In my post yesterday, I wrote about a California port wine that I had tasted at the Dancing Bear Cellars’ tasting event. I made a snide comment about the wine being labeled as "Port" despite it not being from Portugal. It is a pet peeve of mine for wines to be labeled with geographically specific names when that does not reflect their true origin, i.e. the term Champagne used on sparkling wines produced anywhere other than the Champagne region in France. Thus, I would have preferred the wine in question to be labeled California Fortified Wine and not California Port.

While my attempt at humor did not go over well, it was never my intention to mislead or misinform, nor was it to cast aspersions on anyone or their integrity. I apologize for these unintended consequences and wish to state publicly that everyone I have met in connection with Dancing Bear Cellars has been both ethical and knowledgeable about their wines (and I presume everything else in their lives), most especially Susannah Gold, whom I have known for the past two+ years. Mea Culpe.

To set the record straight:

The Meyer Family California Port is produced from old-vine Zinfandel grapes, which are initially fermented as with any wine. Before all of the sugar from the grapes has been converted into alcohol, the fermentation is brought to a halt by the addition of a grape spirit (in this case, a Pot-Still Alembic Zinfandel Brandy). The wine is then blended and aged in a modified solera method. The solera method, which is primarily used for Sherries, is a process of aging and fractional blending by which younger wines are fractionally blended with older wines and the older wines blended with still older wines, until the wine is sufficiently matured. This wine has an averages of 8 years of aging prior to being bottled and sold.

The issue of labeling is an important one, so much so that wine regions around the world are banding together to help protect their place names from being misappropriated, including Napa Valley, Champagne, Sherry and Port. The Center for Wine Origins has been instrumental in bringing this issue to the attention of consumers, as well as working to get legislation passed to more formally protect these names, not only in the U.S., but globally.

Certainly, the Meyer Family port is not the only wine out in the marketplace using the semi-generic term Port, which I believe is no longer legal for new labels seeking approval from the U.S. government. Nor do I mean to vilify the wine itself (it was actually quite good). However, as a wine educator, I do think that it is important that I inform people about this issue so that they can better understand the importance of location/origin in winemaking. I just need to do it less snidely.

While I do not know the Meyer family personally, they are the founders and former owners of the highly regarded Silver Oak Cellars, and established Meyer Family Cellars in 1987. Silver Oak Cellars produces two specific wines — an Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon and a Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, underscoring the importance of appellation and grape origin. Accordingly, it is somewhat surprising that they would continue to use Port on their labels, but they may find that consumers don’t understand the meaning of "fortified wine," but do recognize "port." I would suggest that as we are an emerging nation in terms of our wine consumption, we need to do a better job in educating consumers, rather than catering to them, but then, I am not in the business of selling wine.