I really hadn’t planned to attend both days of the San Francisco Vintners Market, but for a variety of reasons, it became a logistics impossibility for Your West Coast Oenophile
to cover the numerous discoveries Sostevinobile had slated in one fell swoop. So here’s the A-Z of what I found, with a few other letters interspersed.
to cover the numerous discoveries Sostevinobile had slated in one fell swoop. So here’s the A-Z of what I found, with a few other letters interspersed.
66) I admit to liking the motto for Aurielle Vineyards immensely: Art and Science in Divine Proportion. Which proportion of their 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon comes from Howell Mountain and which from Mt. Veeder isn’t specified, but the 98% Cabernet Sauvignon, 1% Cabernet Franc, ½% Merlot, and ½% Petit Verdot winemaker Chad Alexander blended made for a striking release of this 303-case production.
65) People with iPhones or iPads are well aware of Apple’s efforts to purge the world of Flash. Steve Jobs’ quarrel with Adobe stems from the point they switched allegiance and began focusing their software to be compatible with Microsoft. I won’t belabor the point with historical references to how the Apple/Adobe duumvirate ushered in the era of PostScript that eradicated the archaic dot-matrix printouts and displays of the 1980s nor to the utter elegance of the fully-integrated version of Illustrator 5 that Adobe developed for Jobs’ NeXT Computer. The real problem (from my standpoint) was that this ill-begotten alliance caused Adobe to eviscerate its User Manuals to accommodate the inferior functionality of the Windows platform.
 A true tech geek will recognize this precursor to Mac OSX!
|
Confession: I lied my way into my first full-fledged graphics production contract by convincing the design director I knew all the ins & outs of Photoshop, then taught myself the entire program over the course of a weekend, methodically reading Adobe’s guidebook and working through their tutorial exercises. Some 20 years later, daily interaction with this program has made terms like monochromatic contrast and greyscale second nature. Greyscale Wines derives its name from the aforementioned photographic principle, but its select vintages manifest none of the legerdemain to which an advanced Photoshop user often resorts. Rather, winemaker Kian Takavoli handcrafted their 2008 Cuvée Blanc from Sauvignon Blanc, transparently rounded with Marsanne to create its distinctive crispness.
|
64) Penché is a French term, loosely translated as leaning, bending, or tilting—or, as Photoshop users would say, skewing. Fittingly, this premium Napa winemaker’s label articulates to form a parallelogram instead of the traditional rectangle, but there was nothing askew about its Meritage, the 2007 Argent Proprietary Red, a Cabernet Sauvignon-dominant blend combining the five Bordelaise varietals from four distinct vineyards. Mon Dieu!
63) Despite listing its contacts near the San Francisco waterfront, Promenade offers a wine label wedding multiple Napa appellations that border Silverado Trail. Its lyrically named Meritage, the 2007 La Joyeuse Harmonie, consonantly blends Stags Leap Cabernet Sauvignon, Oakville Merlot, and Pope Valley Cabernet Franc in an augmented triad—all that is missing its eponymous soundtrack.
62) Je ne comprends pas—I’m
haven’t been able to decipher the schema by which Jean-Charles Boisset
selects the numerical designation for his releases, but the 2006 No. 7 from JCB constitutes a well-rounded Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir that straddles the twin viticultural hp,es (California, France) for this new father of twin girls.
haven’t been able to decipher the schema by which Jean-Charles Boisset
selects the numerical designation for his releases, but the 2006 No. 7 from JCB constitutes a well-rounded Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir that straddles the twin viticultural hp,es (California, France) for this new father of twin girls.
61) I was undeterred by the name for Pulgas Ranch, the Portuguese and Spanish word for fleas. An inveterate punster like myself might say I now have an itching for their 2007 Syrah Alder Springs Vineyard, but that would be straining the metaphor.
60) The 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon To Kalon made an impressive statement for Knights Bridge,
a winery whose operations straddle both Sonoma and Napa Counties, with
its estate vineyard located in the heart of the Knights Valley AVA.
a winery whose operations straddle both Sonoma and Napa Counties, with
its estate vineyard located in the heart of the Knights Valley AVA.
59) Readers who recall the Ginkgo Girl from a few dozen installations here should know that Bolen Family Estates has no correlation to the erstwhile Bolan. This Oak Knoll winery produced an exceptional 2007 Merlot that, simply put, does not quit and leave you.
58) I might be curious to try the Lady of the Lake Sparkling Pear Wine Mt. Konocti Growers Winery produces one of these days, but for now I am content to have sampled the signature 2010 Sauvignon Blanc from their Lake County cooperative.
57) I’ve actually found a winery in California that produces Rkatsiteli, the signature grape of the Republic of Georgia (when I finally make my way to Avanguardia in Nevada City, I promise an entire post devoted to their esoteric wines). While Victor Eristavi proudly flaunts his Georgian roots, the wines he crafts on Treasure Island remain decidedly Californian. Still, there is a touch of Old World mastery quite evident in his 2009 Zinfandel Dry Creek Valley.
56) At the terminus of the English alphabet, Calistoga’s Zahtila Vineyards is another red wine-only venture producing Cabernet and Zin. The most impressive of the four wines I sampled was the homegrown 2007 Oat Hill Estate Zinfandel, an appropriate tribute to owner Laura Zahtila’s zeal and intensity.
I may have exhausted my allotted space for this entry, but I will complete my review of my four final discoveries in the next undectet of this series.