Here in Indiana, basketball is as core to the fabric of our regional identity as wine is to California and they have more in common than you might think.
It should come as little surprise that Indianapolis and the entire state of Indiana is much abuzz about the hometown underdog, the Butler University Bulldogs, making it to the Final Four not just last year, but this year, as well. Lightning does strike in the same place twice and with good reason. More on this in a second…
Butler is a small, liberal arts and sciences school nestled in a near north side neighborhood of Indianapolis. At 290 acres you could plop the entire university footprint down in just one of Hahn Family Estates five vineyards—Ste. Philippe Vineyard in the Arroyo Seco appellation being approximately the same size. With just 4500 students, you could spend a lifetime in the city and never bump into a denizen, so innocuous is its profile.

A few short years ago, Butler was notable nationally not for its basketball team, or famous alumni (Kurt Vonnegut being mentionable), but rather because their basketball arena called Hinkle Fieldhouse, built in 1928, was an architectural treasure and the setting for the championship game in the movie, “Hoosiers.”
Butler was a nice school, with nice people, and little national renown.
That has changed in the last 13 months and it’s fueled as much by ethos as execution.
What makes Hoosiers so proud of Butler as they’ve mowed through the NCAA basketball tournament the last two years is not the bricked façade as landmark, or the familiar angle of the “Local boys slaying the giant,” though that’s part of it, more importantly, Butler’s success on the basketball court has coincided with a growing national understanding of, “The Butler Way” – a philosophical coda that deeply resonates as more than lip service. If there’s one thing Hoosiers identify with its integrity – an honest, plainspoken, everyman approach that achieves with hard work.

The namesake for Hinkle Fieldhouse is Butler’s former basketball coach of over 40 years, Tony Hinkle. During his lengthy coaching tenure that ended in 1970, Hinkle espoused a credo and five principals of Butler basketball. Resurrected in the 90s by then coach Barry Collier (now Butler Athletic Director) and carried forward by subsequent coaches who have been promoted from within, “The Butler Way” is quickly becoming a guidepost for doing things the right way.
The Butler Way:
“Demands commitment, denies selfishness and accepts reality, yet seeks constant improvement while promoting the good of the team above self.”
That credo is buttressed by the five principles that are posted in the basketball team’s locker room:
• Humility - Know who we are, strengths and weaknesses
• Passion - Commit to excellence
• Unity - Do not divide our house, team first
• Servanthood - Make others better, lead by giving
• Thankfulness - Learn from every circumstance
Are those not life lessons for both the hard court, and the game of life? Of course they are, and, in particular, they’re lessons that most, if not all, small wineries live by, as well. A sense of self, commitment, the eye on the prize, a sense of community, an appreciation for the process…
So, as you watch, listen or catch the headlines for this weekend’s Final Four, know and understand that should you be the type of wine lover that loves the small guy, the winery without the budget to acquire the accolades nor match the perceived elite, but a commitment to doing things the right way with integrity, humbleness and a sense of service to the greater good, while earning a place on the national stage, then Butler is your team. When coach Brad Stevens says, “Everybody in every business and every industry talks about values, mission and vision. The key is holding to them” not only do you believe him, but you raise a glass of wine to him and a team that acts as a beacon of honesty and accountability in a world that is frequently neither of those things.
Source: http://goodgrape.com/index.php/site/the_wine_lovers_guide_to_the_ncaa_final_four/
Petite Sirah Celebrates 50 Years As A Varietal originally appeared on Winecast. Licensed under Creative Commons.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Winecast/~3/HZJtR-3PI_M/
On an entirely too short visit to the Smithsonian American History Museum in Washington D.C. a decade ago, you could have knocked me over with a feather when I saw a set of George Washington’s wooden teeth. Ditto when I saw the pocket pistol that General Robert E. Lee carried in the Civil War and a corkscrew from Thomas Jefferson. What enchanted me is precisely what enchants millions of school kids—history leaping off the pages of the textbook suddenly made relevant.
I’ve pursued the triptych of history, wine and relevance since then.
Nearly equidistance between Finland and Sweden, an autonomous Swedish-speaking, Finnish country called Aland exists as a cluster of islands in the Baltic Sea. There, the story of the so-called “Champagne Schooner” begins.
In the 1840s, a two-masted 70-foot long cargo ship set sail from an unknown port to an unknown destination. Perhaps, the ship was sailing, as it has been alleged, to a Russian Emperor in St. Petersburg who never received his provisions from a ship that found a watery grave in the Baltic Sea.

In July of last year, divers discovered the ship wreck standing nearly upright in 160 feet of water in those same chilly, forbidding waters. Preserved in a pristine 40 degree sea bath, in total darkness, 170 bottles of French Champagne were reclaimed to much international fanfare.
Under the supervision of the Aland government, divers took great care to extract the bottles from the wreckage, ensuring integrity in temperature and pressure fluctuation on their short journey to the surface and land. All told, 172 hand-blown bottles finished with cork were found and 168 of the bottles were very nearly perfectly preserved.

Representing the legacy Champagne house of Juglar (now Jacquesson) Veuve Clicquot and Heidsieck, the discovery is notable not just for the age of the Champagne, but also its quality.
Sampled in November of last year, Essi Avellan, MW said, “Sweet in style, bright golden in colour and honeyed and toasty in aromatics, both the wines were very much alive and remarkably fresh. The Juglar was more harmonious and complete with Veuve Clicquot’s aroma being overwhelmingly pungent and smoky but the palate retain(ed) a freshness and an immense concentration.”
The end of this story will ultimately be written over a period of years as the wine is owned by the Aland government who are rightfully taking a judicious approach to the bounty. To begin, auction house Acker Merrall & Condit will auction two bottles, one each from Juglar and Veuve Clicquot on June 3rd in Aland.
To follow this fascinating story from the beginning till now, below are a number of links to various resources and news articles on the wine from the “Champagne Schooner.”
PDF One-page download from Scandinavian Islands web site
Backstory from Alands museum site
Images from Alands museum exhibit
December 14, 2010 New York Times article
Reuters article on the pending auction
Source: http://goodgrape.com/index.php/site/follow_the_story_the_champagne_schooner/
Source: http://thegrapesaroundtexas.com/2011/05/04/grayson-hills-winery/
The darkly comedic, wine-soaked, buddies-on-the-road fiction book has already been written. If another similarly resonating wine book were to find market success it might be non-fiction, combine elements of self-discovery that occur in “Coming of age” stories, and provide a rooting interest for the underdog.
And now, that book has been written, too.
Summer in a Glass: The Coming of Age of Winemaking in the Finger Lakes by author Evan Dawson likely won’t capture cultural ‘lightening in a bottle’ in the way that Sideways did as it shined a light on the Central Coast of California, but that’s not to say it shouldn’t. If Sideways used wine as a tableau to explore the darker complexities of relationships, Summer in a Glass explores the obstacles that many have overcome to pursue triumphant excellence.

And, in terms of elements that make up a good story and offers enjoyment that appeals to a broad cross-section of wine consumers from the very casual to the hardcore, you’d be hard pressed to find any wine book that offers more than Dawson’s non-fiction debut highlighting the, ‘Little wine region that could’ in west central New York—an area that has found sporadic critical success for its Rieslings over the last decade while continuing to search for more solid footing with other varietals in this cool climate growing region.
By profession, Dawson is a television news anchor and reporter who moonlights as the Managing Editor for the New York Cork Report. His professional acumen alights on the page in the form of a nose for the story that provides just enough detail to engage combined with a brisk writing style that forsakes ornate language in favor of clarity.
Focused on a cabal of thought-leaders in the Finger Lakes wine region—11 key personalities, a winery and a wine collaboration—Summer in a Glass is a surprising page-turner that shines based on a well-considered narrative structure that gives each subject their own chapter with a 3rd person historical backstory before jumping to 1st person and present-day reportage that brings their struggle to hopeful current terms.
Covering the established quality leaders and influencers in the region, readers are invited to learn about a German ex-pat who may not be an ex-pat for long, a Dane by way of France, a quirky grape grower, a Canuck, the prodigy with THE palate and others.
Having spent a long weekend in the Finger Lakes late last spring on a tasting trip with the author and others, I had the opportunity to meet many of the people featured in the book. I found them as charming as Dawson captured, and I left my in-person experience infatuated with not just the wines of the region, but also the people and their joie de vivre.
The Finger Lakes embodies a spirit that I respect. The wineries and their leaders aren’t flashy, pretentious or preternaturally gifted people, nor are they wealthy beyond measure. They are normal people, like you and me, who are in the midst of a passionate pursuit of something bigger than themselves. I admire that. And, deep down, we all aspire to climb to their heights: from humble beginnings to the world stage while maintaining a sense of humility. Dawson captures that optimistic spirit.
If the book has a fault, it’s that the author is in love with his subjects, stopping short of anything that looks like criticism, pulling punches on a winery portfolio that may have some inconsistencies, a red that he doesn’t care for, or a skeleton in the closet that he may know about, yet he declines to open the door. It’s a small quibble and part stagecraft, leaving the visage of the Finger Lakes and its region as a warm fuzzy for the reader in the spirit of the book’s hopeful theme.
In sum, perhaps the best thing any writer can say about another writer’s work is this: I wish I would have written Summer in a Glass. Yet, for the betterment of the reader, Summer in a Glass couldn’t have been written by anybody besides Dawson.
Fortunately, there’s an opportunity, with an abundance of quality-oriented boutique wineries emerging in the Finger Lakes, for Dawson to bring his keen eye to a different aspect of the region in his next book and that’s something we should all look forward to.
The book trailer video:
Ed. Note: As I’m wont to do, I pre-ordered Summer in a Glass on Amazon.com and I now have two copies. The first commenter to this post will win a brand new copy of Summer in a Glass postage paid by me. Simply answer this question: On which Finger Lake is Dr. Konstantin Frank’s winery located?
Additional Reading:
* W. Blake Gray’s profile on Johannes Reinhardt, featured in Summer in a Glass
* Joe Roberts on Sam Argetsinger, featured in Summer in a Glass
Tasty Finger Lakes Wines I Recommend:
* 2006 Heron Hill Late Harvest Ingle Vineyard Riesling Reserve
* McGregor Winery 2008 Dry Riesling Reserve
* McGregor Winery 2008 Dry Gewurztraminer Reserve
* Ravines Wine Cellars 2008 Argetsinger Vineyard Dry Riesling
* Anthony Road Wine Company 2009 Semi-dry Riesling
* Hermann J. Weimer 2008 Magdalena Vineyard Dry Riesling
* Heart & Hands Wine Company 2008 Barrel Reserve Pinot Noir
Source: http://goodgrape.com/index.php/site/the_finger_lakes_finds_their_voice/