WTN Quivira Dry Creek Cuvee '00

Good. Not stout enough for the Sicilian sausage on Tuesday, but wonderful with the grilled rib steak with sauce chasseur, ravioli left over from last night, and salad on Sunday.

The Sicilian sausage is made by the meat department head at Cosentino's on Homestead Road in Santa Clara. It's a wonderful sausage and if I had any Barolo, that would have been my choice. A Rhone-style wine seemed like a good idea, and it was perfectly acceptable, but a more assertive southern Rhone style might have fit better.

The sauce chasseur I made up from some of the Espagnole sauce I made last week and froze, and some shiitake mushrooms. Unfortunately, I didn't have a fresh tomato on hand. <sigh> With the wet spring here, tomatoes are late.

Dark color, small legs, only medium ripe (less than usual for the vintage and winemaker), light in the mouth without much tannin, and a medium, smoothly fading finish. Very little sediment in the bottle; as are many DCV wines, it's unfiltered.

Bought at the winery for $14.40 in July '02; 56% Grenache, 23% Mourvedre, 14% Syrah, 7% Zinfandel.

[Jenise]

John, have there been any recent changes at Quivira? I bought one of these at Trader Joe's last year for $5. They had cases of several different Quiviras--often means a winery's been sold or something.

As far as I know, the keys are the same -- owner, winemaker, wine club person. They're moving to a totally organic growing and winemaking regimen.

I do think they got hurt by the combination of large crops and the Dot Bomb a couple of years ago. They price themselves a bit higher than many in the Dry Creek area, and their production is relatively large for a "botique" winery.

They also were pushing some '02s and '03s through their mailing list a while ago. Perhaps they got stuck with unsold wine.

I'm pretty sure De Lorimier has been sold. They're bringing out a second label called "Mosaic" and babbling about changes in their mailings.

However, I make no attempt to track the business side of wine.