{"id":36,"date":"2011-04-11T06:52:00","date_gmt":"2011-04-11T06:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/?p=36"},"modified":"2011-04-11T06:52:00","modified_gmt":"2011-04-11T06:52:00","slug":"au-contraire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/?p=36","title":{"rendered":"Au contraire"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I
\nsuppose a number of people perceive Your West Coast Oenophile<\/b> as a bit of a contrarian. Certainly, that has always deliberately been the case with the wine program I am building for Sostevinobile<\/b><\/font><\/font>. Our broad-ranging focus on the sustainably grown wines of the West Coast flies in the face of dominant paradigm throughout the San Francisco region, and, to be honest, I am hoping it will carve out quite a special niche for us.\n<\/div>\n

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Other times, however, my iconoclasm stems from something more unintentional. I really do not have a refined beer palate and usually end up ordering wine at brewpubs like Gordon Biersch. Not that I dislike the beers\u2014they just don\u2019t go down as easily, especially when I\u2019m not accompanying them with food.
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The day after my marathon excursion to Napa, I attended the Pinot Noir Summit<\/a>\u2019s Grand Awards Tasting at the Hilton Hotel-Financial District in Sa<\/font>n F<\/font><\/font><\/font>rancisco<\/font>. I had never participated in one of Barbara Drady\u2019s wine events before, but I had agreed to help publicize it (for which I was extended my trade ticket)<\/i> beforehand; even so, it was a bit of terra incognita<\/i> when I arrived. Perhaps because I\u2019ve become so intimately involved with wine, I could not get myself in the spirit of the event or to participate in the Shootout that saw competing bottles of Pinot color-tagged and ludicrously wrapped in aluminum foil.
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Frankly, I was still
\ndecompressing from the sensory overload of eight tastings in two days
\nand was tempted to leave almost immediately after I arrived<\/font>. However, I quickly became aware that nearly all of the participating wineries were pouring a range of wines in addition to their Pinot submissions. Wonderful! A Pinot tasting with varietal variety!\n<\/div>\n

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And so I set out in iconoclastic fashion to taste my way through such wines as the appealing 2008 Lascivious<\/b>, an anomalous blend, in its own right, of Cabernet Sauvignon, Mourv\u00e8dre and Syrah from Paso Robles\u2019<\/font> Asuncion Ridge<\/a> and the exceptional 2007 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon<\/b> from Frank Family<\/a>. The very vivacious Teri Michele Love impressed me with the quirkily-labeled 2008 Tiggy Paso Robles<\/b>, an asymmetric m\u00e9lange crafted from Grenache and Tannat by her Gioia Wine<\/a>.\n<\/div>\n

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From Sonoma, UPTick Vineyards<\/a> vinted an amiable 2008 Russian River Valley Estate Syrah.<\/b> A well-familiar operation, also from Sonoma, Simple Math<\/a> showed itself as delightful as when I first sampled their wines last year; this time they featured the 2007 Convex<\/b>, a Syrah blended with 20% Grenache.\n<\/div>\n

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I managed to find a couple of contrasting whites in this crowded room, starting with the 2009 Chardonnay<\/b> from Leveroni<\/a>, the same family that produces Clover Stornetta<\/a> milk, one of the Bay Area\u2019s most iconic (Tip Clo through Your Two Lips) <\/i>brands. While Chardonnay is a natural complement to Pinot Noir, the excellent 2008 Riesling<\/b> from Oregon\u2019s Firesteed Cellars<\/a> proved a surprising yet welcome contrast to the expected.\n<\/div>\n

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Temecula
\nmay be California\u2019s most unpresupposing AVA, but I am always glad to
\nmake new discoveries from this Riverside County enclave. Here, Woodworth Vineyards<\/a> proved their mettle with the pleasant 2007 Black Dog<\/b>, a modest blend of 65% Cabernet, 25% Syrah, and 10% Merlot.<\/font> I also sampled their 2008 Estate Pinot Noir<\/b>, a wine that underscored the vast geographic range where this varietal can flourish. From that point, it simply became a matter of tasting as many Pinots as I could squeeze into the time remaining.\n<\/div>\n

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I was surprised I had not previously tried the wines of Santa Rosa\u2019s Adler Fels<\/a>, but found their 2008 Pinot Noir Santa Barbara<\/b> more than approachable. Roudon-Smith\u2019s winemaker Brandon Armitage<\/a> inaugurated his eponymous, 70-case production of the 2008 Pinot Noir Santa Cruz Mountains<\/b>. Coming in slightly larger, with 425 cases of Pinot Noir and a mere 75 of Cabernet Sauvignon, Fotinos Brothers<\/a> of Carneros impressed with their sophomore vintage offering, the 2007 OSR II Block Los Carneros Pinot Noir<\/a>. Similarly, Coghlan Vineyards <\/a>of Los Olivos produced only 300 cases of their 2009 Sta. Rita Hills Pinot Noir<\/b>, with a bottling of Grenache Blanc to be released this fall.\n<\/div>\n

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I moved about the other tables with relative precision, seeking out new labels, eschewing the imports, and exchanging pleasantries with established friends. From Healdsburg, Portalupi<\/a> showcased an austere 2008 Pinot Noir Russell Family Vineyards<\/b> they describe as \u201cC\u00f4te du Nuit not C\u00f4te du Rh\u00f4ne.\u201d Over the years, I have sampled numerous Pinots from the Sonoma Coast, but only once before encountered Sonoma Coast Vineyards<\/a>, which poured their delightful 2007 Pinot Noir Balistreri Vineyard<\/b>. North by a few miles, Standish Wine Company<\/a> featured their whimsical Wild King label and its 2007 Pinot Noir Bosc Block<\/b>. <\/a>\n<\/div>\n

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I find the labels from PARO Wines<\/a> incredibly evocative (hopefully, most attendees got to see this bottle with the aluminum cloak removed)<\/i>; sourcing their grapes from various AVAs in both Sonoma and Mendocino, their 2009 Pinot Noir Indindoli Vineyards<\/b> artfully depicted the splendors of Russian River Valley fruit. Another Mendocino finalist, Mas\u00fat<\/a>, is a relatively new offshoot from the prodigious Fetzer clan, here making an impressive debut with their 2009 Estate Pinot Noir<\/b>. I can\u2019t unravel the etymology of either Indindoli or Mas\u00fat, but I do know that Joseph Jewell<\/a> derives from the middle names (to be sure, far more assimilable than Micah Adrian or Wirth Manspeaker)<\/i> of its two proprietors, who collaborated on their 2008 Pinot Noir Appian Way Vineyards<\/b> from the Russian River Valley.<\/font><\/font>
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The curiously named Zoller Wine Styling<\/a> constitutes a Paso Robles enterprise producing an assortment of ten far-ranging labels, represented here by their 2008 Pinot Noir Keller Vineyards<\/b> from the Sonoma Coast. Embracing a wide swath of Central California, virtual winery Pacific Coast Vineyards<\/a> introduced themselves in stunning fashion with their superb 2007 Pinot Noir Babcock Vineyards<\/b> from the Santa Rita Hills. Similarly spreading out from their Templeton base, Icon Estates\u2019 Wild Horse<\/a> offer an amiable 2008 Pinot Noir Central Coast.<\/b><\/div>\n

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Not to be confused with Wild Horse, WildAire<\/a> from the Willamette Valley impressed with their 2008 Pinot Noir Timothy<\/b>.<\/font> Returning to California, Cotati\u2019s James Family Cellars<\/a> offered an unpretentious 2008 Pinot Noir Stony Point Vineyard<\/b>, while nearby, overlooking the Sonoma Plaza, Sharp Cellars<\/a> poured the highly impressive 2007 Keenan’s Cove Pinot Noir<\/b>.<\/div>\n

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I sampled both of Windward Vineyards<\/a>\u2019 bottlings, the 2008 Monopole Pinot Noir<\/b> and the 2008 Gold Barrel Select Pinot Noir<\/b>, with equal delight. And I also sipped two contrasting wines from McIntyre Vineyards<\/a>, preferring the 2008 Estate Pinot Noir Santa Lucia Highlands<\/b> to the nonetheless excellent 2007 Pinot Noir Arroyo Seco<\/b>.<\/font><\/div>\n

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I had tried McIntyre\u2019s Vin Gris of Pinot Noir at last year\u2019s Wine Artisans of the <\/font>Santa Lucia Highlands<\/font><\/a><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font> <\/font>in Los Gatos. Given their ubiquity at more tastings I can count, I would have thought my friend Joe Lazzara\u2019s Jazz Cellars<\/a> would also have poured there, so it was a fitting conclusion that I finished off the event here with their delightful 2008 Doctor\u2019s Vineyard Pinot Noir Santa Lucia Highlands<\/b>.<\/font><\/div>\n

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Perhaps my relentless pursuit to taste and catalog the finest wines from the West Coast for <\/b>Sostevinobile<\/b><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font> has left me a bit jaded. I can\u2019t countenance such secular activities as Wine Tweets or the circus-like atmosphere at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition. Maybe this popularity pageant at the Pinot Noir Summit<\/b><\/i> presented a valid exercise in broadening these wines\u2019 appeal to the general public\u2014as one might say in Qu\u00e9bec or France, however, ce n\u2019\u00e9tait pas \u00e0 mon go\u00fbt<\/i>. But still, I recognize that this event did introduce me to quite a number of wineries I had not previously encountered or, in several instances, even heard of, and I did get to sample some very fine Pinot Noirs this evening, along with a far more diverse<\/font><\/font> selection of wines than I ordinarily encounter at single-varietal tastings. So, contrary to my initial inclination, je suppose que cette f\u00eate ne f\u00fbt<\/i><\/font> pas si mauvais, apr\u00e8s tout<\/i>.<\/div>\n

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I suppose a number of people perceive Your West Coast Oenophile as a bit of a contrarian. Certainly, that has always deliberately been the case with the wine program I am building for Sostevinobile. Our broad-ranging focus on the sustainably grown wines of the West Coast flies in the face of dominant paradigm throughout the […]<\/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":[4,16,7,18,12,14,3,52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cabernet-sauvignon","category-chardonnay","category-grenache","category-merlot","category-mourvedre","category-pinot-noir","category-syrah","category-tannat"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36","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=36"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}