Category Archives: wine tasting

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

Top 100 Wines and Restaurants; Christmas and Kinky Boots

I don’t usually pay too much attention to serious top 10 or top 100 lists, especially for wine and food. However, the lists that I do look forward to each year are those from the San Francisco Chronicle. I’ve found over the years that my tastes are usually pretty well in line with these critics; it’s pretty rare that I’ve had a sub-par experience going off one of these lists.

On Christmas we were invited to a friend’s house to join their family and friends celebration, and we brought a bottle of Winemaker B’s Armida 2012 Chardonnay, Stuhlmuller Vineyard, Alexander Valley. I had last tasted this in the barrel nearly 2 years ago, and had been waiting to taste this from the bottle, since another winery’s Chardonnay – same vineyard, same year – had made this year’s Chronicle top 100 wine list. Well, I haven’t tried that Chardonnay, but I can tell you that the Armida Chardonnay was delicious. And the Christmas party was great fun, with some great food. And wine.

The next day Lori and I went into San Francisco to see a matinee showing of the musical Kinky Boots. We love live theater, we had enjoyed the movie when it first came out 8 or so years ago, and the musical (by Harvey Fierstein and Cyndi Lauper) had won multiple Tony awards. It was a lot of fun, with the audience even clapping along to a couple of the songs.

Afterwards we wandered around wasting time before our dinner reservation, and found a wine bar and shop, Arlequin, where we could sit outside and have a glass. Lori had a Sangiovese blend from Tuscany (La Mozza, Morellino de Scansano, 2012), while I had a Melon de Bourgogne (Luneau-Papin, Loire 2012). When I think of white wine from the Loire region, I’m thinking of Sauvignon Blanc, but this is not anything like that. Melon de Bourgogne is the grape varietal used to make Muscadet wines. (Interesting side note: Muscadet is the only wine made in France that is neither called by its region nor by its grape varietal.) I found it to be closer to white Rhone wines, like Viognier, than to Sauvignon Blanc, but with a less floral nose and more acid. Quite nice actually. Lori seemed to enjoy her wine as well, which was a blend of 85% Sangiovese with Syrah and Alicante, with a few percent of others thrown in. Very much a Sangiovese to be sipped while sitting on the sidewalk and watching the world go by.

For dinner we had reservations at Lers Ros, a Chronicle top 100 restaurant that does Thai food. Wow. We like Thai food, and there are a few good restaurants in our area. But nothing like this. The soup, the prawns and asparagus, the green papaya salad took this cuisine to a new level for us.

L’Chaim,

Larry

When Should You Open That Bottle?

One of the biggest questions with wine is How long to let the wine age? There are some rules of thumb, or maybe they’re more in the realm of urban legend. Such as drinking whites right away, and letting most red wines age for a couple of years, and letting Cabernet Sauvignon age for at least 10 years.

What happens when wine ages? From a technical perspective, a bit of oxygen sneaks in through the cork, and then CHEMISTRY happens. From a taste perspective, this can have the effect of softening some of the bolder, fruit flavors that are more typical of a younger wine. In the best cases, when this really works, softening the big fruit flavors allows more subtlety, more complexity to express itself in the wine. In other cases, that complexity is not there to begin with, and and when the fruit flavors soften the wine just tastes a bit flat. And even with the wines that will age, there does come a point when it’s aged too much, and the wine loses its balance between fruit, acid, aroma etc.

Also, to be clear, there are a lot of wines, probably the majority of wines made, that are meant to be consumed within the first couple of years after harvest and bottling. Moreover, screw cap closures are helping wines maintain that fresh, fruity, just-bottled taste by not letting any oxygen into the bottle, so chemistry is not happening with those bottles.

For those wines that you’re thinking about buying and aging, the advice from the wine industry is to buy a case and drink a bottle every so often – every year, or two years, or whatever seems to make sense – so that you can understand how the wine is aging and make sure to drink as much of the case as possible as near to the peak of the wine as possible. Well, that simply isn’t practical for most of us, including Lori and I. The cost, and the storage capacity, just aren’t reasonable.

My first rule of thumb is never buy wine to age from a winery that I’m not familiar with. You could view this as a chicken and egg problem: how to figure out if their wine ages well if you can’t buy a bottle? Typically wineries make a variety of wines, and not all of them are meant to age. If you like the style of the winery/winemaker, go ahead and take a chance on some wine to lay down for a few years. Second, taste the wine you’re interested in investing in. If you don’t like it now, it’s unlikely to taste that much better to you to justify your investment.

As to when to open a bottle, if you can buy more than one, you could get some idea of how it’s aging as you go. However, if you’re making an investment in this wine, the thing to do is to open it for either a special occasion, or with friends and family that will appreciate the wine. Hopefully those two conditions have significant overlap. We’ve had that happen recently, and have opened some older bottles. Here are some tasting notes:

Peachy Canyon 2004 Old School House Zinfandel in the decanter.

Peachy Canyon 2004 Old School House Zinfandel in the decanter.

2004 Peachy Canyon Zinfandel, Old School House Vineyard, Paso Robles: One thing that happens with older wines is that they can collect sediment; various things coming together and crystallizing in the wine. More oxygen also helps the wine. And decanters make serving the wine more elegant. So decant your older wines. As far as Zinfandel not aging well, it’s a good rule of thumb, as most Zins aren’t built to age well. This one was built that way, and was delicious at the 10 year point. Probably doesn’t have much longer to age. But excellent a few weeks ago.

2004 Soquel Vineyards Zinfandel, Schmierer Vineyard, California: The winery is in the Santa Cruz Mountains, but these grapes are from a vineyard in Lodi, and this vineyard is more than 100 years old. Normally I wouldn’t expect a Lodi Zin to age well – Lodi Zins can be great when young – but in the hands of a really good winemaker, this wine has done just as well as the Peachy Canyon Zin.

2001 Archery Summit Winery Pinot Noir, Archery Summit Estate Cuvée, Oregon: Good Pinot Noir, like good French Burgandy, does age well. This bottle was a bit over the hill; not bad, but not what we hoped for.

2004 Goldeneye Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley: Very nice bottle of wine, with still a lot of fruit flavor up front. Will at least hold on for another few years at this level, and maybe get a bit better.

2010 Armida Winery Sauvignon Blanc, Russian River Valley: Sauvignon Blanc is usually built to drink now. However, some of the best Sauvignon Blanc – French white Bordeaux, or wines from the Loire region – will age nicely. This wine started its life as an excellent Sauvignon Blanc, with big fruit flavors, crisp texture from good acids, great nose. We’ve opened a couple of bottles in the last few months, and it’s even better now. The big fruit has been toned down, the balance of the wine is better, and the real quality of the grapes is coming through. I wouldn’t recommend aging most Sauvignon Blanc, and really this was not done purposefully on our part (too many other Sauv Blancs to drink kept these from being opened), but what a great accident!

L’Chaim,

Larry

Santa Lucia Highlands – First Impressions

On the way down to the Wine Bloggers Conference in July, the 7th annual one of these, we decided to stop in the Santa Lucia Highlands (SLH) and do some wine tasting. In the past, every time we drove down the 101 highway we would drive by this area and say “Some day we need to visit this area.” We’ve tasted wines from this region at various events, or from wineries outside the region that buy grapes from the SLH region, but had never visited any of the wineries. Instead of “Shame on us,” it was now “Finally we stopped.”

The old windmill on the Pessagno Winery property harkens back to the agriculture history of the region.

The old windmill on the Pessagno Winery property harkens back to the agriculture history of the region.

SLH is in Monterey County, but inland, on the hillsides of the Santa Lucia mountain range overlooking the Salinas Valley. This valley runs essentially east-west, similar to the Santa Rita Hills (SRH) area in Santa Barbara County, and similar to the SRH AVA gets ocean breezes to keep the temperature down during the day. This area benefits from a long growing season, with early bud break and late harvests. Maybe a closer comparison would be to the Corralitos area at the southern end of the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA, which has very similar characteristics, and specializes in the same grapes: Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

The tasting room at Pessagno Winery has a turntable with a nice collection of old LPs.

The tasting room at Pessagno Winery has a turntable with a nice collection of old LPs.

The first winery we visited was Pessagno Winery. In the photo above you see one of the reasons we’ll be returning: the turntable and the vinyl albums. Gerre (pronounced like “Jerry”), who was behind the tasting bar for us, is a huge Eric Clapton fan, and a Clapton greatest hits album was on. (Which brought up the question of the Derek and the Dominoes version of “Layla” versus the Clapton Unplugged version, but we hadn’t had enough wine yet to really get into that discussion.) We started tasting through the lineup of Pessagno wines, including Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs, which is what the SLH region is known for. At the end, there were a couple of Zinfandels, made from grapes purchased in the adjacent San Benito County. We really enjoyed the 2011 Zinfandel from Idyll Times Vineyard, and bought a couple of bottles.

View of the Salinas Valley from the Hahn Estate tasting room.

View of the Salinas Valley from the Hahn Estate tasting room.

The second winery we visited was Hahn Estates. This is a much bigger winery – around 300,000 cases per year versus 5,000 for Pessagno – with a few different labels that they make and distribute wine under. The tasting room is very nice, and they have a lot of the wines available for tasting. You can choose which ones to taste, 6 to a flight, with the fee waived upon purchase. With wines available starting at $14 each, it’s not hard to choose a bottle and waive the fee. Just like at Pessagno, the Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs were not our favorites. Instead, we left with a bottle of the 2012 Hahn Winery Chef’s Cuvée from Paso Robles, a blend of the white Rhone varietals Marsanne, Roussanne, Grenache Blanc, and Viognier. While we really liked this wine, the best reason to visit Hahn is the view, which is spectacular. With a great deck and tables outside, think about bringing your lunch, grabbing a bottle and enjoying the day.

The terrace at the Hahn Estate tasting room is a great place to enjoy a glass of wine.

The terrace at the Hahn Estate tasting room is a great place to enjoy a glass of wine.

If you’re not bringing your lunch to Hahn or another winery, try El Camarón in Soledad for lunch. This Mexican restaurant specializes in seafood (camarón is shrimp in Spanish), and makes a few different versions of ceviche. I got a shrimp ceviche, Lori got a chicken tostada, and we both went away feeling very happy (and full).

L’Chaim,

Larry

Armida Winery 2014 Harvest Update

Lori and I went to Armida recently to check in with Winemaker B regarding the upcoming harvest. We also brought his kids to the winery and had lunch on the deck. Maybe the best picnic location in Sonoma County. The picnic was enhanced greatly by a glass of the 2013 Armida Sauvignon Blanc, the first vintage from their new estate vineyard. This Sauvignon Blanc is already receiving accolades from various sources, and was light, fresh, crisp and fruity when we had it. This new estate vineyard, in addition to the conventional Sauvignon Blanc clones, has the Sauvignon Musqué clone, which provides some interesting new flavors and different nose. It still tastes/smells like Sauvignon Blanc, but with some subtle and enjoyable differences.

Regarding the 2014 harvest, the fifth for Winemaker B running the show at Armida, he’s cautiously optimistic. Harvest is starting early, which is a chain reaction from a warmer and dryer winter, resulting in earlier bud break, resulting in earlier start to the harvest by about 2 weeks. Earlier harvest is not a negative though, it’s just that the grapes are ready. In fact, the hang time for the grapes is effectively the same as for a normal year. Also, the lack of water with the drought this year will stress the vines, which can produce higher quality grapes. So cautious optimism going into harvest.

View of the new "wedding deck" at Armida Winery.

View of the new “wedding deck” at Armida Winery.

It was also interesting at Armida to see some of the facilities improvements and additions that they’ve made. First is a new deck, separate from the original deck, perfect for wedding ceremonies. And second is a renovation of the upstairs area from the tasting room, which now includes an area for private tastings. And while this doesn’t exactly fall under facilities improvements, Armida has been making wine and bottling it for Fender (the guitar folks), and there is a nice little display in the tasting room.

Display of Fender guitars, and Fender wine, at Armida Winery.

Display of Fender guitars, and Fender wine, at Armida Winery.

With the great wines and the great view, this is one of the best tasting experiences in the wine country.

L’Chaim,

Larry

Merlot Tasting at WBC14

Merlot has an interesting history. Most closely related to Cabernet Franc, Merlot is extensively planted in the Bordeaux region, and is the predominant grape in the so-called “Right Bank” area, particularly in the regions of Pomerol and Saint-Émilion. One of the reasons for having so much Merlot planted in France is that Merlot typically ripens 2-4 weeks before Cabernet Sauvignon, resulting in Merlot getting to ripeness every year in France, where Cab grapes don’t always get to full ripeness. There is actually more Merlot planted in France than Cabernet Sauvignon, and it’s not even close. The different levels of ripeness, as well as the other varying characteristics of the Bordeaux grapes (taste, nose, body, color, …), allows/enables/demands blending of the grapes to get the best results.

In the U.S., Merlot is the second most purchased wine behind Cabernet Sauvignon, even after the negative effect of the movie Sideways. (See the clip at the end of this post for a reminder.) This high standing with U.S. consumers is most likely due to Merlot not being made to be as full bodied and tannic as Cabernet Sauvignon, therefore being very accessible to U.S. wine drinkers. However, in the movie Sideways and in the wine industry press, Merlot was characterized as soft and flabby and not fit for a real wine connoisseur to drink. This is in contrast to the Merlot-based wines of Bordeaux, which include some of the great Bordeaux wines.

At the recent Wine Bloggers Conference, we had the opportunity to taste both styles of Merlot. (I’m not sure if that was the intention, or if everyone else had the same impression from the tasting, but this is my take on it.) Participating in the tasting were Rutherford Hill Winery and Duckhorn Vineyards. Both of these wineries have been in business for about 40 years, making them veterans of Napa Valley.

Merlot tasting at Wine Bloggers Conference, 2014

Merlot tasting at Wine Bloggers Conference, 2014

Merlot is the flagship wine for Rutherford Hill, comprising about 75% of their production. Almost all their grapes are estate grown. We tasted three of their 2010 wines:
• Napa Valley Merlot: a blend from different vineyards and grapes, which is primarily Merlot, but also has some other grapes
• Atlas Peak Vineyard: 100% Merlot
• Club Cuvèe: also a blend, however this is primarily from Pope Valley, and is 90% Merlot (only available for purchase at the winery, only available in magnums)

Merlot is one of the signature wines from Duckhorn. All their grapes are estate grown, and we tasted three from their 2011 vintage:
• Stout Vineyard (Howell Mountain AVA): 3.5% Cabernet Sauvignon
• Rector Creek Vineyard (Yountville AVA): 25% Cabernet Sauvignon
• Three Palms Vineyard (Calistoga AVA): 9% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Cabernet Franc

As a reminder, a wine needs to be a minimum of 75% of a varietal to be called that varietal on the label. So all the blends here qualify to be called “Merlot”.

This tasting reminded me that Merlot can be a wonderful wine. However, just like every other wine, make sure you know what you personally like and are looking for in a wine, and don’t let a movie or popular trends dictate your wine drinking habits. If you want to know my favorite(s) from this tasting, leave a comment for the blog and I’ll respond.

Sideways clip re Merlot

If you’re interested, October is “MerlotMe” month, including a special tasting in San Francisco mid-month.

L’Chaim,

Larry

Our First Time Tasting Pinot Noir

Being at the Wine Bloggers Conference in the Santa Ynez Valley (Santa Barbara County) this past weekend got me thinking about our long ago time living in the area and tasting Santa Ynez Valley wines. Lori and I lived here from 1982 – 1985, and again 1990-1991. We came here with one son, born just before moving here the first time, with the second one born in the middle of our first stay in the area.

There are many memories from our stays, but one that stands out is our first time tasting Pinot Noir. Not just our first time tasting Pinot Noir in the Santa Barbara area, but our first time ever tasting Pinot Noir.

While I started drinking good wine relatively young – thank you Father and Uncle – most of the wine was Cabernet Sauvignon and other Bordeaux varietals and blends. Pinot Noir, even though it was being grown in California, in the Carneros district, just wasn’t around. Then, when Lori and I were living in upstate New York, in the Finger Lakes region, we enjoyed the cold weather white wines that are made there. Still no Pinot Noir.

Sometime early in that 1982-1985 period we visited the Sanford and Benedict Winery, which was the only winery on the west side of the 101 highway, closer to the ocean, in what is now the Santa Rita Hills (SRH) AVA. We rolled up, put the baby (the future Winemaker B) in the baby carrier on my back, and walked into the barn that served as their winery. There was no electricity, and so wines were made strictly with gravity flow techniques, with the barn kept cool by running water over the roof of the barn. Michael Benedict was there, and walked us through a couple of fantastic Pinot Noirs, teaching us about Pinot Noir in general, and their Pinot Noir specifically.

It was romantic and idealistic in a back-to-nature sort of way, the wines were wonderful, and we had spent an hour chatting with a winemaker instead of at the counter of a tasting room. Voila! Pinot Noir was added to the range of wines that were really special in my heart.

By the way, that area, the SRH AVA, has now become one of the best areas for Pinot Noir in the world. See my Pinot Noir Heaven post.

L’Chaim,

Larry

Pinot Noir Heaven

I thought I’d died and gone to Pinot Noir heaven! A few nights ago during the Wine Bloggers Conference, I got on a bus with 20 other bloggers for a journey to an unknown destination. 15 minutes later we were at the Melville Vineyards and Winery estate, for a few hours of Pinot Noir heaven.

pinot_melville
Melville Vineyards and Winery Estate

We started with a vineyard talk from Chad Melville, one of the two sons of the founder involved with the vineyard and winery. Interesting talk, from one of the top Pinot Noir producers in the Santa Rita Hills (SRH) AVA in Santa Barbara County. They use some different trellising, pruning and canopy management techniques. However, the primary factors influencing the grapes are the climate — the east-west running valleys that bring in the cool air from the ocean — and the soils.

pinot_sanford
Richard Sanford giving a toast after dinner

We finished with a great meal in the Melville tasting room, with halibut and pork paired with the great wines we had, and then walking out to a full moon over the vineyards.

In between, there was the tasting. Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from eight different SRH wineries, with wines from 2007, 2009 and their current release, usually 2012. Here is the lineup of wineries and representatives:

• Alma Rosa Winery and Vineyards: Richard Sanford (owner/winemaker and the SRH pioneer grower and winermaker)
• ampelos cellars:
• Babcock Winery and Vineyards: Bryan Babcock (owner/winemaker and SRH pioneer grower)
• Brewer-Clifton Winery: Greg Brewer and Chrystal Clifton
• Carr Vineyards and Winery: Ryan and Jessica Carr
• Lafond Winery and Vineyards: Bruce McGuire (winemaker for Lafond and Santa Barbara Wineries since 1981)
• Melville Vineyards and Winery: Chad Melville (owner/evangelist)
• Zotovich Cellars:

What an incredible lineup of wines, and the people talking about them! Nothing against the Chardonnays, but if I was going to make it through the Pinot Noirs still standing (even sipping and spitting) I had to be focused. Some Pinot Noir highlights for me and my specific tastes:

2007 Alma Rosa, La Encatada Vineyard
2009 Babcock, Ocean’s Ghost Vineyard
2009 Melville, Estate Pinot Noir
2007 Brewer-Clifton, Mount Carmel Vineyard

Pinot Noir, well-made and aging, just beautiful and delicious and balanced. The 2012s were in general pretty good, but still young. Give them a few years.

pinot_carr
Jessica and Ryan Carr

A special mention should also go to the 2007 Carr Pinot Gris. Carr doesn’t make a Chardonnay, and so brought Pinot Gris instead, and there was a tuna tartare being passed right when I went to try the Pinot Gris. Delicious pairing! Who would have thought that Pinot Gris could last for 7 years?

What a night. Pinched myself a few times to make sure it wasn’t a dream.

L’Chaim,

Larry

Wine Bloggers Conference 2014

We are getting ready for another road trip. This time we are heading down south to Buellton which is in Santa Barbara County. It’s about 1/2 hour north from Santa Barbara. We are heading there specifically to attend the Wine Bloggers Conference 2014, #wbc14. We went to the first and second wine bloggers conference when they were held up in Santa Rosa. The first year, 2009, they concentrated on the wines from Sonoma County and in 2010 they concentrated on the wines from Napa Valley. We had so much fun and met so many nice and interesting people. This year we are very much looking forward to learning more about the Santa Barbara County wines. We will be doing a lot of tasting wine, pairing wine with food, wine blogging, learning and networking with other wine bloggers.

We are leaving Dublin on Thursday and stopping along the way at two wineries in the Central Coast region. More on those in a later post. We are going to be staying at the Santa Ynez Valley Marriott and going out to dinner at Mirabelle Restaurant in Solvang. This restaurant was suggested highly to us by my brother-in-law. After 2-1/2 days at the conference we will end our stay in Buelleton by watching the final Wold Cup game. Once that game is over then we will be heading up to San Luis Obispo to the Granada Hotel. This is a small boutique hotel near the center of town. There we will be celebrating our 34th wedding anniversary. We will most likely have dinner in the bistro at the hotel. On Monday we will drive back up to Dublin stopping at one or two wineries along the way.

Cheers,

Lori