summer already know just hot it can be. I think most people believe that nothing except Cactus and Snakes & Lizards can thrive out here. Don't feel bad I felt the same way originally. If you read part #1 of The Story of The Desert Wine Guy (http://desertwineguy.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-story-of-desert-wine-guy-part-1.html)  you will read all about my doubts, believe me there were many. I basically refused to live with a backyard of Desert and Cactus, I hate the Desert. Back to the heat issue though. Without question it does get hot here. It gets REALLY hot here. One day last year (June 30) Las Vegas had a temperature of 116 degrees. Yes you read it right. The coldest day last year was on January 15 and it was 23 degrees. With extremes like that you might think that Grapevines would die or be ruined so that when the spring came along the vines would be be damaged. Fortunately that is not the case. The weather in Vegas is not only hot, it is dry as well. Las Vegas itself gets very little rain and Humidity although that is starting to change because of all the people who are moving here and planting trees and backyard farms. The longest dry spell last year was 89 straight days from April 9 – July 6. The humidity last year went from a low of 5% in June to a high of 26% in November. Basically the longer the grapes can hang (grow) on the vine the better. If there is early rain or cold that will effect the crop and therefore the harvest time. This would mean that the grapes have not had a chance to fully mature, or ripen which means less flavor. Let's move now to a particular situation, we will use mine as an example.

    Since Angel Vineyard is growing Cabernet Sauvignon and Mirror Image Vineyard is growing Sauvignon Blanc I am going to focus on those two grape varietals. Since they both grow here in the weather conditions of Las Vegas this article applies to both varietals. To start off we will begin in the spring Time. Spring is when the vines start to flower and the berries start to set. This is an important time in the season. This is when the vine establishes what we grow them for, grapes. It is a time when the vine comes out of dormancy and is starting off it's growing season again. The weather can destroy all of the fruit and leave the vines themselves which may survive and we will have  pretty vines to take care of all year. At this time rain is a bad thing. Hail, frost & extreme cold are of course also bad for the vines. This time of the year the hail, frost and cold are three things I fortunately don't have to worry about. The area I do have concerns with is heat. Heat can be managed a lot of the time with proper canopy management. Which means being very careful with the amount of leaves I remove. The Cabernet luckily are thicker skinned and that does help avoid sun damage to some extent, still care with protecting the grapes from the excessive heat is important. The Sauvignon Blanc will need even more care with the heat. Temperature swings are also good for the type of grapes being discussed. Warm (not hot) days and semi cool nights work out well. The heat can also alter the taste of wine. With too much heat the Cabernet develops a peppery taste. In Vegas, rain is so rare that it usually is not an issue. The heat usually doesn't dissipate till late in the year which as we read above is ideal. The only real challenge here is managing the heat that gets to the grapes. If you can control that you are in great shape. One other possible problem is pests. There are some pests that are particular to certain areas of the country. Those of you who follow my blog (http://desertwineguy.blogspot.com/) and wine (ONLY) Facebook already know that my main pest is The Grape Leaf Skeltonizer. They will destroy all the leaves of the vines and expose the grapes to the Vegas sun and I would then have Raisins. That, believe it or not is the only pest that I have ran into.

    In closing I encourage you to explore growing a Vineyard. It is great exercise taking care of the vines and gets you outdoors in the fresh air. In my case it also helps teach my children to respect (not worship) nature and the outdoors. It also is great satisfaction in eating your own grapes that you grew in your Vineyard. As for whether you can grow grapes in your environment plant 1 vine and see how it goes. Good luck.

                                                                                                                    The Desert Wine Guy

The Desert WIne Guy - 2009 Monte Blanco Cabernet Sauvignon

  

   Today's wine is from Chili and is the 2009 Monte Blanco Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile. This will be a short review simply because there really is not much to say about this wine, at least nothing good that is. This wine is light to medium red in color and has a very weak cherry/Blackberry taste to it. There is really no structure to speak of to this wine.  It is a very simple wine. There are no Tannins in the wine which might be because it is rather on the older side for this price point and this red might not have been produced using quality grapes. I can forgive the lack of Tannins however, what I can't forgive is the overpowering problem with this wine being jammy....way jammy/sweet. The wine is VERY sweet and makes fortified wines almost seem bland. There is no saving grace anywhere in this bottle. I say avoid it like the plague. If you want a sweet Red go buy a bottle of Manischewitz.

                                                                                                                  The Desert Wine Guy

The Desert WIne Guy - Khoury's Wine & Spirits

   Today I am going to review a local wine/beer establishment named Khoury's, located here in Vegas. Myself and another wine blogger here in Las Vegas met to discuss a possible exchanging of articles for each others blogs. I had never heard of the establishment before and to be honest from the outside it looks like just another “Liquor Store”, it is not. Walking into the store you see a good amount of wines on racks which are separated by the types of wine they are some were separated by country such as Africa. The cool thing I noticed was that aside from the usual wines you see in larger wine & spirits stores there were a lot of Boutique type wines. The wines that were involved in the tastings were actually all Boutique wines. As with all Boutique wines they were all from small wineries that released in small quantities. There was one that stood out and that wast the “My Essential” which the label says is simply a red wine. I truly didn't expect much but it was amazing. It was sort of like seeing a mutt (dog) and saying “I see this dog in the eyes, this dog in the feet” etc; I was able to taste all the wines (it is a blend) as if I tasted different, individual wines. It was amazing, look for the review. There was a special section that was refrigerated and where most but not all of the wines were on the higher price scale. The wines in here were layed out in their winery packaged boxes that I felt added a little class. The entire place was clean and well stocked. The person behind the counter (I think he was the owner) was participating in the wine tasting which seemed to prevent him from walking around. While he was able to walk around and and assist customers it appeared he chose not to. It appeared that he was more interested in the register. There was another employee to assist people in the store and I did talk with him at the counter however I was not approached nor did I see him while I was walking the isles. The times I saw him was at the bar he did appear to be busy, what he was doing I don't know. I had no doubts that if I had come to the bar to ask for assistance that I

wine tasting at Khoury's

Tons Of Selection

would have gotten some. There was also a representative, Thomas from Crush & Cooper Wine and Spirits who distributes the wines involved in the tasting. He appeared very knowledgeable on wines and while very busy talking with customers and explaining his wines, was very personable, I enjoyed talking to him. It appeared to me that if you left the wine tasting area you were on your own. Speaking of the wine tasting itself. There were five wines available for tasting at the cost of $5 which was applied toward a purchase. There was a 2011 My Essential Red, 2012 Hindsight Cabernet Sauvignon, 2010 A.P. Vin Gary's Pinot Noir, 2012 Turley Juvenile Zinfandel & the 2012 Failla Sonoma Coast Chardonnay (which I did not like). Thomas was in charge of the tasting and did an excellent job engaging in conversation and sharing his knowledge of his product as well as wine in general. One nice touch was a library of wine books that customers could look at. There were plenty of tables available to sit at and they filled up rather quickly because of the turnout which seemed like all regulars. I have to say thought that the customers were very nice and welcoming. While my wife and I walked around a customer came over and introduced herself and said she was glad we were there and invited us back. The whole place including the employees (at the counter) were very welcoming actually and being new my wife and I didn't feel out of place at all. There were waters, juices and energy drinks available should you go with someone who doesn’t drink, like my wife or for the designated driver which I recommend you bring. There is no food available although they do allow you to bring outside food in. There are plenty of places located in the shopping center to eat. If you want Pizza I recommend Montassanos which is located in the same shopping center. The place was well lit and there was no music which I found nice and allowed you to learn about wine from Thomas as well as talk to other people. Parking was not a problem either and the store is locate in a very nice part (Henderson) of Vegas. Being that this is a wine blog I left this part for last. The have an incredible selection of Beer also. There were large bottles of Samuel Adams that I had never seen before. I even picked up a 32 oz can of Pabst Blue ribbon for myself since Mrs Desert Wine Gal is from Wisconsin. Just like there were so many Boutique wines there were small production beers that are normally available in he states they are brewed in. By the way it is come as you are. I had a nice pair of jeans on and a U.N.L.V sweatshirt and was not out of place.

   If you come to Vegas I highly recommend that you check this place out. Go there on Wednesday for beer tasting night and Thursday for Wine tasting night. 

                                          
                                                                                            The Desert Wine Guy



                                                                                                                                          

The Desert Wine Guy - Israel And Wine - The History And Current Day Of Wine In Israel

   Since almost the beginning of the world Israel has played an important role in the history of mankind. In this article we will deal with Israel and it's importance in relation to wine. Many people do not know that since biblical times Israel has been producing, using and selling wine. The bible even comments that the kings of Israel had vast vineyards. Wine is thought to have reached the country of Israel from the Caucasus/eastern Turkey regions in 5,00-6,000 BC era. Archaeologists have actually discovered wine presses dating back to 100-400 CE and wine cellars have been discovered dating back to 700 CE in the area of the city of Gideon. Israel would also ship wines to the countries of Egypt & Rome in the late Byzantine and early Islamic period however the wines were thick & sweet. Being that we are blessed today with great wines available it sounds like we probably wouldn't want to drink the wines produced back then. The wine was so bad that they would season it with honey, pepper & juniper berries to make it drinkable. Even with all the flaws Israeli wine had, the average Israeli family drank an average of 92 gallons of wine a year. Today that average has dropped and is around 2 gallons. Israel has two ancient and traditional wine growing regions; the Shomron (Samaria region) and Samson (located between the Judean Hills and Coastal Plain) regions. There are a few different schools of thought on exactly where grapevines originated. Some believe that the vines originated in the mountains of Arat or modern Armenia while others believe that they originated in the Shiraz region of Persia (Iran). During the Muslim conquest of 636 AD wine presses (see above) were destroyed and wine production and grape cultivation activities for wine essentially ceased for about 1200 years, except among Christian monasteries.  

    The next evolution in wine for Israel was many years later in 1870. Wine again began to be produced with the help of Baron Edmond de Rothschild who brought over European varieties of grapes as well as helped finance the planting of vineyards near Rishon Le Zion on the coastal plain and sent teams of experts from Bordeaux to advise new local wineries on making fine wine. He also financed the construction of wineries of the Jewish settlements, first in Rishon Le Zionin 1882 and Zichron Ya’acov in the Mount Carmel area in 1890. Rothschild’s vision was to make the “Holy Land” a source of kosher wines for Jews everywhere and to sustain the local Jewish settlers with a viable industry. This idea didn't work out as planned when hard times ended his dream. In the mid-1890’s the vine disease Phylloxera, which had come over from France devastated the region’s vineyards. In the period that followed the Bordeaux varieties were uprooted and replaced with cuttings of Carignan, Alicante Bouschet, Clairette, Grenache, Muscat, and Semillon and the so called "proper root stocks" that experts considered more suitable for the hot climate of Palestine. Before Phylloxera took its toll there were about 7,000 Acres of vineyards in Israel; by 1914 there were only 880. 

   In the 1960's Carmel Winery and other producers reintroduced Bordeaux and Rhone Varieties. In 1972 Oenoligist Professor Cornelius Ough from U.C Davis went to the Golan Heights and saw the future in wine making in Israel. His advice created the Kibbutz named Moshavim and in 1982 the first grapes were harvested from the Golan Heights and a professor by the name of Peter Stern (again from U.C Davis) was hired to design a new Golan Heights Winery. The winery came online in 1983 and with Professor Sterns help they released their first critically acclaimed wine. Professor Stern also brought in other wine professionals such as a Israel Flam who later became Chief Winemaker of Rishon Le Zion in 1995. With him moving to Israel he played an important part in the success of the Israeli wine industry. Today Israel has five wine regions. They are Galilee which is Israels northern-most wine growing region. This region extends from the Lebanese border south. The Samson region which runs parallel to the Mediterranean Sea and includes the coastal plain southeast of Tel Aviv and the hills between the Jerusalem mountains and the coast. The third region is Judean Hills. This region surrounds the city of Jerusalem. It extends from north of of Jerusalem to the Yatir Forest south of Hebron. Then there is Shomron which is located near the Mediterranean coast south of Haifa and includes the Carmel Mountain range. Finally we end with the region of Negev. This region is an arid & dry one. Comprising about half of Israels land area. This region is actually in two sub-regions of Ramat Arad in the Northwest and the central Negev Highlands. 

    Israeli wine stayed like that until around 1983 when the Golan Heights Winery was established. This came after Israelis in large numbers started traveling to California and Australia & Europe. The Golan Winery soon discovered that the wines of the Grenache, Semillon, Petit Syrah and Carignan grapes would make the Israeli wine industry popular. Finally Israel had was about to be put on the wine map by a Cabernet Sauvignon from the 1984 vintage. That wine won a gold medal at the International Wine and Spirit Competition. The Golan Heights Winery produces 4.5 million bottles of wine a year. There are now over 200 wineries in Israel today. Today wine in Israel while popular and profitable, wine is another source of contention in the land. While the Jewish people of the land incorporate it into their religious ceremony's On the Jewish side there are places in their holy books such as Psalms 104 ”And wine will rejoice the heart of man”. There is also "And wine gladdens the hearts of man" (Psalms 104:15) that indicate that Alcohol is permissible in the Jewish religion. I can also find no prohibition for it in the Jewish bible other than it being against being drunk The Muslim Quran is unclear on the topic of Alcohol. There appear to be conflicting Muslim scriptures on the subject. In an article dated September 2 of 2012http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/arab-israelis-erect-protest-tent-to-battle-planned-wine-festival-near-mosque-1.462261 in the Haaretz newspaper there was a wine festival held near a Mosque and “Muslim groups expressed outrage” and called the festival “unforgivable sin” and erected an protest tent. There are passages in the Quran such as 16.67 “And of the fruits of the date palms and the grapes, you obtain alcoholic drinks and goods. Verily in that is a sign for a people who use their understanding.” that indicate that Alcohol may be acceptable in the Muslim religion. There are however there are also places in the Quran that state Alcohol is bad such as Quran 5:90 “O you who believe! Intoxication's and gambling, (dedication of) stones and (divination by) arrows are an abomination of Satan’s handwork: so avoid it that you may prosper.” On the other hand there are examples in the Hadiths such as Muslim 3753 “We were with the prophet of Allah and he was thirsty. And a man said: ‘O prophet of Allah, do you want to drink wine?’ Prophet of Allah said: ‘Yes’. The man went to get the wine. The prophet of Allah said: ‘Make it intoxicated’. And he drank.”. There is also the following passage Quran 16.67 “And of the fruits of the date palms and the grapes, you obtain alcoholic drinks and goods. Verily in that is a sign for a people who use their understanding.” In ending this article I wanted to point out that there are the beginnings of cooperation between the two major religions in the Middle east area. As proof of that i will leave you with the fact that There is a Winery named Mony Winery which is owned by an Arab-Christian family and is located in Dir-Rif’at.

   Whatever the two religions believe or don't believe, alcohol seems to be just another divisive issue in the Middle East. Who is right and who is wrong? Well I guess that depends on your own point of view.

                                                                                  The Desert WIne Guy

                                                                                                                    

The Desert Wine Guy - Castello Del Poggio, Moscatto

   It's always a pleasure to taste a wine that one of my Facebook fans requests that I do a tasting on. I do have to be honest though. I am a huge lover of reds such as Cabernet Sauvigon and Merlots. When I do drink whites I prefer a nice Riesling or a Chardonnay. These are not too sweet and I find them refreshing. There are times when I will drink a nice Wine Cooler. Having said all this I was asked by a fan on my wine Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/DesertWineGuy) to review the Castello del Poggio, Moscato so I gladly obliged. The wine gets great reviews. The salesperson who sold me the wine said that she liked the wine. I read reviews that said “I was hooked after the first sip” and “This is a great wine that will satisfy even the subtlest palette”. Having read the comments from other people I was excited to think that this tasting was going to open up a whole new experience. In a way I guess you could say that it did. I had known that Moscato is a dessert wine and that it was a sweet wine. That was O.K with me though since I like the occasional wine cooler as I already said. I did some checking and found that a local large liquor store in my area had the carried the wine so I headed down a couple of days later and for around $12 picked up a bottle. This is great I thought. I am going to please a Facebook fan and expand my horizons on wine at the same time. It all started off very well. Read on to see how it ended.

   Castello del Poggio is located in Gambellara, in the province of Vicenza (Italy). Founded in 1821 by the Zonin family the Castello del Poggio Vineyard started off as a small one and built it's way to where it is today. The current Vineyard is 430 Acres. Today the seventh generation runs the Vineyard with the current President of the Company being Gianni Zonin. The company makes three different Moscato wines.

   Our review wine started a little shaky with me being that it is a screw cap wine. I know I'm going to hear from some of you that corks can be defective or go bad and ruin wine. I'm going to hear that more Vineyards are getting away from corks and going to screw caps and that it is better for the consumer because it makes for more consistent wines. Yeah, Yeah, yeah, I know all that. I still think that a decent wine deserves a cork, call me Old School if you want. This preference in fact stopped me from buying a wine the same day I bought our review wine. Moving on with the review, the wine poured a light golden with plenty of bubbles. There were so many bubbles that the edges of the glass actually developed a worrisome, weird thick foam that I found unappealing. The bouquet was of overpowering Pear with a slight aroma of Honeydew. Now as for how the wine tasted on my paletteRossi Asti Spumante which I'm sure we have all had at one time or another. This Moscato is far sweeter then even a Wine Cooler. It almost tastes like the juice from canned Pears only thickened up with sugar. this is all I can say. I'm sorry but I can't say anything good about this wine. I have noticed from reading other peoples reviews that this wine is far more popular with Women that it is with Men for what ever reason. I have even seen some reviews from people who have stated that they don't like wine but love this wine (because of the sweetness). I don't why this is but it appears to be pretty constant throughout peoples reviews. It appears that I am in the minority by not liking this wine but I can only report what I taste and smell. If you enjoy a very sweet wine that give it a try. If you enjoy a good Riesling or Chardonnay or even the occasional wine cooler than I suggest you stay away from this wine.

. I found the wine to be very overdone with Pear. The wine was very sweet and to top it off, extremely syrupy. We have here a carbonated, sickly sweet, syrupy, white wine. The wine is far sweeter than Martini &

                                                                                                                   The Desert Wine Guy