Category Archives: Mourvèdre

Quo vadis, Rhône Rangers?

I am one of those people who is chronically late.*** The last time I arrived early for anything was the day of my birth, which arrived nearly a month before my parents had anticipated. Apparently, I have been compensating for this miscalculation ever since, so much so that I’m known in my Italian circles as Marco Sempre Tardi. A compliment, to be sure.

In a previous incarnation, Your West Coast Oenophile was involved with a pulchritudinous, albeit nefarious, woman who hailed from the Beijing region and managed to achieve the hitherto incomprehensible feat of systematically arriving even later than I did. Much to her delight, I nicknamed her Tardissima.

Beyond that, pleasant recollections of said perfidious Clytemnestra remain few and distant. “Time wounds all heels,” John Lennon wryly noted, and, without waiting for the inevitable repercussions to expiate her calumny, I have moved onto genuine domestic bliss. Because my beloved Ginkgo Girl and her circle of friends have all adopted English alternatives for their proper names, I, in turn, have recently decided to endow myself with a Chinese name: Tai Da (太大).

As per usual, my penchant for digression does have its purpose; in this instance, veering from overt promulgation of the artifacts and milestones of my own ethnicity, I am striving to demonstrate a catholic appreciation for the significant contributions other cultures have made. In the viticultural realm, my pronounced fondness for Italian varietals grown throughout the West Coast belies the delight I take in the diversity of other wines produced here, especially for the incredible spectrum of grapes affiliated with the Rhône region.

I have been attending the annual Rhône Rangers convention in Fort Mason for many years before I officially represented Sostevinobile at this year’s gathering. This year, I even managed to arrive well before the gates were opened to the public (though sufficiently late for the trade portion to keep my reputation unblemished). With 123 wineries pouring, I had to be judicious in selecting the ones which I could sample.

Sadly, that meant having to bypass many familiar stations, like Ridge, Bonny Doon, the always-wonderful Lava Cap, Arrowood, and Rosenblum, among others, in favor of wineries to which I had not previously been exposed. So, after paying courtesy calls to numerous new-found friends from Paso Robles (L’Aventure, Halter Ranch, Tablas Creek, and Justin), not to mention Anaba, the dean of Sonoma’s Eighth Street, I quickly found myself at the table for Cass Winery, a clandestine outpost on the east side of Paso Robles what bears no connection to my former squash opponent and noted wine critic, Bruce Cass. With six wines featured, their standout was the 2006 Grenache-until partner Lisa Plemons brought out their 2006 Mourvèdre, the first

I will bestow.

Zigzagging over to the lower reaches of the alphabet, I next treated myself to Healdsburg’s Stark Wine, a feint misnomer. With a well-balanced 2007 Viognier and a quintet of Syrahs on display, this winery excelled with both the 2005 and 2006 vintages of its bipartite Syrah, Teldeschi and Unti Vineyards.

Next up, Naggiar Vineyards from Grass Valley apparently makes every varietal known to mankind, but brought along only a handful of their Rhône selections. Much like Cass, the 2006 Grenache and the 2006 Mourvèdre proved the most memorable.

I visited with Washington’s titan, Château Ste. Michelle, whose various subsidiaries were spread throughout the hall, for a chance to lose my Cinsault virginity before I ambled onward to Frick Winery, a serendipitous discovery out of Geyserville. Their 2006 Cinsault, Dry Creek Valley might well have deserved a

, were it not only my second exposure to a wine from this varietal; unquestionably, their 2007 Viognier, Gannon Valley merits this accolade. In addition, their fraternal twins, the 2006 Grenache, Dry Creek Valley and the 2006 Grenache Blanc, Owl Hill Vineyard win significant kudos.

While we’re on the subject of first times, I was also introduced to my first wines from Idaho, courtesy of Sawtooth Winery. Their 2006 Viognier, Snake River Valley displayed distinct undertones of right wing militia (I jest)—actually, it was quite amiable for a wine in its price range, even though it falls beyond Sostevinobile’s sustainable boundaries. On the other hand, Paso Robles’ Jada Vineyard seems mired in East Coast nostalgia, or so one might infer from labels like 2006 Red Blend, “Hell’s Kitchen” and 2006 Syrah, “Jersey Girl.” Just as long as they don’t try to pair their wines with meats from Satriale’s, I guess they’ll do fine.

I swung by Preston of Dry Creek to sample their 2007 Cinsault (my third experience!) before tasting four wines from Jemrose Vineyards, a relatively new venture out of Bennett Valley. Both the 2007 Viognier Egret Pond and the 2006 Gloria’s Gem, a Syrah blend, were highly impressive, but it took the 2007 Grenache Foggy Knoll to win a

Even with my iPhone’s GPS functionality, I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to find Oregon House, CA. Still, every couple of months, the good folks at Renaissance Winery and Vineyard e-mail an invitation to visit. Naturally, I can never bypass their table at Rhône Rangers or at Family Winemakers. As I expected, my effort was well rewarded with a wonderful 2006 Viognier and a

-worthy 2004 Mediterranean Red, a GMS blend.

Meantime, the state of Oregon was well-represented by none other than Domaine Serene, the much-honored Pinot Noir house. Their 2007 Viognier Rockblock Del Rio and 2005 Syrah Rockblock, Seven Hills did nothing to diminish their considerable reputation.

Down in Santa Maria, Sans Liege could well see their esteem catapult with their 2006 Grenache, my final

of the tasting. And San Francisco’s own Skylark Wine Company’s 2007 Syrah Rodger’s Creek might easily top the 91 points Wine Spectator awarded its 2006 version.

One of the few independent Washington wineries on hand, DeLille Cellars, merited further attention for its Doyenne line, especially the 2006 Syrah, Doyenne Signature. Sarah’s Vineyard ably demonstrated that not everything that comes from Santa Clara County need feel (or taste) fabricated. My final stop of the day, Napa’s Hagafen Cellars, left me smiling with both their 2005 Syrah, Prix Vineyards Reserve, and the favorite 2007 Roussanne that I managed to taste at the event.

Unfortunately, there were several wineries I did not have the chance to taste, like the quirky Four Vines Winery from Templeton, either because they ran out of supplies, or because they packed up prematurely. Despite my delight in the many wines I did taste, I have to say that this year’s Rhône Rangers Grand Tasting was a bit of a letdown. Many established favorites, like Eno, Broc Cellars and A Donkey and Goat—not to mention Alban and myriad others I am overlooking—chose simply not to participate. Half of the festival participants seemed to be food vendors or peripheral manufacturers. More disconcerting was the paucity of attendees during the public portion of the event. The mere trickle of a crowd, rather than the customary deluge that hits once the doors open, seems to indicate that the Punahou Kid has a long way to go before his léger de main can right this economy.

Quo vadis, publicē? Surely, it cannot be that—shudder!—the public has lost its interest in drinking good wine (along with the corollary conclusion that Fred Franzia has won)! Whatever the cause of this dire phenomenon, note here that Sostevinobile is poise to ensure that the pleasures of œnophilia will be back, stronger than ever!

***Astute devotees of this blog will note that I had promised to post my Rhône Rangers comments three days ago.

On the Road Again (redux)

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And what is so rare as a day in June? Perhaps a midweek March afternoon, winding up a country hillside halfway from nowhere for nine miles to stumble upon an organic farm where a striking 5’9″ Chinese girl touts organic olive oil and tea tree scrubs while ever-so-slightly mispronouncing “bruschetta.” The Mt. Olive Organic Farm wasn’t a scheduled stop or even the point of my trip, but it serves as a paradigm for all the unanticipated discoveries I made during my Paso Robles swing last week.

In terms of winery destinations, Your West Coast Oenophile has been, as I suspect many others are, egregiously Napa/Sonoma-centric for more years than I care to enumerate. There have always been pockets of vineyards interspersed throughout the state, and I’ve happily visited a number of them here and there. But the notion of a concentrated, cohesive, cooperative wine community outside of the aforementioned region seemed a bit unfathomable (even though Sideways had clued me in to the existence of such). So, naturally, I was quite taken by surprise to discover that the juncture of US 101 and Hwy. 46, long seen as little more than a convenient pit stop en route to Los Angeles, had exploded into a major AVA blanketing both sides of the freeway.

Let me end any suspense here and now: during my three day Paso Robles swing, I did not manage to visit all 240 wineries (suffice it to say that such a feat would have lent considerable credence to the Ginkgo Girl’s suspicions of my incipient dipsomania). Still, I did manage to take in quite a selective range of what this vast AVA has to offer.

My first stop in Paso Robles tended to the sustainable component of Sostevinobile, a most informative workshop on sustainable building jointly sponsored by the good folks at PG&E and the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance. Wonderful to learn of the numerous energy rebates potentially available to our San Francisco flagship site, as well as the requirements for LEED-CI certification. This ever-evolving project continues to take many turns at each juncture. The workshop began with a tour of the Eos Estate Winery, the Central Coast’s first winery to supply 100% of its own electrical consumption. Years ago, I met the Arcieros, former owners of this estate, and introduced them to the forebear of Bacar and the Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant, Eos Restaurant and Wine Salon in Cole Valley—a natural marriage, or so it had dawned on me. But progress is progress, and one would tend to believe that should Sapphire Wines apply the same exacting diligence to their wine operations, their potential will be impressive.

After the workshop, I drifted eastward to the amazingly eclectic Tobin James, a must-see winery that also serves as a counterpoint to Healdsburg’s Dry Creek General Store 1881. In a strange way, my awkward efforts to snap a picture from my iPhone perfectly captures the élan of this place. The quirky charm of the ramshackle place belies the seriousness of their winemaking, which, in turn, exposed a common conceit to which I admit
	succumbing occasionally, that being a predilection to correlate quality and price. While I had the chance to sample several of their varietal offerings, including a most agreeable 2005 Sangiovese Il Palio, their standout was also their most economical wine, the 2006 Chateau Le Cacheflo, a proprietary blend of Syrah, Sangiovese and Barbera that retails for a relatively paltry trickling from one’s “cash flow”—somewhere in the vicinity of $11.99. By no means, however, does Tobin James hold a monopoly on Italian varietals bottled on Paso Robles’ east side. Poised at the intersection of the two main thoroughfares, Martin & Weyrich, a longtime favorite, featured a number of traditional Italian wines and esoteric blends, including their signature 2005 Insieme, a
mind-boggling mélange of Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, Nebbiolo, Sangiovese, Barbera, Pinot Nero and Petit Verdot (please don’t suggest they add Graciano—that’s reserved for blending in their 2002 Flamenco Rojo)! Still, I found myself particularly enticed by their well-rounded 2004 Nebbiolo Il Vecchio, a worthy rival to any Barbaresco priced even double the $22 it commands.

Martin & Weyrich also produces a wine they label Etrusco, not really a Super Tuscan so much as a Cabernet rounded out with Sangiovese. Some dominazioni purists may regard such a blend as heresy, but the folks at Martin & Weyrich are in good company. Across 101, L’Aventure commits similar apostasy with their artful marriage of Bordeaux and Rhône varietals. Yes, mes amis, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah can happily reside in the same bottle, as their aptly-named 2006 Optimus attests. Conventional Cabernet and Rhône GMS (Grenache-Mourvèdre-Syrah) blends are well represented in L’Aventure’s library and offer quite the sophisticated counter to Paso Robles’ rustic perception, while their new Syrah-based 2008 Estate Rosé will by no means remind anyone of White Zinfandel.

I spent my final day in Paso Robles scouring the westside hills, on a loop that took me to Adelaida Cellars, Justin Vineyards, Tablas Creek, Halter Ranch and the geologically-imbued Calcareous Vineyard (would that the folks at Linne Calodo have been remotely as accommodating in their response to my inquiry)! My first stop, Adelaida, is a winery that embraces a wide swath of the viticultural terrain: Bordeaux, Burgundy, Rhône, and Piemonte, as well as the obligatory homage to the local signature grape, Zinfandel. Their 2007 Viognier inarguably lived up to its billing as a balance of crisp minerality and aromatic fruit, a subdued expression of this somewhat haphazard varietal. Similarly, the 2005 Nebbiolo brought an unabashed smile to my face. I of course delighted in their 2005 Viking Reserve Cabernet, as strong a $75 Bordeaux blend as any of its Northern competitors, but, as per usual, found myself most intrigued by the 2006 Version, a jam-packed blend of Mourvèdre, Grenache, Syrah, Cinsault and Counoise.

Leave it to Tablas Creek, however, to tantalize me with a 100% Counoise bottling. The 2005 Tablas Creek Counoise came about, as it has in occasional prior vintages, when their estate pantings yielded more fruit than needed for their Esprit de Beaucastel and Côtes de Tablas. This is a rare expression of this grape for California and a wondrous d
elight. Tablas Creek also poured me their 2006 Tannat (an 88% blend softened with Cabernet Sauvignon) again a rarety on the West Coast and again an amazing discovery. 2006 Roussanne, 2006 Grenache Blanc, 2006 Mourvèdre—I could wax ad infinitum—Tablas Creek, along with Alban Vineyards and Qupé, has always represented the holy grail of Rhône-style wines from California to me, and this visit exceeded my expectations. That their 120 acres of plantings are all organic certified only enhanced my appreciation.

I would be quite remiss if I did not acknowledge Monica, whose splendid hospitality and individualized attention truly made my Tablas visit thoroughly enjoyable. Her counterpart at Justin, Sara Lutsko, was equally delightful and could have even tempted me to…but I digress. Justin is a winery that also features one of Paso Robles most acclaimed restaurants. Judging by the hairpin turns and utter remoteness of the setting, diners would be wise to book a room at JUST Inn, their onsite bed & breakfast. Justin takes a decidedly Pythagorean approach to their labels, and indeed their blends often do sum up a² + b² to produce a decidedly synergistic c². Case in point, their 2006 Justification, an atypical blend of Cabernet Franc and Merlot, or the 2007 Orphan, a Cabernet Sauvignon + Syrah combination. I joked that they ought to pair their 2006 Savant (another Cabernet & Syrah hybrid) with a wine labeled Idiot (cf. Rainman for the reference), and they came close with their 2007 Obtuse, a port-style dessert wine made from 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. My kudos, as well, for their 2006 Tempranillo Reserve (mistakenly priced, one would hope, at $312.50! on their website) and their distinctive 2006 Petit Verdot. And did I mention the 2006 Isosceles, their justly-famed Bordeaux meritage?.

It seems that many of the attendees at the Green Building Workshop beat me to Halter Ranch, a small, unimposing venture that both Jill Whitacre and Kira Costa of the Central Coast Vineyard Team highly touted. Their judgment makes me wish I could have followed up on all their recommendations. As one of the first Central Coast wineries to be certified for Sustainability in Practice (SIP), Halter Ranch put forth a lineup of estate grown varietals and blends of both Bordeaux and Rhône clones, distinguished by their 2007 Viognier and their 2005 Cabernet Franc.

By now, everyone knows that bombastic scene, with Leonardo Di Caprio, arms spread back like an erne, perched atop the Titanic’s bow, proclaiming “I am King of the World!” Yet that is exactly the feeling one gets from the panoramic loft that houses Calcareous Vineyard’s new tasting facility. The grandeur of this setting, with 270° views sweeping across the entire valley, is impossible to depict with the constrictions of HTML text, but it should become an obligatory stop for any Paso Robles tour. Against this commanding backdrop, one could easily luxuriate in their 2004 Reserve Zinfandel, the 2006 Twisted Sisters Chardonnay, a York Mountain 2006 Pinot Noir or the 2006 Petit Verdot. Still, I have to confess a fondness for their 2006 Très Violet, a GMS blend that veers from duality of Grenache or Mourvèdre predominance and allows Syrah the upper hand.

I drove back to San Francisco along the Pacific Coast Highway as a coda to my revelatory visit. As I passed through Soquel, I detoured to Bargetto Winery in the hope of finding a final touch of Dolcetto to round out my excursion, but, alas, they were sold out and I had to settle for a taste of their 2002 La Vita, a proprietary blend of Dolcetto, Nebbiolo and Refosco from their Santa Cruz Mountain estate vineyards. It is a hard life I lead…

On the Road Again

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If things have seemed a bit quiet on the blogging front this week, it has only been because Your West Coast Oenophile took to the road in order to lay the foundation for Sostevinobile’s wine program. As I sit here composing my thoughts for this entry, I find it hard to believe my last business jaunt to the wine country was just over 18 years ago, when I bottled Spectrum HoloByte Wines at Healdsburg Wine Cellars, then part of Bill Hambrecht’s Belvedere portfolio, with the late Peter Friedman. There have been, of course, many, many personal trips to Sonoma and to Napa, and while there is an undeniable pleasure to the purely amateur pursuit of wine, it was certainly good to be back.

Technological changes since 1990 have altered the landscape everywhere, including the wine country. I discovered this almost immediately after crossing the Sonoma county line. Preoccupied with a cross-country phone conference (note to the CHP: always utilizing my hands-free Apple Bluetooth receiver as I drive), I missed the turn to Kenwood and found myself in Petaluma before I realized my error. Still, my egregiously late arrival at the Wine Institute’s workshop on self-assessing one’s green practices allowed me to develop a rapport with the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance, an organization whose mutual interests will bear quite significantly on the selection of our wines. There is, after all (as I am wont to remind the Ginkgo Girl), a deliberate method to the madness.

At the conclusion of this gathering, I bypassed the tasting room at St. Francis and began my rounds with several of the vintners I encountered at ZAP. Most befitting the nostalgic aspect of my trip, it was extremely pleasant to visit with Dick Arrowood at his new Amapola Creek. Back in the days when my clients were bidding to acquire Chardonnay showcase Chateau St. Jean, Dick, who was then their winemaker, served as my sounding board up until Suntory outbid our team by $8 million. Dick moved on to start his eponymous label a few miles down the road and surprisingly cut a niche for himself as a red wine maker—his 1996 Arrowood Mataro opened my eyes to the wonders of this varietal.

Arrowood Vineyards was subsequently sold to Robert Mondavi, then became a pingpong ball in the Constellation–Legacy Estates fiasco a few years back. After Jess Jackson brought about a renewed stability by the winery, Dick decided to open an independent venture in the shadow of Monte Rosso. There, amid the cooperage of his pristine storage room, I sampled forthcoming vintages of Syrah, Zinfandel, and Cabernet Sauvignon, along with barrel samplings of Petit Verdot that was slated for blending. Call me the viticultural equivalent of Humbert Humbert, but nothing quite stimulated the palate as the budding young flavors of undespoiled juice.

I met with a number of new friends afterwards, from Bartholomew Park, another Phil Coturri client, to previously cited GiaDomella, whose splendid 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon will be gracing our table later this week. Seghesio Family Vineyards treated me to an array of their Zinfandels, as well as their food-commanding 2007 Arneis and 2006 Sangiovese that made me yearn to sample their forthcoming Fiano and Barbera..

I thought I might cap Tuesday’s adventure in downtown Healdsburg with some bar appetizers at Cyrus, but damn!—the Hotel Les Mars was closed for staff training. Alas, I settled for a last-minute sampling at the Rosenblum tasting room, then curled up in front of the fireplace at Merritt Sher’s tantalizingly geometric Hotel Healdsburg to make some final cellphone calls before heading out to cross the border….
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Il Comitato per la Restaurazione del Papato Italiano