{"id":30,"date":"2011-07-08T21:35:03","date_gmt":"2011-07-08T21:35:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/?p=30"},"modified":"2011-07-08T21:35:03","modified_gmt":"2011-07-08T21:35:03","slug":"77-bottles-of-wine-on-the-wall-77-bottles-of-wine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/?p=30","title":{"rendered":"77 bottles of wine on the wall, 77 bottles of wine\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"
In a previous posting for Sostevinobile<\/b><\/font>, Your West Coast Oenophile<\/b> assayed the attendance factor at a number of industry events in San Francisco, including the most recent incarnation of the San Francisco Vintners Market<\/a>. This is an admirable undertaking by promoters Cornelius Geary and Bridget Raymond, and, of course, it is up to them to determine the efficacy of this formula, but I would be remiss in not noting the many splendid labels I did encounter for the first time here.<\/font><\/font>
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77)<\/b> There is something that<\/font><\/font> borders on hazardous these days when you select a name that Google insists is a misspelling. Eric Hall\u2019s Loopking Wines<\/a> defies even the simplest Internet search, yet there was something more than compelling about the trio of Cabernets he poured. Nonetheless, the sole Merlot in his inventory of Bordelaise varietals, his 2007 Reserve Merlot Lake Cynthia Vineyard<\/b>, stood out for its sumptuousness.
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76)<\/b> Up from Malibu, Ray Schofield seemed to enjoy adopting the role of eleutherarch for the conspiracy he billed as Cloak & Dagger Wines<\/a>. Indeed, I found his 2008 Assassin<\/b>, a Cabernet Sauvignon sourced from Howell Mountain\u2019s Ink Grade Vineyard a clandestine pleasure, and look forward to the wines he neglected to stash sub rosa<\/i>, especially his Sangiovese (aka the 2009 Illuminatus<\/b>)<\/i>.<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/div>\n

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75)<\/b> Tomar\u00ed Cellars<\/a> is a boutique producer from Napa. Owner Tom Alfaz has enlisted an impressive roster of winemakers to consult with his winemaking and an equally impressive list of vineyards he has contract for both his Cabernet Sauvignon and his Pinot. His 2008 Pinot Noir La Encantada Vineyard<\/b> proved a prodigious first effort, even for this can-do-no-wrong grape field.
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<\/font><\/font><\/font>74)<\/b> I spent too many years in the advertising world not to recognize the computer-generated, quasi-Latin Lorem Ipsum <\/i>gibberish that populates the web pages for Bracey Vineyards<\/a> as a placeholder. But twelve years of formal Latin education does allow me readily to translate their motto Arduis Saepe, Met\u016b Nunquam<\/i> as \u201coften through difficulty, never by fear.\u201d And while their site may be underdeveloped, their wines showed a distinct maturity, as exemplified by the 2007 Howell Mountain Beatty Ranch Old Vine Zinfandel<\/b> (as an aside, I\u2019d be willing to wager that Bracey is the only winery that lists their owner\u2019s Harvard alumni e-mail as their point of contact)<\/i>.<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/div>\n

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73)<\/b> Peter Hartman\u2019s SoMa Cellars<\/a> heralds from San Francisco<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font>, where he bottled his first vintage at Crushpad<\/a>, when their custom crush facility was located in the South of Market District (before they relocated to Premier Pacific\u2019s facilities in Napa (before they relocated to Sonoma\u2019s underutilized Sebastiani<\/a> plant))<\/i>. Despite this ongoing conundrum, SoMa has managed to release a highly impressive debut wine, and one can only hope that when SoMa does manage to find a less peripatetic home, it will continue to produce wine as elegant as the 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley<\/b><\/font><\/font>.
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72)<\/b><\/font> <\/font>Another discovery was de Tomas Wines<\/a> from St. Helena. Despite its Napa location, its 2007 Red Wine <\/b>blended Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Syrah from Sonoma County.<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font> Here, coincidentally, was a wine where <\/font>Sostevinobile<\/b><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font> whole-heartedly concurred with my friend Alyssa Rapp of Bottlenotes<\/a> in our approval.<\/font><\/font><\/font> <\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/div>\n

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71)<\/b><\/font> In that category of wineries with which I would have sworn I had previously sampled, Maldonado<\/a>\u2019s presence here reprieved me for all the time I may have bypassed their table. With a wide portfolio of wines to sample, I found their signature Chardonnays most intriguing, but particularly cottoned to their 2008 Late Harvest White<\/b>, a well-balanced S\u00e9millon-Sauvignon Blanc blend.<\/font>
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70)<\/b> <\/font> Idle Cellars<\/a> is a maverick endeavor by three veterans of Deerfield Ranch<\/a>. With four notable varietals under their belt, the standout, for me, from this Glen Ellen project was a textured 2008 Sangiovese<\/b>.<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/div>\n
<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font>69)<\/b> <\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/b>Even among those wineries devoted exclusively to Iberian varietals, it is rare to find multiple bottlings of the same varietal; Metate Hill<\/a> out of Murphys contrasted a pair of beautifully-crafted Albari\u00f1os, with my overt favoritism going to the barrel-aged 2008 Albari\u00f1o Barrica<\/b> over its stainless steel sibling.<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/span><\/div>\n

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68)<\/b> Also impressing with a Spanish-style wine, James & Janis Judd offered an exquisite 2008 Tempranillo <\/b>from <\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font>J&J Cellars<\/a><\/font>, another of their several San Francisco-based labels.<\/font><\/div>\n

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67)<\/b> Crosby Roamann<\/a> is an ultra-boutique specialist, handcrafting lots of under 100 cases of whatever they see fit each year. I needn\u2019t go out on a limb to praise their 2009 Out on a Limb<\/b>, a truly compelling rendition of Sauvignon Blanc.
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And in keeping with my efforts at small production, I am putting this entry to rest with one of the leanest word counts the Sostevinobile<\/b><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font> blog has ever produced! But there were too many striking discoveries at this event, and so my review will spill over into my next installment.<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/div>\n

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In a previous posting for Sostevinobile, Your West Coast Oenophile assayed the attendance factor at a number of industry events in San Francisco, including the most recent incarnation of the San Francisco Vintners Market. This is an admirable undertaking by promoters Cornelius Geary and Bridget Raymond, and, of course, it is up to them to […]<\/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":[44,4,18,14,36,19,13,3,24,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-albarino","category-cabernet-sauvignon","category-merlot","category-pinot-noir","category-sangiovese","category-sauvignon-blanc","category-semillon","category-syrah","category-tempranillo","category-zinfandel"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30","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=30"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}