{"id":151,"date":"2009-01-27T00:32:44","date_gmt":"2009-01-27T00:32:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/?p=151"},"modified":"2009-01-27T00:32:44","modified_gmt":"2009-01-27T00:32:44","slug":"now-give-me-a-red-envelope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/?p=151","title":{"rendered":"Now give me a red envelope!"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

I hope all my readers will join me today in wishing a heartfelt\u00a0\u606d\u559c\u53d1\u8d22\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>(Gung Hay Fat Choy)<\/span> to my beloved Ginkgo Girl!<\/span>\u00a0She knows I could never have accomplished any of this without her.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
I wish I could be so unabashed in all my praise. But my most recent foray in wine tasting leaves me feeling a bit tepid. Before I assay the wines I tasted from the San Francisco Wine Society<\/a><\/span>, let me first note my great admiration for Crushpad<\/a> and the many splendid, up & coming wineries that have incubated in their Potrero Hill facility. A Donkey and Goat<\/span><\/a>, (who blew away everyone at Rh\u00f4ne Rangers a few years back with their unreleased 2000 Syrah)<\/span> Eno<\/a>, VIE<\/a>, San Sakana<\/a> are but a few of the burgeoning wine producers who initially honed their skills at Crushpad\u2019s custom crush facility, then moved onto their own operations. even as boutique operations, these wineries either bought or contracted their own vineyards, supplied\u00a0(or functioned as)<\/span> their own winemaker and diligently crafted their product as distinctive expressions of the oenological arts.<\/span><\/div>\n
Now, however, many of winemaking aspirants subscribe to Crushpad\u2019s systematic program, buying pre-designated grapes and relying on in-house technicians to develop their wine. Which is fine for the occasional hobbyist who simply wants to bottle a few cases to serve to his friends or custom bottle a wine exclusively for Joe & Bob\u2019s commitment ceremony or for Aunt Martha\u2019s 90th birthday, but seems to me to be somewhat disingenuous when bottling wine for commercial sale.<\/span><\/div>\n
Don\u2019t get me wrong\u2014many of the wines the members of SFWS produce are indeed noteworthy.\u00a0Jazz Cellars<\/a><\/span> put out a most respectable 2006 Petite Sirah, sustainably cultivated at Eaglepoint Ranch Vineyard in Mendocino. Seawind Wines<\/a>\u00a0offered a pair of Pinot Noirs, the 2007 Split Rock Vineyard from the Sonoma Coast being a clear favorite. But how do you justify a $70 or $90 Cabernet that is bottled from grapes that are systematically available to program subscribers?<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Even if a wine in this price range is no longer considered stratospheric, it still ought to have a distinct character to justify its price. Andy Beckstoffer<\/a><\/span>\u2019s To Kalon Vineyard inarguably produces some of the finest Cabernet Sauvignon ever made in Napa, but if my wine tastes the same as your wine and the same as our friend\u2019s wine, where\u2019s the unique value proposition?<\/span><\/div>\n
One of the great beauties of wine is its symbiosis of artistry and nature. Terroir<\/span><\/span> need not be the only determinant of a wine\u2019s character or flavor (there are numerous 2eme Cru offerings that I have tasted whose highly-vaunted <\/span>terroir<\/span><\/span><\/span> tastes more of soil than of grape)<\/span>. A good winemaker is a craftsman, who puts his distinctive mark on every bottling, making it his personal signature. It would behoove many of the wine bottlers in the SFWS to focus on making their next vintages far more individualized and less\u00a0homogeneous.<\/span><\/div>\n
Of course, I give myself the prerogative to be contradictory or to go back on my word as this blog evolves. So, despite earlier promises to shy away from a rating system, I reserve the privilege of bestowing a special approval on any wine I find so exceptional, I cannot restrict myself to proper tasting technique for a wine professional. The category of Too Good To Swill & Spit will be awarded to any wine I encounter that begs me to linger and enjoy a full glass (if not bottle)<\/span>! As such, my first\u00a0\u00a0goes, somewhat ironically, to the 2005 <\/span>Flying Wine Cellars<\/span><\/a><\/span> Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon<\/span>. What earns this wine my kudos is the roundness it derives from adding 15% Petit Verdot to its To Kalon Cabernet. A standout wine at this event, and an outstanding wine in general.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Anyway, enough of this banter this New Year’s Day, 4707!\u00a0\u7ea2\u5305\u62ff\u6765!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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

I hope all my readers will join me today in wishing a heartfelt\u00a0\u606d\u559c\u53d1\u8d22\u00a0(Gung Hay Fat Choy) to my beloved Ginkgo Girl!\u00a0She knows I could never have accomplished any of this without her. I wish I could be so unabashed in all my praise. But my most recent foray in wine tasting leaves me feeling a […]<\/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":[4,10,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cabernet-sauvignon","category-petite-sirah","category-pinot-noir"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151","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=151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}