B.R. Guest

A while ago I had an older bottle of B.R. Cohn Cabernet Sauvignon and it stuck with me. So when we passed the winery on the way to our Sonoma rental in Glen Ellen this past week, I had to add them to our agenda. The estate property, called Olive Hill Vineyards, includes about 90 acres of vines, including Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel and a small amount of Malbec. The Special Select Cabernet Sauvignon is only made during exceptional years from 3 acres of bush vines in the front of the property that yield only about 1.5 tons of grapes per acre (this is not a lot). The Cab is dark and sultry when young and really opens up with proper aging.

I enjoyed all the reds, which had nice acidity and overall balance - Pinot Noir with berry fruit and vanilla, spicy Zinfandel with peppercorn and clove, Cabernet Franc with blue and black berries, and cinnamon-berry Malbec.

But the grand finale for me was the Late Harvest Semillon, made with grapes from Russian River Valley. Botrytis spice balanced the sweet honey and apricot flavors in this Sauternes-style dessert wine that brought me back to my sorting days at Hermann J. Wiemer Vineyard.

I felt quite welcome as a guest of the B.R.Cohn family that day and also enjoyed their delicious side projects - olive oil, vinegar, and wine-infused concoctions.

Side note:

Gun Bun

New Year, new wine! This week I spent time in Sonoma exploring a few wineries that happened to be open, including a couple I've been wanting to try for a while. As one of the original producers of California Gewurztraminer, my knowledge of Gundlach Bundschu ended there. The oldest family-owned winery in CA (since 1858!) hand harvests and uses gentle techniques to make their wines.

2012 Chardonnay offered fresh citrus flavors and a creamy texture with minimal use of new oak. Since our wine collection was lacking in the Chardonnay department, we picked up a bottle.

2012 Pinot Noir boasted pretty rose petals on the nose with cocoa, black tea and espresso notes around mixed dark berries.

2011 Merlot, one of Gun Bun's most successful varietals, had pretty black fruit, good texture and a really nice finish. I can't resist a good Merlot - Sideways or not!

2012 Tempranillo was brambly and spicy with good tannin that will make it last a few years.

Thanks to Rosie for an informative and fun tasting at Gun Bun!

Exiting 2014 with Pretty Bubbles in Pink and Gold

We celebrated the end of 2014 with a visit to Gloria Ferrer, one of my favorite sparkling wine producers in California. It was brisk in Sonoma but still warm enough to sit outside on the sunny patio.

What better way to toast an exciting year than with pretty pink bubbly! The 2010 Brut Rose's toasty nose with rose flowers led to a palate of crisp red berries in this Pinor Noir-dominated wine.

Next we had my favorite Gloria Ferrer wine, the Royal Cuvee from 2006, which smells of butterscotch and tastes like lemon merengue pie. This wine is a blend of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, aged for 5 years on the lees.

Happy New Year! Cheers to more empty bottles in 2015.

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

Turley: Old Vine Zin

Another notable stop on our Paso Robles tour was Turley Wine Cellars. My first experience with Turley was at The Girl and the Fig, an amazing "French country" restaurant in Sonoma where we dined a couple years ago. Larry Turley founded his namesake winery after he sold his share of Frog's Leap in Napa to focus on Zinfandel. Turley scours the entire state of California looking for the oldest Zinfandel vines, making 23 different bottlings of Zin plus 5 bottlings of Petite Sirah. His Zin blends include the best blocks from the vineyards, and within those blocks the best grapes are bottled as single vineyard designates. All of the vineyards they source from are organic or in the process of becoming certified organic, all yeasts used in fermentation are natural, and the wines are unfined and unfiltered.  

Turley Ueberroth Vineyard Zinfandel 2011 comes from their oldest vineyard of 18 acres planted in 1885 in Paso Robles. The vines are ungrafted and head-trained on very steep limestone soils. The high pH of the soil translate into a high-acid wine. I found it to be beautifully complex, with a nose of barnyard/hay, spring flowers in bloom and salty air with brambly fruit and earth on the palate.

I also enjoyed the Turley Hayne Vineyard Petite Syrah 2005 from Napa Valley (they spell it 'Syrah' rather than 'Sirah'), which had a great blueberry nose and boisenberry palate, with nice structure, firm tannin, and brambly complexity. Planted in 1953, the Hayne Vineyard is dry-farmed and head-trained.

Old head-trained vines on the Turley property in Paso Robles

In addition to the Paso Robles tasting room, Turley recently opened one in the hills of Amador County, where they source a lot of fruit. Perhaps this will be our next trip?

1989 Cabernet Sauvignon: 1 for Sonoma, 1 for Napa

The other night we were making a steak dinner so we decided to try a bottle of A. Rafanelli Cabernet Sauvignon 1989 from the Indiana basement collection. Under the capsule the top of the bottle and cork were moldy, and the fill was low in the bottle, suggesting some leakage. We didn't have high hopes for the wine. The cork crumbled and we had to push it in to get to the wine, which we then decanted. We tried it, and it was pretty oxidized with little fruit left. We figured it was gone and reached for another bottle from the collection. It happened to be Diamond Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 1989. This was pure coincidence - we were just reaching for another old bottle and it happened to be this. The cork was in better shape and came out in one piece, unless you count the many tartrate crystals attached to the end. We decanted it and tried it, and while strongly vegetal, it seemed to have more structure, acidity, and tannin, and we deemed it the winner. We left the other, not ready to dump it yet while we sipped the Diamond Creek. As we went about making dinner, about a half hour later Jeremy said, try the Rafanelli. I did, and just from the smell I could tell it had improved. Fruity and spicy, with each sip it kept getting better. We went back to the Diamond Creek - not as vegetal, with hints of dried fruit starting to emerge. We were intrigued. Both were getting better. We took a glass of each to the table to enjoy with dinner. Rafanelli was fruity, spicy and smooth, while Diamond Creek was bold, structured, and interesting with secondary fruit. When we finished eating, the Diamond Creek was pretty much at the end of its life, with the fleeting fruit now gone. The Rafanelli had kept opening up, and I quickly whipped up a batch of cookies to pair with it for dessert. Unfortunately, that 20 minutes was enough to turn this wine back on its side, as the fruit started to fade and it was time to say goodnight. 2 bottles, 2 roller-coaster rides, 2 Cabs: 1 point for Sonoma, 1 point for Napa.

An interesting and fun exercise in old wine and time.

The Year of the Shepherd

Last March at the Rhone Rangers Tasting in San Francisco, a meeting of California wine producers making Rhone varietals - syrah, mourvedre, grenache, cinsault, roussanne, marsanne, viognier - I tried the wines of producer Two Shepherds. Winemaker William Allen is a software developer by day and a wine producer by night, as of about 3 years ago. He is my hero because he started as a wine blogger (SimpleHedonisms.com) and made wine in his garage. When enough people told him he was onto something he decided to rent space in a winery collective in Santa Rosa and now makes about 500 cases per year, starting with the successful 2010 vintage.  William works every night and weekend on his wine, and he focuses on the varietals of the Rhone region of France because he loves those unique varietals. He focuses on "making wines that 'shepherd' grapes gently into non-manipulated and balanced old world style wines, while also guiding consumers back to wines of authenticity and to the wonderfully diverse realm of Rhone wines."

William has turned me on to Grenache Blanc, a rich and refreshing white that he makes. Those grapes come from the Santz Ynez Valley in Santa Barbara county while most of his other grapes come from the Russian River Valley of Sonoma county, but if William finds a vineyard he likes elsewhere he'll figure out how to get the grapes. William is all about low intervention and letting the winemaking process happen naturally. He allows the wines to ferment spontaneously from their native, naturally present yeasts. All of his wines go through natural malolactic fermentation, a process that softens their acidity, yet they are all still crisp, refreshing, and creamy, with a great texture that William is known for. He doesn't filter his wines nor cold stabilize, so if you put them in the fridge they will throw tartrates (no harm in that). The reds are aged in neutral oak which helps round them out without imparting oaky flavor.

Two Shepherds wines are a refreshing departure from typical big California wines - they are crisp, with bright acidity, depth of flavor, and balanced alcohol (around 13%). On a visit to his Santa Rosa facility in June (which he shares with Sheldon Micro-Winery and Krutz Family Cellars) we tasted more of the 2011 vintage and ended up joining our first wine club. A note on wine clubs - I don't really like them, mostly because they lock you into a certain amount of wine at regular intervals throughout the year. In the nearly 3 years that we've lived in San Francisco and after visiting countless wineries we have never had the desire to join a wine club and commit to certain wines for a year. Until now. William's club is flexible, with options for 4, 6 or 12 bottles per shipment, at 2 shipments per year. Since he makes many different bottlings in small quantities, some are only available to the wine club. So we are now "members of the flock" and privy to special wines and special events.

Some notes from our recent tastings (all 2011 vintage):

Grenache Blanc: yeasty nose, nice minerality, crisp yet creamy at the same time.

Centime: an "orange" wine made from co-fermenting Marsanne and Roussanne in stainless steel on their skins to impart some of the color, which develops into a pale orange wine. Coincidentally there is orange blossom scent on the nose combined with citrus on the palate. The wine is fresh, rich and smooth. A true geek wine, I was so excited to try this (and purchase my 1 bottle limit).

Pastoral Blanc: a blend of Roussanne, Marsanne, Viognier and Grenache Blanc. Perfumey, flowery nose, deep flavor and great acidity.

Syrah: exactly the type of Syrah I love - meaty and spicy with black pepper but rose-y and pretty at the same time. Aged 10 months in neutral oak.

Grenache: beautiful fresh berry nose, nice structure and acidity. Crushed/de-stemmed and fermented in small open-top fermenter, aged in neutral oak.

William has a great sense of humor and makes these fun t-shirts:

Separately, my sister gave birth to a beautiful baby boy this past April - his name is Shepherd. Here's my nephew at 4 months old:

Perhaps a future wine lover? 

To Shepherds! 

Sonoma Slumber

We've had a couple more notable wines from the Indiana basement collection - these two both from Sonoma County.

Kalin Cellars 1993 Chardonnay, Sonoma County, CA

You could tell right away from the color that it would be oxidized, but it was interesting and pleasant nonetheless. Sherry nose with nutty, caramel, fig notes. Some residual oak on the palate, which led me to believe this was a super oaky wine in its youth - typical of '90s style California Chardonnay. It still had a nice acidity which is probably what helped it stay so long. We had it with sushi and it paired pretty well.

Hacienda 1986 Cabernet Sauvignon, Sonoma County, CA

This was the first wine from the basement collection whose cork came out in 1 piece! And, this wine was a beauty, once it opened up. Still a lot of fruit and complexity, silky tannin, nice acidity. 

Currently when I think of Sonoma County I think of Pinot from the Russian River Valley or Zin from Ridge, but there are a lot more treasures to be found up north in Sonoma, a diverse wine region as wide as it is long, with many different microclimates and a lot of variety. 

Why We Love(d) the 90's

A few weeks ago I visited Indiana with my boyfriend and we raided his dad's wine cellar. His dad had managed to get himself on a bunch of coveted wine lists in the 80s and 90s and still has a lot to show for it. Now a diabetic, he doesn't drink wine as much as he used to, so he said we could put together a couple cases and bring them back to California with us. I've been lucky enough to sample some of these cellar treasures, including Ridge from the 80s and Leonetti from the 90s. It is always a gamble with older wines - you never know how they will keep. This basement wine cellar that we raided is not actually a wine cellar at all - it's a boiler room. So every time we open one of these bottles, the cork crumbles, we dismantle it in pieces, push in what we can't get out, and usually end up decanting and sometimes passing the wine through a coffee filter (into a coffee pot if we've run out of decanters). The wine may be oxidized, it may have lost all its fruit. Or it may be amazing, complex, funky, silky, and downright delicious. Here are a few winners from the latest collection:

 Leonetti Cellars 1992 Select Walla Walla Valley, Washington

The components of this wine are unknown, but I suspected it was a Merlot/Cab Sauv blend. It was gorgeous, fruity, spicy and chewy, with no oxidation and a beautiful richness.

Newton 1990 Merlot Napa Valley, California

This wine wasn't as clean as the previous but still had a lot of fruit and spice to go with the funk.

Chateau Phelan Segur 1990 Saint-Estephe, Bordeaux, France

This 1990 Bordeaux, which is dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend, still had a lot of fruit, plus richness and complexity that is so typically Bordeaux. I've learned through my tasting and study that really good Bordeaux needs at least 10 years to be drinkable, at least to my liking (the tannin needs time to calm down) and this was a perfect example. Blackberry, leather, barnyard, and dried fruit mingled with a surprising acidity (that calmed down after being open for a day) and tannin that suggested we could have waited a bit longer to open it, but not too much longer. 

A. Rafanelli 1991 Zinfandel Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma County, California

I tried this wine after it being open for a day, and it was pretty oxidized, but it still had a bit of fruit and spice and was drinkable. Jeremy said it was much better the first day.

Both of these last two bottles had been leaking, which was why we decided to open them. You can see how the bottle tops are kind of moldy and icky. 

All of these wines threw a lot of sediment, as can be expected in older wines, and the 1990 Bordeaux also left tartrate crystals behind, which is from the acidity precipitating out. 

We were just saying that we should probably get some cheap Tuesday night wine to drink so we are not opening interesting and potentially amazing 20-year old bottles on a whim, but really, we are opening the bottles from Indiana assuming they are bad from the storage conditions, but hoping they will surprise us. So far so good! Thanks again, Jeff.

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)

Princess of Pinot - sparkling and still

Last weekend I visited the Carneros wine region of California, a wine region just north of San Francisco that covers the southern portions of both Sonoma and Napa. Carneros was designated an AVA (American Viticultural Area) because of its soil and climate. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir thrive there, so sparkling wine is a large focus of many wineries in the area.

We visited Acacia Vineyard first, where we tasted a bunch of their single-vineyard Pinot Noir. I liked their 2006 Beckstoffer-Las Amigas Vineyard bottling best, better than the current release of 2007. The Beckstoffer vineyard was very old and they actually pulled the vines out in 2008 because it was yielding so little fruit.

At Gloria Ferrer, a sparkling wine producer owned by Spanish sparkling wine producer Freixenet (you know that $10 Cava in the black bottle?), we had a tour of their facility and tasted some bubblies. My favorite was the 2002 Royal Cuvee, a blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir that aged for 5 years on the lees. This amount of aging resulted in really toasty flavors that I liked.

Domaine Carneros, owned by Taittinger, is a beautiful property that I first visited in 2004. They produce sparkling wine and Pinot Noir. First we had a tour and tasted some of their sparkling wines. The best bubbly of the bunch was their 2005 Le Rêve Blanc de Blancs, their premium bottling. We tasted a few of their current release Pinot Noir bottlings before meeting their Pinot Noir winemaker, TJ Evans, who then gave us the behind-the-scenes tour. We had some pre-sparkling tank samples and then 5 barrel samples of Pinot Noir - all different clones. In California they are very focused on clones and how they differ in terms of flavor and structure. Different lots are often blended with the proportions of the different clones in mind. At Wiemer, we grow Pinot Noir clones 115 and 777. I tried those at Domaine Carneros plus 3 others. It was interesting to taste the differences between the clones and also to compare their same clones to ours at Wiemer.

One of the cool things about visiting both these sparkling wine producers was seeing the machinery they use for riddling and disgorging. This is a gyropallete, which riddles 500 bottles at once in about 3 days. Remember how we were hand-riddling at Wiemer for 3 weeks?

North of Carneros, outside the city of Sonoma, we visited Buena Vista Winery and tasted some bigger reds - a highlight of the trip. Their 2006 Ramal Vineyard Pinot Noir Swan Selection was the best from the weekend. I also liked their Merlot, Syrah, and a couple of wines from the 2005 Atlas Peak collection - Cabernet Sauvignon and Claret (a Bordeaux blend). But I have to say that I only liked the Cab after our server sent it through the Vinturi aerator 3 times, which is supposed to be equivalent to a year of aging in the cellar or an hour in a decanter with each pass - this was after I told him I only like Cabs when they are old.  It is interesting that every winery sells the Vinturi. I wonder if it is because many of the wines in California are very fruit-forward and in-your-face, but some people like their wines a bit more demure, with a little more age on them.

I didn't know this at the time, but Buena Vista Winery got all of their plants from the Hermann J. Wiemer nursery. Everything comes full circle!