{"id":24,"date":"2011-08-29T19:31:29","date_gmt":"2011-08-29T19:31:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/?p=24"},"modified":"2011-08-29T19:31:29","modified_gmt":"2011-08-29T19:31:29","slug":"11-bottles-of-wine-on-the-wall-11-bottles-of-wine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/?p=24","title":{"rendered":"11 bottles of wine on the wall, 11 bottles of wine\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/font>Your West Coast Oenophile <\/b>is normally not one to laud his own accomplishments, but my ongoing efforts to launch Sostevinobile<\/font><\/b>, along with the creation of Smartphone app ResCue\u2122<\/a> and the design of Comunale<\/b><\/font>, have led to my selection as Featured Entrepreneur by EFactor<\/a>, the self-billed World\u2019s Largest Entrepreneurial Community<\/i>.<\/font><\/p>\n

The downside to this accolade has been responding to the flood of e-mails I\u2019ve received from well-wishers and the like, yet another task impeding my progress in completing entries for this blog. Still, I am drawing to a close with this (admittedly)<\/i> gimmicky approach to short-format posts focused on the vast array of wines I have had the privilege of sampling this past summer, and so, without further ado:<\/div>\n

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11<\/b><\/font>) The name Murphys has always struck me as somewhat incongruous, but this quaint, self-billed \u201cQueen of the Sierra\u201d has evolved into the seat of Calaveras County viticulture. Keeping stride with this recently garnered reputation, Hovey Wine<\/a> showcased their delightful 2009 Tempranillo Rolleri Cuvee<\/b>, an exemplary take on this varietal.
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10<\/b><\/font>) The last time I wrote about T.A.P.A.S<\/a>., I exhausted every pun I could make about Longoria<\/a>, so today I will only sing praises of their 2010 Albari\u00f1o Clover Creek Vineyard<\/b>. Here truly is a vintage that could convert even the most diehard white wine skeptic.
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9<\/b><\/font>) Pierce Ranch<\/a> is <\/font><\/font>both <\/font><\/font><\/font>one of the mainstays of the San Antonio Valley AVA<\/a> and a principal grower of Iberian varietals in Monterey County. It\u2019s always a pleasure to see Josh Pierce at numerous tastings throughout the season and sample through his wines. This afternoon\u2019s nod went to his 2008 Cosecheiro<\/b>, a deft proprietary blend of Tempranillo, Touriga, Graciano and Petit Sirah
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8<\/b><\/font>) For me, trying to pronounce Cosecheiro<\/i> probably poses the same difficulties others encounter in my pentasyllabic surname, a euphonic conjugation I had mastered by age 2\u00bd. It took a bit of Internet sleuthing to discover it\u2019s a variation on cosechero<\/b><\/i>, or harvester<\/i>, a tribute to the field workers who make winemaking possible. No such challenge for this former Vergilian scholar to grasp the nuances of the exceptional 2009 Idilico Garnacha<\/b> from Pomum Cellars<\/a>, the lone visitor here from the Puget Sound AVA in Washington.<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/div>\n

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7<\/b><\/font>) Continuing in this vein, San Francisco\u2019s own Urbanite Cellars<\/a> coined its own proprietary portmanteau for the pair of Lodi blends it produces; of the two, I gave slight nod to the 2010 Caliberico White<\/b>, a mezcla<\/i><\/b> of Albari\u00f1o, Verdelho, and Torront\u00e9s.
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And yet, I didn\u2019t realize the connection between Urbanite and Vinos Unico<\/a> until I found two listings for mutual owner Luis Moya in my iPhone Address Book. The latter lists itself as \u201cWine Importers and Wholesalers,\u201d<\/i> with a portfolio from Spain and Portugal, as well as Iberian wine producers in Argentina, Arizona, and California. With that, the derivation of Cal-Iberico<\/i> finally dawned upon me. Allora!<\/i><\/b> I wish him greater success than the ill-fated Consorzio Cal-Italia<\/a> ever enjoyed!<\/div>\n

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6<\/b><\/font>) Should my cohorts and I manage successfully to launch Risorgimento<\/i><\/b> as a preferable successor to Consorzio Cal-Italia, I suppose the inevitable question people will ask is whether <\/font>D. Marc Capobianco<\/font> can be the next <\/font>Bob Cappuccino<\/a>? Which is not unlike asking whether Jeff Tsai will be the next Randall Grahm. Not this is meant to contrast their winemaking styles or philosophy\u2014the <\/font>2010 Verdelho Calaveras County<\/b> from Jeff\u2019s <\/font>Twisted Oak<\/a> proved a true highlight of this tasting\u2014nor foster a debate on their mutually over-the-top showmanship. Indeed, the only relevant question any of us should be pondering at this time is \u201cwho can become the next Steve Jobs?\u201d<\/i><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/div>\n

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5<\/b><\/font>) Quinta Cruz<\/a>, the Iberian varietal arm of Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard<\/a>, has long been a reliable presence at a number of events, including T.A.P.A.S., and certainly one of the most heavily Portuguese-focused wineries in California. One of the peeves I have with some Iberian producers here is their rather lax approach to labeling their varietals, in particular, the generic use of \u201cTouriga.\u201d This practice is akin to calling a varietal \u201cCabernet,\u201d when distinction between Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc is obligatory. But Quinta Cruz\u2019 superb 2009 Touriga San Antonio Valley<\/b> commits no such transgression\u2014components are properly listed as Touriga Franca and Touriga Na\u00e7ional<\/font><\/font><\/font>.<\/font><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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4<\/b><\/font>) Not to be confused with Yorba Linda, the birthplace of Richard Milhaus Nixon, Yorba Wines<\/a> from Sutter Creek (self-billed as \u201cthe Jewel of Amador County\u201d) <\/i>offered a rare vertical tasting of their lone Spanish wine, with the oldest vintage, the 2005 Tempranillo<\/b>, clearly manifesting the beauty and complexity of aging this noble varietal<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font>.
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3<\/b><\/font>) Odisea<\/a>, or, more Hellenically, \u1f48\u03b4\u03cd\u03c3\u03c3\u03b5\u03b9\u03b1<\/b>, doesn\u2019t merely constitute the 24 book tome I labored to translate under the questionable tutelage of <\/font><\/a>William C. Scott<\/a>, but a rather cerebral winery operating out of Danville (the Jewel of Contra Costa County?)<\/i>. Though each of their featured wines had much to admire, I found myself quite partial this time to the 2009 Unusual Suspects<\/b>, an atypical blend of Tempranillo, Cari\u00f1ena (Carignane)<\/i>, and Garnacha. (This same wine venture also produces the Circean-inspired Cochon Wines<\/a>).
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2<\/b><\/font>) From Suspects to Oregon\u2019s Rogue Valley\u2014RoxyAnn<\/a> typically makes French varietals but managed to comport themselves quite admirably with their 2007 Tempranillo<\/b>. I will be more than interested to taste through the rest of their library, which includes a non-vintage Pear Wine from their Hillcrest Orchard.
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1<\/font><\/b>) Of course, what would an Iberian varietal tasting be without Port, even if it no longer can use this nomenclature? St. Helena\u2019s Tesouro Port Cellars<\/a> returned with a superb vintage of their 2005 California Dessert Wine<\/b>, deftly marrying lots of Touriga, Tinta C\u00e3o, Tempranillo, Alvarelh\u00e3o, and Souz\u00e3o.
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0<\/b><\/font>) OK, I admit I\u2019ve exceeded my self-imposed limits for the scope of this seemingly interminable exercise, yet despite its conceits, I am no closer to catching up with my backlog than when I began, 99 bottles of wine ago. But it\u2019s my blog and if I can make the rules, I can just as well violate them! And so I elect to bring this exercise to a murmuring close with Wine #100, the phenomenal NV Tawny Port Amador <\/b>that Lodi\u2019s St. Amant Winery<\/a> crafted. The perfect coda to a labor of love (Sostevinobile<\/b><\/font>) <\/i>that (hopefully)<\/i> never ends\u2026
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Your West Coast Oenophile is normally not one to laud his own accomplishments, but my ongoing efforts to launch Sostevinobile, along with the creation of Smartphone app ResCue\u2122 and the design of Comunale, have led to my selection as Featured Entrepreneur by EFactor, the self-billed World\u2019s Largest Entrepreneurial Community. The downside to this accolade has […]<\/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":[44,98,34,42,7,10,62,24,71,99,58,100,66,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-albarino","category-alvarelhao","category-carignane","category-graciano","category-grenache","category-petite-sirah","category-souzao","category-tempranillo","category-tinta-cao","category-torrontes","category-touriga","category-touriga-francesa","category-touriga-nacional","category-verdelho"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24","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=24"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}