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 :)