Tune up your palate for Dreaming Tree wines

It seems the craft beer movement is not an anomaly. It is gathering steam with rapidly accelerating sales. The primary move has not affected wine sales as much as many anticipated. Recent sales figures, compiled over the past five years, confirm that the largest losers are whiskey and large-production domestic beers. Beer Marketer’s Insights, the best-regarded industry news publication, ran a lengthy article and highlighted the 10 beers that had lost most sales. I was surprised at the degree of sales declines for some of the mainstream names: Bud lost 19.5 percent and Miller High Life 28.2 percent. But the lite beers were hit hardest with six of the 10 largest losers in that category: Natural Lite 26.8 percent, Keystone Light 26.6, Milwaukee’s Best Light 39.2, and Bud Lite Lime 35.9 led the pack. Tecate, a Mexican brewer, saw sales down 28 percent, while sales of such beers as Modelo Especial and Stella Artois have more than doubled.
  
The craft beer market is on fire! As you may be aware, this is a highly fractionalized market with a great many regional and local entries. As a comparison, Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, a prominent local producer, is No. 14 on the Brewers Association Top 50 list. 2015 production came in at 225K barrels. Yuengling, the oldest extant American brewery, is No. 1 with  2.8 million barrels. Boston Beer Company (Sam Adams) is No. 2 at 4.1 million barrels. Bud is currently at 15 million barrels. For contrast, Allagash Brewing of Portland is No. 50 on the list with 70K barrel production. There are approximately 5,300 registered brewers and brewpubs in the USA today compared to 97 in 1984 and 1,460 in 2006. As you can see, the growth is “fantastical.” 

Fans of Dave Matthews music may wish to take a look at his recent collaboration with winemaker Sean McKenzie. I sampled five of their Dreaming Tree wines. These are ecology friendly and very good value. Sonoma County Sauvignon Blanc is a tropical fruit bouquet wine with some lime and pineapple on the palate. It is fresh and zesty with a 13.3 percent alcohol lift, 87 points under $13.

The 2015 Central Coast Chardonnay is old style, and I enjoyed it. Pale straw with golden tint, it opened to a pleasant chardonnay fruit nose and showed nice legs. Swirling released some orange and pineapple hints. On the palate, the medium body confirmed the legs, and supported the peach and golden apple flavors. Proper acid structure carried the flavors and cleaned up the moderately long finish. We enjoyed it with a pork roast with a garlic-infused demi and some Yukon mashed with horseradish. Yummy! Best for last, they can be found under $15 and I’ve seen some under $144/case.

The 2015 Pinot Noir is a McD 90 under $15, 2 price points. It’s tough to find a PN with this complexity at this price. Very approachable now. Pleasing bouquet of cherry, strawberries and oaken toast. Opened on the palate to juicy fruit supported by an appropriate acid/tannin frame with hints of caramel and barrel spice in the finish. Will support a few years on the shelf. The 2015 Cab costs less than $12. This is tough to rate. Mr. McKenzie described it as blackberry, cherry, and cassis wrapped in toasted caramel and soft, mouthfilling tannins. I think it is worth trying at the price; that said, I give it 85 points with 2 price points. I think I’d look at Cartlidge and Browne, Fetzer Valley Oaks, Bogle or Hawk Crest around $9 if I were shopping here. The Dreaming Tree Crush Red Blend is a very interesting wine. While it is not sweet, it isn’t bone dry and puckery, either. Crush is a nice little wine for just drinkin’. Pretty, dark garnet-colored, it opens to mixed berries, smoky notes and vanillin aromas. On the palate, raspberries, a hint of leather and mild tannins.

The residual sugar is 9.5g/L as compared to around 3.2 or so for the PN and the cab or 100-plus for most Sauternes and icewein, while Eszencia Tokaji can go as high as 900 g/L. At $12, Crush is a respectable 87 points. Finally, I never really appreciated Dave Matthews until I saw him do a solo concert while playing a 12-string guitar. Awesome!