Down by the river

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“Why here? Why not Oklahoma? There you have a vast, infertile wasteland, in serious need of redecorating, with an overabundance of leather and petroleum-based products.”
—Chandler Fong, The Straight of Messina

People who know Your West Coast Oenophile not as a wine connoisseur but as a playwright will readily recognize my disdain for the Sooner State. Not that I have a lot of experience with this dreary panhandle—in truth, I have been there only once, and that was part of an ill-fortuned cross-country drive. Apart from that, I know that both Leon Russell and Will Rogers hail from parts therein; an array of Native American tribes were, at various times, dispossessed and forced to live in the Oklahoma Territories; they have a perennial football powerhouse disguised as an institute of higher learning; and Holly Hunter portrayed a detective from OKC who singlehandedly (or double-buttocksly) managed to keep nudity alive on cable television in the aftermath of Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction.

My almanac informs me that Oklahoma actually has two of fifty largest cities in the United States (of course, size ceased to be the principal determinant of what constitutes a major city long before San Jose outpaced San Francisco in the population department). Anyway, even though the folks who live in Oklahoma City and Tulsa likely believe there are myriad differences from each other that are both pronounced and manifest, from 1,500+ miles away they are indistinguishable.

The moral of this story, so to speak, is that almost anyone east of the Nevada state line just as likely sees us as a homogeneous blur, as well, one great big flake of a state that can be summed up in a single, pithy paragraph. And most certainly, anyone outside of œnophilic circles sees the wine country as a singular region possessed of few, if any, distinguishing variants. 

The folks from Napa and Sonoma will beg to tell you differently, and so I found myself this past weekend journeying north to Sonoma for the Russian River Valley’s annual Grape to Glass festivities. Basically, this is a three-day, “what makes Sonoma a special destination” extravaganza, focused on, as one might expect, the premium wines of the RRV sub-appellation, as well as the culinary bounty of nearby growers, producers and restaurateurs. Throw in sightseeing, cycling, and recreational activities (swimming, canoeing, topless kayaking) on the Russian River, and festival promoters should know they made a pretty persuasive case for the allure of their special corner of this state.

A Frigid Friday Fiesta

OK, so I didn’t quite leave when I had planned, which may or may not have allowed me to elude the numerous pockets of traffic snarls I encountered along the stretch of Highway 101 from San Francisco to Santa Rosa, where the first formal event of the weekend was being held at the Hyatt Vineyard Creek, the same hotel where the Green Wine Summit has taken place the past two Decembers. Granted, it may take me a few tries to nail down which exit to take and such, but the third time is usually the charm. Just in case, however, the weather gods apparently conspired to make this evening feel like December, just so I wouldn’t mistake my destination.

I managed to arrive at In Concert with the Artisans with about ¾ hour to the wine tasting portion of the evening, barely enough time to engage all the wineries I had targeted to add to my roster for Sostevinobile. And while readers know it is my wont to comment on each of the wines that impress me at the various events I attend, the true focus of this weekend wasn’t to highlight individual expressions of Pinot Noir, Syrah, Zinfandel, and Chardonnay—the mainstays of the Russian River Valley—nor the wide array of Italian, Bordelaise and Rhône varietals that also flourish in pockets throughout the AVA, but to showcase the panoply of the region and the warmth of its denizens.

In this vein, the organizers of Grape to Glass chose not to isolate individual wineries but to cluster individual varietals in tandem with one of their featured chefs, creating little oases of food and wine at key points along the Hyatt’s rear lawn. Chef Christopher Greenwald from Bay Laurel Culinary prepared a Pulled Jerk Chicken Baguette accentuated by a Habañero Pepper Slaw to anchor the wines featured at the Chardonnay Garden. This stop allowed me to reacquaint myself with C. Donatiello and Lynmar while introducing me Duckhorn’s Migration label and the considerable appeal of Jim & Kristina Landy’s eponymous boutique production of their 2008 Estate Chardonnay Russian River Valley.

The Surprising Whites Garden featured an extraordinary Ahi Poke Tuna Salad alongside the bounty of Sonoma’s renowned aquaculture, barbecued Tomales Bay Oysters from Chef Nellie Gamez of Nellie’s Oysters. The spiciness of her Pizole, a Mexican-style pork stew perfectly complemented the 2006 Dry Gewürztraminer Russian River Valley from Zmor Winery, as well as the more austere expressions of 2006 Sauvignon Blanc Shanti Vineyard from Suncé and the 2008 Pinot Gris Russian River Valley from Fred Hansen’s Tremani Wines.

Executive Chef Richard Whipple from the Brasserie at the Hyatt held his home field advantage with a pair of pasta preparations, and a nicely executed Prosciutto Wrapped Melon that accompanied the selections of Pinot Noir Garden I. Longtime familiars like Ketcham Estate, Benovia, and the Bacigalupi family’s John Tyler Wines poured alongside the 2008 Pinot Noir Schneider Vineyard from the very whimsical Thumbprint Cellars and Graton Ridge’s 2007 Pinot Noir Russian River Valley.

I suppose my misspent youth in the Greater New York Area must have exposed me to Puerto Rican cuisine at some point; nonetheless, El Coquí’s Jacqueline Roman’s fare was quite the revelation Pollo al Horno, described as “baked chicken thigh with Puerto Rican-style Spanish Rice, red beans and sweet plantains.” not only proved quite filling but demanded to be washed down with such wines as Mueller’s 2006 Old Vine Zinfandel and the 2006 Zinfandel Rosenberg Vineyard—Porky’s Patch from Sapphire Hill that anchored the table for Zinfandel Garden II.

From there, It didn’t take much effort to lean over and sample the Pulled Pork Sliders from Larry Vito Catering. I bypassed my chance sample his featured Mini Memphis Pork Spare Ribs, which I can safely guess would have just as easily complemented the pours from Syrah Garden, like the 2007 Syrah Russian River Valley from Davis Family Vineyards or the fraternal duo, the 2007 Syrah Rosé and 2005 Syrah, from Lauterbach Cellars.

The pairing of Josh Silver’s Syrah Bistro with Pinot Noir Garden II sounds almost as incongruous as serving their Watermelon Gazpacho during this sub-Arctic summer, but indeed their Liberty Farm Duck & Mushroom Ragoût provided a perfect pairing for the assorted Pinots being sampled here from Russian Hill Estates, TR Elliott, Hook & Ladder, and Twomey Cellars, among others.

My final stop took me to Zinfandel Garden I, where I fortified myself for the remainder of the event by filling a plate with the Shaved Roast Beef with Caramelized Onion & Blue Cheese from Jack and Tony’s of Santa Rosa. Wine choices here included the ever-reliable Joseph Swan Winery with their 2005 Zinfandel Trenton Station Vineyard, Harvest Moon’s 2006 Zinfandel Russian River Valley and the 2006 Zinfandel Francis Vineyard from Matrix, whose owner Diane Wilson knows more than a few things about this varietal.

Also at this table, Old World Winery poured their 2004 Zinfandel Laughlin Vineyard, a wine I happily sampled. My ostensible purpose, however, in saving this stop for last was to connect with winemaker Darek Trowbridge, who had offered me use of his family’s guest house in Healdsburg and arranged my attendance at the numerous Grape to Glass events. I’d like to say his generosity was extraordinary, but the weekend ultimately showed me that such gestures are endemic to the whole region. We joined Darek’s cousin Lee Martinelli of Martinelli Winery at their VIP table, where food and libations continued for throughout the concert portion of the evening.

Tenor Nick Palance, a former star of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, has been heralded as the “American Boccelli.” Despite the frigid air, he performed for nearly two hours from his Angel Heart repertoire, with songs ranging from Verdi arias to show tunes from Andrew Lloyd—Webber to campy classics like That’s Amore. Though vocally compelling, Palance seemed to be articulating more by rote than a comprehension of the Italian lyrics in many of his selections. Stylish vocalist Lindsey Scott delivered her counterpoint to their duets with a nuance and subtlety that tended, at times, to upstage Palance; clearly, her solo arias manifested true operatic flair. Nonetheless, both performers and their superb instrumentalists clearly enthralled their captivated audience (even those of us who regard musical theater as the nadir of the American stage).

I remained for a portion of the reception that followed, engaging both artists and artisan winemaker until I felt safe enough to brave the stretch of 101 up to Healdsburg. The solitude of a cottage (with a cozy garage space for my Corolla), an outlet to recharge my iPhone, and a semi-firm mattress soon had me horizontal and ready for the morning bicycle trek.

So this is what a Saturday morning looks like?

I am not an AM person, most definitely not on weekends, but the prospect of a sunny morning ride through downtown Healdsburg was enough to get me out the door, sans caffeine, before 9. Instead, I was greeted by 60°F and drizzle, not exactly what I had signed on for. I was supposed to meet up with my fellow cyclists at the Healdsburg Farmers Market, a Saturday morning extravaganza that featured Zucchini car races amid an abundance of local produce and a throng of local denizens who seemingly make this excursion a weekly ritual.

Much like downtown Yountville in Napa, Healdsburg has transformed itself over the past couple of decades into a gourmet and travel destination, the culinary heart of Sonoma. I confess that I am still adjusting from my familiarity with the town in the 1980s, when it seemed you were just as likely to find a hitching post for your horse as an available parking slot. These days, the east side of 101 abounds with world class restaurants, specialty shops and spas, and perhaps more offsite tasting rooms than anyplace else in California. It would be hard to imagine a John Deere tractor rolling down Healdsburg Avenue in 2010.

Healdsburg’s temple to the Slow Food Movement, Zazu, garnered national attention just a few days ago, as it was announced that chef/owner Duskie Estes had been selected to compete on TV’s Iron Chef. News of this accolade, as well as our mutual Brunonian background, came only when I had begun my background research for this entry; this morning, Duskie was merely our tour leader, grinding out a loop through the heart of Healdsburg, as she led a dozen or so of my fellow intrepid cyclists on an excursion that was anything but Iron Man-level. 

From the Farmers Market, we headed east for 0.1 miles to Costeaux, a local institution since 1923. The irrepressible Margaret Hansen held court, so breathlessly spinning the history of this award-winning bakery that even a first-time visitor would come away believing in its inextricable role in the very existence of the town. Gathering baguettes for the luncheon we would create at the end of this ride, our caravan proceeded yet another 0.1 miles Center Street’s Cheese Shop for lunch’s cheese serving (I missed the discourse as I waited in line next door at Flying Goat Coffee for my obligatory java jolt).
Testing the mettle of her riders, Duskie next led us for what may have even clocked 0.5 miles on the odometer to Seghesio, the multi-generational winery known for its Zinfandels and Italian varietals. The tour, of course, included a brief wine tasting, as well as a sampling of their housemade salumi. Carryalls and bottles of their 2009 Pinot Grigio were bestowed on each of us before we migrated over to the verdant cornucopia known as Ed’s Garden, the actual focus of our stop.

Exiting the building, we were met by matriarch Rachel Ann Seghesio, with whom I shared stories of Italian upbringing as she led our group to the expansive vegetable garden her brother-in-law Ed Seghesio tends. Amid the tomatoes, melons, and herbs he cultivates, we stumbled upon berry fronds adorning his asparagus plants! Though appearing edible, these berries can be quite noxious—hardly the aim of a culinary tour! Thankfully, neither the berries nor the asparagus itself made our list of ingredients, so after gathering some basil and heirlooms, we wandered back to observe Ed’s storied 100-year-old fig tree, his bellwether for predicting the grape harvest.

A final stop took us out for 0.2 miles to the organic fruit and vegetable stand known as Love Farms, where we harvested grapes and selected melons that would complete the amazing repast Duskie would assemble for us at Relish Culinary Adventures, a cooking lab and school a few yards from where this cycling marathon began. After plying us with hand-blended Bellinis, we were fêted with Melon and Prosciutto Salad, deftly assembled from the numerous ingredients we had collected throughout the morning. An intrepid few of us completed the tour by ambling afterward across the parking lot to sample Pinot Noir and Chocolate at the La Crema Tasting Room, then dispersed for our afternoon seminars.

A river runs through it.
With four different presentations from which to choose, I elected to attend the afternoon session at the Trowbridges’ main house alongside the bank of the Russian River. As before, my hosts could not have been more accommodating. By now, the sun had actually broken through, ambient warmth to accompany an outdoor catered affair, with Russian River wines from Old World Winery, Hop Kiln and Pelligrini. After sipping and socializing, guest sat down to a trio of presentations from Darek, vineyard consultant Marc Greenspan of Advanced Viticulture, and Pelligrini winemaker Kevin Hamel, each assaying how the topography and climate of the Russian River Valley contributes to the special character of the AVA’s wines.

I typically think of modifications to natural structures as depleting their resources, such as the California Aqueduct’s siphoning off of river flow to the San Francisco Bay, increasing the salinity and subsequently impacting the entire ecosystem. It surprised me to learn that, in its unaltered state, the Russian River held far less flow and was deemed unnavigable until construction of the Potter Valley Project to divert water via a tunnel from the Eel River in Mendocino. Of course, this diversion presents its own share of undesirable impact, but largely has enabled the Russian River Valley to establish itself as an agricultural center, as well as sustain a human habitat and major recreational area.

With a billing like that, it became compulsory to amble down to the river. With memories of rolling kayaks in the Connecticut River during undergraduate days, I wisely left my iPhone and Bluetooth behind with my sneaker and shirt before embarking on a two-man kayak run with one of my fellow attendees. The bend in the river actually slowed the current to a meager crawl where we launched, so it was relatively effortless to paddle upstream to take in the stunning scenery. A perfect way to top off the afternoon, to be sure, and ready ourselves for the evening’s banquet.

The Hog in the Fog

The culmination of Grape to Glass has always meant euphoria to carnivores and œnophiles alike. The Hog in the Fog banquet married 56 Russian River Valley wineries to a bounty of food from local growers and restaurateurs. Nestled among the oaks and carved totems (see below) at Richard’s Grove in Saralee’s Vineyard—in many ways, the backbone of the RRV appellation, this self-billed Festival of Plenty could easily have sufficed with the wine tasting and appetizer prelude. With produce and condiments from Kozlowski Farms and Martinelli’s orchards, cheeses from Redwood Hill, and enticing tapas from Healdsburg’s Chef Mateo Granados and nationally acclaimed John Ash (I couldn’t pull myself away from the Roast Duck Medallion canapés), I needed the wine tasting just to fortify myself for the sit-down barbecue that featured tortillas, tomato salad, vegetable salad, multicolored watermelon, pie, roasted chicken, New York steak, and the centerpiece, Gleason Ranch Pork with Seghesio’s Family Rub.

Each of the wineries from Friday’s In Concert with the Artisans returned, along with many other familiars. Almost immediately, I found myself reconnecting with Eva Dehlinger and regaling in her 2008 Pinot Noir Golden Ridge. Acorn Winery did not bring their Dolcetto, much to my chagrin, but both the 2007 Sangiovese Alegrîa Vineyard and their 2007 Zinfandel Alegría Vineyard proved quite pleasing. Eric Hall’s Roadhouse Winery poured an impressive 2008 Pinot Noir Russian River Valley, as did the genial folks from Ancient Oak, along with their 2008 Chardonnay Sonoma County.

I enjoyed the 2005 Syrah Russian River Valley from Longboard Vineyards, a winery I had been long longing to try, while Inspiration Vineyards’ 2007 Viognier Russian River Valley proved a welcome diversion to the orthodoxy of most of the white wines on hand. After that, my tasting notes become quite sketchy, though I know I managed to sample a variety of wines from Benovia, Balletto, Williams Selyem, Suacci Carciere, Robert Rue, and Papapietro Perry. And for the numerous other wineries with whom I could not connect, know that it was a matter of satiety, not neglect.

The end of the dinner coincided with a love auction to benefit the Agriculture program at Forestville’s El Molino High School. One lucky attendee won the raffle for Keys to the Cellar, a fully-stocked wine cellar that, unfortunately, did not become mine. After the auction, local rockabilly band Quarter Mile Combo, though not quite as “saxy” as Portland’s Quarterflash, had the crowd on its feet. I managed to traipse a few with Joseph Swan’s Lynn Berglund, who rewarded me with a preview of their unreleased 2008 Tannat, a varietal that is garnering much attention and new plantings. The nighttime chill began to set in, but it felt too soon to call it an evening.

Aftermath

I stayed past the closing to help Lee Hodo, the marketing manger for theRussian River Valley Winegrowers, load dozens of loand Bonzai plants inthe back of her station wagon, only to find myself the last vehicleparked next door at Sonoma-Cutrer. I pulled into downtown Healdsburg and found my way to Spoonbar in the new h2hotel. Before capping the night with a B&B (I needed something besides wine at this point), I ran into developer Merritt Sher, who also built the Hotel Healdsburg, which anchors the downtown renewal. Along with Cyrus and Barndiva, the hotel’s Dry Creek Kitchen has defined modern Healdsburg as a culinary destination; still, judgment on the merits of transforming this formerly bucolic setting into Hamptons-style resort rests with the people who live and work in the Russian River Valley, not me.

I bypassed Sunday’s Bubbles & Pixels brunch at premier sparkling winemaker Iron Horse Vineyards in order to arrive on time for Family Winemakers back in San Francisco. Much to my chagrin, the warm, sunny weather I had hoped to find finally did make an appearance, just as I was loading my Trek bicycle back into the Corolla. Allora!

What Healdsburg may have lacked in radiant heat this weekend was more than mitigated by the personal warmth of everyone I encountered. I could not more appreciative of the generosity I received. 

And what of the Napa/Sonoma dichotomy? Granted, Napa has its Lake Berryessa, Sonoma its river and its coast. Napa has Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet, Sonoma has Pinot and Chard. Everyone has Zinfandel and everyone has an experience to offer that reflects the special character of their place. It isn’t a matter of substance over style, quantity versus quality. At the risk of sounding like an existentialist, it just is—which is OK. As in “okay.” Not Oklahoma.

Pop, Jazz, Squid—and Wine?

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This entry could just have easily been titled Everything I Know About Monterey I Learned in the Fifth Grade. First and foremost, for anyone over 35, like Your West Coast Oenophile, Monterey has long meant the seminal Monterey Pop Festival of 1967, the first true rock mega-concert that propelled the careers of Jimi Hendrix, Otis Redding, Steve Miller, Janis Joplin and numerous other legendary musical acts. Music purist would probably defer to the annual Monterey Jazz Festival, now in its 53rd year—though many will cite Clint Eastwood traipsing through the woods at Big Sur with Donna Mills as their favorite scene from the 1971 film Play Misty for Me, I relish the clip of the late, great Cannonball Adderley playing at the Festival.

Growing up in a Neapolitan household, one of the more esoteric dishes I enjoyed in my youth was calamari (few people today realize that many of today’s popular menu items were long shunned as “peasant food” outside of ethnic circles). Of course, the preferred source of this delicacy was Monterey squid, even if we could only obtain it frozen on the East Coast. Wine from Monterey, however, was a far different matter.

At first, there were the big jug wines like Almaden. Other bulk producers followed, planting extensive vineyards or leasing other large tracts to furnish themselves with a substantial source of cheap varietal gapes—in one memorable incident from the early 1980s, Ernest Gallo, at his craven-hearted best, flew over the 10,000 acres he had under contract in Monterey and pronounced the grapes undesirable, leaving growers scrambling to find an alternate buyer. Then came the proliferation of “Coastal Cellars.” Several of the industry’s most revered labels, having ceded control to their new corporate conglomerate, came out with “affordable” lines of their wines, capitalizing on their long-established reputation in Napa and elsewhere, but markedly inferior to their primary bottlings—a ill-conceived effort to make wines from a prestigious label “accessible,” that only served to erode brand value and recognition.

Amid all this clutter, Monterey’s AVAs have long encompassed premium winemaking, so in quest to engage more of these wineries for Sostevinobile, I traveled south to the 18th Annual Winemakers’ Celebration in Monterey’s Custom House Plaza last weekend. Had the purpose of my two-hour drive been to escape the gloom and overcast of San Francisco for much-needed æstival warmth, this was not the trek to make. Nonetheless, a fresh setting with new people to meet and wines to sample mitigated for the lack of sunshine. Event promoters had set up ample white tents at strategic corners of this bi-level plaza to house the 40 wineries pouring a wide array of their varietals and blends. I tried to visit with each, starting, as previously document, with those labels I had not previously contacted and striving to save enough time to cover the rest. 

Consequently, I started out by heading to the table for Line Shack, a winery I had just recently encountered at P.S. I Love You. On hand, owner/winemaker John Baletto and his wife Daphne poured a striking array of wines grown in Monterey County, starting with a seductive 2009 Roussanne San Antonio Valley and an equally appealing 2008 Chardonnay Monterey County. I bypassed resampling their Petite Sirah in favor of the 2008 Syrah San Antonio Valley and a 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon San Antonio Valley John blended in Paso Robles style, with enough Syrah to round it out rather deftly. On the other hand, Lockwood Vineyard from Monterey was a new discovery, featuring an austere 2008 Malbec and a 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon rounded out with Malbec, Petit Verdot, and Syrah.

From Soledad, Manzoni Estate Vineyard made a strong first impression with a quartet of their wines, particularly their 2007 Pinot Noir Private Reserve. I also found the 2008 Pinot Gris and 2007 Syrah enormously appealing, along with a 2007 Chardonnay from the Santa Lucia Highlands. Contrasting Chardonnays marked Mercy Vineyards, an artisan winery from Pebble Beach. I rated the 2008 Chardonnay Zabala Vineyard a cut above the nonetheless compelling 2008 Chardonnay Arroyo Seco and equal to their 2008 Pinot Noir Arroyo Seco, while the 2008 Sauvignon Blanc Arroyo Seco did not disappoint.

I don’t recall seeing La Rochelle on my recent swing through the Livermore Valley; then again, given the well-publicized zealotry of the local highway patrol, my eyes were probably fixed on my speedometer as I drove by. Though this winery resides in a different AVA, it sources its many of its grapes from numerous appellations in Monterey to produce both the 2009 Pinot Gris Mark’s Vineyard, Arroyo Seco and the 2007 Pinot Noir Monterey. On the other hand, Marin’s Vineyard only sounds like it is situated in another locale. This nascent San Antonio Valley winery produced a splendid 2008 Viognier, as well as their signature 2007 Syrah.

Other non-local based enterprises that grow and source significant amount of grapes from Monterey included Napa’s Delicato Family Vineyards, whose Sr. Brand Manager Christine Lilienthal served up some impressive banter, along with three of their Monterey labels. Loredona boasts itself as Delicato’s Anything But Chardonnay label, amply demonstrated by their 2009 Riesling, the 2009 Pinot Grigio and a pre-release sample of their enchanting 2009 Malvasia Bianca. Although Irony is one of their Napa labels, the 2008 Monterey Pinot Noir came from their San Benabe Vineyard (reputed the world’s largest single vineyard), as did the grapes in their Fog Head 2005 Blow Sand Syrah. Meanwhile, Wente Vineyards, the Goliath of Livermore Valley, might seem an interloper here but actually maintains extensive vineyards in Arroyo Seco, exemplified by their 2007 Reliz Creek Pinot Noir and the approachable 2008 Riva Ranch Chardonnay.

Given the number of nearby retreats like Esalen, Ventana Inn, and Carmel Valley Ranch, it comes as little surprise that Bernadus is both a resort and a winery. Nearly a decade ago, I enjoyed my first comprehensive tasting from the various Monterey AVAs at their Taste of Carmel Valley, so was more than please this afternoon to revisit their 2006 Monterey County Pinot Noir and the always wonderful 2005 Estate Marinus, a traditional Bordelaise blend, on behalf of Sostevinobile. On a much more modest scale, Mesa del Sol Vineyards offers a quiet cottage amid a 14 acre estate with trout pond and a vineyard that produces their 2005 Syrah and the highly likable 2006 Sangiovese.

I suspect many of the smaller ventures on hand this afternoon do not see tremendous distribution outside the Central Coast region, so, of course, it is a particular pleasure to give them wider exposure here. Though I found Snosrap, their semordnilaps label, a bit jejune, I nonetheless reveled in the wines Parsonage Village Vineyards from Carmel Valley featured, starting with the 2008 Snosrap Cyrano Chardonnay and the 2007 Estate Syrah. The 2007 Bordelaise blended Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot, while the quite drinkable 2007 Snosrap Merlot, blended with 25% Syrah, proved most gnillepmoc. A most aptly named Carmel winery, Mission Trail Vineyard, paid tribute to the historical planting of vineyards at California’s Franciscan missions 230 years ago with a superb 2005 Garnacha, along with a satisfactory 2006 Tempranillo. While I also found their 2007 Malbec and 2007 Syrah quite appealing, the 2007 Sauvignon Blanc left much to be desired.

I had corresponded earlier this year with Otter Cove on behalf of the wine auction for Asia Society Northern California, but had not previously sampled their wines. Like Mission Trail, I found varying degrees of quality, ranging from a superb 2006 Chardonnay to a disappointing 2008 Pinot Noir Santa Lucia Highlands. in between, I was most impressed with their 2007 Off-dry Riesling Santa Lucia Highlands while cottoning to both the 2006 Gewürztraminer and the 2007 Syrah. Acclaimed musical composer Alan Silvestri orchestrated a harmonious trio of vintages for his eponymous winery: the 2005 Syrah Carmel Valley, the 2006 Pinot Noir Carmel Valley, and the tributary 2007 Bella Sandra Chardonnay. Meanwhile, the compelling rodeo theme of Galante’s labels underscored a gritty, no-nonsense approach that characterized both their 2007 Red Rose Hill Cabernet Sauvignon and the rich 2006 Galante Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, both from Carmel Valley.

Galante operates a tasting room in tony Carmel-by-the-Sea, where Clint Eastwood presides, as does Cima Collina, a quaint, artisan operation. Their 2009 Tondrē Riesling favored a slightly sweet approach, while their 2007 Chula Viña Chardonnay seemed quite redolent of its unfiltered process. Most intriguing, however, was the 2005 Hilltop Red, a skilled blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petite Sirah. Another familiar name, Carmel Valley’s Château Julien, offered a decidedly mellow 2009 Barrel Selected Pinot Grigio alongside its sibling 2008 Barrel Selected Chardonnay and a superb 2006 Private Reserve Merlot.

The night before I attended the Monterey Winemakers Celebration, I stopped off for a bite at St. Helena’s Farmstead, following a grueling day on the fundraising trail for Sostevinobile. Along with my entrée, I enjoyed a chilled glass of the 2009 Sauvignon Blanc San Saba Vineyard from Soledad’s Wrath Wines. Readers here know how I raved about discovering this winery at January’s Santa Lucia Highlands tasting, so I was pleased to get a leg up on my Monterey sojourn. Faced with an array of their wines, once again, I was smitten, first with the 2009 Chardonnay Ex Anima, followed by the rosé-style 2009 Pinot Noir Saignée San Saba Vineyard and culminating with their extraordinary 2007 Pinot Noir San Saba Vineyard. Today’s serendipity, however, came from Carmel Valley’s unassuming Joyce Vineyards. Dentist-turned-winemaker Frank Joyce crafted exceptional 2008 Chardonnay Black Mountain Vineyard and 2008 Pinot Noir Black Mountain Vineyard, as well as his notable 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Pedregal Vineyard and a spectacular 2007 Merlot. According to their Website, Joyce also produces something called Pudding Wine—I have no idea what this might be, but based on the virtuosity, I’d be willing to gamble on a bottle of the 2007 vintage.

Perhaps this Pudding Wine will prove to be akin the 2008 Ekem, a whimsical homonym for the revered Sauternes, that De Tierra produces from its Musque Clone Sauvignon Blanc. This organic endeavor produces several noteworthy reds, including the 2005 Monterey Syrah, the 2006 Silacci Pinot Noir, and their 2006 Estate Merlot, while excelling on the white front with both their 2007 Monterey Chardonnay and the exceptional 2008 Tin Man Chardonnay. In the same vein, Heller Estate Organic Vineyards impressed me with their 2008 Cuvée, a Meritage blending Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Merlot, and Petit Verdot, the 2007 Chenin Blanc, and their current offering of the 2002 Merlot (Heller clearly relishes Merlot, also producing a 2007 Merlot Rosé, a 2006 Merlot Blanc (!), and even a 2005 Sparkling Merlot).

Still having a bit of a sweet bug, I indulged in a taste of the 2008 Vinho Doce, a Port-style wine blended from Touriga Nacional, Tinta Cão, and Tinto Roriz (aka Tempranillo), fortified with Tempranillo brandy, from Pierce Ranch Vineyards, a winery whose selections I have enjoyed on numerous other occasions. I’d also sampled a plethora of wine from Hahn/Lucienne over the years at various Pinot Noir events, so I opted for their other selections, like the 2009 Rosé, a compelling 2001 Blush Sparkling, the easy-to-drink 2005 Coastal Cabernet Sauvignon and 2008 Chardonnay Monterey, an extremely good 2005 Viognier, and the memorable 2007 SLH Estate Pinot Gris Santa Lucia Highlands. I followed by revising Ray Franscioni’s Puma Road, trying their amiable 2007 Pinot Gris Black Mountain Vineyard, an equally likable 2007 Pinot Noir Black Mountain Vineyard, his 2008 Chardonnay Black Mountain Vineyard, and the 2005 Cache Paicines, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.

A winery I would have sworn I tried before was Scheid Vineyards from Monterey’s own Cannery Row, so tasting their wines turned out to be a nice discovery. Today’s well-balanced quartet was comprised of the 2007 Chardonnay, a 2008 Syrah Rosé, the 2007 Pinot Noir they atypically rounded out with 1% each of Syrah and Petite Sirah, and their 2007 Syrah, a 100% varietal expression (the latter two wines both won Gold Medals at the 2010 New World International Wine Competition named for my late friend, wine writer Jerry D. Mead). I was also surprised I hadn’t previously tried Graff Family Vineyards, the wine-producing extension of the Woodward-Graff Foundation. This Rhône-focused venture excelled with straight varietal expressions in their 2007 Grenache and 2007 Mourvèdre, while flourishing on the white side with a 2007 Viognier and a superb 2007 Pinot Blanc. Unifying the two halves was their proprietary 2007 Consensus, a deft blend of Mourvèdre, Viognier and Syrah.

Graff is a bit of an anomaly, in that their winemaking facilities are in Sonoma. Similarly, Carmel Road Winery grows its grapes in Monterey but trucks them to Santa Rosa for vinification. This virtual winery, created by Jackson Family Wines, nonetheless distinguished itself with their 2009 Pinot Gris, the well-balanced pair of the 2008 Monterey Chardonnay and the slightly preferable 2006 Arroyo Seco Chardonnay, and the starkly contrasting 2008 Monterey Pinot Noir and the 2006 Arroyo Seco Pinot Noir, a clearly superior wine. Chalone, on the other hand, was a pre-established operation Diageo purchased in 20o4, also seemed to maintain its quality and autonomy, though I only managed to sample the 2008 Pinot Blanc.

Perhaps if event promoters had furnished more than a meager five Porta-Potties for this large crowd (and interspersed them throughout at different points in the plaza instead of the corner furthest from the wine tables), I might have had enough time to visit with Crū, Estancia, Michaud, Morgan, Pelerin, Pessagno, and Tondrē. That I missed their tables is a testament to the favorable encounters Sostevinobile has already enjoyed with their wines and their owners

All-in-all, the Monterey Winemakers Celebration wasa highly successful showcase for this distinctive wineregion. Even the conspicuously A.W.O.L. sun managed to make a late appearance for the final hour of the festivities! As I left, I felt there was but one glaring omission to an elsewise splendid event:

Where was the calamari?

Where there is there there

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A few days after attending P.S. I Love You’s Petite Sirah Symposium, Your West Coast Oenophile ventured back across the Bay Bridge for the 5th Annual Urban Wine Xperience in Oakland. Again, having blogged this event for Sostevinobile last year,  I anticipated little in terms of new discovery, but was happy to renew acquaintances and do my small part to help publicize the efforts of these dedicated wine entrepreneurs.

There is an intangible quality to the East Bay wine tastings I’ve attended over the years, something that sharply delineates the ticket holders here from events in San Francisco. On a superficial level, the crowds look different, but only in the sense that they both equally reflect the heterogeneous population of their surrounding communities. But there is definitely a vibe that transcends ethnic makeup here, and I think it may well be a correlation between the lack of pretense among the local wine artisans and the genuine enthusiasm of the majority of attendees—hardly a poseur or dilettante in the crowd, as far as I could detect.

Last year, the Urban Wine Xperience was held outdoors, in a field beside the USS Potomac, the showcase restoration of FDR‘s “floating White House,” ensconced in the Oakland estuary. I arrived in need of some serious heat, maybe not quite the sweltering 95° of previous tasting, but definitely something to recharge the solar batteries after this summer’s protracted winter had taken its toll over the past four bleak, sunless days in San Francisco. Much to my chagrin, UWX V had moved a couple of blocks down the waterfront promenade, off the lawn and inside the enclosed showroom that anchors the Jack London Square complex.

There is no square there

Despite my disappointment at having to spend the afternoon indoors, I found the venue far more spacious and easier to navigate among the 18 various wineries, along with their partnered restaurants and caterers. The copious servings of food showcased not only their precise pairings with the wines being poured but the emerging food scene near the Oakland waterfront and surrounding neighborhoods. Certainly, I found intimations of places I am apt to explore on subsequent East Bay trips, but my focus for the afternoon centered on the appeal of the wines for Sostevinobile. 

I stopped by first to exchange greetings with Matt Smith, my fellow tasting panelist from the Connoisseurs Guide to California Wine, and to sample, among others, his latest release of the 2008 Alta Mesa Torrontés from his Blacksmith Cellars. Though (so I’m told) every Torrontés producer in California sources their grapes from this same vineyard, Matt manages to craft this wine with his personal touch, just as he did with the very striking 2008 North Coast Chenin Blanc, a once-ubiquitous varietal that has fallen into disfavor over the past two decades. Rounding out his inventory for the afternoon was the 2006 C.L.R.T., a wine that dare not speak its name (in accord with 2005’s Napa Declaration of Place), a Cabernet Sauvignon-based claret blended with Cabernet Franc and Merlot. 

Oakland’s World Ground Cafe matched these wines with a pork canapé, a pairing I find almost ubiquitous at fine & food affairs, but nonetheless well suited to Matt’s craftsmanship. Another restaurant I discovered just outside the exhibit hall, Bocanova, seemed a gargantuan undertaking, but also provided an intriguing pork variation to pair with Cerruti Cellars, a newcomer to Urban Wine Xperience. Their 2009 Mer Blanc Merlot Rosé heralds from vineyards in Alexander Valley, while the 2006 Cuvée Red Blend, a marriage of Sangiovese, Zinfandel and Merlot bottled under their Tudal label, boasts a Napa Valley origin. As if to forge a compromise, they melded barrels from both AVAs to produce the 2007 50/50 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa/Sonoma.

I haven’t quite ascertained how Andrew Lane Wines qualifies as an urban winemaker, though their wines certainly warranted inclusion this afternoon. Their corollary to Cerruti’s Cuvée Red blend was an amiable 2007 Rosso Napa Valley, a well-balanced ménage à trois with Sangiovese, Zinfandel and Valdiguié, another somewhat obscured varietal that had once enjoyed immense popularity. I found myself intrigued with their semi-spicy 2007 Petite Sirah Napa Valley, while enthralled with their 2007 Cabernet Franc Oakville. Franc-ly speaking, one of Sostevinobile’s most popular citations, Rock Wall Wine Company, made an equally strong statement with their 2007 Cabernet Franc Holbrook Mitchell from Napa Valley. On numerous visits to their facility, I don’t believe I’d previously tried their 2009 Russian River Reserve Chardonnay and, as with their progenitor, their array of top-notch Zins, including today’s 2008 Sonoma County Zinfandel, often leaves me scrambling to decipher my tasting notes.

Rock Wall’s Kent Rosenblum launched the East Bay winery phenomenon with his eponymous Rosenblum Cellars, now undergoing the throes of assimilation under its corporate parent, Diageo. The realignment was quite apparent in both their 2008 Zinfandel Sonoma Appellation Series and 2007 Zinfandel Paso Robles Appellation Series, not so much in the 2007 Syrah Snow’s Lake. Another spinoff from Rosenblum, JC Cellars, extended the tradition of quality begun in Alameda with a profound series of his own blends, ranging from the Roussanne-Marsanne duality of their 2008 The First Date to the complexity of the 2008 Daily Ration (Carignane, Petite Sirah, Tempranillo, Grenache, and Zinfandel) to the quixotic array of Zinfandel, Syrah, Carignane, Petite Sirah, Tempranillo, and Viognier in their ever-popular 2008 The Impostor.

JC Cellars’ white Rhône blend was paired with an incredible Seared Halibut on a fried wonton wedge from East Bay caterer Oren’s Kitchen (I confess to circling back to their table numerous times throughout the afternoon). Similarly, the Shrimp and Corn Pudding Tart from Alameda’s Little House Café proved an extraordinary complement to Stage Left Cellars’ white Rhône, the 2008 The Go Getter, a blend of Roussanne, Viognier, and Grenache Blanc. Sourced from a Syrah vineyard in Rogue Valley, their tasty 2007 The Scenic Route seemed an apt title for a descriptor of the grapes’ path back to Oakland while their 2006 Grenache stayed in-state from a vineyard sourced in Santa Maria.

One of my discoveries last year, Irish Monkey Cellars, also poured two Rhône varietals, the approachable 2008 Mourvèdre Lodi and a compelling 2007 Syrah Amador, as well as a blend of varietals they source from Napa’s Lovall Valley (a Real Estate designation, not a recognized AVA), the 2008 Chateaux du Lovall, a will-o’-the-wisp assemblage of Zinfandel, Petit Verdot, Primitivo, Syrah and Merlot. Another of 2009’s stars, Prospect 772 Wine Company, returned with the latest versions of their proprietary blends, the Syrah/Grenache mélange, the 2007 The Brat and its Viognier-infused Syrah brethren, the 2007 The Brawler, along with newcomer 2009 Baby Doll Rosé, also made from Syrah and Grenache.

At most tastings, R & B Cellars usually breaks out the kitchen sink, pouring more wines than I can fathom, but held to a mere trio this afternoon, showcasing their Sauvignon Blanc, the 2007 Serenade in Blanc, a highly likable 2007 Swingsville Zinfandel and the superb 2005 Reserve Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. Also at most East Bay affairs,Urbano Cellars and Urban Legend Cellars seem inextricably joined at the hip; sequestered in different wings of the exhibition hall, they stood out today on individual merit. Urbano opened with their 2008 Vin Rosé Green Valley, a blush version of Napa Gamay (aka Valdiguié), then followed with an exceptional blend of Syrah, Grenache and Tempranillo, the 2007 5 Barrel Lodi, a haphazard assemblage of they would be, admittedly, hard-pressed to duplicate. Their standout pour came from their wondrous 2008 Sangiovese Mountain View Ranch.

Urban Cellars’ forte also stemmed from its Italian varietal bottlings, starting with the stellar 2008 Barbera Clarksburg that had crowds flocking to their table. Nebbiolo and Sangiovese worked synergistically to deliver their well-balanced 2008 Ironworks, while Marilee Shaffer delighted me with a sip from a bottle of the 2008 Teroldego Clarksburg she had secreted under the table. I also had warm feelings for the yet-unreleased 2009 Tempranillo Clarksburg and for the 2009 Sauvignon Blanc Lake County that paired rather seamlessly with Warmed Grits topped with a confit of Chicken & Corn from Oakland‘s Brown Sugar Kitchen (proving, yet again, that there can be a wine to match up with almost everything).

Ehrenberg Cellars is a venture on the cusp of coming into its own, with more people behind its table sporting badges that read “Investor” than I can enumerate. Seemingly, their food partner Paradiso had as many pasta selections on hand, each distinctive and satisfying. This wine venture, formerly known as Nectar Vineyards, showcased promising futures from its unbottled 2009 Shenandoah Zinfandel and 2009 Petite Sirah, along with the 2008 Contra Costa Zinfandel from its previous incarnation. Meanwhile the more seasoned Dashe Cellars displayed its versatility with an organic 2008 Dry Riesling McFadden Farm and a pair of Sonoma vintages, the 2009 Grenache Dry Creek Valley and the 2008 Zinfandel Dry Creek Valley, both tangy complements to the Seared Lamb & Arugula canapé from Oakland’s Chop Bar.

In my quest for objectivity, I hope Sasha Verhage will forgive me if I describe his 2007 The One Fairview Road Ranch, the Pinot Noir from his Eno Wines as not quite as mind-blowing as the 2007 The Change Agent (Grenache) and the 2007 The Freedom Fighter (old vine Zinfandel) proved this particular afternoon. Meanwhile, Dick Keenan’s Carica Wines held up their end with the 2008 Kick Ranch Sauvignon Blanc, the 2007 Kick Ranch Syrah, and Syrah-dominated GMS blend, the 2007 Temptation Sonoma County.

I was happy to find Marie Bourdillas’ Aubin Cellars on hand once again. This restrained, Burgundian-style operation offered equally-striking bottlings of their 2007 Carneros Pinot Noir and the 2007 Sonoma Mountain Syrah, along with a demure 2008 French Colombard. And, of course, I saved room for dessert, knowing that Adams Point Winery had its 18% alcohol Mango Wine on hand. In keeping with the Napa Declaration of Place, Adams Point calls its fortified blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Petite Sirah California Red After Dinner Wine. While I found this “not Port” quite compelling, their Chocolate Dessert Wine, the same wine with an infusion of chocolate, bordered on tasting syrupy, not quite the finale to this event I had conjured.

Efforts to transform Jack London Square into a culinary mecca have been well-documented of late, and while the quiet exit of hokey food chains like T.G.I. Friday’s, El Torito and the Old Spaghetti Factory certainly seem a positive development, I, too, question whether this destination can draw sufficient crowds to sustain a mega-enterprise like Bocanova or, speculatively, a future branch of Sostevinobile. But, on this one afternoon, there definitely was a there there, and it remains safe to say that Urban Wine Experience proves the East Bay winery scene remains a vibrant presence that will continue to endure.

Is there a Durif in the house?

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A different week, a different bridge. And different AVAs to explore. Your West Coast Oenophile took in two very different tastings this past week in the overshadowed wine regions of the East Bay. Given the Arctic summer we are experiencing in San Francisco, the quest for heat played no small role in my sojourns.

Given that I covered both of these events in 2009, my trek entailed less about new discoveries, rather more about reinvigorating relationships Sostevinobile had forged last year (or earlier). I started with the rather eclectic P.S. I Love You, a still somewhat nascent trade organization for growers and producers of Petite Sirah. Now single varietal advocacies are nothing new—the Zinfandel Advocates and Producers (ZAP) is now in its twentieth year and I understand a new Pinotage association has been formed. Nor are single varietal tastings uncommon—again, the ZAP Grand Festival every January, Pinot Days, the discontinued Merlot in May. Unlike the others, however, P.S. I Love You’s major annual conclave, the Petite Sirah Symposium, is strictly an industry affair, a daylong conference for growers and producers, with an intimate tasting that includes trade and media at the end. Not a great vehicle for public advocacy, but certainly a much more pleasurable alternative to the mob scenes with which professional attendees like myself must contend (he notes with trepidation as Family Winemakers looms on the near horizon…).

As was the case last year, the Symposium was held at Concannon Vineyard in Livermore, the 127 year old producer that lays claim to being the first winery to label Petite Sirah and has staked their claim to fame with this grape ever since. Literally and figuratively, Livermore is a far cry from Fort Mason and San Francisco, and as I wound my way through the clusters of suburban tract houses that lead to the rural portion of the town, I felt a peculiar desire to blow them all up. Then it dawned on me: maybe Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the resident design center for the America’s nuclear arsenal, has their people live in these monolithic, sterile clusters in order to make them want to blow up things, too!

Allora! I came in peaceful pursuit, to taste a variety of wines and report back to Sostevinobile’s readers, and so after parking and signing in, I headed into Concannon’s Barrel Room, armed with what has to have been the most extensive tasting guide I have ever been handed (Symposium promoter Jo Diaz claimed this was in direct response to my complaint over the lack of any printed program delineating last year’s tasting). For no better reason than my fondness for his velvet-coated labels, I beelined over to John Monnich’s table to sample the latest releases of his Silkwood Wines 2007 Petite Sirah, a Modesto vintage that is definitely not Gallo.

Normally, the transition from luxury of crushed velvet to the relative mundanity of a Shoe Shine might be deemed a considerable downgrade except when delectating this handcrafted NV Petite Sirah Eaglepoint Ranch from Eric Cohen’s Justice Grace Vineyards. This striking, 400 case debut joined another newcomer to the P.S. I Love You family, Livermore’s own Nottingham Cellars, which previewed it superb pre-bottled 2009 Petite Sirah, a wine with the chromatic intensity of shoe polish and texture of liquid velvet. (After the Symposium, I visited Nottingham’s warehouse operations and found myself equally enthralled with their 2005 Syrah Lodi, a much-welcome 2007 Viognier Livermore Valley and the proprietary 2007 Ralphi’s Blend, a Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot mix).

I’m not sure whether I’d ever had a chance to sample wine from the Ramona Valley AVA previously, but I can only hope San Diego’s Edwards Vineyards and Cellars exemplifies the wine produced there. The 2005 Petite Sirah they poured featured an unusual field blend with 3% Syrah and 1% Chenin Blanc, which contributed to the extraordinary roundness of this wine. Near the northern extreme of California’s viticultural expanse, Clear Lake’s Diamond Ridge brought forth a 2008 Petite Sirah from their estate vineyard, the same grapes Oakland’s JC Cellars contracts for their Petite. Northernmost bragging rights, however, belonged exclusive to Oregon’s lone representative this afternoon, Spangler Vineyards, featuring contrasting vintages with their 2007 Petite Sirah and the much rounder 2008 Petite Sirah.

Another Lake County participant, Guenoc, showed stark contrast between their regular 2008 Petite Sirah and the premium label, the 2006 Langtry Estate Petite Sirah, one of the afternoon’s most striking pours. Meanwhile, my old friends from Lava Cap demonstrated they haven’t totally moved away from Rhône varietals, impressing with their 2007 Petite Sirah and the noteworthy 2006 Petite Sirah Reserve. Another old acquaintance, Napa legend Carl Doumani, ought to have been on hand, but an ATV accident over the weekend placed him on the Injured Reserve List; nonetheless, Quixote, his bold experiment in Napa Valley Petite, continued pushing the envelope for this varietal with their latest bottling, the 2006 Petite Syrah (his spelling).

A number of wineries I have long known, either from last year’s event or from other tastings, had a renewed presence this afternoon in order to showcase their vinification of Petite Sirah among the various wines in their portfolio. My impressions remained favorable for Jazz Cellars’ melodious 2006 Petite Sirah Eaglepoint Ranch Vineyard, Foppiano’s 2006 Estate Petite Sirah (gotta love their pairing suggestions of ricotta ravioli, spicy butternut squash and roasted squab), the mercurial allusion (not temperament) of Cinnabar’s 2007 Clarksburg Petite Sirah, Lodi titans Mettler Family Vineyards 2005 Petite Sirah, a youngish 2008 Petite Sirah that Steve Ryan poured from his Oakstone Winery, and the 2006 Petite Sirah from the still-without-a-website Maley Brothers.

On the other side of the coin, several wineries I had not previously contacted on Sostevinobile’s behalf made strong first impressions. Monterey’s quaintly-named Line Shack scored quite well with their 2008 Petite Sirah San Antonio Valley. Though present in wine only, Yolo County’s Heringer Estate’s 2006 Petite Sirah proved redolent with jamminess, while the gnarliness of Crooked Vines’ label underscored the intensity of its new 2007 Petite Sirah. Grizzly Republic hearkened back the brief but glorious independence of the Bear Flag Republic, with its unfettered 2007 Roadrunner Petite Sirah; with an equally evocative label, Old Creek Ranch juxtaposed its somewhat tepid 2007 Petite Sirah Branham Obsidian Vineyard with the striking complexity of its 2008 Petite Sirah (can’t recall if they enlisted the same vineyard).

My recollections are intact, however, in distinguishing Seven Artisans from Artezin. The former, one of Jeff Miller’s three labels from his Artisan Family of Wines, bottles the 2007 Seven Artisans Petite Sirah as a straight varietal grown in Suisun Valley; the latter, a division of Hess Collection, focuses on the spicy varietals like Zinfandel and Carignane, while blending both Zin and Charbono into its 2007 Petite Sirah Mendocino County. In contrast, its superb 2007 Petite Sirah Garzini Ranch offers a straight expression of the varietal.

Several of the wineries in attendance offered multiple versions of PS, including, to no surprise, host Concannon. Rather than let their grapes be cannibalized into one of the Franzia’s boxes, they showcased four different bottlings of the grape, most notably their 2004 Heritage Petite Sirah. Following that, I was more partial toward the 2006 Reserve Petite Sirah, though both the 2007 Concannon Nina’s Cuvee Petite Sirah and the 2007 Concannon Nina’s Cuvee Captain Joe’s proved quite amiable. Another PS powerhouse, Clarksburg’s Bogle, brought four variations on vinification: the 2009 Petite Sirah Rosé, a rather mundane 2008 Petite Sirah, the far preferable 2007 Petite Sirah Reserve, and a wine to forgive all others, the 2007 Petite Sirah Port.

Had I plotted out this entry better, I would have targeted Trentadue as my 32nd installation, but, alas, I am only up to #26. As he had last year, puckish winemaker Miro Tcholakov brought both the 2007 Trentadue Petite Sirah and the special reserve 2005 La Storia Petite Sirah Alexander Valley Estate, but flourished most under his own label, the 2007 Miro Petite Sirah. Another fabled winemaker, Angwin’s Robert Foley tantalized with a trio of bottlings from his eponymous line: a premature 2007 Petite Sirah Napa, the more fully-fleshed 2006 Petite Sirah Muscle Man, and a most aptly named 2006 Petite Sirah Pepperland. Another of Napa’s highly-esteemed Bobs, Zinfandel guru Robert Biale, offered up his own quartet of superb vintages: the 2008 Petite Sirah Thomann Station, the 2008 Oak Knoll Estate Petite Sirah, the clever anagram of the 2008 Royal Punishers Petite Sirah, and a new Rhône blend (based on a PS backbone), the 2007 Basic Black North Coast.

On the professed sustainable/organic side, it was no surprise to find Parducci on hand with their 2007 True Grit Petite Sirah, a wine blended with 12% Syrah; I did, however, find their straight varietal, the 2007 Petite Sirah Mendocino County preferable. Meanwhile, I caught up with John Aver of San Martin’s Aver Family Vineyards for the second time this summer and found myself gushing over his 2007 Blessings, an organic Petite. Dry Creek Valley’s Pedroncelli, whose declaration of sustainable practices services as a model for Sostevinobile’s requirements, comported themselves admirably with their 2007 Petite Sirah Family Vineyards, and from the highest vineyard in Sonoma, dedicated land stewards and winemaker Gustafson Family Vineyards poured another Dry Creek star, their 2007 Estate Petite Sirah.

I’m often asked why I spent 12 years studying Latin. What is the value in the 21st century? On this day, though, my classical training bore fruit not just once, but twice, first with Foster’s Stags’ Leap Winery, Carl Doumani’s former flagship, whose field-blended Petite Sirah bore the lofty moniker 2007 Ne Cede Malis, a phrase from Virgil (not Horace!) meaning “don’t capitulate to evil.” And after I tried their 2007 Napa Valley Petite Sirah, a wine softened with Syrah, Grenache, Mourvèdre and Carignane, I ambled over to reacquaint myself with John Kinney’s Occasio, a Livermore winery whose name derives from the sententious Publilius Syrus’ maxim, occasio aegre offertur, facile amittitur (opportunity is offered with difficulty, lost with ease). Nothing was lost in his translation of the grape into his wondrous 2008 Petite Sirah Del Arroyo Vineyard, however.

Given Petite Sirah’s prominence as a blending grape, I was rather surprised more wineries didn’t feature a mélange like Michael~David’s 2008 Petite Petit, a wine that marries Petite Sirah with Petit Verdot. Their straight varietal, the 2006 Earthquake Petite Sirah, proved no sloucher, either. I suspect Petite Sirah marriess best with Zinfandel and with its other Rhône varietals, and though I can’t think of a Spanish parallel to the varietal, like Garnacha for Grenache or Monastrelle for Mourvèdre, I know that it melds rather seamlessly in various Iberian blends. As such, I was a bit surprised at the lackluster flavor of T.A.P.A.S. spearhead Twisted Oak’s 2007 Calaveras County Petite Sirah, though, admittedly, it seemed it might open up with aging.

Another given these days is Paso Robles’ affinity for Rhône varietals, so it comes as no surprise that a quartet of wineries from this most expansive AVA made strong showings. Estrella Creek showed an extraordinary 2005 4M Petite Sirah after pouring its featured 2004 vintage. Clavo Cellars came through with a sustainably farmed 2007 Petite Sirah from Catherine’s Vineyard, a wine they choose to pair with a carnivore’s fantasy: pork tenderloin, braised prime rib, roast lamb, roast duck, and pot roast. In turn, Clayhouse championed its striking 2005 Estate Petite Sirah Red Cedar Vineyards, a wine I had enjoyed at the Paso Robles’ Grand Tasting Tour: Mid-Peninsula back in April. And Vina Robles left a strong impression with their delightful 2007 Petite Sirah Jardine.

I had bumped into Kent Rosenblum on my way into this tasting, so it seemed only fit that I should finish off this portion of the afternoon with a taste of the 2008 Petite Sirah Mendocino County from his Rock Wall Wines. Or was it the 2008 Petite Sirah Dry Creek Valley? Once again, my notetaking was not as scrupulous as it ought be, but the wine was splendid, and I knew I’d be seeing them again on the upcoming Saturday at the 5th Annual Urban Wine Xperience in Oakland (the topic of my ensuing blog entry).

The sheer volume of wineries cited here attests to the popularity of, and potential, for Petite Sirah on the West Coast. But is it really the next Zinfandel, as a recent article claims it portend to become? From my standpoint, P.S. I Love You would need to become more of an external advocacy, rather than an industry affinity group, to make sufficient headway along these lines. And that still overlooks the reality that the grape does not express itself with as much Zinfandel is capable of doing—an oversimplification I know, but pretty much every wine this afternoon fell within the chalky vs. spicy dichotomy. Nonetheless, it’s still an intriguing grape, fraught with potential.

Finally, I can’t quite bring myself to call this wine “Pet” or “Pet S,” as some have take to in their literature. That’s not quite so bad as “Vindependence,” but still. At 2009’s Symposium, I thought there was considerable momentum to return this grape to its original nomenclature, Durif, primarily to distinguish it verbally from Syrah, the grape that, along with Peloursin, accounts for its lineage. This year, I don’t think I heard “Durif’ even in passing. As we might say in Latin, inusitatissimus!

Let them make grappa!

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When last seen in these parts, Your West Coast Oenophile was bandying about Napa like a royal with his head cut off while indulging in the various excesses of Bastille Day celebrations. My return, a week later, for the far more subdued Organic Winegrowers Conference not only proved highly informative but gave cause to reevaluate my casual reiteration of the apocryphal line so often attributed to Marie Antoinette. Instead of “let them eat cake,” perhaps the rallying cry ought to be “qu’ils fassent le marc!”*

More on this exhortation a bit later. For now, I was a bit chagrined that, though more than a quarter-century before I began developing Sostevinobile, Frog’s Leap Winery had played a major part in precipitating my professional wine career, I had yet to visit their winery until they hosted this conference. Tucked away on Rutherford’s Conn Creek Road, the rustic exterior belies one of the more sophisticated organic operations in the Valley. Even an untrained eye can easily recognize the amazing biodiversity with which vineyard owner John Williams has purposefully crafted his property, a balance of flora and fauna, along with dedicated sustainable practices throughout their buildings and business practices. The balance between vineyard and orchards, cover crops and pollinated flowers, poultry and fodder was as striking as it was educational in how to manage a farm as a holistic system.

Organic farming holds a lot of connotations, primarily for its preservation of the flavor and nutrition of the food it provides—a restoration of the elements conventional, chemical-driven farming leeches out. Beyond its benefits to human (or animal) consumption, organic farming focuses on the health of the land and its environs, water, air, and soil. Still, in and of itself, organic cannot supply a complete solution (I’ve noted before in this blog that theoretically, one can implement strict organic standards yet not be sustainable); rather, the need exists to move towards what was termed organic plus, a clarion call Dave Henson of the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center sounded in his keynote Organic Agriculture: For Human and Environmental Health, for Mitigating Climate Change, and to Refresh the Culture of Agriculture.

Henson argued passionately for organic farming to encompass the Three Es of sustainable farming: Economy, Ecology, and Social Equity, while noting that these practice must not simply focus on the present but take into account the ramifications for seven generations and beyond. “These solutions must be regenerative,” he summarized.

As would many of the presenters, Henson argued for the need to “look beyond the crop and see the whole system” of a vineyard, underscoring the vital part biodiversity of an agricultural tract plays in maintaining the balance of the entire ecosystem. He also warned against oversimplification of formulae, noting, for example, that the carbon expenditure from shipping along the 1,000 nautical mile stretch from Vancouver to Tijuana would be far less than transporting the same freight, via tractor-trailer, over the 200 mile haul over the Sierras (another central tenet of Sostevinobile’s parameters for the sustainability of our West Coast-exclusive wine program).

Henson’s free-form discourse was followed by a more didactic yet highly informative lecture by Ellen Ingham of Soil Foodweb. This Corvallis-based consultancy constructs organic remedies for the restoration of mismanaged soil. As Ingham pointed out, even organically farmed fields can create an imbalance that negatively impacts both crops and the ecosystem, notably through soil compaction that inhibits both the downward growth of roots and the seepage of nutrients vital to the living microorganisms that sustain a healthy soil. Practices such as organic weed eradication at the point of germination (rather than tilling the infestation, which contributes to soil compaction) and the balanced introduction of aerobically produced compost and compost tea can ameliorate much of these problems and enable the natural nutrients within the earth to sustain the vines. Consequently, according to Ingham, grapes can achieve their true flavor potential without inducing stress, as is commonly practices, and reach their zenith at a lower Brix, thereby allowing a lower alcohol level than is generally promoted here in California.

The Napa County Viticultural Farm Advisor for UC-Davis, Monica Cooper, followed with an entomologist’s perspective on organic approaches to pest management. Not being an active vineyardist, I admit the challenge to paying rapt attention to her presentation; nonetheless, the vital need to eradicate the infestation of Lobesia botrana, the European Grapevine Moth now plaguing Napa, concerns all true œnophiles. Cooper outlined a number of alternative defenses, including the introduction of predatory mites that can disrupt the larval and pupal development of this pest, and compared assays of the efficacy of both chemical and organic pesticides specific to this species, including their impact on other insects beneficial to the health of the vineyard. One promising methodology she described confusing the female moth’s mating attempts with pheromonal mimics of fertile males, in effect flooding the tract with the illusion of so many eligible suitors, the female becomes confused to be point of being incapable of reproduction (here in San Francisco, a sociological model of the same has long been in effect).

The dour news of this conference came with the announcement that the infestation of Lobesia botrana now compelled the imposition of mandatory moth control. Napa County agricultural commissioner Dave Whitmer seemed almost apologetic in making this announcement and promised enforcement that was as minimally invasive as could be sustained. While precluding the deployment of sheriff’s deputies to enforce compliance, he expressed faith that wineries and grapegrowers recognize the steps necessary to eradicate this blight remain in their best interest. Among the measures he cited, effective composting stands to be especially important, with enough aeration and saturation of heated water to kill the invaders, as he wistfully noted, “I know that this will also kill beneficial organisms, and I’m sorry about that.”

Following a brief break, Steve Matthiasson from Premiere Viticultural Services moderated a panel on the Practices and Costs of organic grape farming. Despite heralding from the same alma mater as Richard Nixon, Matthiasson’s service promotes an honest, transparent approach to viticulture: Better Grapes = Better Wine = Better Returns, a belief that was echoed repeatedly by panelists Ted Hall (Long Meadow Ranch), Patrick Riggs (Jack Neal & Son Vineyard Management), and Kirk Grace (Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars). Each of these presenters emphatically averred that their commitment to organic practices stemmed not from philosophical dogma but pragmatic realization that this methodology ultimately yields higher quality grapes at lower cost. Hall’s observation that the life cycle of an organic vineyard extends at least twice as long as one that is famed conventionally seemed particularly salient in calculating the economics of the competing practices.

All in all, there seemed little room to quarrel that adoption of the various practices outlined this afternoon portended not only to be economically prudent but offered far-reaching solutions not just to the quality of the wine grown and produced in the Napa AVA but to the industry’s impact on the overall quality of the environment. Of course, the ultimate proof lies within the quality of the wines themselves, and, as such, a tasting of twelve of Napa‘s most prominent organic producers seemed an appropriate dénouement to the conference presentations. 

I did not make an attempt to ascertain whether the wines being poured were fully organic or simply wines made from organically grown grapes, a nuance that has little bearing on this review. All in all, the wines I sampled displayed uniformly high quality, with a couple of vintages that warranted particular attention. As such, all fell well within the preliminary parameters Sostevinobile has established for our wine program, so I intend merely to cite each, with delineation only for the pair of truly extraordinary vintages I discovered.

The heat of the late afternoon drove me first to Ehlers Estate for a sampling of their chilled 2009 Sauvignon Blanc. I followed this engaging wine with the 2009 Sauvignon Blanc Napa Valley from Honig Vineyard & Winery I had sampled at the recent Mill Valley tasting. A welcome contrast to these two wines came from the 2009 Estate Bottled White Riesling Mayeri Vineyard Hagafen Cellars poured (kosher though this wine may have been, Manischewitz it was not).

After Ted Hall’s presentation I was eager both to speak with him and to sample the 2008 Sauvignon Blanc from his Long Meadow Ranch Winery. I did partake of this wine a couple of times, but failed to connect with Ted, though reengaging his delightful assistant Megan Skupny seemed more than compensatory. Alas, I don’t receive compensation for authoring this blog, but intermittently I enjoy the pleasures of a perk: passes to an industry event, some samples of wine, or simply the graciousness of an individual’s hospitality. Having received an invitation to lunch on my iPhone while covering the conference, it was a marvelous coincidence to encounter my prospective hostess, Herta Peju pouring her own 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley and 2008 Sauvignon Blanc Napa Valley.

I hadn’t encountered Oakville Ranch before, though their label seemed fairly reminiscent of 365, the house organic label Whole Foods sponsors. Their 2005 Napa Valley Robert’s Blend, a Cabernet Franc, however, tasted anything but ordinary. And I suppose the rather bland façade of its building had discouraged me in the past from visiting the generically-named Napa Wine Company, a custom crush facility I now recognize as home to numerous of the Valley’s elite brands, as well as their own label, under which they produced a superb 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon Yount Mill Vineyards (the Pelissa family’s holdings of 635 organically-famed acres in Yountville and Oakville AVAs).

Now I have tried Spottswoode’s storied Cabernets on enough occasions to get the spelling of their name correct on first pass, but this afternoon was my introduction to their 2009 Sauvignon Blanc, as well as their second label, the 2007 Lyndenhurst Cabernet Sauvignon. I was also delighted to have a chance to taste the 2006 Cask Cabernet from Rubicon Estate, a much-heralded wine I had missed at last week’s A Day in the Dust. Similarly, this previous tasting had not included host Frog’s Leap’s 2008 Sauvignon Blanc nor their rich 2007 Zinfandel, both welcome additions to my tasting notes.

I’ve often cited the scarcity of Pinot on this side of the Napa-Sonoma line, the cross-county Carneros AVA being the exception. ZD Wines fully exploits this potential with both their 2008 Pinot Noir Carneros and the truly superb 2008 Founder’s Reserve Pinot Noir. Meanwhile, rounding out the afternoon’s selections, Rocca Family Vineyards first impressed me with both their 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon and their 2006 Syrah, but flat-out wowed me with their proprietary 2007 Bad Boy, a Meritage composed of 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Cabernet Franc, 17% Merlot, and 10% Petit Verdot.

Although the conference resumed on the following day, I drew my visit to a close at this point. The remaining symposia covered far more of the finer points of organic wine growing, but I had already absorbed the gist of this event. Obviously, the pivotal role Napa plays will resonate throughout the entire West Coast wine industry as it inexorably moves toward a complete organic standard for its grapes, a situation neither I nor anyone involved in wine during the 1980s could have ever envisioned. Surely, there remains a great deal of fine-tuning before the most efficient organic practices can be standardized, and while the initial costs of converting from conventional farming will still take a slight toll, the overall benefits of this methodology, both economic and environmental, cannot be denied.

Moreover, organic farming underscores the need to consider not only the ramifications for owns own crop or vineyard, but the overall responsibility one shares with the entire region and ecosystem. As Ellen Ingham pointed out, an increase of just 2% of the organic composition of the soils in our state would entirely mitigate carbon pollution in California. And there are even ingenious solutions to situations that strictly organic practices might not be able to address on their own

In the midst of his remarks, Dave Whitmer noted that over breeding grounds green waste provides for the European Grapevine Moth.green waste of all types is of great concern. Though alcohol in the pomace from fermented red grapes remains lethal to the infantile stages of this pest, the pre-fermented pomace from white and rosé winemaking and all leaves, stems andother waste remains a potent carrier that can spread the infestation. Sostevinobile, of course, sees great opportunity in this situation. “If unfermented pomace is a problem,” I told him. “Che facciano la grappa!”
Actually, I said “Let them make grappa.” It just that expressions always sound better in Italian than in English. *Or than in French.

Lust in the Dust (or Let Them Eat Cake)

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Between an initial stint with the wine industry throughout most of the 1980s and founding Sostevinobile a couple of years ago, Your West Coast Oenophile spent what should have been the most productive years of his professional life tiptoeing through the minefields of commercial advertising. Suffice it to say that I’ve experienced more decency and humanity in just twenty minutes working with winery folks as I have in over twenty years enduring the latter-day Mad Men of San Francisco. Not that I’d ever go Ted Kaczynski on the various malefactors (perceived or real) I have endured, but I do often indulge myself in fantasizing over serving up some just desserts.

The torpid economy in which we continue to languish has compelled nearly every food and drink purveyor I know to offer some form of a Happy Hour to entice a financially struggling clientele to fill their seats. Ever the contrarian, I am proposing to hold Misery Hour at Sostevinobile, where people gainfully employed in the ignoble sciences (investment banking, corporate law, brokerage, and, of course, advertising) would be charged double regular prices from 5-7 PM. Or maybe charge them regular prices, but serve a 2½ oz. pour instead of the customary 5 oz.—quite the apt metaphor for how it feels to be offered a freelancing assignment instead of a full-time gig.

Obviously, I realize that actually holding Misery Hour will only succeed in guaranteeing empty bar stools at Sostevinobile. My point in spinning this little snippet of self-indulgence is to note that, clever as it may sound, Misery Hour stands as much chance of happening as does encountering a bad professional wine tasting in the Napa Valley.

The latest validation of this contention took place this past Wednesday at the reconfigured Rubicon Estate, which Francis Ford Coppola has transformed from the previously named Niebaum-Coppola Estate Winery to a deluxe showcase for his movie memorabilia, as well as his most prestigious wines. 36 member wineries of the Rutherford Dust Society gathered in the Historic Barrel Room at the Grand Estate to celebrate A Day in the Dust, a trade tasting of the 2007 Cabernet Sauvignons and other Bordelaise-style wines from Napa’s Rutherford AVA. A more fitting way to celebrate Bastille Day, I could not imagine (apart from guillotining a handful of Creative Directors whose names I need not mention).

I hadn’t been to the winery since its transformation, and it took a couple of drive-bys before I located it vastly understated gateway (in contrast, Niebaum-Coppola’s frontage had stood as an unmistakable landmark on Highway 29). Of course, preceding stops at Razi, Luna, and Silverado Trail Wine Studio may have contributed to the slight diminution of my homing skills, but I prefer to lay the blame on my ever-errant GPS.

After catching up with noted wine essayist Gerald Asher and greeting old familiars like Shari Staglin and Paul Rogers, whose Balzac Communications had invited me to the tasting, I affixed my name tag, gathered the program and wine glass, then thrust myself into the cavernous, heat-laden, upper-level chamber of the monumental Château Gustav Niebaum commissioned in 1880. An inner ring of tables featured the handful of Sauvignon Blancs several of the wineries had included, while the outer configuration contained their red wine samples. Logic dictated that I taste in the same manner, sampling the smaller array of white wines first.

First, I meandered over to find the table for Meander, my first contact with this winery, which could have won me over simply with the name for its Sauvignon Blanc, the 2009 Conspire (but the wine itself proved even more compelling). Next, I zipped over to the station where 94574 Wine poured its debut 2009 Sauvignon Blanc, a stark yet compelling expression that showed little of the grapefruit or grassy tones I find can mar the varietal.
I made a note to myself to circle back to the tables for Alpha Omega and for Fleury Estate, wineries I have sampled on several other occasions, then rounded the corner to try the 2009 Rutherford Sauvignon Blanc Round Pond was pouring at its white table. Next to them, Rutherford Grove poured a superb 2009 Pestoni Estate Sauvignon Blanc, while Lieff opted to share their 2009 Rutherford Crossroad Sauvignon Blanc.

I’d tried the 2009 Rutherford Sauvignon Blanc from Long Meadow Ranch at their Farmstead Restaurant recently but was pleased to resample it in this different setting. Nor did a different venue affect my favorable impression of the newly-released 2009 Fumé Blanc Rutherford from John Robert Eppler, a frequent denizen of the tastings at Rock Wall I have chronicled here. On the other hand, having recently tasted both of Honig’s Sauvignon Blanc, I decided to forgo a reevaluation and wait for their red table pours.

Perhaps I should have skipped the grapefruity 2009 Rutherford Estate Sauvignon Blanc Sawyer Cellars poured, but having espied this winery along Highway 29 for several years now, my curiosity got the better of me. I overcame my disappointment with their silky 2007 Rutherford Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, however. First, however, I introduced myself to the Raudabaughs of 12C Wines and sampled their lush 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Georges III, a single varietal boutique producer.

I had hoped that D. R. Stephens would be pouring the 2007 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Moose Valley Vineyard that succeeded the extraordinary 2006 vintage of the same that had wowed the crowd at Acme’s Pulse Tasting a few weeks back, but had no complaints at settling for their 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Walther River Block. And while almost any of Larry Piña’s wines would have suited the occasion, I was delighted with his 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Firehouse Vineyard. equally impressive was the 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Bosché Vineyard that Freemark Abbey, my late friend Jim Warren’s former winery, poured alongside their 2006 Petite Sirah Wood Ranch.

Another friend who is very much alive and running his own winery, John Williams, featured a trio of wines from his pioneering organic winery, Frog’s Leap: the 2007 Petite Sirah, an impressive 2007 Merlot Rutherford, and the 2007 Rutherford, a proprietary Cabernet Sauvignon with a generous dollop of Cabernet Franc. Also on hand, fellow Bay Club member Greg Martin served up a trio of his Martin Estate vintages: the 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Bacchanal, the exceptional 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, and a new release—the 2008 Cabernet Rosé.

Despite my frequent trips to Napa, a number of the wineries on hand had escaped my awareness. Nonetheless, Monticello Vineyards greatly impressed me with their 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Tietjen Vineyards, as did McG Cellars with both the 2007 Scarlett Cabernet Sauvignon and their yet-to-be released 2007 Scarlett Cabernet Reserve. One of Corley Family’s prestigious labels, Monticello Vineyards, upheld the Jeffersonian wine tradition with their 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Tietjen Vineyard. Of course, the name Pedemonte Cellars begs a Sangiovese and, indeed, their Adagio is a Sangiovese/Syrah/Cabernet Sauvignon blend, but on this afternoon, they only featured their noteworthy 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Rutherford, followed by its superior successor, the 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon.

Speaking of Sangiovese, I may have finally wrangled a taste of the elusive 2008 Stagliano Estate Sangiovese Staglin Family Vineyards produces. For the time being, though, I had to “settle” for the pleasure of their 2008 Salus Estate Chardonnay, as well as the equally seductive 2006 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon and the 2007 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon. And though some may consider it bad form to show up your guests, host Rubicon Estate clearly affirmed the profound depth of its œnological mastery with its flagship 2007 Rubicon, an organically-grown Meritage.

I was a bit surprised that more wineries did not feature a Meritage but focused instead on straight varietals. Agustin Huneeus’ Quintessa, however, blends eight different estate lots of Cabernet Sauvignon with their Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Carménère, richly exemplified by their soon-to-be released 2007 Quintessa, plus a preview from the 2008 barrel sample. Another surprising absence was the paucity of Zinfandel being poured, though Julie Johnson’s Tres Sabores did more than make up for this omission with its organically grown 2007 Estate Zinfandel and its exceptional counterpoint, the 2006 Rutherford Perspective Cabernet Sauvignon.

I like allusions—great fodder for the myriad digressions that frequent readers know populate this blog. Though William Harrison Winery bears as much connection to the 9th President of the United States as John Tyler Wines has with his successor, their wines proved to be far hardier than Old Tippecanoe, who lasted but a month in office. Their exemplary 2007 Cabernet Franc Rutherford and the 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Rutherford were complemented by the artfully blended 2006 Estate Rutherford Red, a subtle mélange of 54% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Cabernet Franc, 8% Malbec, and 8% Merlot. And if only Slaughterhouse Cellars would blend a full quintet of Bordeaux varietals and call it Slaughterhouse-Five! Still, I was immensely please to discover both their 2007 Cabernet Franc Rutherford and the truly well-crafted 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Rutherford.

Circling back to revisit wineries who had poured Sauvignon Blanc, I was a bit surprised that I preferred Lieff’s 2006 Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon to their 2007 vintage, but the test of time will tell which will prove the more striking long-term. Meander’s 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Morisoli Vineyard may not have as mischievous a moniker as its Sauv Blanc but tasted equally delightful. Also in harmony with its white confrère, Round Pond’s 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon lived up to its advanced billing, while Honig showed itself quite adept on the red side with its 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Campbell Vineyard.

Hewitt Vineyard is an autonomous label produced by Provenance, which had separately poured its 2009 Sauvignon Blanc Rutherford; Hewitt’s single vineyard effort, the 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Rutherford, certainly validated the limits of this focus. Provenance and Hewitt are two of the better labels within Diageo’s vast portfolio, as is one of Napa’s crown jewels, Beaulieu Vineyards. To the perplexity of most attendees, A Day in the Dust, though scheduled until 5 PM, suddenly announced it was ceasing to pour at 4:30, which meant several of the wineries began folding their table shortly after 4. BV had quit before I had a chance to circle back to their table, meaning I missed out on the 2007 Georges de Latour Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon and their ubiquitous other Cabs, but a bit of legerdemain rewarded me with a taste of the 2000 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve Clone 6, an exceptional rarity.

The abrupt end to the affair also meant I missed out on familiar labels like El Molino, Sullivan Vineyards, Trinchero Napa Valley, Riboli Family (not certain whether they manned a table, despite the program listing), and, most regrettably, Heitz Cellars. I did manage to sample Flora Springs’ 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Rutherford Hillside Reserve before they closed, as well as a pair of wines from Peju Province, the 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Rutherford Reserve and an intriguing, almost sweet 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon H. B. Vineyard my tasting notes describe as “candy.” Not sure whether Peju will appreciate that attribution or ask for my head when they read this.

Given A Day in the Dust took place on Bastille Day, I needed a contrived segue to bring this entry to a close, but not before commenting on my final stop en route back to San Francisco. My fellow scribe Liza Zimmerman apprised me of the French national celebration to which Clos du Val had invited the wine press, so donning my proverbial blogger’s beret, I followed her down Silverado Trail and joined the grande fête. Somehow, in between the repeated rounds of shucked oysters from the justly celebrated Hog Island Farm, I managed to sample their proprietary Sémillon-Chardonnay blend, the 2008 Ariadne (Ἀριάδνη was the wife of Poseidon who abetted Theseus in his quest to kill the Minotaur, her association with wine an elusive part of classical mythology), the 2007 Carneros Pinot Noir, and a pull-out-all-the-stops selection from their library of Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignons, notably the 1974, 1979, 1987 and 1999 vintages. The last two, while not initially regarded as notable vintages, showed remarkable finesse with aging.

Clos du Val’s ostensible purpose in inviting the press to this event was to launch their latest promotional effort, which they have dubbed Vindependence. As appreciative as I am of their wines and of their generous hospitality, I cannot help but revert to my advertising past and critique the ineptitude of this campaign. As my fellow Dartmouth alum and Italian Long Island refugee Michael Corleone ruefully notes in Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather III, “every time I try to get out, they pull me back in.”
It isn’t so much the jejune satire of their Declaration of Vindependence, nor the logical and thematic inconsistencies of muddling French and American traditions, nor the obvious irony that Clos du Val’s 1972 Cabernet Sauvignon was one of the wines that helped upend the French hegemony over the California wine industry in the storied 1976 Judgment of Paris Tasting (note the revisited rankings from 1986), that dilutes, rather than promotes, their brand perception. Rather, it is the deployment of such an aberrant neologism—not the inadvertent malapropism of George Bush’s “misunderestimated” or Sarah Palin’s “refudiated” but the echoes of DSW’s Sandalicious! or the utterly wretched Olive Garden’s Freshissimo that make this contrivance so off-putting.
Believe me, Sostevinobile knows a thing or two about skillfully forging a portmanteau. And, despite this critique, I have nothing but appreciation for the excellence of Clos du Val’s viticulture—and their hospitality. And so I will simply suggest that, like the late Marie Antoinette (who never did say “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche”)‚ Vindependence could benefit from a little trimming at the top.

Saved by Charbono

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I used to think that this was Larry Ellison’s world and that the rest of us only lived in it. Perhaps, but recently I’ve begun to wonder whether it’s not Tyler Florence’s world, as well. This celebrity chef and star from the Food Network not only has his own iPhone app, but seems to be taking over the entire Northern California food scene since his relocation here in 2008 and opening his eponymous food and cookware shop. Recently, he opened Wayfare Tavern in the space where Robin Williams, Robert DeNiro, Francis Ford Coppola and restaurateur Drew Nieporent had owned Rubicon. Sostevinobile feels a kindred bond with this new restaurant for its singular devotion to its California-only wine list, a philosophical consistency with its dedication to locally-sourced cuisine and ingredients.

Coincidentally, Your West Coast Oenophile stumbled upon this new venue the day after attending the 29th Annual Wine & Gourmet Food Tasting in Mill Valley. Among the numerous food purveyors, which included tents from standout local restaurants Balboa Café, Bungalow 44, Piatti, Piazza D’Angelo, and Small Shed Flatbreads, the Tyler Florence Shop held central court sampling selections of CC Made caramels, Golden Star Tea’s sparkling teas, “healthy granola” from San Franola, and an array of oils from The Smoked Olive. 

But meatballs and sliders and pizza and cupcakes and ice cream, etc., weren’t the reason I had pedaled across the Golden Gate Bridge. Given the major treks I had documented from the previous two weekends, the ride to Mill Valley was a relative sprint, and, after rendezvousing with my inveterate verbal jousting partner Terry Graham outside the Mill Valley Middle School, rolled into Depot Plaza, barely breaking a sweat. Wristbands affixed and tasting glasses in hand, we set about to take in as many of the 70 wineries on hand as could be squeezed into a three hour window.

I had been apprised of this event while reviewing Tor Kenward’s website as I composed my review of the Taste of Howell Mountain that proceed this entry. Having missed his various 2007 Cabernet Sauvignons, I beelined to his table, only to discover that his distributor, Nurit Robitschek of Discoveries in Wine had elected only to bring his nonetheless excellent 2008 Chardonnay Durell Vineyard and the hitherto unheralded 2007 Grenache Judge Family Vineyard, Hommage Allan. To no surprise, the table next to Tor’s was manned by the indubitable Truchards, a welcome constant at every wine tasting I attend (I had expected them to be pouring at Pinot Days, but if anyone were capable of bilocation, it would probably be Joanne and Tony). As per usual, the 2006 Cabernet Franc I sampled proved yet another découverte grande.

Jan Shrem appeared at neither of the day’s tastings, but I wish he had been on hand to pour his Clos Pégase. Nevertheless, the rep from Wilson Daniels served up the 2008 Chardonnay Mitsuko’s Vineyard quite professionally, along with an enticing 2007 Chardonnay from Sonoma Coast Vineyards, and Girard’s refreshing 2009 Girard Sauvignon Blanc Napa Valley and their premature 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa County. At the next table, I reacquainted myself with White Rock Vineyard and met owner Henri Vandendriessche while sampling his 2007 Napa Valley Chardonnay.

I’d sampled wines from Balletto Vineyards on several occasions at the Monday night wine tastings at California Wine Merchant, but not had the opportunity to interact with them directly before this gathering. Amid exchanging pleasantries, I enjoyed their approachable 2007 Zinfandel but savored both the 2007 Estate Chardonnay and the 2009 Rosé of Pinot Noir. Sharing the same table, Bennett Valley’s Baldassari Family Wines poured both wines they produce, the 2007 Syrah Nolan Vineyard and the clearly preferable 2007 Syrah Jemrose Vineyard.

As is often the case with outdoor summer tastings, the afternoon heat often makes keeping wine at a desirable temperature a daunting exercise. Sampling an iced-down wine or semi-cooked red gives no true indication of the wine’s quality, although, at times, a clearly superior wine will manifest a redolence of its potential. Such was the case with Crinella Winery, whose superb 2006 Sauvignon Blanc Marino Vineyard rose above the elements; on the other hand, getting a handle on their 2005 Pinot Noir proved far too elusive. The same could be said for Buttonwood Farm, a whimsical, sustainably-farmed winery out of Solvang (not to be confused with Buttonwood Farm in Griswold, CT, an ice cream enterprise which may have recorded the worst jingle in human history), scoring high marks for its 2007 Cabernet Franc, despite the heat, but pouring a 2009 Syrah Rosé that was impossible to evaluate fairly.

Given that this tasting wasn’t a major industry event (not to mention that it was competing with one less than 10 miles away), it was particularly heartening to discover so many boutique producers and other wineries that had yet to register on Sostevinobile’s radar. Ray Coursen makes an array of varietal wines and quixotic blends at his Elyse Winery and under its premium Jacob Franklin label (Charbono!). I opted to try his striking red and white Rhône mixes sourced from Naggiar Vineyards: the 2006 C’est Si Bon (Grenache, Mourvèdre, Syrah, Cinsault, Counoise, and Viognier) and the 2007 L’Ingénue (Roussanne, Marsanne, Viognier and Grenache Blanc).Another Francophone, LeVois Vineyards from Sonoma’s Bradford Mountain made a striking first impression with both their 2007 Zinfandel and their 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon.

Limerick Lane, self-styled sole source of the floral Furmint found in the U.S., had been scheduled to pour this afternoon; in its stead, I encountered the alliterative juxtaposition of Lewelling Vineyards, Lewis Cellars, and Lucas & Lewellen Vineyards. Starting with Lucas & Lewellen, a winery highly focused on Italian varietals, I relished both their off-dry 2009 Mandolina Malvasia Bianca and the complex 2007 Mandolina Toccata, an atypical Super Tuscan blend of Sangiovese and Freisa with Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Merlot. By comparison, Lewis Cellars appeared a bit more conservative, pouring a muscular 2007 Syrah Napa Valley alongside their more tame 2009 Vin Gris, a rosé of Syrah. And Lewelling remained true to its St. Helena roots, with a 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon and a newly released 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon showing strong intimations of future complexity.

My next four stops covered wineries with which I have long been acquainted. Sonoma’s MacRostie Winery, the crown jewel of 8th Street East, garners most of its press for its Chardonnays, but I elected to bypass these selections for the 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley, a most fortuitous choice. Honig, a Rutherford winery that originally operated a mere two blocks away in Pacific Heights, cuts its viticultural teeth with Sauvignon Blanc, and still makes this wine its forte, as the 2008 Sauvignon Blanc Rutherford abundantly displayed; I found its red brethren, the 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon, equally appealing. Silverado Trail’s esteemed Signorello Estate held its own with their 2006 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, and, frankly, the 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley from Frank Family Vineyard tasted on par with its best vintages.

While this year’s tasting featured a number of wineries from Italy, France, Spain—three of the past four Wold Cup Champions—and New Zealand, I bypassed these tables, in keeping with Sostevinobile’s parameters. I also skipped several of the wine distributors on hand, having sampled their clients’ wines on numerous occasions. I did, however, stop by the table for Northwest Wines in order to partake of Owen Roe. This unique winery, based in Oregon but encompassing Washington vineyards as well, blends a mind-boggling 24% Zinfandel, 22% Sangiovese, 15% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Syrah, 10% Merlot, 7%, Cabernet Franc, 6% Blaufränkish, and 4% Malbec to craft its fine 2008 Abbott’s Table. Closer to home, Odisea Wine Company in Danville offered its own idiosyncratic mélange, the wonderfully named 2006 Veritable Quandary, a Spanish-Rhône blend of 40% Verdelho, 25% Roussanne, 20% Marsanne, and 15% Viognier. As if to compensate for this non-traditional mix, they also presented a straightforward 2009 Grenache Blanc, a stellar wine.

I noted in my previous entry a certain remorse at having opted to skip the Grand Tasting for Pinot Days in committing to this festival. Fortunately, Paul Mathew Winery elected to do likewise and so validated my decision with two superb interpretations of this varietal, the 2007 Ruxton Vineyard Pinot Noir and the 2007 TnT Vineyard Pinot Noir. Promoters of the Marin tasting pointed extolled the return appearance of Pride Mountain, which lived up to this advanced billing both with its well-balanced 2009 Viognier and a standout 2007 Pride Merlot.

True wine connoisseurs know you shouldn’t judge a wine by its label, even though somewhere in the order of 90% of all wine sales are predicated by how buyer responds visually to the label (how well I remember debating Louis P. Martini back in the 1980s on the merits of his then-antiquated label)! My visceral, albeit initial response Speedy Creek Winery’s labels was rather dismissive, but then I sampled their trio of extremely satisfying wines: the 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Knights Valley, the 2007 Zinfandel KnightsValley, and their particularly appealing 2006 Sangiovese. No such dilemma influenced my perception of Robert Rue Vineyard, which matched the bold wines they poured: the 2007 Wood Road Reserve Zinfandel and the even more compelling 2006 Wood Road Reserve Zinfandel with an unambiguous label (however, if they ever try to come out with a Bob Street second label)…

The Mill Valley Wine & Gourmet Food Tasting boasted over 70 wineries in attendance, and had there been more time, I might have sampled each of the ventures not mentioned here that Sostevinobile has covered at numerous other events. For what is essentially a celebration of wine and food (as opposed to an industry promotion), I was astounded at both the quality and the breadth of the participants that the festival promoters and the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce were able to draw. Truly, this was no small town affair.

I finished the afternoon with a winery that I had somehow missed, despite its position right next to my first stop of the afternoon. Hiding behind a pair of overpriced sunglasses, Summer Estate Wines volunteer pourer Susan Hopp appeared incognito, until I read her name tag.Now, back in the days before I fully appreciated my own predilection for miscegenation, Susan was not quite a friend, not even a paramour, but someone with whom I had shared a bond that ought to have sprung certain feelings of amity at this re-encounter. Ah, but for a lingering acerbity I struggle to comprehend!

I found I very much admired Summer Estate’s unoaked 2008 La Nude Chardonnay and their exceptional 2006 Andriana’s Cuvee Cabernet Sauvignon, but was perfectly willing to allow my visceral reaction to this overt snub to leave me hopping mad and willing to dismiss the winery outright (after all, with over 2,100 wineries now on Sostevinobile’s roster, overlooking one Chard and one Cab isn’t going to alter our wine program to any measurable degree). But the cycle back to San Francisco mitigated much of the perceived affront, and my Internet investigation revealed the pivotal position Summer Estate and its owners, Jim and Beth Summers, play in establishing Charbono as a significant California varietal. I plan to visit on my next swing through Calistoga.

Shortly after Susan had relocated from Michigan to San Francisco, I was quite bemused to hear her chastise me for purchasing a Toyota instead of a Detroit-made car—while she was driving a BMW 320i! Now that she is earning an MBA Studies in Sustainable Management at the Presidio Graduate School, I hope she will be enabled to make more consistent critical discernment. After all, Sostevinobile strives to embrace all the genuine advocates for sustainability we can find.

A seat at the bar will be waiting…

P(in)otpourri!

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Confession: I glossed over a few stops in my last entry. I don’t know why. It just seemed easier to wedge them into here.

I had tried to devote a full day to a swing through Sonoma, but The Fates seem to conspire against me. The ultimate goal of finishing my visit by attending the Mendocino County Grape Growers Showcase in Santa Rosa remained constant, but scheduling visits throughout Sebastopol proved rather elusive, and then the intrusion of a slew of non-wine related matters delayed my departure for nearly two hours. Nonetheless, Your West Coast Oenophile did mange to keep an appointment with tiny Sheldon Wines, a dedicated artisanal winery whose tasting room occupies a remodeled railroad car near the Sebastopol Inn.

Winemaker Dylan Sheldon is a purist, who crafts his small lot wines with extreme fidelity to the origins of the varietal and its historical vinification. Witness (or, in my case, sample) his 2008 Viognier Sonoma Coast, Single Barrel Production. Unfiltered and unrefined, this flavor of the grape shines with little adornment or manipulation, a genuine expression of Viognier. Similar veracity can be found in his 2006 Chardonnay Santa Lucia Vineyard, the 2007 Graciano Super Freak and his 2006 Grenache, Santa Ynez Valley. Sheldon’s most “manipulated” wine was his 2005 Vinolocity, a blend of Grenache and Syrah, while the 2006 Petite Sirah Ripken Vineyard was an intensified, 100% expression of this varietal. All in all, a highly personal tasting I was glad to discover.

I had hoped to make short shrift of the drive to Santa Rosa; allora, it was anything but. My iPhone’s GPS mapped out a direct route from Sebastopol but pinpointed the Fountaingrove Golf Club nearly ½ mile from its actual location, along a rolling parkway that wound through the city without any conspicuous number signs to demarcate the unfamiliar terrain. Finally espying a motorcyclist who knew the precise location of this secluded complex, I encountered a veritable maze trying to decipher the layout of the grounds, which seemed intentionally designed to perplex any first-time visitor. Naturally, by the time located the correct building and parked, the 1½ hours I had allotted for the event had dwindled to a scant 25 minutes.

I might have had a full half-hour to network, but finding the reception room in the club’s main building proved one more challenge. After all that, you would think I’d at least have won the raffle for 5 tons of grapes, though, admittedly, I am far from ready to bottle my first vintage under the Sostevinobile label! Still, there was quite a bit of wine left to sample and several growers to meet among those who had not packed up early and headed back to Ukiah. Lisa Sutton of Bells Echo Vineyards could have easily beguiled me without pouring her wine, but I was nonetheless impressed with both the 2006 Syrah and the 2006 Interlude, their premium Syrah—both inaugural releases.

Nearby, the next wave of biodynamic farming was ably represented by fourth-generation vineyardist Heath Dolan of Dark Horse Ranch. Showcasing wineries that source his meticulously-tended grapes, Heath poured the complex 2007 Truett•Hurst|Dark Horse GPS, a GMS blend with Petite Sirah added to the mix, and the 2007 Mendocino Farms Grenache Dark Horse Ranch, one of Magnanimus Wine Group’s bottlings.

I’ve known members of Heath‘s family for decades (one of his father Paul Dolan’s cousins was slated as Sostevinobile’s original investor), but that connection has no bearing on my appreciation for his viticulture or his wines. Similarly, I’ve enjoyed a lively correspondence with Jim Kimmel over the last several weeks, but approached his brother Gary’s Kimmel Vineyards with the same lack of bias. Their boutique winemaking operations in Potter Valley embarked with 285 cases of the 2007 Chardonnay Mendocino County and a mere 271 cases of their equally fine 2007 Merlot Mendocino County.

Maybe because it was late in the day, maybe because, well, I could, I opted to try only the sweeter selections from Nelson Family Vineyards, a winery that grows just about everything. I was richly rewarded with their 2008 Estate Riesling, an intense 2008 Estate Viognier and their delightful dessert wine, the 2009 Estate Orange Muscat. Meanwhile, another grower whose plantings include a veritable potpourri of varietals, Rossetti Brothers, poured finished wines that included the 2008 Petite Sirah and both their 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon and the 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon, along with bulk samples of their Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc, and Carignane.

As the event came to a close, the sponsors of this event from True Mendocino promised that next year’s showcase would be held at a far more accessible site, and while I did treat myself to a leftover bottle of the tour of the 2006 Weibel Family Chardonnay Mendocino County for later delectation and self-guided tour of the Fountaingrove swimming complex, I opted to drive back and take a dip in Corte Madera natatorium where I frequent, before heading across the Golden Gate Bridge.

The next day promised to be quite the challenge, not for the intensity of my schedule but because I had finally decided to risk subjecting the cluttered environs of the home office I maintain for Sostevinobile to an onsite tasting by a local distributor. Housekeeping, as my familiars and family will attest—ce n’est-pas mon forte. Nonetheless, I managed to clear the living room, wash half a dozen goblets Cascade-spotless, and improvise a water pitcher and spill bucket in time to host Kip Martinez. Kip is a longtime San Franciscan who, with his wife, operates a rather quaintly-named wine distribution company called Kip and Nancy; we had met at the recent T.A.P.A.S. tasting, where he had filled in for client winery Bodega Paso Robles and piqued my curiosity with intimations of their Bastardo, which he had opted not to bring with him.

First up, however, was the eponymous label of winemaker Michel Berthoud and his homage to Helvetian winemaking, the 2008 Chasselas Doré Pagani Vineyard. I confess that I had not previous tried this varietal, grown in Switzerland to produce their signature Fendant du Valais; I would not venture to describe its taste, though, on a spectrum, I would be tempted to place it closer to a Chenin Blanc or slightly grassy Sauvignon Blanc than to a Chardonnay.

Michel is well-known as the winemaker for Mayo Family Winery, where he puts on a clinic,œnologically speaking, with his Alicante Bouschet (which sounds like it ought to be a Swiss wine), Italian varietals, and many of the other grapes predominant in Sonoma. Kip treated me to a small selection that included the 2006 Petite Sirah Sodini Ranch Vineyard, the 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Delaney Vineyard, and the 2006 Libertine, described as “a dollop of Merlot, a splash of Cabernet Sauvignon, a smidgen of Syrah and a dash of Zinfandel, with Petite Sirah and Petite Verdot thrown in for good measure.”

It seems a bit odd that Switzerland’s northern neighbor, Germany, has only one winery in California devoted to its varietals. Numerous wineries here are focusing on Riesling, and in Washington, wines like Lemberger and Riesling have begun to proliferate, but only Lodi’s Mokelumne Glen devotes itself exclusively to this category. Winemaker/owner Bob Koth had apprised me of another winery producing Dornfelder, so I was especially eager to try the Huber Estate wines when I found. As I had hoped, the 2006 Estate Dornfelder was a most compelling wine, and I only wish Kip had carried the 2006 Estate Dornfelder Charlotte’s Reserve for comparison. And until I next make a swing for Sostevinobile through the Santa Rita Hills AVA, the 2008 Hafen, a dessert-style Dornfelder, must remain a creature of my imagination!

One wine, however, no longer remaining within the realm of my imagination is Bastardo, or, as the wonderful censors at ATF would have us call it, Trousseau. Given the Bureau’s prohibition of the use of such provocative nomenclature, Bodega Paso Robles elected to label their offering the 2007 Pimenteiro. It did not bastardize this rustic wine, by any means. Kip also revisited their 2005 Solea (90% Tempranillo, 10% Graciano) and the 2003 Iberia (Tempranillo, Graciano, Tinta Cão, Touriga Nacional), two blends I had highly enjoyed in early June.

We moved onto the remaining wines I had selected from his catalog. Marco di Giulio Wines may have coöpted the URL I would have chosen for my first personal label, but I am perfectly able to let bygones be bygones and laud both their 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon Diamond Mountain District and its coeval, the 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon Progeny Vineyard. Similarly, CalStar might have been a desirable alternative to Sostevinobile, but that matters little now. I applaud their 2008 Pinot Noir Sangiacomo Vineyard and would be eager to sample the rest of their inventory. Meanwhile, Starr Ranch bears no relation to the aforementioned winery nor to any of Pam Starr’s various viticultural forays; nonetheless, I found this Paso Robles producer quite adept with its 2007 Estate Grenache and its astral 2007 Orion, a Tempranillo-based wine.

Kip’s last offerings came from organically-farmed Lavender Ridge in Murphys. We started white, with their 2009 Côtes du Calaveras Blanc, Sierra Foothills, a blend of Viognier, Roussanne, Marsanne, and Grenache Blanc, then proceeded through their sundry single-varietal Rhône reds: the 2006 Grenache Sierra Foothills, the 2007 Mourvèdre Sierra Foothills, the 2005 Syrah Sierra Foothills, and the 2005 Petite Sirah Sierra Foothills before finishing up with the utterly complex 2006 Côtes du Calaveras that blended Syrah, Mourvèdre, Grenache, Alicante Bouschet, Petite Sirah, and Counoise. A perfect note on which to end the day and ready myself for the major trade event on Friday.

The 6th Annual Pinot Days San Francisco Grand Tasting was slated for Sunday, June 27th in the Festival Pavilion at Fort Mason. Unlike at other major tastings, however, the powers that be decided this year to sever the trade portion of the festival from the main event and hold it two days earlier in the Fleet Room, a far less capacious reception area in Building D, two floors below the famed Magic Theatre. In over thirty years of attending events, I had no awareness that this facility even existed and was quite surprised the promoters had selected it.

Of course, I understand that these Grand Tastings constitute a business for the people who organize them, particularly for the Pinot Days folks who do not represent a not-for-profit trade organization like Family Winemakers or ZAP. As well, to a large extent, trade and media tickets are provided as a courtesy, and I am indeed grateful each time I have been provided such. However, the greatest allure of these events for participating wineries are the opportunities they provided both for publicity and for significant sales of their wines. Speaking as Sostevinobile’s trade representative, let me say that I found the new configuration counterproductive in this regard and express my hope that next year’s Pinot Days returns to its previous formula. I know many of Friday’s other attendees feel similarly.

The schedule split and smaller space allowed less than half of Sunday’s wineries to participate. Still, the room was packed and without a printed tasting program, quite difficult to navigate. I managed to scribble my notes onto the back of several product flyers I appropriated from Chamisal Vineyards’ table as I quaffed their eminently drinkable 2007 Estate Pinot Noir. Shifting to my right, I next sampled from a pair of wineries I have known long before I create Sostevinobile but had not visited with in this capacity. Founded in 1857, Buena Vista bills itself as California’s oldest premium winery, though its wines are decidedly far more contemporary than I recall from the 1980s. The 2007 Pinot Noir Ramal Vineyard Estate Vineyard Series Dijon Clones proved an elegant wine, while their 2006 Pinot Noir Ramal Vineyard Estate Vineyard Series Swan Selection drank like a glissade across the tongue. At a nearby table, August Briggs opted to pour a single wine, their 2008 Pinot Noir Russian River Valley, more than a fine choice to represent their efforts.

Somewhere around the middle between these two tables, Mendocino’s Baxter Winery, with which I had become acquainted at Golden Glass, poured their jammy albeit curiously titled 2008 Pinot Noir Run Dog Vineyard. From Santa Rita Hills, Carr Vineyards introduced themselves and not only poured a striking 2008 Pinot Noir Turner Vineyard but slipped in a taste of their 2009 Pinot Gris, the first such “extra” of the afternoon. Fort Ross fell within house rules for pouring their always-special 2006 Pinotage, but Johanna Bernstein still managed to slip me a welcome sip of her 2007 Chardonnay Fort Ross Vineyard (or should I call it Pinot Chardonnay, to keep it within bounds?).

There may not be any correlation between these two Russian River Valley vintners, apart from their consecutive appearance in my note, but I was impressed with both the 2007 Pinot Noir Russian River Selection from esteemed winemaker Gary Farrell and the 2008 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir from the newly established Thomas George Estates. And from the same notepad, Gundlach Bundschu, another continuum from the mid-19th century, maintained their pedigree with their 2007 Pinot Noir, while Gloria Ferrer, the Sonoma arm of the historic Spanish sparkling wine house Freixenet, impressed with both their 2006 Carneros Pinot Noir and a sparkling 2006 Brut Rosé.

Cima Collina and I have had a long e-mail correspondence for the past several months, so it surprised me that I had not previously sampled their products. Their representatives easily remedied this oversight with a quartet of their vintages: their more generic 2006 Pinot Noir Monterey County and the 2006 Chula Viña Vineyard Pinot Noir, top by their Santa Lucia Highlands vineyard-designate 2007 Tondrē Grapefield Pinot Noir and the superb 2006 Hilltop Ranch Pinot Noir. Another winery making quite the first impression with four distinct interpretation of the grape was Pinot-only Fulcrum Wines, a Napa-produced boutique venture. Their latest vintage comprised an almost dizzying array of choice AVAs: the 2008 Anderson Valley Pinot Noir, the 2008 Tina Marie Russian River Pinot Noir, the 2008 ON Point Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir, and my personal (as well as Wine Spectator’s) favorite, the lush 2008 Gap’s Crown Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir.

That I had not previously visited with Crū, one of Mariposa Wine Company’s trio of labels. Fortunately, their 2007 Montage Central Coast Pinot Noir and the 2008 Pinot Noir Santa Lucia Highlands Sarmento Vineyards cemented this connection. And how I could have overlooked Sebastopol’s DuNah until now astounds me almost as much as did their 2006 Pinot Noir DuNah Estate and their 2006 Pinot Noir Sangiacomo Vineyard.

I was a tad surprised there were not more wineries from Oregon on hand this afternoon, given their pivotal role in establishing Pinot Noir on the West Coast (as well as Pinot Noir establishing Oregon as a major viticultural region). One such presence, Le Cadeau, happily displayed four of their most recent bottlings: the 2008 Pinot Noir Équinoxe, the amiable 2008 Pinot Noir Rocheux, the oddly named but excellent 2008 Pinot Noir Côte Est, and their crown jewel, the 2008 Pinot Diversité (shades of liberté, égalité, fraternité, to be sure)! Owner Tom Mortimer partners in another venture, Aubichon Cellars and generously included their inaugural release, the 2007 Pinot Noir Willamette Valley. French nomenclature also claimed the Central Coast’s La Fenêtre, whose Pinot offering ranged from the 2008 Pinot Noir Los Alamos Vineyard and the 2008 Pinot Noir Sierra Madre Vineyard to the more treasured 2008 Pinot Noir Central Coast and their acme, the 2008 Pinot Noir Le Bon Climat. While I greatly enjoyed La Fenêtre’s 2008 Bien Nacido Chardonnay, the winery seems hellbent on compelling me to struggle with composite characters, debuting their second label with the 2008 À Côté Chardonnay. Sans accents, Roots shared their whimsically-titled 2009 Melon de Bourgogne (a Chardonnay, naturally) and their 2008 Riesling before pouring a trio of delightful Pinots, the 2007 Crosshairs Pinot Noir, the 2008 Estate Pinot Noir, and the 2008 Leroy Pinot Noir.

Back in the Anglophile realm, M. Autumn bifurcates their winemaking between California and Oregon to offer their own Pinot trio: the 2006 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir, the 2007 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir, and newcomer 2008 Johnson Vineyard Pinot Noir from Chehalem. Keeping things somewhat thematic, from Chehalem. Keeping things kinda thematic, R. Merlo’s aspirations for an AVA in Hyampom Valley manifested itself in his 2005 Pinot Noir Trinity County.

Joseph Swan, the last winery I tried that poured four different Pinots, is a place I typically associate with Zinfandel. N’importe! I found myself uniformly enthralled with both the 2006 Pinot Noir Saralee’s Vineyard and the 2008 Pinot Noir Cuvee du Trois, as well as the 2007 Pinot Noir Trenton Estate Vineyard 2006 Pinot Noir Trenton View Vineyard, despite the New Jersey allusion! Pinot-centric Sequana chimed in with three different takes on the varietal, the superb 2008 Sundawg Ridge Pinot Noir from Green Valley, its proximate neighbor, the 2008 Dutton Ranch Pinot Noir, and the distant 2008 Sarmento Vineyard Pinot Noir from the Santa Lucia Highlands. Also posting a trifecta was my old friend Gideon Beinstock, with the terroir-driven wines from his Clos Saron in Oregon House. People who follow natural winemaking know this methodology can often be a crap shoot, but I was immensely pleased with his rosé, the 2009 Tickled Pink. Admittedly, I found myself ambivalent about the 2008 Pinot Noir Home Vineyard, but the 2006 Pinot Noir Texas Hill was one of the more outstanding efforts of the afternoon.

Another longtime acquaintance that my Sostevinobile blog readers should readily recognize was Dr. Chris Thorpe and his 100% organically-grown wines from Adastra. Once again, I fell sway to his 2006 Proximus Pinot Noir, a wine that reveals new complexities each time I encounter it. I never did get to meet Fred MacMurray while he was alive, though many hours of my childhood were dissipated watching his 1960s series after the departure of William Frawley. Many readers know of my disparagement of the Gallo wine empire, but, candidly, both the 2008 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir and the 2008 Pinot Noir Russian River Valley from MacMurray Ranch were noteworthy expressions of the grape. 

Coming on the heels of the extraordinary 2007 vintage, one which Wine Spectator lauded as Pinot Noir’s “best ever” in California, 2008’s wines faced the kind of daunting challenge Michael Jordan’s kids felt when trying out for the basketball team. A couple of wineries that only pour 2008 left no basis for comparison, but impressed on their own merits. The very fine 2008 Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast from Pfendler Vineyards nonetheless risked being overshadowed by the presence of the pulchritudinous Kimberly Pfendler, while Richard Sanford’s 2008 Pinot Noir La Encantada Vineyard Santa Rita Hills (I failed to note whether it was the Clone 666 or the Clone 115 bottling) from his Alma Rosa Winery was flat-out superb. However, among where I could sample the two vintages side-by-side, I found a definite predilection for the 2007 Pinot Noir from Keefer Ranch over its successor. And among the three bottlings spanning 2006-08, Rusack Vineyards’ 2007 Pinot Noir Santa Maria Valley clearly stood out.

Once again, Weibel had a presence with their 2006 Weibel Family Pinot Noir Mendocino County. Derby Wine Estates demonstrated the exceptional moments this earlier vintage enjoyed with their 2006 Pinot Noir Derbyshire Vineyard. And while the 2006 Pinot Noir from Hanzell, proud stewards of the oldest Pinot vineyard on the West Coast, proved to be a marvelous wine, I fear the 2000 Pinot Noir they poured did not quite withstand the test of time.

The last two wineries I had never before encountered helped wind down the day with some side tastings. Mark Cargasacchi’s Jalama Wines matched their superb 2007 Pinot Noir Cargasacchi-Jalama Vineyard with a refreshing splash of their whimsically-named 2007 Gialla, a Pinot Gris from their Santa Barbara estate. And the veritable last word in Pinot, Zotovich, augmented the excellence of their 2007 Pinot Noir Santa Rita Hills with the clean flavor of its 2008 Chardonnay and an astoundingly good 2007 Syrah, all vinted by Palmina’s Steve Clifton.

Capping the afternoon, I very much enjoyed the Pinots Hahn Estate Wines bottles as part of their winery-within-a-winery label, Lucienne. Sipping the admirable 2007 Lucienne Pinot Noir Santa Lucia Highlands Lone Oak Vineyard segued into tasting the even more flavorful 2007 Lucienne Pinot Noir Santa Lucia Highlands Doctor’s Vineyard before I completed my rounds with Riverbench Estate. Here, both the 2007 Estate Pinot Noir and the 2007 Pinot Noir Santa Maria Valley warranted tremendous accolades, while I was ready to rest on my laurels until my next tasting venture.

Every year, the month leading to Pinot Days has grown incrementally with seminars, winemaker dinners, preview tastings at numerous wine shops in San Francisco, and a dizzying array of other events throughout the Bay Area. Promoters Steve and Lisa Rigisich, partners in Pinot Noir specialist Ketcham Estate, are to be commended for their fanatical devotion to this grape. With this inundation of activities, I just hope they don’t lose sight of the important connection that Grand Tastings afford wineries and the people who promote them, the trade and the press, establish at such gatherings.

I understand the desire to weed out the numerous poseurs who like to attend trade & press events without ever contributing to the industry (apart from conspicuous consumption).Unfortunately, the segregation of this trade tasting meant only 96 wineries, out of 212 subscribed to the Grand Tasting the following Sunday, participated. By the time I realized the professional segment would truncate not just the time I had to spend with the wineries on my “To Meet” list but the roster of participants as well—only 29 of the 84 wineries I had earmarked exhibited on Friday—I had committed to the Mill Valley Wine & Gourmet Food Tasting, where yet another potpourri of wines and wineries would be featured. Allora, I merely hope we will all have a chance to meet at Pinot Days VII.

Let sleeping billionaires lie

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Following the Annual Marin Pinot Tasting in Larkspur, Your West Coast Oenophile took in a number of visits to individual wineries before embarking on the major excursion that will be detailed later in this entry. The interesting thread that tied each of these operations wasn’t their wines but the striking facilities that house their operations.

I first stopped by La Honda Winery in Redwood City to take in what has to be the most eclectic structure this side of Tobin James. La Honda’s partner Don Modica framed portions of several buildings on contiguous tracts to create a warehouse-like interior into which other structures appear to intrude. The overall effect seems much like a film stage, illusory yet compelling at the same time. I had met assistant winemaker Colin McNany at a Santa Cruz tasting earlier this year, but was happy this time to meet winemaker/owner Ken Wornick for what turned out to be one of the most energized discussions of Sostevinobile I have had to date. Moreover, the selection of wines made my jaunt down the Peninsula well worth my while, with the 2007 Pinot Noir Sequence and their new 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon/Sangiovese Modica Estate striking my particular fancy. I also greatly enjoy their 2006 Meritage, a deft blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Cabernet Franc from the Windsor Oaks Vineyard in the Chalk Hill AVA.

With enough time to make one more stop, I elected to shoot across Hwy 101 and track down the new headquarters for Woodside Vineyards, a small-scale producer I had long meant to seek out. Like La Honda, the name somewhat belied its location, but the recent move to Menlo Park freed the winery from a number of local restrictions, notably a maximum allowable production scale of a mere 2,000 cases. Woodside’s new owner, Buff Giurlani, has transformed an industrial warehouse near the foot of the Dumbarton Bridge into an airy showcase for vintage auto collectors alongside his expanded winery production and tasting room, with the intent of creating event space, not unlike the nearby Museum of Aviation in San Carlos. With this expansion of the winery’s capacity, he and winemaker Brian Caseldon are looking to move beyond their current inventory of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Port and sparkling wines to include a number of Italian varietals, including Sangiovese and Dolcetto. But, for now, the noteworthy holdovers from their former facility that I had the chance to sample: the 2007 Woodside Chardonnay, the 2004 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, and the 2004 Woodside Port, more than sufficed.

I finished this day with a half-mile swim at the Pacific Athletic Club in Redwood Shores, a much-needed tonic after my major bicycle excursion (documented in my last entry) between the two major wine tastings the day before. Not that I needed the rest of the week to recover and brace myself for my planned trek up Silverado Trail; still, I refrained from any major excursions until I drove to Napa the following Friday.


 Before attending the debut of Andrea Schwartz’ art installations at Yountville’s eco-resort Bardessono, I squeezed in a visit with bocce giacatrice Elena Franceschi at Silverado Vineyards. I had forgotten this winery’s connection to the Disney Family, thus was unprepared for the sheer opulence of the estate. Perched on a hilltop just after Silverado Trail crosses into Yountville, this spectacular Mediterranean edifice offers sweeping views of their 93 planted acres and most of the Stags Leap District lying just beyond. Merely to sit out on the patio leaves one feeling quite regal, if but for a fleeting moment.

Of course, the wines lived up to the richness of this setting. We cooled down first with the 2008 Miller Ranch Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc, the delightful 2008 Estate Chardonnay, and, for good measure, the 2008 Sangiovese Rosato before tackling a serious array of red wines, starting with the much-anticipated 2006 Estate Sangiovese that Elena had alluded to when we’d first met. Elena hadn’t mentioned Silverado’s amazing Super Tuscan, the 2006 Fantasia before, and naturally, this Sangiovese/Cabernet Sauvignon blend led into a selection of select Cabernets, starting with the 2005 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon. After trying the 2006 vintage, she offered me a rare vertical from the late 1990s. While the 1997 and 1998 vintages lived up to my expectations for a Napa Valley Cab, the largely unheralded 1999 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon was quite the unexpected pleasure.

I might have worked my way through half a dozen more wines, but I was past due for the Pulse Tasting at Acme Fine Wines in St. Helena, where scion Justin Stephens of D.R. Stephens Wines pour a trio of his luxuriant wines, including the 2008 Estate Chardonnay, his 2007 DR II Estate Cabernet Sauvignon and the breathtaking 2006 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, Moose Valley Vineyard. Next, I wound my way down to Bardessono, where Erin Lail was on hand to pair her 2009 Blueprint Sauvignon Blanc with the array of artists Andrea had included in her opening. I managed to take in a quick dinner at one of Yountville’s lesser-known cafés before taking in a promised stop at Michael Polenske’s Ma(i)sonry, the venerable stone edifice he converted to a gallery and tasting room he describes as “pairing artisan wines with exquisite art and furnishings in an historic setting.” While not as grandiose as Jan Shrem’s Clos Pégase nor quite as imposing as Greg Martin’s artifact-laden Martin Estate, Ma(i)sonry manages to create an enveloping atmosphere that lends itself exquisitely to sampling the artisan wines its Vintner Collective features. Most of these have appeared in this blog at one time or another, and given the exhaustive tasting I was facing the next day, I limited myself to a half-glass of the 2007 Contrarian, the Pomerol-style Meritage from Polenske’s own Blackbird Vineyards. The perfect coda to a well-traveled day

I checked out of my downtown Napa hotel at 11 AM, but left my car in their parking lot for the afternoon. After many years of contemplation, I had decided to wind my way up the Silverado Trail on my Trek, a 22-mile pedal from point of departure to destination, with a formidable return trip after three hours of wine tasting and feasting.

The ride from Napa to St. Helena could not have been more pleasant. Despite its formidable length, the road remained relatively flat the entire stretch—enough so that I never had to shift out of high gear! The temperature hovered around 75° F, maybe a tad less, and a cool but gentle breeze from the rear kept conditions ideal. I clocked in a markedly quicker pace than the 1:56 that my iPhone’s GPS estimated, and would have finished closer to an hour and a half, had I not stopped briefly at Judd’s Hill and Chimney Rock along the way. As with cycling in San Francisco, the ability to cover a known route at a leisurely pace and with sightlines unimpeded yielded a plethora of discoveries, like the hidden gem of Razi Winery or the new home for Crushpad being built at Silverado Trail Wine Studio. Ever mindful of Sostevinobile’s ecological commitment, I made mental notes of the water levels (or lack thereof) of the many creeks I crossed, surveyed the various arrays of solar installations and CCOF-tagged vineyards, and promised myself I would return to make a more detailed exploration when not so pressed for time.

Just before 2 PM, I arrived at the Charles Krug Vineyard for the Taste of Howell Mountain Wine Tasting Garden Party & Auction. This annual benefit for the Howell Mountain Elementary School marks a special convergence of professional, social and charitable interests in Napa Valley. This year’s event precluded the Howell Mountain Tasting that usually takes place later in the summer in San Francisco, so it especially behooved me to attend and renew acquaintances with the many vintners and winery owners I had met at last year’s functions.

Remarkably, of the 30 wineries on hand, only one had not participated in last year’s tasting, so I beelined over to Bremer Family’s table just as soon as I had locked my bicycled, registered, and downed the glass of chilled 2009 Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc with which Charles Krug greets attendees. Bremer turns out to be an extraordinary winery (not that most of the wineries on hand could easily qualify as extraordinary in a less comparable setting), with a focus on Bordeaux reds. I felt fortunate to sample both their 2004 Howell Mountain Merlot alongside their striking 2004 Los Posados Merlot, as well as contrasting the 2004 Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon with their delightful 2003 Seek Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon. I do look forward to trying their vintages from benchmark years.

Little of the literature I’ve encountered extols the virtues of the 2006 vintage, but quite a number of the wineries on hand showed how even a non-storied vintage can garner tremendous respect, especially if it heralds from one of California’s premier AVAs. While my resampling of the 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon from Roberts + Rogers showed remarkable consistency from last year, the 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon was clearly a more compelling vintage. I also found the 2006 Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon from Ladera quite excellent, while W.S. Keyes made as profound a statement with their 2006 Merlot Howell Mountain. Meanwhile, La Jota demonstrated superb vinification with each, though I gave a slight nod to their 2006 Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon over their 2006 Howell Mountain Merlot.

Denis Malbec’s pedigree from Château Latour has been well-documented and I would have stopped by his Notre Vin table even if I hadn’t received his e-mail invite just the day before. As anticipated, his 2005 Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon, artfully blended with 83% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc, and 2% Petit Verdot, drank splendidly. As did the organically grown 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain Estate from Neal Family Vineyards, an unblended bottling. In addition to their delightful, single-varietal 2007 Merlot, O’Shaughnessy Wine Estate deserved kudos for the authenticity of their Bordeaux-style bottling of the 2006 Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon, a historic assemblage of 78% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Merlot, 6% Malbec, 5% Petit Verdot, 2% Carménère, 2% St. Macaire (!), and 1% Cabernet Franc. I am hoping for single-varietal releases of each.

W.H. Smith saves its complexity for its nomenclature, as the 2006 Purple Label Piedra Hill Cabernet Sauvignon attests; the wine, a straightforward, Bordeaux-style Cab, remains a gem vintage after vintage. Calling one’s wine the 2007 Howell Mountain Zinfandel Yee Haw Vintage may evoke images of Li’l Abner, Dogpatch, and Kickapoo Joy Juice, but this delectable bottling from Lamborn Family Vineyards is anything but Boone’s Farm. Both their 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon, Vintage IV and the 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon, Vintage III struck me as being quite cellar-worthy, as well. Meanwhile, as if to refute those skeptics who believe Zin doesn’t age, Duane D. Draper showcased his 1996 D-Cubed Zinfandel Howell Mountain.

At the other end of the spectrum, Diamond Terrace’s Maureen Taylor pour her yet-unreleased 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon, Howell Mountain alongside her bottled 2006 vintage, with the younger wine portending of amazing complexity. So too did host Charles Krug new 2007 Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon show intimations of greatness. And while beneficent owner Gordon Getty dozed perilously at a nearby picnic table (oh, if only his attendant hadn’t moved the somnolent billionaire out of the sweltering midday heat—I might have hit him up for the $3,000,000 in funding Sostevinobile is still seeking!), CADE Winery sizzled with their 2007 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain.

I found myself more impressed with Summit Lake this time around. Their 2006 Emily Kestrel Cabernet Sauvignon was a pleasure indeed, but the 2006 Zinfandel really put them on the map. Red Cap’s lone effort, the 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon, nonetheless made them a player with which to be reckoned, while the indubitable White Cottage proffered their own 2006 Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon. Another Howell Mountain stalwart, Piña impressed, as usual, with their 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain Buckeye Vineyard while Highlands excelled with their 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve Howell Mountain.

Amid the overall superior quality of virtually every wine I sampled, a handful of vintages distinguished themselves as a cut above. Once again, Cimarossa dazzled with their proprietary Cabernet, the 2006 Riva Di Ponente Estate Wine. Outpost contributed an extraordinary Chardonnay, the 2007 La Blonde. Robert Craig’s 2008 Howell Mountain Napa Valley Zinfandel tasted almost Cabernet-like in its texture and complexity, while SPENCE Vineyards brought their 2006 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, an amazing expression of this varietal. The 2005 Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon for Cornerstone Cellars proved just as enticing, while Bravante Vineyards, Wine & Spirits’ Winery of the Year in 2007, made a most profound statement with their 2006 Trio, a Merlot-based wine with balancing infusions of Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon.

The source of Robert Craig’s Zinfandel, Black Sears, demonstrated their profound œnological skills with their own 2006 Estate Zinfandel. Merlot virtuoso Duckhorn Vineyards impressed with their modestly titled Meritage, the 2005 Howell Mountain Napa Valley Red Wine, artfully blending 57% Cabernet Sauvignon, 32% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Franc, and 4% Petit Verdot. And reborn Atlas Peak continued to demonstrate how the skills of their revitalization with their much-lauded 2005 Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon.

As happened at Silverado, the 1999 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain from Dunn Vineyards proved quite the revelation from a somewhat obscure year. And certainly a rather obscure varietal for Howell Mountain was the nonetheless wonderful 2006 Petite Sirah from Retro Cellars.

Maybe I should have spent less time trying to figure a way to reintroduce myself to Gordon Getty (we had met some 22 years ago at a fundraiser at his Presidio Heights mansion, where soporific Presidential candidate Michael Dukakis had me dozing in my seat this time). Maybe I should learn to read the fine points of a program before mapping my schedule. I only had time to sample the elegant 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Steinhauer Ranch from St. Clement before we were briskly ushered indoors for the two-hour auction. Regrettably, I can only note the presence and generous contribution of Arkenstone, Blue Hall, Cakebread Cellars, Haber Vineyards, Howell at the Moon, Rutherford Grove, and Tor Kenward—all of whom I covered last year and, with several, at other tastings. I will strive to highlight them in subsequent entries.

We climbed to the second floor of Charles Krug’s renovated 1881 Carriage House, where glasses of much-needed sparkling wine were liberally poured alongside an assortment of Howell Mountain and other donated wines, plus an array of desserts that included caffeine-laced brownies! This magnificent edifice features a naturally illuminated, vaulted ceiling that seems almost ecclesiastical (little wonder why it is often rented out for vineyard weddings) and served as a perfect coda to the architectural focus of my week. 

I stumbled upon a pair of interesting wines that had not been featured at the tasting proper before I settled in: the 2005 Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon from Villa Hermosa and the striking 2005 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon from Fleury, whose website extols their wines as “100% good juice.” Auctioneer Greg Quiroga, a fellow veteran of Jim Cranna’s Improv Workshop, regaled the crowd as he cajoled them into bidding for lots that ranged from 16 of Thomas Brown’s acclaimed wines to a sports extravaganza dinner at Bottega Restaurant Baseball Hall of Famer Tom Seaver (owner of GTS Vineyards) and other sports luminaries involved in the wine industry. By the end of the event, over $85,000 had ben raised, an increase of 10% over last year’s auction.
Growing up on Long Island, I was transfixed throughout the 1969 baseball season, as Seaver led the New York Mets to their first winning season and an astounding World series championship. I was gratified, years later, to learn that Tom had taken up the game of squash and then viticulture, two of my more pronounced passions. I’d like to think that these pursuits—plus the fact that neither of us command bank accounts anywhere near Gordon Getty’s—now puts me on relative equal footing with my childhood idol.
OK, maybe we don’t have tremendous athleticism in common, but I did record a personal best for the 22 mile cycle back to Napa.

Хлестаков возвращается!

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Khlestakov returns!
Apart from Aristophanes’ Βάτροχοι (The Frogs), Nikolai Gogol’s Ревизор (The Government Inspector) may be the most uproarious satire ever written (and, no, my my choice to eschew transliteration is not a conceit—Your West Coast Oenophile has read both in the original). His protagonist, Khlestakov, though hardly æsthete, bumbles his way through life and the unwitting indulgence of the local villagers in the play, steered by a gastronomic compass. Indeed, his boundless appetite for the next delectation constitutes the distinguishing thread that delineates him from the malevolent opportunism of a rake like Lothario or Madoff and relegates him to the status of what Nabokov deemed a пошляк, a term that has no true equivalent in English, though various Internet translation tools render it as “platitudinarian” or “vulgarian.”

As I stated in a recent entry, sometimes my quest to sample new and interesting wines for Sostevinobile brings me to events where food purveyors play a major, if not dominant, role; within this milieu, my designated perspective as œnophile gives way to that of a gourmand, making me feel somewhat the grand poseur, like Khlestakov, as I wend from food stand to food stand, delighting at each stop.

Just recently, I managed to sandwich in two such events on a single Saturday, the 2010 Golden Glass at Fort Mason and the 6th Annual Marin County Pinot Tasting at the historic Escalle Winery in Larkspur. Given that I chose to cover this entire loop on bicycle—not so much out of adherence to sustainable principles as a need to counterbalance my caloric intake with a substantial degree of physical exertion, this day would prove quite a marathon.

This day started out as I donned my helmet and rolled down from Pacific Heights to Fort Mason, a trek on my Trek to which readers of this blog have become quite familiar. Slow Food San Francisco has sponsored this pæan to sustainable food and wine for the past several years, engorging the throng of attendees with delectables from many of the Bay Area’s most revered Italian restaurants and other philosophically concordant establishments. Among my many favorites, È Tutto Qua, Delfina, Frantoio, Serpentine and Ristobar lavished generous portions of their signature dishes on eager attendees. My old friend Alex Ong, who blazed a culinary trail for East/west fusion cuisine at Orocco in the mid-1990s, showed glimpses of his current mastery at Betelnut, with an ætherial slice of Salmon Sashimi topped with its own roe. Heaven’s Dog, the hip Chinese destination from renowned Vietnamese food impresario Charles Pham (Slanted Door) dazzled, as well.

I made several visits to the table for A16, the first restaurant I have encountered in San Francisco that captures the essence of the Neapolitan fare on which I was raised. I could not help but tweak chef Liz Shaw about her table, festooned with a roasted pig’s head and fronds of fennel. “Funny,” I remarked. “This is the first time I’ve seen finocchio in San Francisco.”

“It grows wild all along the roadside,” she replied, oblivious to my subtle double-entendre. But of the subtle nuances of Italian cuisine was lost on her excellent pulled pork topping a moist baguette slice, nor on the obligatory wood-fired pizza from Flour + Water (apparently, each year at Golden Glass, one of San Francisco’s leading pizzaioli takes its turn at firing up the mobile wood oven from Emilio Miti).

Suffice it to say, I sampled enough food to pedal the 22-mile trip to Larkspur and then some, but, of course, my attendance on behalf of Sostevinobile primarily focused (or, I should say, was supposed to be focused) on the wines being poured. I first attended Golden Glass in 2008, the year A16 handled pizza duties. Much to my dismay, only one winery from California was pouring at what supposed to be the premier showcase for local, sustainable food. When I later drew the promoter’s attention to this incongruity, she complained that she could not source reliably good organic wines from nearby. I begged to differ, and while she declined my offer to help with arrangements for the following year, I was pleased to find nearly a dozen California wineries in attendance in 2009 (along with Delfina at the helm of the pizza oven).

Golden Glass 2010 featured more than 30 wineries pouring, with several others not on had winning Golden Glass awards for their vintages. Remarkably, 13 of the 17 prizes awarded at this competition were bestowed to California wineries, a remarkable achievement considering that the overwhelming majority of wineries present came from Italy, along with Spain, France, New Zealand and Argentina. But with my apologies to Lorenzo Scarpone and Franco Minniti of Villa Italia, the driving forces behind Slow Food San Francisco and this event in particular,I restricted my sampling to the local wines that fall within Sostevinobile’s stated parameters.

Quite a number wineries held a cooperative presence through Artisan Growers & Producers, a San Francisco-based collective. Mercury Wines showcased their The 500, a non-vintage Bordeaux-style wine in distinctive 500 ml. jugs. Duende, arriving a week late for T.A.P.A.S., still shone with their 2007 Tempranillo Clement Hills and an appealing 2005 Cabernet Franc. Hawkes, a sister operation, easily matched up with both a 2005 Merlot and a 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon.

Tallulah Wines may never be as racy as their namesake, Tallulah Bankhead, but their 2006 Syrah could cause a bit of a stir on its own. A returnee from PINK OUT! SF, Dacalier demonstrated how their Grenache/Mourvèdre blend, the 2009 Première Rosé held its own in a contrasting setting. And despite my having to spend the latter part of the day sipping nothing but Pinot, I still delighted in Wait Cellars’ 2007 Pinot Noir.

Three other Artisan members showcased their Pinots. Both Blagden Wines and Corkscrew Wines poured a 2007 Pinot Noir, while Prophet Wines chose to feature their 2006 Pinot Noir. Along with their 2007 Estate Pinot Noir, Lazy Creek Vineyards excelled with a super-dry 2007 Gewürztraminer and an equally compelling 2008 Riesling. Electing not to pour themselves, Domaine Carneros nonetheless garnered the award for their 2007 Pinot Noir The Famous Gate.

Another award-winning winery that appeared only at the winner’s table was J. Lohr, with their Bordeaux-inspired 2006 Cuvée POM, a Merlot/Cabernet Sauvignon blend, with slight additions of Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and Petit Verdot. Similarly, Livermore’s Wente Vineyards earned top accolades or their 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Southern Hills. And Napa’s Ca’ Momi took home the prize for their 2007 Rosso di California, a Zinfandel/Cabernet Sauvignon blend.

My friend Darek Trowbridge adheres to an extreme fidelity to the health of his vines and the environment in which he tends; his biodynamic techniques shows richly in the wines from his Old World Winery, particularly the 2005 Pinot Noir Nunes Vineyard Cellar Rat and the 2008 Chardonnay Tweek Block. From Fulton, the Vandendriessche Family runs White Rock Vineyards, and I suppose having that extensive a surname precludes labeling with anything overtly complex; nonetheless, in addition to their excellent 2007 Chardonnay, the 2005 Claret (40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, 14% Petit Verdot, 11% Cabernet Franc) and the newly-released 2005 Laureate (predominantly Cabernet Sauvignon) were simply outstanding vinifications.

My perverse desire to stage a biodynamic vs. vegan wine debate will happen one day, but for now I was content to sample the latter philosophy in Barra of Mendocino’s rich 2007 Girasole Vineyards Zinfandel (but where was your ever-delightful Sangiovese?), along with contrasting their 2006 Barra of Mendocino Pinot Noir with the 2006 Girasole Vineyards Pinot Noir. I also took a shining to their luscious 2007 Eagle’s Perch Chardonnay and 2008 West Terrace Pinot Noir from Paraiso Vineyards, a stalwart of the Sta. Lucia Highlands. Naturally, my ostensible charm prompted the folks from Santa Maria’s Riverbench Vineyard to open up their unlisted 2008 One Palm Pinot Noir, an utterly superb to their striking 2007 Estate Chardonnay.

I had met John Aver at a couple of previous tastings but am happy to aver that his 2007 Homage Syrah and 2006 Heritage Cabernet Sauvignon were both delightful wines. And Derby Wine Estates in Paso Robles proved that their wines are far more dimensional than simply a vehicle for someone like me to converse with Hospitality Manager Katie Kanphantha, yet another aspirant to the title of California’s lengthiest surname. Their quixotic 2007 Fifteen 10 White Rhône Blend (40% Marsanne, 40% Roussanne, 20% Viognier) firmly established this winery, while the 2006 Implipo, a traditional Bordeaux blend, soared beyond expectations. Occasio’s versatility with winemaking is anything but occasional; major accolades are due both their 2008 Petite Sirah del Arroyo Vineyard and their 2009 Sauvignon Blanc del Arroyo Vineyard. 

I believe Kunde operates the largest vineyard estate in California (I’m too pressed for time to verify this statistic) and certainly it is the largest property to have been bestowed the Governor’s Environmental and Economic Leadership Award for sustainable practices and facilities in the wine industry. As validating as a GEELA may be, however, their attendance at Golden Glass stemmed as much from the quality of their 2009 Magnolia Lane Sauvignon Blanc and the 2007 Reserve Century Vines Zinfandel.

Sostevinobile has long been familiar with several of the wineries on hand, starting with the pioneering Paul Dolan Vineyards. Not content to rest merely on their biodynamic credentials, their 2006 Deep Red, a blend of 57% Syrah, 31% Petite Sirah, and 12% Grenache from their Dark Horse Vineyards, won one of the coveted Golden Glasses, a fitting testimony to these practices. Legendary restaurateur Lorenzo Petroni surpassed his showing at last year’s tasting by garnering his own Golden Glass for his Super Tuscan-style 2007 Rosso di Sonoma, while his Petroni Vineyards’ lush 2004 Brunello di Sonoma, crafted from 100% Sangiovese Grosso, proved every bit its equal. And returning a week after his attendance at T.A.P.A.S., Victor Reyes Umaña from Murphys’ Bodega del Sur displayed extraordinary versatility with a crisp, clean 2008 Marsanne to complement his Spanish-style 2007 Carmessi, a blend of Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Syrah.

Golden Glass allotted nearly a full table to the Mendocino WineGrape & Wine Commission, which represented the remainder of wineries I sampled. From this constellation came Esterlina Vineyards, the sister winery of Everett Ridge, poured a 2008 Dry Ranch Riesling Cole Ranch and their 2007 Estate Pinot Noir Anderson Valley, while Pacific Star Winery brought a trio of underserved varietals: their 2007 Charbono, the 2005 Carignane and a more recent 2009 Viognier. Sara Bennett poured an intriguing 2007 Pinot Noir Méthode à l’Ancienne and the justly acclaimed 2008 Estate Bottled Gewürztraminer for her family’s Navarro Vineyards, while the luminous Deborah Schatzlein comported herself quite admirably with her 2009 Randle Hill Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc and the 2005 Hawks Bottle Vineyard Syrah from Bink Wines.

The 2009 Gewürztraminer Anderson Valley ruled the day for Breggo Cellars, along with their equally appealing 2009 Pinot Gris Anderson Valley and a 2008 Pinot Noir from the same AVA. Meanwhile, nothing quite saves the day on a 85° afternoon like a chilled sparkling wine, courtesy of the 2009 Brut Rosé from Handley Cellars, along with their compelling smooth 2007 Syrah Kazmet Vineyard in the Redwood Valley. Magnanimus Wine Group manages a small consortium of “authentic, living wines integrate nature into the bottle and are inspired by simpler times”—an apt description for their 2007 Mendocino Farms Grenache.

Jim Milone’s Terra Sávia is one of Mendocino’s better known organic wineries, and the overall excellence I have come to expect from wines like his 2008 Chardonnay, 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon, and 2006 Meritage (Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot) easily spilled over to his newly-released 2006 Blanc de Blancs sparkling wine. Another organic champion, McNab Ridge, the current venture of my old friend John Parducci, featured a superb 2006 Petite Sirah (though not on hand at Golden Glass, their 2007 Pinotage Napoli Vineyard is a wine not to be missed).

Excellence aboundedat Baxter, the last Mendocino winery I sampled. In short, my first contact with this operation brought me to their 2007 Pinot Noir Toulouse Vineyard and the remarkable 2007 Pinot Noir Oppenlander Vineyard, as well as a vibrant 2006 Carignane Caballo Blanco Vineyard. Still, my most astounding discovery of the afternoon was that Chronicle Wines is actually a label, not the wine club that the San Francisco Chronicle sponsors! I admitted to proprietor Mike Hengehold that I had bypassed their table at several previous event because of this misconception—obviously my loss, since their 2007 Cerise Pinot Noir truly was superb. I will not make the same error at ZAP 2011!

My swill & spit restraint most have been in full force, because I felt more than fine in departing at this point and undertaking the 16-mile bike ride over the Golden Gate Bridge to Larkspur. And, if this 1¾ hour jaunt depleted all the energy I had stored up from the numerous protein-laden food purveyors I had tried, there would be another feast awaiting me.

Chapter Two in this saga started with a change of shirts outside the horse barn at the historic Escalle Winery. The ride in 2010’s first truly warm day left me staggering for breath and utterly drenched, just as it had last year—though this time, without the Ginkgo Girl looming to retrieve me, I came prepared to freshen up before tackling the affair.

So with Bolan somewhere unknown, celebrating her 41st in solitude, I splashed myself with the remaining water from my road bottle, stuffed my sweat-soaked Polo shirt into my fanny pack, and headed up the hill to the staging area. To be perfectly candid, though, this could just as easily have been the 2009 tasting. Many of the same attendees, including Dean Stephens, who meet me at the entryway and regaled me with tales of his trip to Las Vegas with Bill Clinton, the same grilling team with the same excellent Leg of Venison and Rabbit Sausage, the same worthy benefit for the Marin Agricultural Land Trust (MALT), and pretty much the same roster of wineries in attendance.

Debuting at this event, Skywalker Vineyards unveiled its first vintage, grown exclusively on their estate Skywalker Ranch—now that George Lucas has moved his LucasArts empire to The Presidio, he and Francis Ford Coppola have developed much of his Lucas Valley campus as a vineyard. And with this kind of financial stability, there is little wonder why their inaugural 2008 Pinot Noir and 2008 Chardonnay, which they reserved for trade attendees, tasted so lush. Also appearing as a Marin venture for the first time, Carneros pioneer Acacia, a Diageo acquisition when they had financial stability, translated their considerable pedigree to their 2008 Redding Ranch Pinot Noir.
Before I proceeded to Dan Goldfield’s Orogeny, I had to break for some fresh air and a generous plate of the venison. Deer meat proved the perfect complement to his 2006 Pinot Noir Redding Ranch, a reprise from last year. And maybe with the upcoming Grand Opening for his new tasting room in Sebastopol, Dan will release the 2007 Orogeny (if not the 2008)! After all, his principal venture, Dutton-Goldfield, is already pouring their 2008 Pinot Noir Devil’s Gulch, which showed itself already a superb wine at this tasting.

David Vergari is one of those people who always manages to greet you like a lifelong friend, and so it was the usual pleasure in seeing him again in this setting and comparing his 2007 Pinot Noir Marin County with his 2008 Pinot Noir Marin County (for now, the earlier wine show better, but who knows?). And if he ever deigns to show up at Marin again, Mac McDonald would provide welcome coloratura to the 2007 Pinot Noir from his Vision Cellars.

As they had last year, Thomas Fogarty Winery from San Mateo County featured their Marin-grown 2007 Pinot Noir Corda Family Vineyard. And, in accord with last year’s precedent, assistant winemaker Nathan Kandler offered his own Precedent Wines 2006 Pinot Noir Chileno Valley Vineyard. I followed this wine with the 2006 Marin County Estate Grown Pinot Noir from organic vineyardists Stubbs Vineyard, then headed back to the grill for some rabbit sausage from Devil’s Gulch Ranch. 

Another organic vineyard—on the cusp of becoming biodynamic, DeLoach is part of Boisset Family’s genial expansion into California. And as this label expands beyond its Russian River Valley home, the 2009 Pinot Noir Marin County stacked up quite nicely with another 2009 Pinot Noir ???—I expect my proposed name will ultimately be selected in the contest they conducted. Stewart Johnson of Kendric Vineyards poured a five-year vertical of his Marin Pinot, but I guess I somehow missed the framing years of 2004 and 2008. Still I greatly enjoyed the superb 2005 Pinot Noir Marin County, followed by the 2007 and the 2006 in my personal preference. Meanwhile, Jonathan Pey of Pey-Marin Vineyards assumed pouring duties this year, serving his ever-notable 2007 Trois Filles Pinot Noir. I think he also slipped a taste of his 2009 The Shell Mound Riesling, but my notes show no mention.
Cowgirl Creamery generously furnished an array of cheeses, from which I liberally partook before heading over to Point Reyes Vineyards and their chilled NV Blanc de Noir; their 2007 Pinot Noir also warranted attention. I then tried a side-by-side comparison of the 2007 Pinot Noir Chileno Valley from Willowbrook Cellars, along their 2008 vintage, only to find both equally appealing. I did, however, display overt enthusiasm for the 2007 Andromedia Devil’s Gulch Ranch over its previous vintage, though both represent superb Pinot Noirs from Sean Thackrey, perhaps the only other man in attendance who has translated Aristophanes.
By now, there was but a scant few medallions of venison left, so I refueled for the ride back to San Francisco, but headed first for the Bay Club Marin for a quick swim and shower. I blundered slightly in ascertaining the best route home from there, but the starlit trek over the Golden Gate Bridge proved a perfect coda to this 10 hour sojourn.