Steve Anglim at Hospice du Rhone 2010

It started somewhat insidiously – with a gift of a winemaking kit one Father’s Day.

“It was god-awful disgusting stuff,” said Steve Anglim, owner and winemaker of Anglim Winery.

But it was enough to get him making wine, eventually leading to the winery, which began in 2002.  Steve and his wife Steffanie Anglim run the place, taking turns pouring at events and running the tasting room in Paso Robles, California, while their younger daughter plays in the back room.

“You have to divide and conquer because there’s so much to do,” Steffanie said.

The winery produces 3,500 cases of mostly Rhone-style varietals, like syrah and viognier.  Steve sources his grapes from several local vineyards but really has no yen to get out and start farming, himself.

“It’s just what you enjoy doing,” he said.  “They’re fundamentally different kinds of work.”

After Anglim’s first winemaking kit failed to produce anything really drinkable, Steffanie encouraged him to see what he could do if he got some good fruit.

“That’s how I met James Ontiveros, from Bien Nacido and others,” Steve said.  “Of course, he would laugh hysterically when I would call and ask for Bien Nacido pinot in the mid-nineties.”

Nonetheless, Steve was not deterred and ramped up his personal production considerably over the next few years, to the point where maybe they had a little too much.

“My friends said they couldn’t drink anymore,” Steffanie said.  “You know, when you’re a home winemaker, you have to give it away.  And we had a lot of it.  So it needed to be either smaller or bigger.”

The final push came when Steve’s employer at the time, Nissan, decided to move its headquarters to Nashville, Tennessee, and Steve decided that he didn’t want to go.  It was time to change careers.  As for the old saw about making a small fortune in the wine biz by starting with a big one, well….

“Our mistake was that we didn’t have one of those,” Steve joked.  But, “We’ve been doing it for eight years.  I’m not dead yet.  I’m still here.”

You can find out more about the winery and order wines at their website, AnglimWinery.com

Win a shirt with this cool logo on it

Well, there’s some good news and some bad news regarding our recent Wine FAQ contest, which officially ended on Monday.

The good news is that we have a winner – Stuart Yaniger, who sent us two great questions:

1. What’s all this sulfite stuff? Is it true that only American/French/Australian/
Slavokian wines use them?

Every wine has sulfites – yeast produce sulfur compounds along with alcohol, carbon dioxide and other substances. Most wineries can or do add sulfites to help preserve wine because it resists spoilage by other organisms. So even German and Italian wines will have sulfites.

2. Why do I get headaches when I drink red wine? (often mistakenly coupled with question 1).

Allergic reactions to sulfur are common. But nitrates and nitrites can trigger reactions and they are present in wine through natural processes. Since the skins are what give red wines their color, the problem may be in compounds that were in the grape skins.

The bad news is that we didn’t get enough entries to pick more than one winner.  Sorry about that.

But if you still have a question, by all means, please send it to us.  And we might just try another contest in the near future.

This is a wine that is all about balance – no mean trick when it comes to the notoriously finicky pinot noir grape.

Winemaker and founder Joshua Klapper started with some amazing fruit – from farmer and winemaker Peter Cargasacchi’s vineyards in the ever-so-hot Santa Rita Hills.  Cargasacchi has his own Point Concepcion label (which we have had the good fortune to taste), but does sell a fair amount of his crop to several local vintners – including La Fenetre.  In fact, one of our dream tastings would be side-by-side comparisons of wines from Cargasacchi’s many clients next to his own decidedly yummy version.

Klapper’s wine had some berries and a slight whiff of rose petals.  Taste-wise, the acidity was bright, but not harsh and the texture in the mouth was silky.  But the best part was the balance.  We may not be talking angels on the head of a pin, here, but there was just enough fruit, just enough acid and just enough tannin to make this wine perfect for sipping with a really good dinner.  Maybe some salmon in paper pouch with plenty of garlic, lemon and herbs.  Or perfectly grilled pork chops.

Scott Krinsky, courtesy NBC

While Anne has been hobnobbing with the folks at the twice-yearly Television Critics Association Press Tour, she’s been checking in with people to find out what their Wine FAQs are.  After all, we’re pulling together our Wine FAQ page and want to know what everyone else wants to know about wine.

Scott Krinsky plays Nerd Herder Jeff on the spy comedy Chuck on NBC.  Fun thing is, he likes wine.

“I’m a big malbec fan,” he told Anne.  “I love malbec.  They have a nice little spice to them, kind of medium to full bodied.”

But he did have a question for us: “What is the average time to age a bottle before it goes to market?”

Our Answer:
This is an area where winemakers have great flexibility over the final product and a lot depends on the wine, itself and the winery’s need for cash.

Most red wines will spend up to a year after being made in a barrel or some bulk container before being bottled. The bottle may spend an additional year or longer before being shipped to a distributor. After that, the wine will start showing up at restaurants and store shelves.

White wines, on the other hand, will usually take about a year from grape to store shelf.

Don’t forget to enter the contest.  Click here.

Wallace Langham, Courtesy CBS

It’s really interesting how many people have questions about wine – even folks who don’t drink or can’t drink at all.

Take Wallace Langham, who plays lab tech Hodge on CSI.

“I stopped drinking wine,” he told Anne at a party at the TV Critics Press Tour.  “I stopped drinking altogether.   But I can think of one.   Ah.  Is it all right to drink rosé all year round?”

Langham was asking on behalf of his wife, who loves rosé.  We say you go, Mrs. Langham (assuming that’s your name).  Rosé is a great option all year long.  Admittedly, we’re not talking white zinfandel, which does have a tendency to be over sweet and medicinal.

A dry pink has some of the fruit of a red wine, but it’s also light and dry like most whites – a perfect summer compromise when you want something to stand up to a great grilled steak, but it’s too hot for a red.  And great in the winter when you want something to go with your scampi and spaghetti alfredo, but a red wine’s too much and a white wine just isn’t up to the heavy garlic and cream in the alfredo.

When a lot of us think of rosé, we think about the sugar-laden pinks of the past, such as Lancers and Mateus.  And, yes, white zinfandels.  Well, if that’s what you like, then drink with pride.  A good wine is the wine you like.  But do check out some of dry pinks that are becoming more and more available.  They’re often a real bargain, too, and definitely great all year round.

Don’t forget to submit your question for our Wine FAQ contest – Click here for more information!

Kunal Nayyar, courtesy CBS

A cool concatenation of circumstances are happening this week and next.  Anne is attending the Television Critics Association Press Tour, because Anne has another life as a TV critic (you can check out her TV blog at YourFamilyViewer.com).  So, in honor of the OddBallGrape Wine FAQ contest, she’s asking some of the actors she’s hanging around their Wine FAQ.

Up today is Kunal Nayyar – Raj on The Big Bang Theory on CBS.  (Anne did get a chance to interview Jim Parsons – aka Sheldon – but didn’t remember the Wine FAQ in time.)  But Kunal’s a really nice guy and was happy to share his question with us.

“What is a sweet red wine.  I love rieslings and gewürztraminer grapes from Germany.  So what is a sweet red wine that a white wine drinker would enjoy?”

Our answer:

Lambrusco wines from Italian producers have some sweetness and some fizz.  Okay, some re-treads from the 1960s – Riunite springs to mind – don’t have the fizz, so look for one that has the wire cage over the cork.

And there are red wines – Zinfandel comes to mind – where some of the fruitiness may be tied to residual sugar leftover from the winemaking process.  Ports are always an option as well.

One of the coolest part of this experiment is that even the folks who don’t drink had really great questions.  Which means some of you guys have great questions, as well.  So be sure and send us your entry.  The contest ends August 9.  Click here for more information and rules.

Win a shirt with this cool logo on it

For some reason, we haven’t gotten very many entries in our Wine FAQ contest.   We hope you guys are just waiting until the August 9 deadline to submit your questions.

Anyway, check it out here and join in the fun!

Jon Fisher and Michael Doherty

Things got a little surreal last week.  Technically, we were supposed to be taking a mini-vacation with Anne’s parents, tooling around the Santa Rita Hills and the Santa Ynez Valley.  Okay, if part of your business is writing about wine, and you’re taking notes and pictures for your blog, it’s kind of hard to call what we were doing a vacation.  Except that the better part of the experience was sharing something we love and are passionate about with folks we love and cherish.

If enjoying wine is all about the experience (as opposed to simply analyzing the taste – which is fun, but not all of it), then visiting a tasting room is an experience and a half.  What makes it even more fun is connecting, however, briefly with the other folks out tooling around at the same time.  Which means a big shout out to Jon Fisher and Michael Doherty, who we ran into at Lafond Winery, on Santa Rosa Rd., in Buellton.  They popped in with some female friends at the end of the day and we were really impressed by the way their eyes didn’t glaze over when Mike got rolling on the whole winemaking thing.  Mike really loves talking about wine and most of the time, folks love listening to him.

Anne was chatting with another woman who was there as a limo driver, and who had spent time working with Julia Child.  Alas, she got away without leaving us her name.  What amazing stories.  If you’re her and reading this, please, please contact us.  We’d love to talk to you some more.

And that’s not even counting all the wonderful wines we tasted earlier that day and before.  Those profiles and notes will be coming over the next few weeks.  We still have plenty of wines from all the events we attended last spring to cover, as well.

BLD Restaurant in Los Angeles not only has a great menu and is fairly reasonably priced for the neighborhood, their wine list is something we’d like to see more often.

It’s not the selections – although they are very nice and interesting, as well.  There aren’t too many, either.  The list is comprehensive, but not overly long, so you’re not drowning in options.  But that’s not what got us excited.

It’s how the wines are grouped – by characteristics.

Check it out here: BLD_Wine (or go to BLDrestaurant.com and click on Wines near the top).

You have Bubblies, of course, but then the whites are grouped under headings like “Elegant and Restrained” and “Crisp and Clean.”  The headings for the reds include “Light and Effortless” and “Brooding and Intense.”  These kinds of headings might not tell you all you need to know about the wines they describe, but if you’re new to the whole wine thing or haven’t had a chance to really get to know wines such as albarino and Barbera D’Alba, then you’ve got an idea of what you’re getting into and what might work with what else is on the menu.

Of course, your best clue to what works with what is to ask your server – and the BLD folks do have their heads on straight enough they can tell you more or less what you’re getting.  You can also ask for a tasting pour – we did with the albarino and garnacha blanca.

So share with us.  Does this kind of wine list help or hinder?