Blood Into Wine Page #9

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she'll want this bottle.

I'm a little numb at the moment.

This is not...

Yeah.

It's a special day.

Spending the last five years

getting to this point.

You know, since the first day that we met

and we looked over your vineyard

before there were vines there.

It's been a long haul,

and I'm definitely proud

to be here with you.

I'm glad we pulled this off, man.

My name is Hugh chappelle,

and I'm the winemaker

at Lynmar Estate

in the world-famous Russian River Valley.

Our wines routinely get

great scores from the critics,

but the most important thing to us

is staying true

to our winemaking style and philosophy.

We are right now on our home estate,

Quail Hill Vineyard,

in the heart of the Russian River Valley,

one of the largest freshwater wetlands

in Northern California.

This area really is perfect

for Pinot Noir and chardonnay.

And while we're most widely known

as a specialist in Pinot Noirs,

our chardonnay recently got a 93

from the Wine Spectator.

You're asking me, uh, how critics come up

with the numbers for their wines?

Hi. My name is Steve Heimoff,

and my job

is to taste all the california wines.

I have never tasted an Arizona wine,

to the best of my memory.

So are you going to ask me

which is Arizona and which is California?

You guys are going to bust me.

I'm definitely not fond of wine scores.

It's like saying "Just because you like this,

everybody else should like this."

They're incredibly politically influential.

A lot of times,

you give your wines to people

who have palates

that have developed around specific regions,

and you give them

something a little different,

and the next thing you know,

they don't like that wine

because they've been drinking

the same stuff their whole lives.

In wine scoring, I don't know

if "political" is the word I would use,

but certainly style-driven.

Well, when a critic

comes up with a score for a wine,

they're trying to give it

an honest evaluation

on whatever scale makes sense to them.

The one that's most predominant

here in the United States is 1 00 points.

Thank you.

It smells good, smells clean, smells rich.

Some good fruit.

It's a very nice red wine.

It's very dry.

It's fruity.

It's balanced.

It's complex.

It has a long finish.

It's got some nice blackberry,

black cherry and spice.

And I think it's quite a good wine.

You actually can hire

companies that-- They advertise.

They have a formula,

a recipe you can follow

that will help you develop

a point-driven wine.

There's been wines

that have scored 60s and 70s,

but you don't really hear about them

because as soon as somebody

gets that score,

they just try to pretend

it never happened, of course.

This doesn't strike me

as quite as rich

and complex as the first wine.

It's a little earthy, dusty.

For the same reason that people look

for the thumbs-up from the movie critic,

people look for, these days,

a 90-point score or above

from a wine critic as a sort of validation.

But it really comes down to your palate.

You really have to decide what you like.

And if you have a Wal-Mart palate,

then you have a Wal-Mart palate.

That's fine.

You have to trust what you like.

Thank you.

The wine is also not all that satisfactory,

once it's in my mouth.

If we could get rid of scores altogether,

would that be a good thing?

Probably. The problem is

that they're really useful for consumers

who don't have the time and energy to maybe

sometimes even read a tasting note.

I mean, they're a good guide,

they're a good starting point,

but if you really are serious

about your wines,

you really need

to get to know the palate

of the person who's scoring the wines.

I kind of like that, too.

I kind of like that, too. It's...

It's dry, which is good.

It's balanced. It's round.

It has a certain

creamy mouth feel that I like.

There's certainly

a good explosion of berry,

cherry fruit in there.

But it's not a fruit bomb.

It's not jammy.

The fruit seems to be balanced

with earthier

spices and tobacco

and maybe even something

that seems leathery.

But it's a very nice wine.

A lot of people go home

with 90-point scoring wines

or 92-point scoring wines

or even 100-point scoring wines,

and they think,

"Where did that score come from?

I hate this wine."

The American palate

and all these rating systems

always seem to focus on massive.

It's like only women with big tits

are good-looking, you know?

I'm just not--

I'm not a big-tit kind of guy.

It doesn't give me any joy to bash a wine,

although I will say

that sometimes it gives me

a little joy to bash a $200 bottle of wine.

We're not chasing the market.

We're not chasing Parker scores.

We're not chasing wine enthusiasts

with Spectator scores.

We're making wines that we love to make,

and we're going to always do that here.

It's just the way it is.

What we're doing

and what we're presenting...

We're like an indie band.

We'll sell our--

We'll sell our cDs. We're fine.

Here is "The Mission" from Puscifer on 1 01x.

Maynard James Keenan and Eric Glomski

have come into the studios today.

Gentlemen, welcome.

Thank you for stopping off this afternoon.

- Thanks for having us.

- Hi.

Explain to everyone in Austin, Texas

exactly what you're doing here.

Well, we're here promoting our winery.

Arizona Stronghold's our joint project.

I've got Page Spring cellars.

Maynard has caduceus.

And we're here to share wines

with people.

So, when you guys are putting together

and making your wines, picking the grapes,

what are you trying to put on the table

and get out to the public?

It's like writing a song.

Just want to let the sounds happen

in a room and go with them.

Whatever Arizona,

on this particular spot on the globe,

wants to offer up for flavors,

that's what we're going to do.

We let the grape speak for itself.

- Guys, thank you for coming to Austin.

- Thanks for having us.

We came out to Arizona last year

to meet you guys.

So this was a shorter trip

from Oklahoma, so...

These chupacabras could really use,

like, a year aging,

if you're so disciplined.

If their reason for buying the wine

is because of something I said

a couple years ago,

that's fine because the wine is good,

and they'll discover a whole new world

that has nothing to do with Eric or I.

And it'll be just a good--

a good step forward for them as far as

expanding their awareness

in the universe.

Don't use a straw, though.

Actually use a glass.

Gentlemen,

thank you so much for stopping by.

Arizona Stronghold is the wine,

and you can find it at azstronghold.com.

- Yep.

- correct?

- And caduceus.org.

- Caduceus.org.

So there it is, gentlemen.

Thank you so much.

Guys, welcome to San Antonio.

It's good to have you in town today.

- Thanks for having us.

- When your fans--

music fans are coming up

to these signings you've been doing...

What's the process

at the wine signings, I guess?

We tend to kind of offend people a little bit.

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