{"id":807,"date":"2017-01-10T17:14:16","date_gmt":"2017-01-11T01:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/?p=807"},"modified":"2017-01-10T17:15:20","modified_gmt":"2017-01-11T01:15:20","slug":"a-november-to-remember","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/?p=807","title":{"rendered":"Falling into 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

An interesting question posed Your West Coast Oenophile<\/strong> is whether Sostevinobile<\/strong><\/span> would consider opening a branch outside the parameters of our West Coast focus. Such a venture would, of course, violate the regional and environmental guidelines I have set for our operations, but I have considered, in times of idle speculation, how our model might be adapted to another region. One could create a discreet chain of wine bars localised on the wines produced throughout the Great Lakes region\u2014predominantly Michigan<\/span><\/a>, Ontario, Ohio, and the New York Finger Lakes. Another model might focus on the Eastern seaboard, from Long Island down through Virginia and North Carolina. <\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, these are just intellectual speculations, with one caveat. Early on, in my development of Sostevinobile<\/strong><\/span>, I stipulated that I would not categorically<\/strong><\/em> refuse to consider any wine produced from the West Coast and meeting our sustainable criteria, except for the now-defunct Asteri Mou<\/span><\/a> (for reasons I no longer need to elaborate)<\/em>. Similarly, were I to develop these cloned versions of our operations, I would absolutely eschew any wine from Trump Winery<\/span><\/a>\u2014the political implications being quite obvious, I would hope. Besides, how could you trust a wine from someone who has never even tasted his own vintages? <\/span><\/p>\n

Speaking of wine tasting, this November has been jam-packed with events\u2014far too many for me to have covered all. Impecuniosity and the implausibility of bilocation caused me to miss a handful of annual events, including Califermentation<\/span><\/a>, the Paso Robles session of the Garagiste Festival<\/span><\/a>, SF Vintners Market<\/span><\/a>, and Premier Cruz<\/span>.<\/a> Alas, I missed some 30 wineries I might have vetted for Sostevinobile<\/strong><\/span>, but, as is my wont, I have catalogued their information and am reaching out to them on my own. <\/span><\/p>\n

Among the many events I did manage to attend, the most intimate certainly had to have been the ragtag popup organized by Pietro Buttitta. Little else may link the assembled collective that comprised the New Mission Winemakers<\/span> besides their situation in various industrial facilities scattered throughout San Francisco, but their disparity did not diminish the overall quality of the wines featured at this debut. As he transitions from his former label, Rosa d\u2019Oro<\/span><\/span>, which focused primarily on Italian varietals, to a more nuanced Prima Materia<\/span>, a deft touch can be seen in such bottlings as his lush 2013 Mourv\u00e8dre<\/strong>, along with other Rh\u00f4ne and Bordeaux offerings. And yet this new direction has not diminished his craft from Rosa d\u2019Oro, here displayed in a delightful 2013 Vermentino<\/strong>, a compelling 2012 Refosco<\/strong> and 2012 Montepulciano<\/strong>, and a truly wondrous 2012 Aglianico<\/strong>. <\/span><\/p>\n

The 2014 Aglianico<\/strong> ruled the day among the 16 or so selections Harrington Wine<\/a><\/span> poured. I equally cottoned to his splendid 2015 Corvina<\/strong>, a light, garnet-colored wine that could almost be mistaken for a ros\u00e9. Still, there was nothing mistakable about their 2014 Grenache,<\/strong> the 2015 Zinfandel<\/strong>, nor the 2014 Nebbiolo<\/strong>, a beautiful expression of the Piemonte noble grape. Added to this mix was the first release of the Chinato<\/strong>, an infused digestif based on Nebbiolo. <\/span><\/p>\n

Between these two Italian varietal specialists stood Betwixt<\/span><\/a>, Tim Telli\u2019s consistently excellent venture from the Minnesota Street facility Sostevinobile<\/strong><\/span> my one day call neighbor. Here Tim poured a most impressive 2014 Santa Cruz Mountains Chardonnay<\/strong>, paired nicely alongside his 2014 Pinot Noir Lester Family Vineyard<\/strong> and the aptly named 2013 Pinot Noir Helluva Vineyard<\/strong>. Sharing this Dogpatch urban winery, Flywheel Wines<\/span><\/a> also stood out for their 2013\u00a0 Brosseau Vineyard\u00a0 <\/strong><\/span>Chardonnay<\/strong> <\/span>and the 2013 Boer Vineyard Grenache, <\/strong>both from the Chalone AVA. <\/span><\/p>\n

I had not previously encountered Betwixt\u2019 and Flywheel\u2019s third co-tenant, Cellars 33<\/span><\/a> (another winery at this facility<\/em><\/span>, Von Holt<\/span><\/a>, <\/span><\/em> did not participate in this tasting)<\/em>. Its standout wine, from the selections poured here, arguably was the superb 2015 Grenache Blanc Lodi<\/strong>, a truly marvelous Rh\u00f4ne white. Blending these same grapes with Viognier produced their whimsical 2015 The Betty White<\/strong>, also from Lodi, while both their appealing 2013 Pinot Noir Gloria Viney<\/strong>ard and 2013 Zinfandel Bacigalupi Vineyard<\/strong> heralded from Russian River Valley plantings. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This popup also afforded me my first tasting of Neighborhood Vineyards<\/span><\/a>, Elly Hartshorn\u2019s vineyard project in San Francisco. With vines planted at numerous locations throughout the City, Neighborhood is poised to become the first urban winery totally ensconced within its confines. While waiting for the vines to reach, Elly sources fruit for her other bottlings, like the 2014 Tide & Travel Pinot Noir<\/strong> from Santa Rita Hills poured here. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

One needn\u2019t be a rocket scientist to make great wine, but being a geneticist might help. Tessier<\/span><\/a>\u2019s Kristie Tacey moved to the Bay Area to work on the Human Genome Project<\/span><\/a>, then segued into winemaking. Judging by the wines poured here, her \u0153nological DNA was most dominant in the 2015 El Dorado Grenache<\/strong> and the 2015 Russian River Cabernet Franc<\/strong>, a wine redolent of its Alegr\u00eda Vineyard parentage. Meanwhile, one might easily believe Ed Kurzman had turned the vinification of Pinot Noir into an exacting science, with across the board excellence in all the of<\/span><\/span>f<\/span><\/span>erings he poured from both his <\/span><\/span>Sandler <\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span>and <\/span><\/span>August West<\/span> <\/span><\/span>labels. Still, the great pleasure from the latter proved to be his 2014 Sierra Mar Vineyard Chardonnay<\/strong> and the 2012 Rosella\u2019s Vineyard Syrah<\/strong>. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Ed\u2019s Sandler offerings provided me with my first glimpse of the 2015 vintage, a year that had been marked by its low yields throughout the state. Nonetheless, it portends to be great, potentially surpassing both 2012 and 2014. Of the three single vineyard selections he poured, the 2015 Bien Nacido Vineyard Pinot Noir<\/strong> stood slightly above both the 2015 Keeler Ranch Pinot Noir<\/strong> and his proprietary 2015 Boer Vineyard Pinot Noir<\/strong>. But eclipsing all these: the utterly marvelous 2013 Boer Vineyard Grenache<\/strong> capped a most delightful afternoon on Minna Street.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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

An interesting question posed Your West Coast Oenophile is whether Sostevinobile would consider opening a branch outside the parameters of our West Coast focus. Such a venture would, of course, violate the regional and environmental guidelines I have set for our operations, but I have considered, in times of idle speculation, how our model might […]<\/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":[127,16,55,7,11,23,12,63,14,65,3,1,33,5,27],"tags":[486,481,483,482,480,484,479,459,487,485],"class_list":["post-807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aglianico","category-chardonnay","category-corvina","category-grenache","category-grenache-blanc","category-montepulciano","category-mourvedre","category-nebbiolo","category-pinot-noir","category-refosco","category-syrah","category-uncategorized","category-vermentino","category-viognier","category-zinfandel","tag-august-west","tag-betwixt","tag-cellars-33","tag-flywheel","tag-harrington","tag-neighborhood","tag-prima-materia","tag-rosa-doro","tag-sandler","tag-tessier"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807","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=807"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":826,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807\/revisions\/826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}