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Spring Into Wine Spring is warming up, but it's still winter in California wine country... By Jonathon Alsop April 14, 2006 It's hard to believe Boston and Rome are on nearly the same parallel -- about 42 degrees north. It just stopped snowing here a couple of weeks ago, and it's been spring for about the last 15 minutes. Even during the coldest European winter in years, the Eternal City got a dusting of snow, and that was an anomaly. Drive about an hour from Boston, and you can reach a handful of cider mills, a couple of fruit wine makers, but only one winery that makes anything you'd readily identify as wine. Drive an hour from Rome, and you're practically in Tuscany, home to an ocean of wine. Even more incomprehensible is the fact that Bangor, Maine -- a city that may not have seen even a second of spring yet -- is technically south of Bordeaux, home to some of the most desirable wines in the world. For once, America's not to blame for this wine disparity. It's all a confluence of land masses, the jet stream, and history: in our case, the history of glaciers -- in Europe's case, the history of Greeks and Romans planting vines all over Europe. Strangely enough, while spring is making itself felt here on the east coast, northern California is still experiencing what that part of the world calls winter. Rain, clouds, damp cold, and mud slides persist long after the traditional start of shorts and sandals season. The extreme flooding in wine country that took place this winter shouldn't mean a thing to the 2006 harvest, but a slow spring with lots of humidity and rain can be deadly. This time of year, the vines are budding, and the flowers that end up growing into bunches of grapes that eventually turn into wine are not far behind. If the vine can't flower at the right time and under the right conditions, the fruit doesn't establish itself. Wine farmers say the grapes "don't set right," and when that happens, you can get fewer, smaller, and more malformed bunches of grapes. When harvest rolls around in six months, chances are it will be both light and atypical. Spring is important, not because it ends winter so pleasantly, but because it starts the growing season and eventual harvest on the right foot. Breaking up is hard to do According to a story this week in the Moscow Times, the former Soviet Union -- now the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) -- is on the verge of breaking up again, this time over wine. Georgia has threatened to leave the CIS since Moscow banned imports of its wines and other products on March 27. In the article, speaker of the Georgian parliament Nino Burjanadze asks the simultaneously reasonable and rhetorical question, "If we are the only country... from which it is illegal to send citrus fruits, tea and wine to the Russian market... then what sense is there for Georgia to remain in this organization?" Moscow accuses Georgian wines of containing "unacceptable levels of dangerous chemicals," but the conflict more likely stems from Russia's support of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, two rebel regions trying to break away from Georgia politically. New shapes for spring Years ago, I worked for a brilliant guy who easily refuted the old adage about not re-inventing the wheel like this: "So you want to drive around on granite Fred Flintstone wheels?" The truth is, you have to re-invent the wheel sometimes, and that goes for the wine bottle too. 2004 Three Thieves "Bandit" Pinot Grigio and 2002 Three Thieves "Bandit" Cabernet Sauvignon (about $9 for a liter, available nationally) While the wine inside is tasty, fresh and fruity, soft and easy to drink, what's more exciting is the packaging, a new form called the Tetra Prisma, four little 250 ml containers more familiar as kids' juice boxes, except without the tiny sippy straws. Together, they constitute 1.33 bottles of wine. Break them up, and they're delightfully portable. I could see popping a couple in my briefcase to help alleviate the boredom of long and pointless business meetings, and I'm just barely kidding. If you find it hard to sit through church, I think one of these might help too. Bandit pinot grigio is bright and zippy with apple and pear flavors and honest fresh flower aromas; the cabernet sauvignon has soft, reasonable tannins and a sweet hint of chocolate that might make you think it's really merlot. Next time I'm craving a glass of wine at the beach, which I hope will be soon, this is going to be my wine of choice.

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