All about Jugs
I once had jugged hare years ago and I remember it being quite tasty. A similar experience with jugged rabbit, and many a jug of ale has passed my lips. But jugged wine? Nothing good ever came of drinking jugged wine. Aspirin and Alka-Seltzer were the most common antidote for that stuff. Until now at least. But before I explain let me quote a little exert from a rising star wine-maker: 
“Bedrock is an itsy-bitsy winery making wine in a converted chicken coop. Fruit from only the most excellent vineyard sites is hand pitch-forked into the destemmer, fermented in open top redwood and stainless vats using only native yeasts, and are manually basket pressed by winemaker Morgan Twain-Peterson into the sexiest oak from the coldest French forests.” – Pretty good verbiage coming from a wine-maker!
We met Morgan a few weeks ago when he popped into the store for a quick glug. He’s very modest – he was quiet when I asked him about his father, but this is a guy who made his first wine at the age of 5. If the authorities only knew – he could have been the youngest person ticketed for under age drinking. But I wonder what would have happened to Blue Hill at Stone Barns if the liquor cops realised that they actually sold that first bottling, Bambino Pinot Noir back in 1986. Indeed, that wine has continued to be sold through the likes of Grammecy Tavern, Craft, Aureole and Bobby’s Mesa Grill. Making wine at five (I love how that sounds!) obviously didn’t do Morgan much harm since he went on to do undergraduate work at Vassar and graduate stuff at Columbia. After working in New York and Westchester he went back home in 2005 and began harvesting for his father, the legendary Joel Peterson who made Ravenswood Winery one of the most famous Sonoma wines of the past few decades. He is also one of less than 30 American ‘Masters of Wine’ and he’s done all this before even turning 30. I hate him. He’s quite good looking too, and plays the piano, cooks and makes astonishingly good wines.
So, back to jugs. One of Morgan’s eclectic ideas was to bottle some really good ‘run-off” juice into an heirloom styled jug. Its non-vintage and a blend of pretty much everything he could find – old vine zinfandel, petite syrah, syrah, sangiovese, cabernet sauvignon, grenache blanc, rousanne and a hint of marsanne. Its basically a curry, but alcoholic, liquid and in a jug, which is a bottle with a handle. And its fantastic. I hate him a little bit more. Think of your ordinary 750cl wine bottle as the gateway drug – because this is your heroine – its a liter bottle in a squat little jug but it drinks as easily as a 750. Can I go back to anything less than 1 lt now?
Here’s a serious description of the wine – its incredibly accessible and easy to drink. Soft, no harsh tannins, no raging acidity no cloying sweetness. Its complex, multi dimensional, fruit bound but not forward, exotic flavors of French oak (he spares no expense on his barrels – 35% new from Ermitage, Dargaud-Jaegle and Baron – only the finest coopers in all of France), full bodied but not overstretched and with a lasting finish of blackberry compote, raspberry jam and blueberry muffin. I can in absolute honesty say that this is the best jug wine I have ever had – 1 whole liter for $18.00 – insane.
The Young and the Restless
Bruno and I were recently talking about this onslaught of wine-makers who have taken up the mantel of their parents and are forging their own persona on wine. Its possibly the greatest revolution in the wine world in the last 50 years. And whilst it is certainly happening all across the wine-making world it is probably most noticeable right here in the US. Morgan Twain-Peterson is a perfect example, the son of Joel Peterson who made Ravenswood Wines; Chris Brockway is another huge star and his passion for wine-making wasn’t even genetic, it was simply because his step-dad owned an incredible wine cellar filled with grand cru Burgundies and Bordeaux. Jake and Josh Beckett whose parents own Peachy Canyon Winery are making their own, distinctive wine under the Chronic Cellars label. Veronique Drouhin, daughter of the legendary Drouhin wine family in Burgundy makes her own wines now in Oregon under the Vero label, and so it goes on. Over the next few weeks we are going to try and discover more of these ‘Children of the Vines’ wines in the hope that we can bring them to you before the holidays – what a great gift it could be. We also plan to package the ‘Young and Restless’ wines in presentation boxes so that you can enjoy the diversity that these kids are bringing to the wine world, without having to shlep all over the world buying a bottle here and there. Keep coming back to this site to see what we have found. We will also continue the theme into Champagne, boxing up samples of some of the greatest examples of true Farmer’s Fizz, legendary champagnes owned by individuals and made in small production with no hint of a yellow label. And if I can get my hands on a bunch of Ridge wines we’ll create sample boxes of these wines also. I want to bring you a collection of really exciting wines that will hammer the final nail in the coffin for commercial, mass produced plonk forever.
Gobble~Gobble
This is not the week to be a turkey, or a Brussels sprout for that matter (I’ve known a few of the former but never met the latter). Just in case you haven’t thought of what to pour on Thursday let me make a few suggestions:
Red Wine ~ White Wine ~ Sparkling Wine. And then pour some more. If the in-laws are coming over pour some really good wine into a really bad labeled bottle and keep it for yourself. If granny is coming over slip some sherry into her wine glass – she’ll thank you for it later. If the whole neighbourhood is coming over, seek cover in the tree house and take a jug of Shebang with you.
Have a terrific feast ~ eat lots, wash it down with good wine, and laugh a lot – only the turkey has to be miserable today.
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