{"id":106,"date":"2009-08-28T08:48:00","date_gmt":"2009-08-28T08:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/?p=106"},"modified":"2009-08-28T08:48:00","modified_gmt":"2009-08-28T08:48:00","slug":"when-nature-calls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/?p=106","title":{"rendered":"When nature calls"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Five cutting-edge wineries, all clustered in a single room. A mere handful of attendees compared with the throngs at Family Winemakers. An abject need to tear myself away from my keyboard and begin to confront life after the Ginkgo Girl. How could I possibly not attend?<\/span><\/span><\/font><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Donning my Specialized helmet and slipping my feet into the toe clips, Your West Coast Oenophile<\/strong> headed out from my Pacific Heights exile last Thursday evening and leisurely wound my way down to Hayes Valley and Arlequin Wine Merchant<\/a>. This recently-expanded wine shop\/caf\u00e9 is the offshoot of Absinthe<\/a>, a popular restaurant with one of the most extensive premium liquor selections in California. In the year I spent as a starving artist between finishing grad school and entering the wine industry, I actually filled in as a bartender at Absinthe predecessor Ivy\u2019s, an upscale, distinctly \u201cfestive\u201d Civic Center institution, for a very brief period. Discretion dictates that I refrain from trenchant observations of the furtive liaisons engendered here, lest risking a boycott of Sostevinobile<\/span> in this post-Prop. 8 era. Still, I did find it a more inclusive milieu to be among patrons whose principal predilection is for heterodoxical wines.<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
Despite the slight reservations I expressed in my previous entry, I was glad to partake in the celebration of San Francisco\u2019s Natural Wine Week<\/a>. Once I plunked down my $20 tasting fee, I beelined over to the table for Clos Saron<\/a>, a winery that had been scheduled to pour at Golden Glass but failed to show. The delayed gratification was well worth the wait. Clos Saron proprietor Gideon Beinstock, who also serves as winemaker for fellow Oregon House winery Renaissance Vineyards<\/a>, readily displayed his complete mastery of the viticultural practices natural winemakers espouse, artfully blending Burgundian, Bordeaux and Rh\u00f4ne varietals into his repertoire. Limiting himself to small lot productions of under 200 cases, his wines displayed an extraordinary restraint, evocative of terroir<\/strong><\/em>-driven vintages I have sampled from Paso Robles\u2019 L\u2019Aventure<\/a>. Among the several wines Gideon generously poured, I was most impressed with his 2008 Carte Blanche, <\/strong>a triple-appellation m\u00e9lange<\/strong><\/em> of Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Roussanne and Viognier. The 2004 Heart of Stone<\/strong> also delighted with its blend of Syrah rounded out with Viognier. And, of the two Yuba County Pinot Noirs, I thought the 2007 Pinot Noir Home Vineyard<\/strong> clearly stood out.<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
Over the past few years, I\u2019ve attended numerous \u201cMeet the Winemaker\u201d Monday night tastings at California Wine Merchant<\/a>; certainly, a similar program will become an important component to Sostevinobile, both as a means of outreach to our clientele and as part of our commitment to showcasing the abundance of exciting and diversified wines grown here on the West Coast. One of the more intriguing wineries I\u2019ve encountered at these sessions has been Lioco<\/a>, a Los Angeles-based partnership between Matt Licklider and Kevin O\u2019Connor (the name being a portmanteau derived from the initial few letters of each surname)<\/em>. On this warm evening, the duo tempered the gathering with a pair of cool, contrasting whites, the <\/span>2008 Chardonnay Sonoma County<\/span> and a distinctly oak-free <\/span>2006 Chardonnay Michaud<\/span>. Their forte, however, was the <\/span>2007 Indica,<\/span> a Mendocino blend of Carignane rounded out with Mourv\u00e8dre and Grenache.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/font><\/font><\/div>\n
Few wineries here can match the scholarly approach Tablas Creek<\/a> applies to its focus on a particular category, in their case Rh\u00f4ne varietals. Unti Vineyards<\/a> in Dry Creek, however, is gradually building a comparable portfolio with Italian varietals. This father-son team has long delighted with their proprietary Segromigno, a Sangiovese-Barbera blend I frequently enjoy as the house vino alla spina<\/strong><\/em> at Delfina Pizzeria just down the street from my abode. At this pouring, their varietal 2007 Sangiovese Dry Creek Valley<\/strong> spoke eloquently of the resurgence of Cal-Italia wines. In tandem, a separate 2007 Barbera Dry Creek Valley<\/strong> begged for the kind of Neapolitan pasta sauces I simmer for a week before serving. Unti\u2019s most noteworthy offering on this evening came from their 2007 Montepulciano Dry Creek Valley<\/strong>, to my knowledge the only bottling of the Montepulciano d\u2019Abruzzo grape on the West Coast. I know I can look forward to offerings of several other wine debuts as George and Mick continue their research into the untapped potential for other Italian varietals in this welcoming climate.<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
Jared and Tracey Brandt know that I have lon
\ng been a proponent of their studious winemaking methodology at A Donkey and Goat<\/a>. As an unknown winery several years back, they stunned the attendees at Rh\u00f4ne Rangers<\/a> with the debut of their unreleased 2000 Syrah, an astounding wine that, in my aversion to the overwrought vernacular of wine descriptives, was best described as \u201cpure velvet.\u201d It\u2019s a benchmark that\u2019s extraordinarily difficult to replicate; otherwise, I might have been more effusive about both the<\/span><\/font> 2006 Syrah Fenaughty El Dorado <\/span><\/font><\/strong>and the <\/span><\/font>2006 Syrah Vielles Vignes Mendocino County<\/span><\/font><\/strong> Tracey poured on this occasion. Nonetheless, their current <\/span><\/font>2007 Four Thirteen El Dorado<\/span><\/font><\/strong>, <\/span><\/font><\/font>a<\/span><\/font><\/font><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/font><\/span> blend of 45% Syrah, 35% Grenache, 18% Mourv\u00e8dre and 2% Counoise, displayed enormous potential to age beautifully over the next few years.<\/span><\/font><\/font><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/font><\/font><\/div>\n
A Donkey and Goat really led the way for several Berkeley-based wineries that incubated at San Francisco\u2019s Crushpad<\/a>. Another graduate of this custom crush facility was Broc Cellars<\/a>. From its inception, owner Chris Brockway has focused on Grenache, consigning his energies in other varietals like Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay to his affiliate venture, Broadside<\/a>. recently, he added another Rh\u00f4ne varietal Mourv\u00e8dre, to his repertoire; the 2007 Mour<\/strong>v\u00e8dre Luna Matta Vineyard, Paso Robles<\/strong> was a worthy entrant, to be sure. His 2007 Grenache Cassia Monterey<\/strong>, however, was nothing less than (again eschewing traditional epithets) a stunning rendition of this varietal, far and away his best effort to date.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
So did San Francisco Natural Wine Week make an acolyte out of me? To be sure, I have become a strong proponent for how this methodology allows a grape to express both its varietal character as well as the distinct traits of their vineyard\/microclimate in which it was grown. Sostevinobile remains committed to the proliferation of the winemaking arts here on the West Coast and is more than happy to embrace this school as part of the diversity of our offerings.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/font><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Five cutting-edge wineries, all clustered in a single room. A mere handful of attendees compared with the throngs at Family Winemakers. An abject need to tear myself away from my keyboard and begin to confront life after the Ginkgo Girl. How could I possibly not attend? Donning my Specialized helmet and slipping my feet into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,4,34,16,81,7,23,12,14,9,36,19,3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-barbera","category-cabernet-sauvignon","category-carignane","category-chardonnay","category-counoise","category-grenache","category-montepulciano","category-mourvedre","category-pinot-noir","category-roussanne","category-sangiovese","category-sauvignon-blanc","category-syrah","category-viognier"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}