On October 14, 1997,
Natalie Skeldon entered the world naked. As adult-movie star Savanna
Sampson, Natalie has spent the last eight years of her life in front
of the cameras in the same condition. It is not because of her legs
or her body that she is being featured in Tidings,
though, but as a bona fide wine producer whose wines have elicited
scores of 90 and 91 points from adult-wine critic Robert Parker. As a
result of this endorsement, her initial offering of 400 cases sold
out before it could reach the US market.
So far, Savanna’s
image graces three products, all made in Italy by a vintner who also
supplies wines to the Vatican. Tony Aspler caught up with the
Manhattan-based wine celebrity in Toronto recently, where importing
agent Larry Brenzel was introducing her 2004 Sogno Uno (“Dream
One”) at Nocce restaurant.
“A
Katyusha rocket will take out forty vines.” That is just one of the
hazards Avi Feldstein, winemaker for Israel’s Segal wines, has to
deal with — along with the deer, wild boar and grouse that devour
his grapes.
We are
standing in the Dovev vineyard, in the Upper Galilee, within sight of
a former Hezbollah outpost. To the north, the Lebanese border. Until
2006 Feldstein had to be accompanied by Israeli soldiers whenever he
went to tend to his mountaintop vineyard. Ten years ago, he carved
out twenty-four hectares of shallow terra rossa soil — the rockiest
vineyard in the north of the country — and planted it with Cabernet
Sauvignon, Merlot, Shiraz, Sangiovese, Ruby Cabernet, Chardonnay and
Muscat of Alexandria.
Some
are massive. Of biblical proportions. Others are almost flat — as
slim as a sheaf of parchment. Some offer an evening of endless
pleasure, while many can be glossed over in only a single glance. If
you’re lucky, you may find an example that borders on a work of
art, carefully tended to and masterfully sculpted. Mostly, however,
you’ll find yourself dealing with something rather ordinary:
serviceable, but hardly exciting. Yet you make do, because you really
don’t have much of a choice.
In October I
attended a symposium in Chicago organized by Serene Sutcliffe MW. She
had invited ten young wine producers from around the world and asked
them how they were grappling with the effects of climate change in
their region and what challenges they faced in the future.
Prince Edward County (PEC), the most-talked about new wine region in Ontario, may be scoffed at as being too intemperate for vines to survive there, but wineries like Norm Hardie, the Grange, Rosehall Run and Long Dog are changing the way we think about winemaking in the cold, cold north.
“The County,” as locals call it, is home to approximately fourteen
wineries, fifty growers, 450 to 500 acres of vineyards planted with
vinifera, with a few hybrids scattered about. The largest wineries are
the Grange of Prince Edward County and Huff Estate Winery at
approximately 8,000 cases each annually; the smallest is Sandbanks at
1,200 cases. The region may be small in size but it produces some
fabulous wines that have writers raving they’re the best in the country.
Chances
are there’s a Grüner Veltliner in
your future. That’s if it hasn’t happened already. Austria’s
mainstay white grape can make a surprisingly complex, often delicious
white that’s capturing the attention of sommeliers and chefs the
world over.
Grüner
has been winning more than hearts and minds: most notably, in a 2002
blind tasting orchestrated by British wine gurus Jancis Robinson and
Tim Atkin, it beat out some serious Burgundies and other highly rated
Chardonnays from Australia and Napa.
Wine 
