The hottest topic in the wine world is the adoption of the term "Grand Cru" by Santa Barbara's Sea Smoke Cellars. From the heated reaction on wine sites and blogs, one might think the sky was falling. There are lots of opinions and intriguing arguments.
In 2008, Wine Spectator writer James Laube called the winery "an important part of the Santa Barbara wine scene and one of its 'grand cru' properties." I believe he meant it was a very special piece of wine real estate, and that the grapes that grew there made terrific wine.
Accolades like that are hard to come by, and surely were a cause for celebration at Sea Smoke. A year later, Sea Smoke attached the term "Grand Cru" to all of its 2009 releases.
In France, the term Grand Cru is a rating for established vineyards, and is highly regulated as part of French wine law. The term is most closely associated with Burgundy, where it may be used on a few dozen highly regarded, high-quality vineyard parcels.
In the U.S., quality terms are not as regulated as they are in Europe. We have no system to award Grand Cru status to a vineyard. Most terms that imply quality, such as "reserve," are marketing terms here. They are not regulated.
So the kerfuffle arises from the fact that Sea Smoke applied a term that has important implications in other parts of the world to its own labels. Sea Smoke makes some really nice wines in fairly small quantities. The winery has gotten a lot of accolades in the media. Although a few haters think the wines are high-alcohol fruit bombs, Sea Smoke fans seek these wines out.
Are they good? Well, yeah, the wines are really good. So is this a shameless marketing ploy or an appropriate reaction to the fact that this winery's parcel of land appears to be fairly spectacular? Wine lovers weighing in are quite opinionated, and sharply divided, on both points.
The larger question, of course, is whether it is a good idea to identify the best parcels of wine property with some sort of regulated system. Anyone who is really into wine already looks for the names of special vineyards on bottles. Just ask lovers of the Napa Valley To Kalon property, for example. Grapes are sourced from there to a number of different producers, and the real winos seek out wines made from those grapes, no matter who makes and ultimately sells it.
Do we already have a system in place, just by the price and oomph commanded by wines made from very special vineyards?
If you want to read more on the debate, check out my favorite blogger, Dr. Vino at www.drvino.com. It's an interesting and important discussion. Perhaps it's time to think about how best to showcase America's top vineyards.
