Chicago: Hot dogs, Pizza and... Wine?

Chicago is a lot like New York City - bright lights, tall buildings, great energy, and famous for its hot dogs and pizza. But in Chicago hot dogs get dressed up like burgers with pickles, tomatoes and onions, and pizza gets stuffed with whatever you can imagine and topped off with tomato sauce. I enjoyed my fair share of both, but the real impetus for the trip was to share some nice wines with family. J's Uncle Dave had been planning the wine list from the moment he heard we were coming. Burgundy, Bordeaux... we were in for a treat. Glasses and bread on the table, paper and pencils at the ready, we started with Champagne - Egly Ouriet Brut Tradition Grand Cru. Classic, creamy, toasty with green apple and biscuit.

For the whites we did an Old World/New World Chardonnay comparison.

2000 Chassagne Montrachet's nose was closed, but on the palate it was creamy and toasty, with lemon meringue and marzipan. 2012 Hamilton Russell Vineyard Chardonnay from South Africa had the more Burgundian nose, with almond cookie, lemon zest and apricot.

Moving onto Pinot Noir, the 1990 Pommard 1er Cru had a classic barnyard nose with spice and meat, and on the palate it evolved beautifully, with subtle cherry and cranberry, cinnamon, and nice acidity. This wine was not going to get any better. 2007 Volnay 1er Cru was earthy and bright with baking spice and refined fruit, another Burgundy win. Next to this we tried a 2007 Anthill Farms Pinot Noir from Anderson Valley, CA, which unsurprisingly was jammier with more pronounced oak but still a good representation of California Pinot.

We went back in time with Bordeaux, from 2006 to 1985 to 1982. The 2006 Chateau Malmaison from Baronne Nadine de Rothschild had a brambly, beautiful nose, with lavender and eucalyptus, a big wine that needed time to open up. It could definitely go another ten years in the bottle. Cousin Anna was kind enough to share a bottle of her birthday wine, 1985 Lynch-Bages, with its spicy tobacco nose and smooth, silky fruit. The 1982 Cordier Chateau Gruaud Larose Grand Cru took some time to open up but once it did it showed warm spice and mature fruit with surprising tannic structure. A Bordeaux blend from Paso Robles, Justin Vineyards 1989 Isosceles surprised us all as one of the best wines, evolving over the evening with great complexity and balance.

We finished with Tokai - a Hungarian dessert wine. Its luscious peach cobbler and caramel apple flavors made the perfect end to an epic tasting.

I'd say the trip was a home run....

Thanks Uncle Dave, Aunt Madeleine and Anna!

June at SF Wine Center

June was a busy month at SF Wine Center, with the Pinot Days tasting in San Francisco driving a lot of wine traffic and interest. I helped out with some events, including the actual Pinot Days tasting at Metreon and a couple satellite tastings at SFWC. Check out the SFWC Blog for more on these tastings! 

Pinot Days

Old World vs. New World with GLG Labs

Anderson Valley/Mendocino Tasting

Mendocino Day 3: Coast and Knez

On our last day in Mendocino county, after exploring Heritage House Resort, our coastline retreat, we had lunch in the charming, quaint town of Mendocino and walked the dramatic cliffs over the ocean. Heading back to San Francisco, we happily took 128 back through the redwoods and Anderson Valley, stopping at Knez Winery's tasting room along the way. I had tried a couple of these wines at the SF Vintners Market also, so it was fun to taste the broader lineup. With around 2000 cases produced, all the wines are unfiltered, unfined and go through native yeast fermentation. The fruit is all estate-grown and farmed biodynamically. They have a super interesting white blend of Tocai Fruilano, Malvasia, and Pinot Grigio, which are all dry-farmed grapes that are picked at the same time, co-fermented in neutral oak and aged on the lees. The wine had a floral nose with orange blossom, gardenia, and anise notes. I also enjoyed their 2011 Cerise Vineyard Pinor Noir, which is a steep slope vineyard with a lot of iron in the soil. This translated into an earthy, meaty salinity in the wine that I really liked. 33% of the wine saw new French oak and 50% was fermented in whole clusters. This Pinot, being the Martini clone, is characterized by smaller clusters and thicker skins than other Pinot (which as a grape is known for having a thin skin). Very interesting and complex. A nice cap to an enjoyable weekend of wine and waves in Mendocino county.

Knez combines nature's vines with the ocean's creatures in their unique labels.

Mendocino Day 2: Wine and Waves

Last weekend I went up to Mendocino county to check out the wine and waves. In doing my research I realized that Mendocino is both a town and a county - a large county. North of Sonoma, the county stretches out to the California coastline and is named "America's Greenest Wine Region" since many wineries are organic and biodynamic. The main wine areas are the Upper Russian River Valley and Anderson Valley. On day 1 we focused on the Upper Russian River Valley with our visit to Campovida and the surrounding Hopland area. On Day 2, after enjoying the Campovida property, we drove through the mountains to Anderson Valley. First stop was lunch at Roederer Estate, California's outpost of the Champagne producer Louis Roederer. Roederer uses traditional Champagne winemaking methods including Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes, which are all estate grown. We had pre-ordered a picnic lunch and enjoyed it on their patio with two glasses of sparkling wine. The lunch basket was filled with delicious local cheeses, bread, onion jam, almonds, clementines, and dark chocolate for dessert.

Roederer Estate Brut MV (Multi Vintage) is a wine made in the traditional non-vintage style of Champagne, with each year's wine layered on top of the previous. The idea is to have a consistent "house" wine each year. This wine, aged two years on the lees, was crisp and refreshing with bright toasty pear notes.

Roederer Estate L'Ermitage 2004, with 4% reserve wine aged five years in oak, spent additional aging time on the cork before release. More complex and toasty, this wine was creamy and nutty with subtle apple and butterscotch.

There is nothing like sparkling wine and flavorful cheese on a sunny afternoon. We had to pull ourselves away to get to our appointment at Navarro Vineyards, just down the road on Highway 128.

I'd learned about Navarro via my cousin, one of their club members, who had shared a bottle of their Pinot Noir with us about a year ago. What I didn't realize was that Navarro focuses on wine varietals that hail from Alsace, France: Gewurztraminer, Riesling and Pinot Gris in addition to Pinot Noir. In fact, Gewurz and Pinot Noir make up the majority of their production and were the first grapes they planted on the property in the early 1970s. An old sheep farm, the property also includes goats, llamas and quail, and they make and sell goat cheese. During our vineyard tour we got close with one of the llamas.

I haven't had much California Gewurztraminer so I happily inhaled the floral bouquet and tropical, spicy flavor that I enjoy in this type of wine. Navarro Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Gris were all approachable and refreshing wines. Pinot Noir was earthy and spicy with pleasant red fruit and rose petals. Late Harvest Riesling, made from grapes "kissed with the noble rot" and coming in at 7.5% residual sugar and 12.5% alcohol, was luscious and complex with that botrytis spice that helps balance the honey-like sweetness. Navarro sells all of their wine direct to consumer at reasonable average prices around $20-$30.

After a pleasant afternoon in the Anderson Valley we decided to head to the coast and spend a night near the town of Mendocino. Back on Highway 128 heading north, driving along the Navarro River until it opens into the Pacific Ocean, we found ourselves in the Navarro River Redwoods State Park with the tall trees hugging the road and creating a canopy over us. A magical ride, the highway then meets up with Highway 1, and suddenly, we were at the edge of the continent. The coastline rose to greet us as we continued north to our destination, The Heritage House Resort. Every room has a view*, and after sunset and dinner the sound of the waves lulled us to sleep.

*Not the view from our room