Welcome, Summer

To celebrate the Labor Day weekend and the true start of summer weather in San Francisco, I toasted at Ridge Monte Bello in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Ridge prides itself on vineyard specific wines made in pre-industrial methods, including no irrigation. With careful vineyard selection and steep hillside plantings, the vines have to work for their nutrients and water, resulting in complex wines with good acidity and balanced structures. I've been a big fan of Ridge since moving to California, and it was nice to get back up to Monte Bello.

Ridge Chardonnay is always a welcome way to start, since theirs is quite Burgundian in style, with freshness balanced by creaminess. This one came from the Jimsomare property further down the mountain. Minimal new oak makes this a very approachable and refreshing wine, not your typical heavy California chard.

While traditionally focused on blends, a couple years ago Ridge decided to do a series of Monte Bello components - single varietal wines from the grapes that make up their famous Bordeaux style Monte Bello wine, a varying blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. These wines also showcase the vineyards from which they came. The Perrone Merlot comes from the Perrone property on the mountain and uses the grapes from the upper tier specifically, which is attached to a natural spring for a water source. The 2010 Perrone Merlot has a beautiful nose of black tea and red fruit, approachable on the palate now but with enough tannin to age several more years. We contrasted this wine with the 2011 Estate Merlot, which includes fruit from the Torre property as well, which contributes dry, dusty tannins and herbaceous flavors.

Ridge Estate Cabernet Sauvignon has tricked me before, and I'm always surprised how much I love this wine. While I find most young California Cabs to be too big, too jammy, too tannic, Ridge hits the mark exactly right, with an approachable, delicious wine with acidity and balance. The 2011 Estate Cab has a finer tannin structure that makes this wine very smooth, and the brambly, chocolate flavors cannot be beat. Even my sister, a Cab-hater, enjoyed this wine and bought a bottle.

Next we tried the Ridge 2011 Monte Bello, which did not have any Petit Verdot this vintage. The butterscotch nose and brambly fruit were delicious, and I can tell this will be a really enjoyable wine in several years once the tannins have had a chance to mellow.

On the Zin side of things, which mostly come from vineyards in Sonoma County, we enjoyed fruity Geyserville and East Bench and spicy Lytton Springs, plus their Paso Robles bottling from one of the oldest vineyards in that region, with beautiful strawberry characteristics and nice acidity.

Thanks to Aaron for a wonderful tasting during the busy Labor Day weekend!

The view over Silicon Valley

Pinot Days

Yesterday I attended the Pinot Days Grand Festival Tasting at Fort Mason in San Francisco. My ticket included a sit-down tasting with 4 winemakers, and I chose the one called "Passion, Personality and Pinot," featuring the wines of Inman Family, Winderlea, Clos Pepe, and Big Basin. Each winemaker talked for 10 minutes about their vineyards, winemaking philosophies, and the 2 wines they chose to share with us. All of these wineries are small, low-production operations that use sustainable or organic vineyard practices and natural (spontaneous) fermentations. Each winery's offerings included 2 wines for comparison.

Inman Family: A one-woman show, Kathleen Inman called her winery Inman Family to encourage her daughters to participate. While her daughters and husband help out, she is the vineyard manager, winemaker, sales and marketing manager, and tasting room manager. When I think about the work I did at Wiemer, I marvel at how she does it all - she is one tough cookie (who drinks a lot of coffee). Inman Family is located in Russian River Valley and their focus is Pinot Noir, but they also make some rose and Pinot Gris. We had the 2007 and 2008 Inman Family OGV Estate Russian River Valley Pinot Noir. The 2008 was slightly richer but I preferred the more restrained 2007.

Winderlea: Located in Dundee, Oregon, the Winderlea vineyards are slowly being infected with phylloxera, a root disease that wiped out vineyards in Europe in the mid- to late- 1800s. The red basalt volcanic soil of the Dundee hills has helped to slow down the spread of the disease throughout the vineyard, so they are keeping an eye on it and replacing vines as needed. We compared the 2009 and 2010 Winderlea Legacy Pinot Noir, made from their older vines. 2009 was a warm vintage so this wine was very jammy, while the 2010 was a cooler vintage, and I preferred this wine's more earthy, spicy, refined flavors.

Clos Pepe: Winemaker Wes Hagen loves the cool climate and maritime influence of the Santa Rita Hills for the consistent vintages they are able to produce. When other areas in California are struggling with heat spikes, this area in Santa Barbara county hardly gets above 80 degrees, and on average their warmest temps are in the 70s. We compared the 2009 and 2010 Clos Pepe Estate Pinot Noir. Wes said that 2009 was a perfect vintage and allowed him to make a very deliberate wine - every action was due to his inclination instead of being dictated by weather. He described the 2010 as "overtly slutty" in the sense that it is showy and obvious in its intentions and delivery. I found it to be too fruit-forward for my taste, but Wes said he is making wines to be aged and this wine could probably use some cellaring so that it will eventually emerge as more of a "sexy librarian" like the 2009.

Big Basin: Bradley Brown is proprietor and winemaker of Pinot Noir and Rhone varietals (Syrah/Grenache) at this Santa Cruz producer.  Instead of a vintage comparison like the previous 3 producers, Bradley served 2 unreleased Pinots from the same vintage but different vineyards: 2010 Big Basin Coastview Vineyard, Monterey County and 2010 Big Basin Woodruff Family Vineyard, Santa Cruz Mountains. The Coastview Vineyard Pinot was more jammy but with a great minerality and acidity. The Woodruff Family Vineyard Pinot had great acidity, marked salinity, nice structure and balanced fruit. This vineyard is dry farmed (no irrigation) and is the oldest vineyard in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Bradley expects to release theses wine in a year or so. There's only about 100 cases of each.

After the sit-down tasting I walked around the tables and tried some more wines from local producers. Chandon (located in Carneros) is known for sparkling wines made from traditional Champagne grapes, but they also make still wines from these grapes. I tried their 2010 Pinot Meunier (fruity and lively), 2009 Pinot Noir (more structure and spice) and NV Brut Rose sparkling (65% Chardonnay sparkling with still Pinot added). I've been to Chandon Australia and Moet & Chandon in France, so Chandon California is a must-visit for me. Other tables I visited included Cuvaison, Buena Vista, Cartograph and Robert Sinskey, plus the earlier wineries from the sit-down tasting to further geek out with the winemakers and taste what else they had brought. Walking around a huge warehouse with tables upon tables of wine can be overwhelming, and you have to have some discipline at these things. So I stopped by familiar tables and producers I'd been wanting to try. After a couple hours I was feeling wine-fatigued, so I headed for the table marked "FOOD" and got some empanadas and alfajores from El Porteno, brought in from the Ferry Building. Yum!

A nice little Saturday.

From deserts to glaciers to dinosaurs

I finished my South American journey by cooling off in Patagonia with the glaciers. In the town of El Calafate in the Santa Cruz province of Argentina, I was awed by glaciers and snowy mountains and enjoyed Patagonian lamb in all its forms. I was pleased to see that Patagonia is also a wine-producing region; I had high hopes for this Pinot Noir, figuring it must be more like the cool-climate Pinots I enjoy. Saurus is so named because when the Familia Schroeder winery was being built they found fossil remains of a Titanosaur, one of the largest species of dinosaurs ever known. Pretty cool! I had the 2007 Pinot with fondue and it was an ok match, but it might have actually paired better with meat since it was a fuller-bodied Pinot with high alcohol - 14.4% - and flavors of white pepper, red berry fruit, and vanilla. I was surprised by the alcohol but then learned that the Neuquen region of Patagonia where the wine is made is just south of the Mendoza province, where Patagonia just begins, so it is still pretty warm and dry there. Plus at this point I know how strong the sun is in these parts so ripening of Pinot would be quick and alcohol levels would tend to be higher. An interesting exercise and a reminder that I probably want to stick with meat for these Argentine reds!