Monthly Archives: March 2015

Soquel Vineyards on a Saturday Afternoon

No, not “Saturday in the Park,” for those of you old enough to remember the song by Chicago, but a Saturday afternoon spent at Soquel Vineyards in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Lori and I started really spending time in the Santa Cruz Mountains area about 2001, and Soquel Vineyards was our first “find”. Small winery, and it takes a bit of an effort to get there, but worth it. Excellent wine, great people, great setting and view.

View of Monterey Bay from Soquel Vineyards

View of Monterey Bay from Soquel Vineyards

We hadn’t been to Soquel Vineyards in a few years, but we’ve been drinking some of our older Soquel wines lately. (Read our posts on The Business of Blends and When Should You Open That Bottle.) And since we’re almost out of Soquel wines, and had a free afternoon, there we went, up the winding road, and found ourselves there on a simply beautiful day. When we first visited many years ago, they only had a small tasting bar inside. They have since added an outside patio, and have different inside and outside tasting menus. We got one of each tasting menu, and they were nice enough to serve us both outside on the patio. (Thanks to Kelsey for taking great care of us!)

Soquel Vineyards tasting room

Soquel Vineyards tasting room

We really enjoyed the following wines (i.e. we bought a mixed case of these):

2013 Chardonnay, Lester Family Vineyards, Santa Cruz Mountains
2013 Pinot Noir, Lester Family Vineyards, Santa Cruz Mountains
2012 Trinity Rosso, blend of Zinfandel, Tempranillo, Nebbiolo

(As an aside, we opened a bottle of the Trinity Rosso a few days ago, and it was perfect for dinner with Lori’s meat loaf.)

After finishing our tasting, we wandered inside, and caught up with Peter Bargetto. On every visit we’ve made to Soquel, either Peter or his twin brother Paul – two of the three partners in the winery – have been there talking with the guests and helping with the tastings, usually providing some select barrel tastings at the end. Today was no different, and Peter treated us to tastes of the 2013 and 2014 Intreccio, and new Bordeaux blend that Soquel will be releasing soon. Each year the blend changes a bit, depending on the quality and taste of the grapes. We were impressed with both vintages, and can’t wait to see them in bottles and released to customers. We also tasted a 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, Coombsville District, which was still really young; hard to get a read on. Although based on the Soquel track record, it’s going to be great.

To our view, Soquel embodies and exemplifies what is great about the Santa Cruz Mountain wineries: small family wineries, producing outstanding wine with a lot of passion and care, in a great area, and taking great care of their customers. In particular, their longevity and consistency make them a must visit winery in the area.

L’Chaim,

Larry

Rosé on the Table Means Spring is Here

First rosé of the season last night: Deerfield Ranch Winery 2012 Checkerbloom Rosé, Sonoma County, made from their old vine Zinfandel grapes using the Saignée method. Delicious with baked salmon, rice and baby bok choy.

In the U.S., we’ve been brought up thinking that rosés are sweet, second rate wines. Actually that’s been true for the U.S., but not so for the rest of the world where rosés have historically been regarded as mainstream wines, worthy of as much attention and respect as any other serious wine. Recently, many more wineries are making good rosés, and a lot of us are buying and drinking rosés. So what is it about rosés that is so attractive?

For me, a good rosé is an alternative to a white wine. Whenever I think of crisp, fruity white wine to drink, I’ll also check out our stock of rosés. Because that is what a good rosé should be: crisp, fruity, some acid for balance, very similar to a good Sauvignon Blanc but with different fruit flavors.

Rosés are most often made by having the grape juice from red wine grapes stay in contact with the skins for 1-3 days, instead of the usual 1-2 weeks used for red wine production. The longer the juice is in contact with the skins, the deeper pink/red the color. One other technique used is the Saignée method, in which some of the juice is bled off from the tank containing the skins and juice from a red wine. Less juice means a higher ratio of skins to juice, resulting in more intense flavor and color for the red wine. So as not to waste the good juice that has been bled off, it is made into its own rosé wine. A third technique is called Vin Gris. With this method the juice from red grapes is taken when the grapes are being pressed, so there is really no time on the skins, resulting in a very pale rosé.

What to look for in a rosé? Here are my two unofficial rules, plus one question.

1. No rosé made from Pinot Noir grapes. Sorry, I know some people like these rosés, and a number of wineries make rosés from Pinot Noir, but the fruit flavors in Pinot Noir grapes are too subdued to make a good rosé. There are exceptions to this rule, as there are to any rule, however while I have liked a few rosés made from Pinot Noir, I can’t think of any of them right now. Very non-memorable.

2. Make sure the grapes were picked specifically to make the rosé wine. One of the realities of the wine business is that red wines take a year or more from harvest to cash generation. Rosés can be ready for the consumer in 4 months. So wineries are often making rosé just for cash flow reasons, and not because they’re committed to make a good rosé. In which case, they most often will bleed off some juice from their red wine tanks after 1-3 days on the skins, and make rosé from that. The problem is that acid and sugar levels for a good rosé are different than for a good red wine.

3. Another good question to ask is how many years has the winery been producing rosés? While an answer of less than 5 years doesn’t say anything about how serious the winery is about their rosé, an answer of 10+ years says that they’re serious and successful.

One other note is that most of the good rosés in France are made from Rhone grapes, most often Grenache. For Lori and I, our introduction to seriously good rosé was having it with lunch at a sidewalk café in summer in Nice, France. Beautiful warm day, cool-crisp-tasty wine, watching the world go by.

There are two rosés that I’ll always say yes to: Storybook Mountain Vineyards “Zin Gris” rosé of Zinfandel (a nice play on vin gris), and Quivera Vineyards Rosé, usually based on Grenache. These wineries have been doing rosés for 10+ years, and they do a consistently outstanding job of it.

One other memorable rosé I’ve had was the 2013 Derby Wine Estates Rosé, Derby Wine Estates, made from 100% Mouvedre. Almost ruby red in color, nice balance, went great with the hummus, tabbouleh, baba ghanoush, dolmas and pita bread appetizers that I brought for our picnic before a California Shakespeare Festival performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream last year. (Great performance, the best performance of this play I’ve ever seen.)

Enjoy your Spring!

L’Chaim,

Larry

Petite Sirah: Dark and Delicious 2015

P.S. I Love You is the advocacy organization for Petite Sirah. One of their major events each year is Dark and Delicious, an event featuring Petite Sirah producers which also includes various food vendors. It takes place mid-February, this year hosted by Rock Wall Wine Company in Alameda.

San Francisco skyline from Rock Wall Winery

San Francisco skyline from Rock Wall Winery

It was a beautiful evening, and the view of San Francisco from the northern end of the island (Alameda) was spectacular, as you can see from the photo above. So in we went, ready to take on the over 50 different wineries and dozen plus food vendors.

Dark & Delicious 2015

Dark & Delicious 2015

Rock Wall’s barrel room, which is where the event is held, is an old hangar from the Alameda Naval Air Station which used to be there. Big room, big enough so the 1000 or so barrels they have in there don’t seem like so many. I had to do the math twice to be sure: 4 high by 4 deep by 20 wide by 3 walls, plus another 20-40 against the 4th wall. That’s a lot of wine!

We tasted, and tasted, and tasted some more. Petite Sirah is an interesting grape. Primarily used in California as a blending grape to add more body and structure to Zinfandel, it is a big flavored grape, with lots of tannins. It is usually grown in warm climates, like many of the Zinfandel regions. For example, Napa Valley at the northern end near Calistoga, the Sierra Foothills, Lodi in the San Joaquin Valley and Mendocino County (inland areas).

Given the large flavors that develop, it can often be difficult to get everything in balance: nose, fruit, body, finish. Also, since Lori and I have very different palates, we often see these differently. However, the Petite Sirah from Lava Cap Winery in El Dorado County (Sierra Foothills) was the clear winner for both of us. Not the biggest, baddest Petite Sirah of the evening, but the one with the best balance, where everything came together in the right proportions. Lava Cap has been around for more than 25 years. We first came upon them about 22 years ago, when we went on passport weekend to El Dorado County for our first time. We were quite impressed by their Zinfandel at the time. One of my best wine/business stories is about taking a customer from France to a nice steak house in Silicon Valley. Thinking that it could be awkward to order a California version of a French varietal, I went with the “native” California varietal wine, Zinfandel. From Lava Cap. While my French sales rep looked on in trepidation, the customer loved trying something new, something very good. He shoots, he scores!

A few other wines deserve mention as well. These were very good, just not quite as good as the Lava Cap in our oh-so-humble opinion. An interesting note, looking at the list, is that Lori and I have visited every tasting room except Theopolis, which is relatively new to the scene (first time at Dark and Delicious?). These are actually some of the best tasting experiences for one reason or another.

• Lava Cap Winery: Beautiful setting in the Sierra Foothills
• Artezin Wines: Currently they share the tasting room at the Hess Collection in Napa Valley. The art collection and the gardens at Hess are amazing.
• Gustafson Family Vineyards: At the northern end of Dry Creek Valley, Gustafson takes an effort to get there. Friendly staff, beautiful setting and an interesting building, not to mention the wines, make the drive worthwhile.
• Ridge Vineyards (specifically liked the Dynamite Hill Petite Sirah): Probably the most interesting architecture for a winery and tasting room, very eco-friendly.
• Sones Cellars (specifically liked the Santa Cruz Mountains Petite Sirah): Very small tasting room on the west side of Santa Cruz, with other tasting rooms and restaurants around. Small tasting room, but big heart.
• Theopolis Vineyards: Sorry, we had never been there, never heard of it before this event, but liked the wine!
• Tres Sabores Winery: Napa Valley, old house, cave cellar, biodynamic vineyards with animals running around (pea hens and sheep are what I remember).

Silent auction at Dark and Delicious

Silent auction at Dark and Delicious

The event also features a silent auction as a fund raiser for the organization. You can usually find great deals if you look hard enough, and then guard your bid. This year it was a vertical of Carol Shelton Winery Rockpile Petite Sirah, from 2009, 2010 and 2011. We’ll let that sit for another year or so, then open together. Interestingly enough, we didn’t get to taste any of the Carol Shelton Petite Sirah at the event, however, we’ll go on faith and reputation of the winery and vineyard. We’ll let you know how it tastes when we open the bottles!

Vertical of Carol Shelton Rockpile Reserve Petit Sirah

Vertical of Carol Shelton Rockpile Reserve Petit Sirah

L’Chaim,

Larry

Superbowl Zin Party

Superbowl, that annual American holiday. We had a few friends over; we finally got rid of the old (15 years old!) big box low-def TV and got a nice high-def one. At least the embarrassment of the old TV is gone. Lori decided to go with a casual buffet:

Hummus and carrots
Salsa and chips
7-layer dip and chips
Spinach dip (chips, carrots, …)
Chili (crock pot chili with turkey, chicken, black beans, zucchini, and more)
BBQ chicken sliders (brought by friends)
Make your own banana split, including homemade strawberry sauce

Superbowl spread, including Ridge Geyserville Zin blend and A. Rafanelli Zinfandel

Superbowl spread, including Ridge Geyserville Zin blend and A. Rafanelli Zinfandel

I think we had enough food to feed our block, instead of the few friends we had over. I had pulled out a couple of Zinfandels, and our friends, without being told, also brought a bottle of Zin; we opened two of the three:

Ridge 2006 “Geyserville” (70% Zinfandel, 18% Carignane, 10% Petite Sirah, 2% Mataro)
A. Rafanelli 2012 Zinfandel, Dry Creek Valley

The Ridge Geyserville is an blend produced each year by Ridge, which is usually between 65 and 75% Zinfandel. Most of the grapes come from the Dry Creek and Alexander Valleys, right around the town of Geyserville; thus the name of the wine. (There I go talking about blends again. This one from Ridge is anything but a low end wine.)

The wines were all excellent. Perfect with chili and bbq chicken sliders and all the rest. The game, and the commercials were good this year. On the commercial side, at least there weren’t many cringe-inducing commercials, and a few good ones. The Fiat commercial with the little blue pill sticks in my mind as one of the good ones. Fortunately I can’t remember any of the bad ones.

L’Chaim,

Larry