Ridge Blogger Tasting - Me vs. the Typewriter

Last weekend I attended the last Ridge Bloggers Tasting of 2011. We were given this picture hint as to the theme of the tasting:

I thought to myself, if we are going to go from live Twitter-fall to tasting notes on typewriters, this is going to be interesting. I arrived at Ridge Monte Bello on a Sunday afternoon in December to see 4 typewriters from Tasting Room Manager and Host Christopher Watkins' personal collections, plus the usual group of Bloggers on ipads and iphones, and of course, the live Twitter-fall. Our entry fee for the tasting was that everyone had to compose a tasting note on the typewriter. I had never used one before so I was excited. Here I am in action:

(Notice the gadget next to me - it's not an iPad but a Kindle Fire. Not to go off on a tangent, but the most shocking omission from the Fire's design is the lack of a notepad feature. So since my typewriter skills are sub par I took the bulk of my notes in an email composed to myself on the Fire.)

The reason for this theme was a throwback to the early Monte Bello Ridge property owners and the culmination of the Ridge we now know today. Ridge has just released the first vintages of these original-property-specific wines from three family properties that Ridge now owns (Torre, Perrone, and Klein), including the current Monte Bello site where we sat.

After an aperitif of Ridge Estate Chardonnay 2008, my favorite California Chardonnay, we began tasting the components.

First we had the 2009 Ridge Klein Cabernet Sauvignon. It was classic Monte Bello Cab with eucalyptus and mint, plus woodsy, herbal notes. The fruit was muted and the wine was silky smooth on the palate.

Next was the 2009 Ridge Torre Ranch Merlot. This wine seemed to be having an identity crisis of whether it was Merlot or Cab. It was closed on the nose but fruity and leathery on the palate, and much more tannic than the Cab. The fruit indicated Merlot but structurally it leaned more in the Cab direction.

Finally we tasted the 2009 Perrone Cabernet Franc, which was my favorite of the three. It was very rich, with deep fruit, fresh raspberry, warm spice and some herbal notes.

All the wines had great acidity and you could imagine how well they would play together.

Next we did an estate blend vertical from the years 2003, 2004, and 2005. These are Ridge wines from the Santa Cruz Mountains blended from the above-mentioned grape varietals in varying quantities from year to year.

The 2003 had a gorgeous nose of cinnamon, clove, a bit of cornbread and some vegetal characteristics. On the palate there was nice fruit and spice, but the tannins could use some further aging to soften.

The 2004 smelled a little funky and like creamed corn. On the palate it was herbal with firm tannins. Chris explained that for some unknown reason the wines produced in even vintage years tend to be a bit funkier than the odd vintage years.

The 2005 had a more floral nose and was brighter and fruitier than the previous two, but the tannins were very grippy and need some time to smooth out in the cellar.

For a treat, fellow blogger Allan brought a mystery wine for us to try. He mentioned it came from his cellar of Ridge treasures (which is vast and includes many member's-only releases). I guessed it was a Syrah-based wine, due to the smoky, chocolate, dark fruit characteristics that I found in the wine. It was delicious, but I was wrong - it was a 1994 single vineyard Zinfandel from the Monte Rosso property in Sonoma Valley that Ridge produced that one and only year.  There is only 1 case left in the Ridge Library, and Allan shared one of his two bottles with us. I am very thankful to have tasted this rare wine. Thanks again, Allan!

As always, a trip to Ridge Monte Bello is extremely rewarding and reinforces my love for wine and the industry. Ridge wines are always unique and interesting, and their potential for aging is remarkable. Thanks again to Christopher for hosting these fantastic events and inviting me.

For more posts and pictures from this event: 
A Ridge Blog
http://blog.ridgewine.com/2011/12/20/for-those-about-to-type-we-salute-you/

Come for the Wine

http://comeforthewine.blogspot.com/2011/12/ridge-monte-bello-blogger-tasting.html

Stay Rad Wine Blog

http://stayradwineblog.com/2011/12/11/pinky-strength-the-ridgevineyards-blogger-tasting/

Give Me Grapes

http://www.givemegrapes.com/2011/12/vintage-bloggers-wine-tasting.html

My past posts on 2011 Ridge Blogger Tastings:

First Bloggers Tasting:

http://iheartnywines.blogspot.com/2011/03/ridge-bloggers-tasting.html

Second Bloggers Tasting:

http://iheartnywines.blogspot.com/2011/06/ridge-bloggers-tasting-2-monte-bello.html

Wine PR

Last week at work some reps from PR Newswire hosted a wine reception to tell us more about their services. What a great idea, PR Newswire! Right up my alley. I learned more than I ever thought I knew about PR Newswire and tasted some nice wines as well. They brought a rep from The Wine Club, a great wine shop in SOMA near the San Francisco Wine Center, to tell us about the wines. He put together a little California vs. Spain tasting that was very interesting.

Whites:

Georis 2009 Sauvignon Blanc, Monterey/CA - This was an oaked SB and tasted more like a light California Chardonnay. Still lots of acidity and zest but very smooth from the oak. Blindfolded or not I could swear it was Chardonnay each time I sipped it. Shows how much winemaking can affect varietal character.

Pazo Senorans 2010 Albarino, Rias Baixas/Spain - Classic Albarino with bright herbal fruit and crisp acidity. Very pleasant.

Reds:

Tablas Creek Vineyard 2010 Patelin de Tablas, Syrah/Grenache/Mourvedre/Counoise blend, Paso Robles/CA - From our host's description I wanted to like this wine more than I actually did. I thought it was thin and harsh and tasted like cough medicine.

Celler Pinol 2008 Sa Natura, Carinena/Merlot/Cab Sauv/Syrah/Tempranillo blend, Priorat/Spain - This wine was rich, deep and big with lush dark fruit and firm tannin. I could see this aging well for several more years. For a big wine I often look to Priorat, but I do caution that the alcohol tends to be high in these wines.

Obviously and unsurprisingly, Spain won it for me.  Thank you to Blueshirt, PR Newswire, and The Wine Club!

The Gift that Keeps on Giving

I keep going back to this wine. At the Wine & Spirits Top 100 Tasting, I did a trade with the reps at Loimer next to the Wiemer booth and got this bottle of Gruner Veltliner. I opened it before Thanksgiving to have with a roast chicken dinner, and it was a very nice wine, the best GruVe I've had. GruVe is usually an herbaceous, citrusy, crisp wine, but the nose and flavors can be muted sometimes. The Loimer is concentrated and has a nice tropical nose with citrus and herbs to boot. Since this wine is in a screwcap bottle, it can keep for a while. I've had a glass here and there for the last 2 weeks and it's good every time, very versatile with a lot of different dishes. I finished off the bottle the other night with some dungeness crabs that I had gotten at the grocery store for dinner (now in season, $6.99/lb!) and it was a perfect pairing!

Giving thanks to Leonetti

This Thanksgiving I got to try 2 bottles of 1996 Leonetti Cellars Walla Walla Cabernet Sauvignon. The corks were difficult to extract, so both bottles were decanted. The first was actually decanted with a significant amount of cork pieces, so we then filtered it through coffee filters (yes, it's the one in the coffee pot). The second bottle was a little easier to open so we decanted it without any floaters. I was so curious to try both wines and see if there was a difference, and there was! The non-filtered version was much brighter and fruitier. The filtered one lacked that vibrancy. I tried the filtered one first, and don't get me wrong, it was delicious. But then when I tried the non-filtered one it tasted even better. When I was working at Wiemer, Fred the winemaker taught me that everything you do to a wine robs it of some character - every racking, every filtering. This could have been one such example of the truth in his words. (But in a finished wine like this, there is always the chance of bottle variation, especially in wines that have aged.)

I like how Leonetti's labels say "Appellation American." Happy Thanksgiving!

Tomato Ridge

Recently I had an unfortunate wine experience. I went to a tasting with a few California wine lovers who know wine and spend a lot of money on wine. Gordon Getty was there - former owner of the Getty gas stations before he sold them to Texaco in the 80s. He now has his hands in a few wine labels, restaurants, resorts and the like. I was late to the tasting so by the time I got there everyone was pretty tipsy, but I served my wine (blind of course) and it tasted like tomatoes. Tomato sauce, really. Wine tasting of tomato sauce may indicate a wine fault known as reduction, which means there is the presence of volatile sulfur compounds. Specifically, dimethyl sulfide may be the culprit behind tomato aromas. These volatile sulfur compounds can manifest in the fermentation process, from the yeasts being stressed or from lack of nitrogen or oxygen. At low thresholds these compounds can be desirable, resulting in aromas of fruit, flowers or minerality, contributing to the varietal character of certain wines, like Sauvignon Blanc, but of course, sometimes they can be off-putting.

This tomato wine was Ridge Paso Robles 2002, a zinfandel-based blend. Lucky for me, I had planned a trip to Ridge Lytton Springs in the Russian River Valley the next day, so I brought the bottle and they gave me a replacement from the current vintage, 2009, no questions asked. I'm going to age it a bit before drinking it, maybe for 7 years so I can do a more accurate comparison.

At Ma Peche, the Mother of all Pairings

On a recent business trip to NYC (I now visit NYC and stay in hotels, very different from being a resident there) I had dinner at Ma Peche, part of the Momofuku restaurant empire. Intending to just have 1 glass of wine, we ended up doing a light 3-course meal with a different wine for each course. My choices were semi random, not being at all familiar with the restaurant and cuisine, but they all ended up working out perfectly. It was really fun to try a new place and sample the wine list this way. Here are the pairings we did:

First Course
Summer rolls - pork/shrimp/tofu, lettuce, daikon, peanut
Scallop - coffee, brown butter, lime
Wine: Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon blend, Jean Medeville et fils, Bordeaux, France

Second Course
Beef tartare - soy, scallion, mint
Lamb corn dog - mustard, lamb's lettuce, pickle
Wine: Syrah, Chateau Maris 'Natural Selection,' Minervois La Liviniere, Languedoc, France

Third Course
Cheese plate of Moses Sleeper (Jasper Hill, VT), Prairie Breeze (Milton Creamery, IA), Caveman Blue (Rogue Creamery, OR)
Wines*: Touriga National Blend Ruby Port, Quinta de Honor, Portugal
Tinta Negra Mole, Henriques & Henriques, 'Rainwater,' Madeira, Portugal
*Between these two, the pairings differed depending on the cheese, but overall we enjoyed the Madeira more.

I think only wine geeks really care about food and wine pairing, but I find it pretty exciting to find that perfect combination without trying too hard. Case in point, I guess :)

Wine & Spirits' Grand Tasting

Last month my friend Oskar visited from the Finger Lakes and invited me to join him at the Wine & Spirits Top 100 Tasting, honoring the San Francisco-based magazine's chosen top 100 wineries of the year. Hermann J. Wiemer Vineyard was honored for the 3rd year in a row, and I got to accompany Oskar as a representative of the winery. Going to industry tastings is always more fun with 2 people - you can share the responsibility of pouring the wine while having the chance to walk around and taste the other wines.

The best part was the Champagne and oysters section on the veranda of City View at METREON in downtown/SoMa San Francisco - great views and delicious indulgences. I tried Dom Perignon for the first time (it was ok; I've had better for cheaper) and sampled some other great names like Louis Roederer.

In the Riesling family, in addition to Wiemer's 2010 Gewurztraminer and 2009 Late Harvest Riesling, wines that I proudly helped produce, I enjoyed Joh. Jos. Prum's 2009 Mosel Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spatlese (Germany), a similar style to our Late Harvest Riesling, and Loimer's 2009 Kamptal Reserve Langenlois Steinmassl Riesling and 2010 Kamptal Gruner Veltliner (Austria). I love this simple green label:

Again I sampled R. Lopez de Heredia's 1993 Rioja Reserva Vina Tondonia Blanco, the white Rioja I first had at San Francisco Wine Center over the summer; this is such an interesting wine. I also had their 2001 Rioja Reserva Vina Tondonia Tinto, the red version. Delicious Spanish wines.

Other notable reds included Leonetti Cellar's 2008 Walla Walla Valley Cabernet Sauvignon and 2009 Walla Walla Valley Merlot. I've had older Leonetti vintages and they have been divine, so it was nice to try the current releases and see what the wine is like in its youth. I also enjoyed Achaval-Ferrer's 2008 La Consulta Uco Valley Finca Altamira Malbec. I visited this winery during my trip to Mendoza last year but I hadn't tried this single vineyard Malbec.

I had fun bumping into Mary Burnham and Jordan Mackay, wine writers and instructors at SFWC wine school.

And as always, it was great pouring Wiemer to adoring fans from around the country.

Other coverage:
http://www.vinography.com/archives/2011/10/whats_your_best_wine_tasting_t.html

The Stars of Champagne @ SFWC

The stars aligned last night @ San Francisco Wine Center as we gathered with Mary Burnham, freelance food and wine writer and author of Food & Wine Magazine’s 2012 Guide to Wine. Mary taught us about the prized region of Champagne, France, and why the soil, grapes, and climate are so important in making Champagne. We learned about how Champagne is made, why the second fermentation is so important, and what effect the dead yeast cells, or lees, have on the taste of Champagne. During the tasting, we enjoyed a broad range of large house Champagnes and special grower Champagnes. Most of the large houses in Champagne buy grapes from different sources in the area and then blend for a consistent style every year. Grower Champagnes are made from producers who grow their own grapes and might sell some to the large houses and use some for their own production. These wines were really special, and everyone enjoyed the lineup. It was amazing to taste the different styles, compare vintage and non-vintage, and experience different vintages. Hats off to Brian for creating an exceptional tasting!

The wines:

1.            Pierre Peters Brut Cuvee Reserve Grand Cru 

2.            Laurent Perrier Brut 1996

3.            Hubert Paulet Brut Premier Cru 1999

4.            Chartogne-Taillet Brut VV 2002 

5.            Gaston Chiquet Brut Cart d’Or 2002 

6.            Vilmart Cuvee Grand Cellier d’Or 2005 

7.            Ayala Rose Majeur

8.            Krug Brut Rose 

The Krug Brut Rose was a very special bottle, and I am a sucker for pink bubbly so I loved it. My favorite though was the Chartogne-Taillet, which was toasty and creamy with great complexity and bright acidity. 

Thanks to Mary for a fantastic education in all things bubbly!

Gewurz and Go-Wiemer

A couple of weeks ago we went back up to the Finger Lakes to visit our friends at Wiemer Vineyard. As guests, we were given the royal treatment and put up on the 3rd floor of the winery barn, which doubles as Maressa's jewelry studio and a guest room. It was amazing to sleep in the winery, enveloped in that combination of smells that I love so much - wine, fermentation, wood. It was also really strange to wake up to Fred giving instructions to the German interns for the day's events. I felt like I was late for work and should be down there getting my assignment. Same time as last year, they are in the middle of bottling. It has been an amazing year so far at Wiemer, and many of the 2009 wines are already sold out. As happy I am for their success and for all those who are drinking those wines, this made me sad to hear since I was so involved in that vintage and it is almost gone now. But the 2010's hold a lot of promise too, and I got to try the Gewurztraminer, which was just released. The Gewurz was the hardest sort of the 2010 vintage because of the pesky grape berry moth that invaded the vineyards and pecked away at the grapes. We spent hours upon hours sorting these pink grapes, making sure none of the bad ones made it into the press.

The result: 2010 Gewurz is beautifully scented, concentrated and full on the palate, and downright delicious. Our hard work paid off!

We took a stroll through the vineyards and saw all the work that had been done over the spring. The tree lines were moved back to help control pests entering the vineyard, and unused land is being prepared for new plantings.

On the Magdalena Vineyard, the warmest Wiemer site, veraison has begun. This is when the color of the grapes starts to change from green to red or green to golden (for whites). It's an exciting time because it means the grapes are heading toward maturity and will soon be harvested. The bunches look really cool at this stage - this is Pinot Noir:

It is hard to believe harvest is coming and I won't be at Wiemer. But I know the able team is prepared for all the fruits of their labor. Thanks again to Team Wiemer for a great visit. Happy Harvest!

Passion Unleashed @ SFWC

Passion was unleashed yesterday at SFWC, with Jordan Mackay, James Beard-award winning author, leading our Passion for Pinot tasting class. Jordan explained the beauty and challenges of Pinot Noir as a grape and a wine, from its thin skin and light tannin to its complex flavors of berries, cherries, earth and spice. We learned about the differences Pinot can show when made in different parts of the world and why Burgundy is so coveted. Because of the long winemaking tradition in France, Burgundy is the standard for Pinot Noir. The notion of terroir is very important in Burgundy, where small vineyard plots have cult status. In a region where the only red grape allowed is Pinot Noir, the wines are distinguished by the area in which they were grown, sometimes down to a row in a vineyard, based on the soil and growing conditions of each place. Burgundy is a cold region, so getting grapes ripe can be challenging and yields can sometimes suffer, making Burgundy expensive and sometimes difficult to procure.  Stylistically, a Pinot Noir from South Africa can taste similar to a Pinot Noir from Burgundy, because of the characteristics of the grape, but the differences will be profound based on the soil and other environmental factors. It was a fascinating tour of Pinot Noir from around the world. Unfortunately one of the wines was corked, a Grand Cru Burgundy from 1999, but this ended up being a helpful exercise since many students had not smelled a corked wine before. We replaced the bottle with another, which ended up being the favorite of the tasting. It was a Premier Cru Burgundy from 1990 at its peak, meaning it was a pleasure to drink but it probably wouldn’t get any better with additional aging.

The wines:

1.  Paul Cluver Elgin Estate Pinot Noir 2008 – South Africa

2.  Matua Central Otago Estate Pinot Noir 2008 – New Zealand

3.  Domaine Jean & Giles Lafourge Auxey-Duresses La Chapelle 1er Cru 2005

4.  Domaine Taupenot-Merme Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru 1999 (corked and replaced with Domaine Jacques Prieur Volnay-Santenots 1er Cru 1990)

5.  Penner-Ash Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2009 – Oregon

6.  Sokol Blosser Big Tree Block Dundee Hills Pinot Noir 2008 – Oregon

7.  Walter Hansel South Slope Vineyard Russian River Valley Pinot Noir 2003

8.  Au Bon Climat Knox Alexander Santa Maria Valley Pinot Noir 2008

Thanks to Jordan for a wonderful tour of Pinot Noir!

Mumm's the word

Friday we went up to Napa to escape the fog of San Francisco and enjoy some wine tasting before the weekend rush. We went to Mumm Napa, sister sparkling wine producer to G. H. Mumm in Champagne, France (both are owned by Pernod Ricard). Most of the wines are made from a base of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, two of the classic Champagne grapes. We had a relaxed patio tasting overlooking the vineyards and mountains, hosted by Claudia, who gave us suggestions for what flights to try. She also let us compare sparkling wine in a regular champagne bottle to that in a magnum - twice the size. Their magnums go through extended lees aging (when the bottles age on the dead yeast cells before disgorgement), so they have more toastiness and complexity to the taste - 7 years aging versus 3 years, as an example. I love these characteristics in Champagne and sparkling wine so it was really exciting to taste the differences. We did this comparison for both the Brut Rose and Brut Reserve. The regular bottles were great but I loved the magnums even more. I love dry pink sparkling wine in general, I think it is the prettiest and most exciting wine to drink, and I've rarely met one I didn't like. The Brut Rose Magnum was so delicious. And the Brut Reserve Magnum was magnumificent!

We also liked their DVX line of wines, which go through some neutral barrel aging and partial malolactic fermentation before bottling for the second fermentation. Traditionally, still wine designated for sparkling wine is stainless steel fermented and extremely acidic, which helps its longevity and age-ability going into the second fermentation. DVX is softened a bit before the second fermentation, but the acidity still remains in the finished wine, so it had this amazing creaminess and crispness in an interesting balance. (Malolactic fermentation is a process whereby the natural malic acid present in the grape juice/wine is converted to lactic acid, a softer acid found in milk. This fermentation happens naturally at the right temperature, and most red wines go through it. Some winemakers allow white wines like Chardonnay to go through ML, but for other wines they usually avoid it by cold-stabilizing the white wine.) 

Champagne bottles in various sizes - as they get bigger they have funny names like Jeroboam, Methusalem, Salmanzar, Balthazar, and Nebuchadnezzar.

Thanks to Claudia for a fantastic experience at Mumm Napa!

Great Whites of Burgundy @ SFWC

As the fog rolled in yesterday evening at the San Francisco Wine Center we sat down for some white Burgundy with Jordan Mackay, James Beard Award-winning author, in Wine School. First, a flight of 2009′s from different areas of Burgundy whet our appetites for the more complex wines in the second half of the tasting. From razor sharp to lightly toasted, these wines were pretty classic in their representation. Chablis was mouthwatering and minerally, Poully Fuisse was citrusy with a bit more body, and Beaune was toasty yet still crisp. 

Then we moved on to a few wines with some age on them and a bit more weight and complexity. The Mersault was really interesting with a mix of anise and ash on the nose and palate. Unfortunately the 2002′s were showing a bit of “premox,” or premature oxidation, a problem in Burgundian whites from vintages between 1995 and 2005. The exact source of the problem hasn’t been pinpointed, but possibilities include lowered sulphur dioxide treatments, cork seal failure, shape of bottle neck, and other theories. The result is wines showing oxidation before their time. The grand finale of the tasting was the real treat – Domaine Faiveley Bienvenues Batard-Montrachet Grand Cru 2009. It was creamy, crisp, complex, and long.

Jordan’s explanation of Burgundy’s regions, the differences in soil types and locations, and the classification system of the vineyards was really helpful.

The wines:

1. Domaine William Fevre Chablis 2009
2. Joseph Drouhin Saint-Veran 2009
3. Vincent Giradin Pouilly-Fuisse VV 2009
4. Domaine Bouchard Pere & Fils Beaune du Chateau 1er Cru 2009
5. Chateau Laboure-Roi Meursault Clos des Bouches Cheres 1er Cru 2004
6. Domaine de la Vougeraie Vougeot Clos de Prieure Monopole 2002
7. Boyer-Martenot Puligny-Montrachet Le Cailleret 1er Cru 2002
8. Domaine Faiveley Bienvenues Batard-Montrachet Grand Cru 2009

Thanks for the education on Burgundian Chardonnay, Jordan!

More Rioja!

I guess Rioja is my wine of the month, if I had one! Yesterday came the sad news of the passing of Enrique Forner, founder of Marques de Caceres, the iconic Spanish Rioja brand. This is my go-to value wine, with the Crianza priced around $10. It is consistent and always tasty. I actually have a bottle at home right now.

Last week we had our Wines of Spain tasting class at SFWC, featuring 3 wines from Rioja, a white and 2 reds. This Lopez de Heredia Vina Tondonia White Rioja from 1993 was very unique, with an almost Sherry-like expression on the nose but a creaminess on the palate. Great acidity and dry with complex flavors of marzipan and meringue. Six years of aging so the oak was very well integrated. The wine is composed of estate grown Viura (90%) and Malvasía (10%), traditional Spanish white grapes in the region.

Viva Rioja!

Wines of Spain @ SFWC

This week in wine school Jordan Mackay, James Beard-award winning author, took us on a tour of Spain. We traveled to Cataluna – home of Cava; Rias Baixas – home of Albarino; Rueda – home of Verdejo; Navarra – home of Garnacha; Rioja – home of Tempranillo; Ribera del Duero – another Tempranillo hotspot; and Priorat – famed for Garnacha, Carignan, Cab Sauv, Merlot, and Syrah. From value wines to coveted classics and newcomers, Spain runs the gamut. The Cava, Albarino, and Verdejo were all refreshing, lively and costing around $20 or less. The 1993 White Rioja was super complex, with Sherry-like notes and a creaminess that was very unique.  One of our storage members, Shirley, brought a 2005 Rioja to share, and we compared this with the 2004 Muga in our lineup. Muga is a more traditional producer and they use mostly French oak, whereas the Remirez de Ganuza that Shirley brought was a more modern style, more fruit-forward with heavy American oak. The last two wines were very special, high-end wines from Ribera del Duero and Priorat. They had a complexity and finesse that was noticeable, and the class loved these wines. Personally the Bodegas Emilio Moro Malleolus Valderramiso 2007 from Ribera del Duero was my favorite!

The wines:

1. Segura Viudas Reserva Heredad Cava

2. Fillaboa Albariño 2009 – Rias Baixas

3.  Condesa Eylo Verdejo 2008 – Rueda

4.  R. Lopez de Heredia Vina Tondonia White Rioja 1993

5.  El Chaparral de Vega Sondoa Garnacha 2009 – Navarra

6.  Muga Prado Enea Gran Reserva Rioja 2004

Bonus: Remirez de Ganuza Rioja 2005

7.  Bodegas Emilio Moro Malleolus Valderramiso 2007 – Ribera del Duero

8.  Dits del Terra Priorat 2005 – Garnacha & Carignan

Salud!

Still a lot of life in this one

This past weekend my boyfriend's family visited and we celebrated his mom's 60th birthday with a bottle of Vina Real 1951 Rioja (actually 2 bottles). Incredible wine! Brick red color with just a bit of sediment. Lots of stewed fruit and warm spice on the nose and palate - very smooth yet lively. We had the first bottle with some cheeses from Cowgirl Creamery. The cork was a bit moldy on top under the foil capsule, so we were worried the wine wouldn't be good, and it crumbled as we tried to extract the half that just didn't want to come out, but underneath it all the wine was fantastic. The second bottle was decanted in a restaurant and had a chance to really open up, so it was even better than the first, especially with the lamb and duck dishes we had at Boulevard in San Francisco. What a treat!

Happy 60th Birthday, Nancy!

Roll out the barrel

Recently I visited a wine bar in San Francisco called Barrique, aptly named because they serve wine out of barrels. They vinify some of their own wine, either from purchased grapes or juice, or they acquire bulk wine and barrel age it and blend it themselves. They only make 60 gallons of any wine - enough to fill one barrel. They then serve it from these barrels behind the bar. Interesting business model. The barrique-to-glass system is patent-pending, so they couldn't tell us anything about the delivery system, but I imagine there must be some sort of airtight bag inside that keeps oxygen out as the wine level goes down.

The wine list features their own wines plus a couple of well known bubblies to get your palate ready for these big California wines. I recommend the Sommelier's flight of 3 wines to get a good sampling. I started with the J Russian River Valley Brut Rose sparkling wine and then tried some of the Barrique Selections. I thought the Cabs were the best of the bunch, but the offerings change frequently so there's always a reason to go back. The truffle popcorn was a fantastic accompaniment to the wines :)

Brown Zin

I've found a new favorite - Brown Estate Zinfandel. I tried their single vineyard 2009 Mickey's Block Zinfandel at a friend's house and loved it - smooth, chocolatey, spicy, dark-fruity. So enjoyable on its own. Then, I tried another bottling at Ubuntu in Napa, a vegetarian restaurant that really knows what to do with veggies. They made a bean stew taste meaty without any fake meat or seitan or anything. I was surprised by the number of reds on their wine list and decided that the wine pairing must have been carefully tested. I wanted the Brown Zin anyway, not caring if it went with our food choices. It was just as enjoyable as my first experience, if not more so, and it helped bring me to the conclusion that Zinfandel (and Brown in particular) is a very versatile red, pairing well with meats, of course, but also with lighter meals (of veggies) and even on its own. Some Zins have a touch of sweetness from those ripe California grapes; if it's a lower alcohol Zin (I'm talking 14% or lower), there may be some residual sugar in the wine. If it tastes like chocolate, I want it. Less calories! (Maybe?)

Brown Estate is a Zinfandel-focused family-owned vineyard, believed to be the first and only black-owned estate in Napa. The waitress at Ubuntu said they tried all their different Zins and loved them all. This winery is definitely on my list the next time I plan a trip.

Ridge Bloggers Tasting #2 - A Monte Bello Vertical

Last Friday I was lucky enough to attend my second blogger's tasting at Ridge Vineyards, my favorite California winery. The theme is always a surprise, so I was very excited as I ascended the 4 mile hill to Monte Bello in the Santa Cruz Mountains. I arrived and almost walked in on another event in the same location as the last tasting, but I was quickly redirected to the brand-new Black Mountain Room, where our tasting had just begun. Cheeses and bread were ours for the taking, 2009 Chardonnay was poured in our glasses to prime our palates, and then the theme was revealed: an 11-year library vertical of Monte Bello! Recall that Monte Bello is Ridge's famous Bordeaux-style blend, based heavily on Cabernet Sauvignon, followed by Merlot and small/varying amounts of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot.

I was thrilled by this theme. The oldest Monte Bello I have had was a 1989, and I loved it. And then, a challenge was posed: order the wines from oldest to youngest. The wines were all in brown bags, lettered from A-K. We tasted them blind, 2 at a time, noting the color, sediment, aromas, and structural development. These are the things you should observe to deduce the age of a wine. Is it bright purple, or more brick red? Does the nose give off fresh fruit or more dried, stewed fruit, or none at all? Are the tannins grippy or soft, or is there heavy sediment where tannins once lived? I focused on these attributes. I am not an overly competitive person, but there was a prize for the winner! I love prizes.

So, 2 by 2 we went. Fellow bloggers tweeted while we tasted, and a "Twitterfall" was displayed on a large flatscreen TV behind, showing the tweets as they came in. (I was the only person not tweeting. Am I missing out here?) We were mostly silent except for the occasional comment on a tweet or about the wines' ages or flavors.With each pair, I made comparisons to the previous. A is younger than B, F is older than G, F and G are older than A and B, etc. It was like a puzzle. At the end, everyone recorded their final order and then Christopher unveiled the wines in the correct order. He asked who had the most correct placements. It was me! I won the contest, with 7 out of 11 correct!

And what was my prize? A bottle of the 2010 Monte Bello, a tank sample, not even filtered yet! I might age it for around 20 years, given that I tend to prefer the Monte Bello's from the '80s and '90s.

Not to generalize, but all the wines were amazing. The ones from the '70s were fascinating in their differences, with subtle changes in flavor and structure from 1977 to 1978. The 1981 and 1985 were beautiful, with fruit and softness and a complex earthiness. The '90s were bright and spicy, and 2000 and 2006 were vibrant and fruity, with grippy tannins. The 2010 barrel sample was in a class by itself, bright purple with inky dark fruit and firm structure.

I'm very grateful to be part of the Ridge blogger family. Thanks to Christopher for including me!

Check out Ridge's blog for more:

http://blog.ridgewine.com/2011/06/21/wine-bloggers-tasting-2-6-17-11-the-aftermath/

Bubbles, bubbles everywhere, but not a drop to drink... yet!

Champagne was on tap this week at San Francisco Wine Center, where our class highlighted the awesomeness of Champagne with some very special bubblies. We had a great sampling of vintage and non-vintage plus a trio of pinks. There is no prettier wine than a glass of pink Champagne. I loved the Billecart-Salmon Cuvee Elisabeth, the first "prestige" Champagne I've ever had. This retails for around $150-$200 per bottle. My pics are blurry still but I think I may have solved the problem so I hope next time is better. For now, these will have to suffice. Think of it as looking at Champagne through bubble-filled glasses.

Billecart-Salmon Cuvee Elisabeth Salmon Brut Rose 1998

Check out the SFWC blog for the full list of Champagnes!

Searching for Syrah

Lately I've been craving meaty, smoky Syrahs - the kind that remind you of bacon at Sunday brunch. It started when I first moved out here and visited a wine bar in my neighborhood where we got a glass of 2009 Emmanuel Darnaud Crozes-Hermitage Mise en Bouche, a classic Northern Rhone French Syrah. I've been looking for something similar ever since. Recently I encountered 2 that fit the bill. The first one materialized at an event we co-hosted last Friday night at the San Francisco Wine Center with Wine Gavel, an online wine auctioneer. We invited our storage clients, and someone ran down to their storage locker during the event and grabbed a bottle of this to share with everyone:

Alesia Santa Lucia Highlands Fairview Ranch Vineyard 2006

Unfortunately I didn't see the person and no one I asked could tell me who it was. But it was really delicious, and I'm glad this mystery person donated it!

Then, this week, one of the guys at work was making a delivery for a storage client and they gave him a couple bottles of wine as a thank-you. He brought them back to SFWC and shared them with us. The storage couple made the wine at Crushpad, a custom crush facility in Sonoma. I loved their 2006 Syrah "The Bailout." Really smoky and meaty with a touch of dark fruit. Full bodied, really smooth. I'm going to look into getting some of this - I hear they are looking to sell some bottles.

Both these wines are from Santa Barbara county, which I've heard is a great place for Syrah. Clearly I already have a preference for this area. Maybe I better plan a weekend trip down there.

Just in time for Memorial Day - Grilling Wines!

This week at SFWC we hosted a class on Grilling Wines. We purposely left out Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel and Chardonnay so that we were forced to explore other BBQ wines. I love food and wine pairing, so this was really fun and educational. I actually found a Gruner Veltliner that I like - usually I am underwhelmed by this varietal. I discovered an awesome Italian Lagrein that was really enjoyable on its own and with each of the foods we had.

Unfortunately, the software on my Blackberry updated recently and now my camera takes really blurry pictures. They used to be so good! I don't know what happened. So the labels on these wines aren't clear but you can catch the full names on the SFWC blog.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend! Let me know if you do any interesting wine/grill pairings.

Lagrein Wine

A couple months ago there was an article in the New York Times about Lagrein, a red grape varietal from northeastern Italy. I read the article and instantly wanted to try this wine, which Eric Asimov described as "deliciously plummy, earthy and chewy, dark and full-bodied but not heavy, with a pronounced minerally edge." Shortly thereafter, I was in Napa with a couple visiting friends and we came across a Lagrein at Imagery Estate Winery. I was primed to like it, and I did. Maybe because I wanted to, because of the article. I got a bottle to take home to my boyfriend, who had sent me the article. We drank it one night with dinner, and we noticed the high alcohol. It was jammy in the California style, and I'm not sure I liked it as much as when I tasted it at the winery. The next morning we were both hungover.

This week at SFWC's Grilling Wines class, I tried one of the well-known Italian Lagrein producers, Hofstätter, and I loved their Lagrein. It was balanced, rich, spicy, and full-bodied without being heavy. The alcohol was probably around 2% lower than the California had been. It was interesting to see the new world vs. old world comparison. I admit I am getting more used to California wine, my tolerance for alcohol and tannin is getting stronger and I have found a lot to like. But in this case I prefer the old world version.











New York Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/30/dining/reviews/30wine.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

Old World vs. New World

This week's class at San Francisco Wine Center was a comparison of Old World (Europe) and New World (everywhere else) wines, and I donated a sample of Hermann J. Wiemer Dry Riesling 2009 to the cause! The 2009 Dry Riesling was recently released, and I am very proud of this wine because I helped make it during my time working at Wiemer. I sorted the grapes, monitored the fermentation, racked the wine, contributed my sensory opinion in putting together the final blend from our 3 Riesling vineyard sites, filtered, bottled and labeled it. Last night, we pinned it against a German Kabinett Riesling from the Rheingau and I thought the Wiemer showed fantastically. I was excited to share this wine with the other employees at the SFWC and the students in the class.

The rest of the comparisons were interesting and intriguing:

Elegant white Burgundy led the way for creamy California Chardonnay:
Olivier Leflaive Puligny Montrachet Les Folatières 1er Cru 2009 (Cote de Beaune, Burgundy) vs. Deovlet Soloman Hills Vineyard Santa Maria Valley Chardonnay 2009 (Santa Barbara, CA)

Delicate Pinots from Burgundy and Oregon stumped many:
Erath Estate Selection Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2008 (Oregon) vs. Domaine Jacques Prieur Beaune Champs-Pimont 1er Cru 2008 (Cote de Beaune, Burgundy)

Popular Argentine Malbec found its roots in Cahors, France:
Château du Cèdre Cahors 2007 (Cahors, Southwest France) vs. Norton Malbec Reserva 2007 (Mendoza, Argentina)

Cabernet-dominated Margaux confused the California Cab drinker:
Blason D’Issan Margaux 2007 (Bordeaux, France) vs. Meteor Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 (Napa Valley, CA)

Burgundy-land

On Monday at SFWC Mary Burnham was using the space to taste a bunch of wines that she is reviewing for Food & Wine Magazine's 2012 wine buying guide. She had tons of samples open, so she said I could taste them. After I finished work I went through the lineup. Mary was evaluating 2009 white Chablis and Burgundy with a few red Burgs at the end. There were so many to like! I tasted through the whites multiple times, trying to find my favorites.

2009 was a warm vintage in Chablis, a sub-appellation of Burgundy, so these wines are less austere and minerally than usual, but what it means is they are very ready to drink now. I liked the offerings from Domaine Billaud-Simon and Domaine Christian Moreau:

These 2 Burgundy's were awesome. It was the Latour family who transformed the now-famed Corton Charlemagne vineyard from dead Aligote and Pinot Noir vines after prohibition to the coveted Chardonnay that grows there today. The one on the right is a tank sample of Domaine Jacques Prieur. My guess is the wine hadn't been filtered and bottled in time to submit the sample, so they grabbed a tank sample for submission, and therefore it was cloudy. But how delicious it was! Creamy but tart at the same time, lots of layers and complexity.

The few reds sampled were also really awesome expressions of Burgundy. I hadn't had red Burgundy in a while, and after tasting California Pinot Noir for the last few weeks I had forgotten how much I love Burgundy. My palate remembers now, but my wallet does not.

The travesty of a wine reviewer - too many samples!
So I got to take some home :)

Amazing Bordeaux

Last week's Bordeaux class at SFWC was amazing - tasting 5 decades of Bordeaux was really a special sensory experience. It was unfortunate that the oldest samples were oxidized - 1964 Chateau Leoville Poyferre from Saint-Julien and 1970 Chateau Haut Brion from Pessac Leognan - but that is the risk with older wines, especially when you don't know how they were stored or traveled before you acquired them. Still, my sensory education of Bordeaux over the last few weeks has been fascinating, and in particular I've really enjoyed these wines:

1. Chateau Brane-Cantenac 2008 - Margaux 
2. Chateau Langoa-Barton 2000 - Saint Julien
3. Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou 1996 – Saint-Julien
4. Chateau Beychevelle 1981 – Saint-Julien
5. Chateau Longueville Baron de Pichon 1978 – Pauillac
6. Chateau Margaux Pavillon Blanc 2005 – Margaux (white)
7. Chateau Nairac 1976 – Sauternes (dessert)

I think of my friend Ghislain, Bordeaux native and winemaking student who interned with us at Wiemer for the 2010 harvest, and I wonder what he thinks of these?

Slainte!
(That's 'Cheers' in French!)

Common Scents

 This week's Aromatics class at SFWC was a lot of fun to prepare for and to experience. We gathered a wide variety of "natural" scents - fruits, flowers, spices, vegetables, etc.- to compliment the vials in a Le Nez Du Vin aroma kit, a common tool used by people in the wine industry to train their noses and palates. Since taste is very heavily linked to smell, aromas and flavors are often somewhat consistent. Students went around to different stations and smelled the scents, helping to creating a palate memory before tasting the wines. It is always good to exercise your nose like this, and for beginners especially it is a really useful exercise. I was excited to smell things like juniper berries and currants, scents that I know are way back in my palate memory but have been forgotten.

 After everyone had smelled everything, they sat down and went through the tasting blind, identifying aromas in the wines and then checking those identifications against the actual scents that we had gathered. It was very interactive, and everyone agreed that smelling the scents first was really helpful in identifying the scents in the glass. The wines we chose were aromatic expressions of the grape and origin: Australian Riesling, New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, Alsatian Gewurz, Oregon Pinot Noir, Rhone Syrah, and  red Bordeaux blend.

Next week: Old World vs. New World wines!

My new gig

I've started working part-time at the San Francisco Wine Center as their Marketing Manager. SFWC is really cool - the concept is based on private wine storage for people who need a place to store their wine (or age it, as the case may be), so we cater to collectors and offer collector services, like sourcing rare wines and handling their wine club shipments. SFWC also offers Wine School, where every week wine lovers can attend classes led by sommeliers, wine writers and other experts in the wine trade. Surprisingly, there are not many places in San Francisco that offer regular wine tastings or classes. When I lived in NYC there were always events like this going on, and finding a tasting class any night of the week was easy. But in San Francisco it is a rarity, so we are really the only game in town. The last two classes have been fantastic, and I've gotten to try some great wines.

Tasting and Describing Wine - April 12

Grand Wines of Bordeaux - April 19

Check out the San Francisco Wine Center blog, where I'll be blogging about the classes every week, and follow us on Facebook!

Over the Hill

Last weekend I went to a crazy party at a community center in San Bruno, featuring a Zydeco band and honoring the birthday of a friend's mother. I didn't know it was BYOB until I got there, so all I had was a bouquet of flowers for the birthday lady. Someone brought a bottle of 1975 Chateau Ste. Michelle Cabernet Sauvignon, and I was invited to try it. Chateau Ste. Michelle is Washington state's oldest vineyard, dating back to the 1950s after prohibition, and this was the oldest wine I've ever tasted! It was super interesting on the nose, with very developed, almost vegetal aromas plus some stewed fruit. On the palate it had good structure and flavor, very complex but with almost no fruit flavor left. Still, I was impressed, until I got to the finish, which is where it fell off. It was oxidized, unfortunately, so the finish was a bit sour. Maybe 5 years ago the wine would have been at its best. Still, it was really interesting to experience. Thanks to Michael and Stephanie for a great party and for grabbing me to try this!

Buds and Palms and an Iron Horse

We've reached bud break here in northern California, and I still can't believe that there are palm trees in the Bay area. Palm trees, to me, belong in tropical areas, not temperate, always-60-degrees-unless-it-goes-down-to-40 San Francisco. But still, there are palm trees in the city and in the surrounding wine areas. I went up to Sonoma this week with some visiting friends to check out more Pinot Noir and sparkling wines. The most exciting stop on the trip was Iron Horse, famous for the fact that its sparkling wines are served at the White House. Iron Horse is located in the Green Valley, a sub-appellation of the Russian River Valley. I loved their 2006 Russian Cuvee, aptly named both because the fruit comes from the Russian River Valley and because it was first served at the Reagan-Gorbachev summit meetings.

 I loved the richness and toastiness from the heavy Pinot and extended lees aging (4 years). The White House still orders it, but they prefer it say "Russian River" on the label, so Iron Horse makes a special label for them. (0.8% residual sugar; $38)