Since we've groused so often about the roadblocks to the direct shipping of wine to many consumers outside of California, a few words seem appropriate after the 2005 Supreme Court victory. Are we happy with the ruling? You bet! Can we now ship to you wherever you are? No way.

The limits to wine shipping are a story that begins in 1933 with the Repeal of Prohibition. To make Repeal palatable to anti-alcohol forces, each state was given the "right" to say how alcohol would or would not be sold within its boundaries. This is why when you travel you come across so many different ways of making (or not making) beverages with alcohol available to the public.

Most states made laws that protected the three-tier system of distribution (Buttonwood sells to a distributor/wholesaler who sells to a retailer/restaurant) and banned the direct shipping of wine to you, the consumer. Over the years these laws were rarely enforced.

Between 1961 and today the number of distributor/wholesale permits in the U.S. went from almost 11,000 to less than 3,000, while the number of licensed wine producers went from less than 400 to over 2,000. In California 97% of all wine is produced by 68 wineries. Over 900 wineries, half of which make less than 3,000 cases, produce the remaining 3%. The big wineries depend on the three-tier system to move their huge volume while small wineries, pretty much cut out of access to distributors, have turned increasingly to direct shipping.

This whole issue blew-up in the early 1990's when some wholesale and retail organizations became afraid that their sales monopoly was being threatened by direct sales originating from mail order, the phone, and worst of all, the Internet. Aided by a hellish alliance with neo-prohibitionist groups, the message was taken to state legislators that there was rampant underage buying of alcohol going on (lie) and taxes not being paid (true). Both these issues are easily addressed, but sadly, many legislators jumped on the "protect our children" bandwagon and started passing felony laws, and states began suing wineries and shipping firms like FedEx. The conflicting results of these legal actions opened the door for Supreme Court action.

The issue the Court was asked to resolve was actually very narrow and involved just eight states. These states allowed in-state wineries to ship directly to consumers but prohibited out-of-state wineries the same freedom. The states argued that the 21st Amendment (which repealed the 18th Amendment - Prohibition) gave them the "right" to determine how the sale of alcohol would be conducted within their borders. The wine industry argued that the rules were mainly protecting local wholesalers and that the Constitution's Commerce Clause prohibited a state from hindering the free flow of goods between states and should prevail. The 5-4 Court ruling agreed, but only so far as to say a state has to decide one way or the other. You can prohibit direct sales by all wineries, but if you allow some to do it, all must be able to. Note that this ruling only pertains to wineries and does not include non-winery wine clubs or retailers.

Buttonwood now ships to (or will soon) the following states: CA, NV, ID, OR, CO, WA, NM, AZ, WV, LA, IL, MO, GA, ND, WI, IA, MN, NY, OH, HI, WY, NH, FL, TX, VA & MI.

The battle still to be fought is how to open states that have total bans on direct shipping. We predict that as more states open-up and more experience is recorded to counter the fear mongering of the large wholesaler organization, attitudes will slowly change and barriers will come down. Ultimately, it is you the consumer that has the most power to cause change. Go for it with our thanks!

This has been a small sketch of a big issue. For more information on the prohibition of direct shipment of wine, check-out Free the Grapes www.freethegrapes.org, The Wine Institute www.wineinstitute.org, and The Coalition For Free Trade www.coalitionforfreetrade.org. Then call your state legislators!

Q. How is the price of a bottle of wine determined? (Why we're dipping our toe into this minefield by trying to answer is beyond me, but here goes!)
     
     Hard costs that you incur one way or another include grapes, barrels, bottles, corks, capsules, labels, a place to make wine, equipment, staff, taxes, permits, and a bunch of general overhead. Whether you're a little-old-winemaker doing everything yourself in borrowed space, or a negotiant that buys and packages finished wine, you're going to incur some of the same expenses as a full-blown winery.
     
     Let's assume you've decided to be a boutique winery producing smaller lots of wine in the upper price range. This being the case, you'll find everything more expensive. Rather than $500 a ton for "inferior" grapes, you may very well pay over $2,500 per ton. Rather than used barrels for $75, you"ll be using new barrels you paid over $700 for. You're probably going to keep the wine in barrel and bottle longer before you release it, and you're going to spend big bucks on packaging your marvelous creation. And you won't be able to write any of these expenses off until you sell the wine, so plan your budget accordingly.
     
     Now that you know what it cost to make your wine (actually you'd be surprised how many winemakers don't know their costs), you start looking at the intangibles. What does the market think of the variety of wine? You taste your wine and find you've made an absolute beauty that's in such limited quantities you bump the price to make it sell slower. You look at your neighbors' pricing and, hey, if they're getting that much, maybe you should too. And you better make sure the price is high enough so you don't run-afoul of the dreaded fiscal folly: if it costs less than other wines, it must not be as good. (You mean to say you've never rejected a bottle of wine for a special occasion because it was less expensive than the others on the shelf next to it?)
     
     Good reviews, a bright marketing person or good PR firm, can help push your wine to a higher price point than the quality would indicate. A big ego, or lots of personal wealth, also helps inflate the price of some wines. With money flowing as freely as it has over the past few years, it's amazing what the market will bear.
     
     Bottom-line is that making wine is expensive, particularly for the high-end boutique producer. Pricing is not always rational. But great wine does not have to cost a week's salary. And the California wine industry had better watch out for those wonderful, inexpensive wines coming by the boatload from Australia, Chile, Spain, Portugal, France and Italy. Enough said.
     

Q.  So what's the deal with organic wines and grapes?
     
     Are you getting organic wine when you buy a bottle that has the word organic on it, or are you really only getting wine made from organically grown grapes?
     
     Wine grapes are the single largest certified organic crop grown in California. The vast majority of wines that have the word organic attached to them are only speaking to the grape used. In most cases, the wine is made with varying amounts of added sulfur dioxide (SO₂), otherwise known as sulfites. But it should be noted that sulfites can form on their own in wine.
     
     In California, no SO₂ can be added to any agricultural product and still be called organic. Sulfur dioxide is an anti-oxidant, anti-fungal and anti-bacterial compound, which is added to grape juice during crushing to both kill wild yeast and stop browning (oxidation) of the juice. In addition, a low level is maintained in wine when in barrel as an anti-oxidant, and in the case of white wine, as an anti-bacterial so it won't go through malolactic (secondary) fermentation. At bottling, we aim for a level of about 35ppm of SO₂ counteract the air contact that occurs as the wine enters the bottle.
     
     You might have heard about all the "organic" wines in Europe. The European community regulations regarding labeling a wine organic allow for the addition of SO₂ up to 90ppm (total addition from juice to bottle) for red wines, and 100ppm total in whites. By these standards, all the wine produced by Buttonwood Farm over the years would be considered organic.
     
     And here's something to consider. Is it really sulfites that causes some people to react negatively, or is it another of the thousands of compounds in wine that is causing a reaction? Sulfites are easy to blame, but at the low levels we're talking about, the jury is still out. (On a technical note, SO₂ is considered "free" when it is added, but over time becomes "bound" to sugars, aldehydes and pigments in the wine. If someone is affected by sulfites, it is most likely the "free" ones that cause the problem.)

Q. We're often asked why we make cabernet sauvignon when those grapes don't grow well in Santa Barbara County. Whenever we can, we like to set the record straight.

Once upon a time, back in the late 1960s, a few ranchers in Santa Barbara County converted some of their land to vineyards. They planted the types of grapes grown by other folks in California, like chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon, and sold the grapes to winemakers in northern California. Eventually, though, the bottom fell out of the grape market and the nice people up north didn't need Santa Barbara County grapes. So the ranchers-turned-viticulturalists in Santa Barbara County decided to make their own wine.

Those early winemakers, particularly those with vineyards close to the coast, noticed that chardonnay and pinot noir were especially suited to the soft, cool days and nights of their coastal climate while cabernets and zinfandels developed unattractive flavors of green bean and bell pepper. Being the astute farmers they were, they grafted over the cabernet to more chardonnay and pinot noir, which turned out to be a good move because the wine made from those grapes are wonderful, indeed.

But not all of the vineyards in Santa Barbara county are located near the coast. Some are located in the interior reaches of valleys where daily temperatures climb into the nineties before the cooling ocean air pervades the evening. Grapes like cabernet sauvignon thrive in this climate, developing robust flavors of plum and cassis, leather and cedar. Unfortunately, the people who write for newspapers and magazines can't seem to get the taste of the early cabernets out of their mouths and they've pretty much convinced everyone who reads about wine that Santa Barbara County cabernets aren't very good.

But you know what? You can't believe everything you read. Oh, you bet there's great chardonnay, pinot noir, and the new sensation, syrah, coming out of Santa Barbara County, but if you believe everything you hear or read, you might miss something else worth trying. Like Buttonwood Cabernet Sauvignon. Starting with the 1993 vintage, Buttonwood Cabernet Sauvignon has been awarded 19 medals. Six of those 19 were awarded this year to 1997 Buttonwood Cabernet Sauvignon, including three gold medals.

Were you lucky enough to try 1997 Buttonwood Cabernet Sauvignon before it disappeared or were you dissuaded by a wine expert's opinion? Now, the 1998 Buttonwood Cabernet Sauvignon is here and ready to try. What do you say? Are you willing to take a chance? Come on. We bet you'll like it.

Q.  What are those crystals I see sometimes on the cork or at the bottom of a bottle?
     
     Every now and then clear crystals, or "snowflakes", seem to develop in white wines after they have been in the refrigerator for a while. We've heard stories about folks dumping wine that has these sediments, thinking they're bad. Because they are harmless and a natural part of the wine process, we thought you should understand them and spread the word about what they are.
     
     They are tartrates, actually cream of tarter, and develop naturally from the tartaric acid in the grapes. Most white wine we drink in this country has gone through cold stabilization, the process where wine is chilled to about 30 degrees and held there for a few weeks. This causes any tartrates which remain from the wine making process to "drop-out", never forming again when the wine is chilled at home.
     
     Our 1995 Buttonwood Semillon never went through cold stabilization because the amount we made was so small it didn't reach the cold jackets around our tanks. So there are "snowflakes" in the semillon - really just a wonderful conversation piece for you and your friends.