Mikes Wine Blog

Going Sideways

2009-01-18T14:14:00.000-08:00

Updated from our latest trip!

Since SG and I rave about Santa Barbara wines, we frequently get asked where to go. Here's a list of Santa Barbara County wineries that we are familiar with:

Los Olivos Tasting Rooms
Carina
Last Visit: Jan 09
Usually our first stop in Santa Barbara county; this time around it was our last stop. We liked their Syrahs. They vary from year to year. This last time around, none of there Syrah's were worthy of a purchase; but their Syrah-Mourvedre-Grenache blend was. I was also miffed that this time around they charged for the tasting even though I made a purchase. That, as far as I'm concerned is rude. The visit in 06 yielded a Santa Barbara Syrah that was great, but 07's release of the same wine was mediocre; whereas their Santa Ynez Syrah from the 06 visit was mediocre and 07's was good). They source all their grapes.

Tensley
Last visited in 06
co-located with Carina, Tensley is the private label of the guy that is the wine maker at Carina. SG is not fond of his wine, and he is a bit pompous.

Santa Ynez Valley Tasting rooms
Lincourt
Last visit in 06
Great atmosphere friendly staff. Oddly they do mostly Bordeaux varietals.

Blackjack
Last visit in 06
Rude staff. They would not let us in with kids. Did not drink their wine. They are in the "Sideways movie"

Bridlewood
Last visit in 07
Great Atmosphere. Poor Wine. All estate grapes, and they do not know what type of wine they want to make. (They make a little bit of every style therefore never get any good at anything) They are a Gallo property.

Solvang tasting rooms
Wandering Dog
Good Pinot. (Our HR person is the daughter of the owner) Never visited as they don't allow kids; but Allison (the aforementioned) did personally pour for me at a different event.

Buellton Tasting Rooms
Hartley Ostini
Last visit 08
This is the Hitching Post restaurant. Good steaks. Good Pinots even better Syrah. Screw cap bottles. Worth having dinner here.

Ballard Canyon Tasting rooms
Rusak
Last visit 08.
This last visit te staff was not nearly as friendly. That was sad. They also will not give complementary tastings when you buy wine. This limited the amount of wine I bought from them.
Truly outstanding Pinot. The Santa Rita Hills Pinot is their best. Fantastic atmosphere. Bring a picnic. Owner is a scion of the Wriggly family (as in double-mint gum)

Foxen Canyon Tasting Rooms
Zaca Mesa
Last visited 08
The current release of the 3 barrel Syrah is truly epic. So much so that we joined the club (this wine is only available to club members)
Great Rhone style blends. Z-3 is a favorite

Foxen
Last visit 07
Great atmosphere. OK Super-Tuscan blends. SGK liked their Bordeaux Varietals.

Tres Hermanas
Last visit 07
Very friendly owners. So-so Rhône and Burgundy varietals, but they do have an Interesting Cal-Ital (the Refosco). The owners are predominately horse people, but their daughter's beau is a wine guy from Paso Robles and convinced them that in their location they should have a winery. Worth the visit, just for the coin-operated pony ride alone.

Santa Rita Hills Tasting Rooms
Babcock
Last Visit 09
They do not allow kids, so they lost out on our purchases.

Melville
Last Visit 09
Melville shares a driveway with Babcock, and benefited from Babcocks refusal to allow our kids inside. They have a pretentious tasting room, and will not refund the tasting fee when you buy wine. Their packaging is great. Big, Heavy bottles sealed with wax. We would have bought more, but wanted to make our displeasure at the non-refundable tasting fee known.

Clarksburg AVA

2008-05-28T16:03:00.000-07:00

This last weekend, being a 3 day weekend, my wife and I decided to take the kids to a water slide park in Sacramento. We drove to Sacramento through the delta rather than the standard I80 route because my wife was helping her mom out at her home in Rio Vista, and I had to stop there and pick her up.

SGK (my wife's initials) had a copy of some magazine that talked about wine tasting in Sacramento. She was all hip to try it out. Now, when they say Sacramento, they really mean Clarksburg which is a town in the delta just outside of Sacramento proper. The most well known winery in the region is Bogle, who like to tout their Petite Sirah. There are other wineries in the AVA, most of which co-locate their tasting rooms at a place called The Old Sugar Mill. The sugar mill is a great place for a tasting room - full of history, architecturally interesting, and planted in the middle of a vineyard. It's also the location of a custom crush facility, which makes it easier on the wineries.

Our first stop was not at the sugar mill, but rather at a small family owned winery Scribner Bend. It was an enjoyable visit, and we got to chat with the owner for quite a while. I had to ask him about the local grapes though, as the Delta has way too rich a soil to make stressed out wine grapes. He admitted that most of the growers sell their wine to Bronco.

Scribners wines were OK. I've had better Petite Sirah but their Tempranillo was good enough that I bought 2 bottles. Tempranillo? In the Delta? It turns out that lots of Clarksburg vineyards are growing this grape that is IMHO better suited for the more desert like conditions of Rioja, La Mancha, and Baja than the wet, rich california delta.

Scribners als had a rare white Italian varietal called "Fiano" that is common in the area of Avellino that my Paternal grandmother's family came from. We bought a bottle of that too to share with my dad.

After Scribners, we were off to the sugar mill. I won't mention any of the wineries in the sugar mill by name as whilst the venue was wonderful, none of the wines we tasted were memorable. It is clear from talking to several of the winery owners that most of them consider themselves farmers rather than wine makers. There is nothing wrong with that; it just does not make for memorable wine.

Some of them could use a bit of an education as well, as one of the winery owners was arguing that a late harvest Petite Sirah was really a Port and she was angry that the ATF would net let her call it a port.

Franklin Square Wine Bar

2008-04-29T10:46:00.000-07:00

SaraGrace and I have been experimenting with wine bars lately; for her birthday we went to Zza's Enoteca in Oakland, and then 3 days later for mine we went to Franklin Square
The first thing to say about Franklin Square is that we liked the atmosphere. They had outdoor seating (a big plus) and a cute, narrow main dining area with a bar. When we got there, the outdoor seating was quite noisy from the traffic of downtown Oakland, but by the time we left it was quite pleasant.

The food was quite pleasant, if a bit mis-served.
We had the chicken pâté which was simply divine. It was unfortunately served with thickly sliced bread rather than crackers or toast, so we had to separate the crust from the bread before eating so that the bread did not overwhelm the delicate flavours of the pâté.
We also had the pecorino, which, whilst a good accompaniment to the reds we ordered, was overpriced for the miniscule portion that we received.

The Wine selection was decent. Like expected, about 1/2 the menu was devoted to whites and of the reds about 1/2 were Bordeaux varietals, leaving only a 1/4 of the menu for our preferred styles.

The major disappointment came in in the serving of the wines. I ordered 2 1/2 glasses of wine; a Contra Costa Zin and a Sierra foothills Syrah. SaraGrace ordered a flight of Santa Cruz Pinot's.
The Syrah and Zin came in ridiculous heavy glasses with a thick bead around the mouth of the glass. Great water glasses, but completely inappropriate to taste wine in. The wine was also very warm. Probably 70f+. The Pinot's also did not come until the food was almost gone.

I inquired from the waitress about the glasses and the warm wine; she responded that the glasses came from the distributor and that the wine was warm because their ac unit was on the fritz.
If they are counting on their aC to keep the wine cool, then apparently they have no proper wine storage. This is actually not so big a deal as they probably go through their wine fast enough that the few days of room temp rather than cellar temp that the bottles experience are not likely to ruin the wine. The bigger sin is the shitty glassware. They are a wine bar for gods sake - they should invest in glassware likely to sell more wine.

The Verdict:

No hurry to return

2005 Rosenblum Monterosso Reserve Zinfandel

2008-02-12T14:50:00.000-08:00

This was from one of our wine club shipments. It's marked as a "Reserve" which at Rosenblum means that one would normally have a tasting fee associated with this wine.

The presentation is OK. It comes in a Bordeaux bottle, with a foil capsule and a fake cork.

It was a beautiful ruby colour. Before i could even sniff my glass, My mother-in-law had taken a sip and pronounced it sweet. Now, Helen is not a big wine drinker, and what she interprets as sweet is the fruit forward nature of this wine. It tastes like Jam, and Jam (in a jar) is sweet, therefore to Helen this wine is sweet.
The fruitful nose confirms this to be the case.

A swirl gives a thin sheen on the interior of my glass that devolves into legs down the near side of the glass. It also dirtied up the colour somewhat, and added some rubber to the nose.

The taste starts with cherries and ends up with cranberries. I anticipate that more dirt flavours would emerge as the wine oxidized; but it was so good right now that it never got a chance to.

The Verdict:

Awesome

Style:	Zinfandel
Varietals:	Zinfandel
Appellation/Terrior:	Monte Rosso Vineyard, Sonoma Valley, California
Vintage:	2005
Vintner:	Diageo
Alcohol:	15.2% by Volume

Battle of the Rhône's

2008-02-11T15:38:00.000-08:00

So I wanted to see how close one of the prominent "Rhône Rangers" of California could come to an honest-to-god French Rhône wine, so I hopped on down to Nob Hill and bought a Rosenblum Château La Paws Côte Du Bone Roan and the only Appellation Côtes du Rhône Contrôlée that they stocked - a Cellier des Dauphins Prestige Côtes du Rhône.

Presentation

Closure

Dauphins: The plastic capsule encased a synthetic cork that left no tattoo.
Rosenblum: The foil capsule enclosed a synthetic cork that also left no tattoo.

Bottle

Dauphins: Squat, lightweight, puntless pale green bottle. Not in the Rhône shape, but with an embossment that is typical of Rhône bottles.
Rosenblum: Traditional y shaped Rhône bottle in a heavy, dark green glass and a deep punt.

Labeling

Dauphins: Typical French labeling; no indication of what varietals are in the wine, only what varietals might be in the wine, and then only if you memorized the AOC rule list.
Rosenblum: Rear label gives varietals, but not ratios. Some tasting notes provided.

Website

Dauphins:Their English language version of the site for this wine is targeted at the UK market, and it's not clear if the wine is the same in both markets. The UK info is good - even giving pounds of fruit used in fermentation.
Rosenblum: Detailed PDF that expands upon what is on the rear label

The Tasting

Initially, both wines smell very similar, after a swirl the Dauphins came out on top with more earthy smells in the aroma. The Rosenblum had a richer colour. The Rosenblum had a classic syrah burnt rubber on the tongue, but over all the Dauphins was better balanced (this is supposed to be a blend, not a Syrah dominated wine), and improved over the hours sitting in my glass. After leaving both wines overnight, the Dauphins was still better than the Rosenblum which got a little sour.

The Verdict:

While neither is great; The French wine wins.

Vintner:	Cellier des Dauphins
Style:	Rhône
Varietals:	Grenache, Syrah, Cinsaut, Carignane, Counoise, Mourvèdre
Appellation/Terrior:	Appellation Côtes du Rhône Contrôlée, France
Vintage:	2005
Alcohol:	13% by Volume

Vintner:	Rosenblum
Style:	Rhône
Varietals:	Carignane, Syrah, Zinfandel, Mourvèdre
Appellation/Terrior:	California
Vintage:	2005
Alcohol:	14.9% by Volume

2001 Jessie's Grove Carignane

2008-02-10T13:34:00.000-08:00

This wine was one of the ones that I bought at The Grocery Outlet. It is the only one that i bought that day where I had any previous knowledge the winery - I had Jessie's Grove's "Earth, Zin, and Fire" before.

The presentation was OK. It's a Rhône varietal, yet they chose to package it in a Bordeaux bottle. The labeling gives some good history. Good history is important in selecting a wine that you know nothing about, because if they have been making wine long enough to have a history, then presumably they are not screwing it up too badly. The bottle is encased in sediment around the shoulder, which is god, given the age of this wine - the sediment is in the correct place making it reasonable to believe that it has been stored properly.

The real cork was enclosed in foil and on one side, it had about 5/8 inch of penetration. Doug bought the same wine and had much more penetration on his. Oddly enough given the amount of sediment on the shoulder and the penetrated cork, it did not leave a prominent tattoo.

It had a deep, old colour and raisons on the nose. I usually associate the raison smell with Botrytis, but if that were the case here I am positive that the label would have mentioned it.
After the swirl, red fruit emerged on the nose, along with caramelized onions. Yumm. For all of that, it was light and airy, with a hint of salt and pepper.
Searching Jerssie's Grove's website for Carignane (it isn't all that common a varietal after all) shows only an old vine Lodi Carignane being bottled today. I wonder if this is the same wine, just re-labled now that Old Vine is in vogue?

The Verdict:

Good value. If The Grocery Outlet still has it in stock, I'll be sure to acquire some more.

Style:	Rhône
Varietals:	Carignane
Appellation/Terrior:	Lodi, California
Vintage:	2003
Vintner:	Jessie's Grove
Alcohol:	13.0% by Volume
Price:	$3.99 from a liquidator

2003 Coyoteville Howling Red

2008-02-09T09:32:00.000-08:00

This wine was one of the ones that I bought at The Grocery Outlet. I did not know anything about this winery when I bought it; selecting it based soley upon the (albeit limited) data available from the label. It turns out that Coyoteville is the label that Burch Hall uses for blends. I selected it because I'm a bit of a Rhône junkie and the classic Châteauneuf-du-Pape blend of Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvèdre makes me salivate.

The presentation was OK. It comes in a Rhône shaped bottle of a sick light green colour. The artwork on the front label is appealing.

The foil capsule enclosed a real cork that had some classy embossing upon it. SG thoght the cork was fake because of it's glossiness from the embossing. It left the faintest tattoo.

SGK swilled her taste immediately and declared it a "Table Wine". I examined it more closely. It had the colour of the Buffalo Grove Syrah that we opened earlier in the evening. As I contemplated the slight oily film on the surface of the wine, SGK declared "It smells like Ass" I look up and she's holding the bottle up to her nose. I stick my nose in my glass and determine that ass must smell like burnt rubber because that's what I'm getting. Despite her likening it to the odour of an equine beast of burden, SGK declares "It's nice" I say fine.

I put some through the Vinturi and get more fruit on the nose. SG felt it was more smooth after the Vinturi, but that she had more pepper beforehand. She said she would get more. She asked me to go buy a case.

It went well with the Mexican Heirloom tomatoes and lavender smoked beef loin that we had for dinner. The Buffalo Syrah that we started the evening with was bigger.

The Verdict:

Easy drinking. SG wants another case

Style:	Rhône
Varietals:	Syrah, Mourvèdre, Grenache,
Appellation/Terrior:	California
Vintage:	2003
Vintner:	Burch Hall
Alcohol:	14.3% by Volume
Price:	$3.99 from a liquidator

2004 Buffalo Grove Syrah

2008-02-08T17:09:00.000-08:00

This wine was one of the ones that I bought at The Grocery Outlet

The presentation was OK. It comes in a Rhône shaped bottle of a sick light green colour.

The foil capsule enclosed an artificial cork.

The wine was a rich dried blood colour that smelled - well like wine. After a swirl some fruit came out - apricots perhaps. It tasted rich and sweet.

I thought it was great. reminiscent of what Rosenblum would make. SGK wanted it to open up more, and liked it better through the Vinturi.

Some legs finally showed up at the end of the first glass, and then some more classic Syrah aromas emerged: Smoke and rubber yet full of fruit. There was some burn at the finish.

I found it yummy and great. Too bad the winery does not seem to be making it any more.

The Verdict:

Yummy. I am planning on another case.

Style:	Rhône
Varietals:	Syrah
Appellation/Terrior:	California
Vintage:	2004
Vintner:	Adler Fels
Alcohol:	12.5% by Volume
Price:	$3.99 from a liquidator

Grocery Outlet

2008-02-07T20:04:00.000-08:00

The Grocery Outlet

James is this guy that I work with who's pretty darn wine knowledgeable, and has good taste in wines. His family is involved in the wine industry in the Finger Lakes AVA and he grew up with it.

We have these semi-monthly wine tastings at work where everyone brings something in and we all taste. Quite fun. If you ask James where he makes his acquisitions, they are usually at some winery function or other, usually when the winemaker is disposing of excess library wines. The other big place James makes acquisitions at is The Grocery Outlet.

Just what is the Grocery Outlet? It's a store that acquires it's inventory from defunct businesses or product lines and then sells them off cheap. Usually it's associated with almost past the sell by caned goods, but they also acquire quite a bit of wine. And sell it off for about $2.99 a bottle. Now, they never have consistent inventory, and you have no idea how the wines have been stored. So James usually shows up, drops a $20 and goes home with half a mixed case, pops them all open, tastes them, and then returns to buy a case or 2 of the ones he liked.

I decided that it was high time I popped in to the Grocery Outlet myself and give it a try, so I loaded my friend Doug into the SUV and we headed off to Berkeley at lunch to check the place out.

They had about the same size selection that you would find at Nob Hill or Albertsons. Not too many labels that I had seen before (at least that I would drink; Ernest & Julio were present in the selection as was Joe Franzia) were present, although there was one wine from Jessie's Grove.

I bought 7 wines for $19.78. None of which I had ever tried before, and only 1 of which I had even heard of (The afore mentioned Jessie's Grove). I have so far opened 3 of them, and found all 3 to be very good, and I'm heading back tomorrow to buy more. At less than $3 a bottle you can afford to experiment (like the 2 bottles of Algerian Shiraz I picked up on a whim)

If you consider the $20.00 a "Tasting fee" then you won't mind throwing out (or making sauce out of) all 7 bottles then it's worth shopping there on the chance that even one of the wines turns out to be a keeper, as you can load up on a case for the price of a single bottle of Rosenblum.

Verdict:
Give it a try.

2004 Big White House Sangiovese

2008-02-07T14:09:00.000-08:00

This wine was one that SGK bought futures of and we opened it shortly after getting it home.

The presentation is OK. It comes in a Rhône bottle - but nowadays it's rare to find a good sangiovese in the traditional, basket wrapped fiasco.

the foil capsule enclosed a real cork that came out of the bottle encrusted with bitartrate crystals - an awesome sign!!!

The wine itself was pale and cloudy - this coupled with the aforementioned bitartrate crystals leads me to believe that John forewent a cold stabilization period.

After a no-leg swirl, it tasted full and dry on the teeth. You know the feeling I'm describing - like your teeth are made of chalk and the wine is soaking into it. This is followed with the stomach grip of a classic chianti.

It's good. I liked it.

I had it accompanying a pasta fazool.

The following day, I had it at lunch with some black forest ham (posing as prosciutto), almonds, and chocolate. It went well. Slightly acidic, but most Italian wines are. because of this, I would say it works best with food.

The Verdict:

Good

Style:	Chianti
Varietals:	Sangiovese
Appellation/Terrior:	Ripkin Vineyard, Lodi, California
Vintage:	2004
Vintner:	Big White House
Alcohol:	13.5% by Volume

2004 Earth, Zin, & Fire

2008-01-31T10:44:00.000-08:00

SGK bought this wine at Cost+ a couple of years ago on an experimental Zin buying trip.

The presentation is campy - a Bordeaux bottle with flames on the label and painted onto the foil capsule. There is a concert ticket theme to the labeling "With Special Guest Old Gnarley" on the front, and a section/row/seat layout on the back complete with :Showtime begins at 5:00. Love, Zin, and Rock 'n Roll. It had a real cork embossed with a horse of all things. The campy packaging is kind of fun, but my complaint is that the vintage is not displayed clearly, and the vintner is very difficult to determine.

The notes on the vintners page continue the concert theme, but give some additional production information.

Despite the campy appearance and poor labeling, I liked this wine. The nose was pleasant and noticeable from over 12 inches away. SGK thought it was peppery, I got fruit dominating. SGK also craved truffles (the chocolate kind) whilst I wanted truffles (the fungal kind) to accompany this wine. It had legs galore.

It was simple, not complex. Acidic. with a full fruity taste. Pouring it back and forth between glasses softened it up quite a bit. I loved the smell.

The Verdict:

Thumbs up

Style:	Zinfandel
Varietals:	Zinfandel
Appellation/Terrior:	Lodi, California
Vintage:	2004
Vintner:	Jessie's Grove
Alcohol:	14.2% by Volume
Price:	$12.95

2005 Big White House Mourvèdre

2008-01-26T15:15:00.000-08:00

I fell in love with the not so common Rhône varietal Mourvèdre a while back under the Californian name of "Mataro". While I liked that one, it is the one made by young John Evans that really gets me going. I first bought this wine (2 bottles) on my first visit to Big White House in May of 2007, then again (3 bottles) when we stopped by for a picnic three months later, and last week decided that I couldn't live without more so bought out John's last inventory (13 bottles) that's not slated for his library.

The presentation is OK. It comes in a Rhône bottle, with a foil capsule and a real cork.

The label was faded - which to me would normally indicate that the wine had been stored in the sun (a distinct no-no), but in this case I watched John label them in front of me after pulling them from the back of his warehouse, so it was the label that sat in the sun, not the bottle in this case. The rear label includes what appears to be a description of the 2004 Mourvèdre; not sure if this is a typo or a mislabeling - and the cave dog's email box if full, so until I return to the winery, we won't know.

It had a pale colour, and was stereotypically sour on the nose. Sour in a good way.

The swirl gave legs galore, with a distinctive Mataro smell. Sour dirty leather, or perhaps leathery dirt. The sour evoked citrus to my wife. She says lemony, I say awesome. It makes me crave salami.

Sour plums. Saw dust. Leather, leather, leather. Awesome Mourvèdre.

I made the mistake of pouring some in my pasta sauce. I should have drank it instead. As a matter of fact, I stole my wife's glass and finished it before she could stop me.

The Verdict:

One of my all time favorite wines

Style:	Rhône
Varietals:	Mourvèdre
Appellation/Terrior:	Davis Vineyard, Lodi, California
Vintage:	2005
Vintner:	Big White House
Alcohol:	14.8% by Volume
Price:	$22.00

2003 Kunde Shaw Vineyard "Century Vines" Zinfandel

2008-01-25T15:48:00.000-08:00

This wine was one of the ones we bought when Jeff Kunde showed us around the Kunde property in Sonoma. We bought it mostly because we Kunde's regular Sonoma Valley Zinfandel is outstanding, and I figured that this one, being from the oldest vines on the property would be out of this world. Jeff did not recommend it to us - it turns out that he's a white wine drinker, so always hesitates to recommend and reds.

The presentation is good. It comes in a Zin bottle. All the required label info is there, along with a short historical blurb. The tasting notes give great info on the harvest and vineyard.

It has a foil capsule, and the real cork was clean - and smelled slightly vinegarish.

It had good clarity and a nice colour, with a fruity smell. The first taste was tangy and acidic.

The swirl left instant legs the length of the glass. Nice, long legs. It was still tangy, and now somewhat watery in taste.

3 trips through the Vinturi gave it some dirt on the nose - but it still tasted tangy.

I decanted the bottle. After 15 minutes, it was only slightly earthier and still tangy. 15 minutes is nothing, so I let it wait another hour. Still tangy. SGK swears it brought her allergies up.

At this point, I'm disappointed - this wine had so much promise. I funnel it back into the bottle to see if it will improve later.

<Sunday Evening>
SGK: It's much better. Still Puckery. Better than the Lemony taste from Thursday.
MRA: More fruit and fuller. By the second glass, I felt it was good.

The Verdict:

Given the length of time it needed to breathe, I surely opened this wine too early.

Style:	Zinfandel
Varietals:	Zinfandel
Appellation/Terrior:	Shaw Vineyard, Sonoma Valley, California
Vintage:	2003
Vintner:	Kunde
Alcohol:	14.5% by Volume
Price:	$45.00

2005 Rusak Soul Of The Vine

2008-01-25T14:01:00.000-08:00

The failure of the Kunde to delight my palate was the perfect excuse to finish off this desert wine that had been languishing half full in my fridge for months.

We bought this wine on our last trip to Solvang. SaraGraces mother is a fan of Australian Botrytis infected Semillon, so when one of our Santa Barbara favorite wineries, Rusak, had one from California available, we thought we'd give it a go.

Now I don't know for how long this has been sitting open in our fridge as I'm sure it was originally opened by SGK when her mother was here. Certainly this means after the new year, as I know we didn't have it when Kristin was over New Years Eve.

Raisins. This is a good example of the noble rot. Raisins. Yum. Did I mention that it was like drinking liquid raisins?

I am extremely impressed with how well this wine has held up, being over-chilled for too long, never mind opened and sitting on the fridge door where it got nocked around for god knows how many days.

The Presentation was OK. It came in a clear, split bottle with a pen and ink on the label. The winery is hidden amongst the descriptive text on the rear label.

It had a foil capsule and a real cork.

The Verdict:

Good example of the style. Great holding power.

Style:	Dessert
Varietals:	Semillon
Appellation/Terrior:	Ballard Canyon, Santa Ynez Valley, California
Vintage:	2005
Vintner:	Rusak
Alcohol:	14.8% by Volume

2003 Capay Valley Syrah

2008-01-15T16:33:00.000-08:00

This wine came as part of our Wine Shop At Home shipment.

Interesting is that the eponymous AVA is in Yolo county of all places! Just goes to show that not all good wine comes from famous terrior. I wonder a bit about the owners; AVA, vineyard and winery all named Capay. Winery owns the vineyard. Tasting room is at the vineyard. Yet wine is made in Santa Rosa, denying them the snoot (and price point) of being able to label the wine "Estate". I would bet that the wine maker works for several other wineries and is not willing to spend the time to drive way out in the boonies.

The presentation is good. It comes in a Rhône bottle. All the required label info is there, along with a short historical blurb. The tasting notes from Wine Shop At home give some background on the farmer, and winery's tasting notes give a modicum more information about the wine.

The rubber cork left no tattoo.

It has a great colour, and smells dirty right out of the bottle. The swirl freed some burnt rubber aromas. Leggy, leggy, leggy legs. This promises to be good.

Unfortunately, the first taste tasted like burnt rubber. I'll let it open.

<Hours Later>
Still has a great nose to it. I liked it, but needs to open flavour wise. SGK says it's lemony and full of caramel.

The next day it was even better. It lived up to the notes on the back label "Soft and Velvety" More berries and dirt. It is superior.

The Verdict:

I wanted to buy more, but The Wine Shop At Home was sold out, and the winery does not have an on-line order facility. As I am unlikely to find myself in Yolo County any time soon, I'll unfortunately have to give it a pass on the grounds that it's too difficult to buy.

Style:	Rhône
Varietals:	Syrah
Appellation/Terrior:	Capay Valley, California
Vintage:	2003
Vintner:	Capay Valley Vineyards
Alcohol:	14.1% by Volume
Price:	$16.00

2004 John Evan "The Petran" Petite Sirah

2008-01-13T13:46:00.000-08:00

Last summer SGK and I spent quite a bit of time exploring the Livermore AVA for good wineries. One of the ones we discovered Big White House. We were impressed with the enthusiasm of the wine maker, John Evans The Younger. Big White House has two labels - Big White House and John Evans. There is a third label that shares the tasting room; El Sol. We have been back to this tasting room many times, but during our first visit there, we did a barrel tasting of some of the futures, and this bottle came from that lot.

The presentation is outstanding. It comes in a heavy Rhône bottle, with a hand-dipped wax capsule and the front label is an original piece of artwork by the wine maker's sister of the entrance to Petra. The real cork was even specific to this wine as it was imprinted "The Petran"

Now, both the fact that this is a brand new release, and the packaging includes a real heavy bottle sealed in Wax indicates to me that John intends for this wine to be put down for a while. We fully intend on putting down the other 11 bottles, we just couldn't wait to try this one.

The cork left no tattoo, but as I know this wine was bottled only a month or so ago, I did not expect one.

The initial colour was like dried blood - I would normally expect that in an older, bottle aged wine just past it's peak. There were lots of fermentation smells on the nose.
Give it a swirl and you do get deeper purply colour that one associates with a Petite Sirah. The swirl also brought some fruit to the nose, but not what I've come to expect from a big Petite Sirah. This guy's got some tannins and tastes real big.
It's got a "pebble in the pond" pattern to the legs that's really cool to look at.
I ran some through The Vinturi, which brings out the red, softens the nose and best of all , infuses the flavour with nice earthy tones.

We served this Chicken Pasta Diavola. The big taste balanced the spice in the Calabrese dish wonderfully. This is not your normal Petite.

The Verdict:

It was good now, but I'll respect John and cellar the rest for a while.

Style:	Rhône
Varietals:	Petite Sirah
Appellation/Terrior:	Clarksburg, California
Vintage:	2004
Vintner:	Big White House
Alcohol:	14.5% by Volume

Page Mill Winery Tasting Room

2008-01-12T21:34:00.000-08:00

We were long over due to pick up the futures that we bought from Big White House so we popped over to Livermore for the day. Our first stop was Stony Ridge where we replenished our stock of sparkling Malvasia Bianca that we depleted over the holidays. Since the kids were sleeping, we forewent a tasting and just bought the wine.

After picking up our Big White House futures, (and tasting) we decided that we had time for one more tasting, so we headed to Page Mill.

Almost a year ago, we were in invited to Page Mill's re-location event by a friend of ours that does some financial work for the owner. We were unable to make it at the time, and had been meaning to drop by and check it out.

What is a relocation event? Well, the winery is old enough to have once been located in Santa Clara County (on the eponymous Page Mill Road to be exact) When Santa Clara County was known for vines rather than code lines. The owners decided that the best use of the original location was residential rather than agricultural, hence the move to the Bay Area's other wine growing region.

The winery is not marked well from the road, so even though we knew where it was, we still drove past it and had to turn around. It's behind someone's (we assume the owners) home. The parking lot was poorly marked and a muddy mess, but don't ding them for that as the unimproved nature of the drive adds to the charm. The Winery building itself has lots of character.

The tasting room is well appointed, with almost a Victorian atmosphere. There is a good collection of dust covered bottles, and a half open curtain showing dimly lit aisles of casks.

There was no tasting fee.

The wines were good as well. Dane (the wine maker) seems to like bringing fruit forward into the nose of his grapes; a style of which I heartily approve.

The visit was completely spoiled by the rudeness of one of the staff in the tasting room - one Gary Brink. This man needs to take a pill. The issue here is that we bring our children tasting with us. Gary did not appreciate us for this. We were not the only ones in the tasting room with children, but we were the ones that Gary not only gave the evil eye to, but also chastised.
Gary's rudeness was Dane's loss as I would have likely have not only bought some of his wine, but would have returned again and again to try and buy more. A word to any winery owner out there: If you make your tasting room kid hostile, then you will not sell any wine to their parents.

The Verdict:
I liked Dane's wine. I liked everything about his winery, from the history on his web page to the buildings and decor. I like to support the clients of my friends. I do not like Gary Brink and will not visit this winery while he is working there.

2003 Valley Of The Moon Estate Old Vine Zinfandel

2008-01-08T10:54:00.000-08:00

Last spring my son's school had a "camping trip" where we all went to a group camp in the Valley Of The Moon and afterwards we used the opportunity to drink some local wines. The eponymous winery has a reputation for producing "Premium Jug Wines". Given the oxymoronic reputation, I did not expect much, but really wanted to visit it as it is one of the oldest wineries in California, and features prominently in my 1979 edition of the Sunset Guide to California Wine Country, as being a former Parducci property, and indeed even the personal vineyard of the Hearst's.

It has a good presentation. It comes in an attractive silk-screened zinfandel bottle properly labeled. It has a real cork. The mention of "Old Vines" on the label in this case means something as the estate vineyard was planted in the 1850's; and while I do not doubt that most of the vines have been replaced over time; the term "Ancient" might be appropriate here.

It had a real cork that smelled of cherries and left no tattoo.

Given my previous experiences with VOTM wines, I opened it a and walked away from the bottle to take care of my kids and let it breath a little before tasting it.

It had a good colour and berries on the nose. A swirl brought out more berries and a hint of leather. It had minimal legs.

A dark charcoal taste made it better than the previous VOTM that I opened.

The Vinturi brought out raspberries on the nose with a hint a jam.

The Verdict:

It was good.

Style:	Zinfandel
Varietals:	Zinfandel
Appellation/Terrior:	Sonomoa Valley AVA, California
Vintage:	2003
Vintner:	Valley Of The Moon
Alcohol:	14.8% by Volume

2003 Trinitas Bigalow Zinfandel

2008-01-04T13:15:00.000-08:00

The Bigelow Zin is my favorite zin of all time. I first fell in love with the 2002 vintage, and alas, there is none to be had in the whole world, so I'm now drinking the 2003. fortunately, almost a year has gone buy since I reviewed the 2002, and it's time to see if a year in the bottle makes the 2003 equivalent.

The presentation was identical to the 2002; It came in a Bordeaux bottle. It had a real cork. Not much penetration into the cork, and it left only the faintest of tattoos. One difference to the 2002 is that in the '02, there was a fair amount of sediment around the neck; in the '03 there was none.

It had a rich raspberry colour with raspberries and charcoal on the nose. There were lots of legs long and short. after the swirl I got more raspberries and some chocolate. It's still full and rich with a blackberry taste.

We had it with chocolate fondue, and it picked it up fabulously.

The Verdict:

I have 11 more bottles and plan on drinking them all.

Style:	Zinfandel
Varietals:	Zinfandel
Appellation/Terrior:	Oakley Contra Costa County, California
Vintage:	2003
Vintner:	Trinitas
Alcohol:	15.0% by Volume
Price:	$24.36

2004 Rosenblum Rhodes Vineyard Petite Sirah

2008-01-03T14:58:00.000-08:00

This bottle cam as part of my Red Rangers wine club.

The presentation is good. It comes in a Rhône bottle with an amalgamated synthetic cork. The label gives decent info, and the tasting notes more so.

It has a purple lipstick colour with lots of fruit on the nose. The legs fell in a single sheet, breaking up in the last ¼ inch. Lots of leather.

The Verdict:

Dirty, Thick, and beautiful

Style:	Rhône
Varietals:	Petite Sirah, Syrah
Appellation/Terrior:	Rhodes Vineyard, Redwood Valley AVA, California
Vintage:	2007
Vintner:	Rosenblum
Alcohol:	15.7% by Volume

2007 Zaràfa Pinotage

2008-01-02T19:18:00.000-08:00

After being introduced to Pinotage by a South African friend who also happens to be one of the Livermore Valley's finer wine makers, we have been on the hunt for a bottle as good as she makes for her own consumption. We found the 2006 Zaràfa enjoyable and a good bargain, even if it was not up to the quality of Mrs. Nolte's wine, so when Trader Joe's got the 2007 in we went for it. (note that the Southern hemisphere harvests their grapes in January)

I opened this bottle to accompany some prawns and asparagus that SG had cooked for dinner.

The presentation is OK. It comes in a Bordeaux bottle. It's a critter wine with the Girraffe on the label (one can assume that Zaràfa is Afrikaans for the beast), but that serves to hide the vintner (Mt. River) which is only mentioned in the small print. It did have a cheap plastic capsule covering an amalgamated cork (which left no tattoo of course). It sprayed wine when the cork was pulled.

It had a clean, pale, colour with fresh fruit on the nose.

After the swirl we got legs on one side of the glass, and a dirty taste with a slight hint of vinegar.

I ran it through the Vinturi and the colour got brighter, but the flavour got tart. I forwent the vinturi for the actual drinking.

The Verdict:

This wine was about $3 a bottle so with it being drinkable it makes an excellent value.

Style:	Afrikaner
Varietals:	Pinotage
Appellation/Terrior:	Western Cape
Vintage:	2007
Vintner:	Mountain River
Alcohol:	14% by Volume

NV Louis Roederer Brut Premier Champagne

2008-01-01T14:47:00.000-08:00

This bottle was brought over by our friends Tom and Kris to celebrate the New year.

The presentation is OK. Neither label gives much more than the French legals, and the website is so difficult to navigate that I gave up (Death to those that over use flash!) The bottle also bears QEII's seal; so apparently they serve this bubbly at Buckingham Palace.

It comes in a Champagne bottle, with a composite cork typical of sparkling wines.

It gave a resounding pop as it opened. Quite satisfactory. It was chock full of micro sized bubbles that streamed non-stop from the centre of the flute. Smelled like Almonds and tasted like apples. Despite being a Brut, It tasted sweet. The colour was almost clear. Kris, like me, doesn't much like sparkling wines, but she liked this one.

The Verdict:

Typical Champagne, if higher quality than I am used to

Style:	Champagne
Varietals:	Pinot Noir, Chardonay, Pinot Meunier
Appellation/Terrior:	Reims
Vintage:	NV
Vintner:	Roederer
Alcohol:	12% by Volume

2003 Mountain River Pinotage/Shiraz Reserve

2007-12-31T12:39:00.000-08:00

SaraGrace bought this bottle over the summer when we first discovered the joys of Pinotage.

The presentation is good. The rear label gives some decent info. It comes in a Zin bottle.

I didn't get to see the cork as SGK popped it open before I came home and disposed of it.

It had a bright lively colour.

Lots of earth and brandy on the nose.

After a completely and utterly legless swirl, I got berries and leather.

It tasted dirty and full bodied. I liked it. The body reminded me of a Rhône blend.

I put it through the Vinturi and it brought purple and blood to the colour and more berries on the nose. It also removed the dirt from the flavour and replaced it with prunes. I prefer the dirt, so even though it improved the colour, the rest of the bottle got swilled sans vinturi. SG didn't like it because she thought it tasted tart.

The Verdict:

I liked it

Style:	Afrikaner
Varietals:	Pinotage, Sirah
Appellation/Terrior:	WO Western Cape, South Africa
Vintage:	2004
Vintner:	Mountain River
Alcohol:	14% by Volume

2004 Schramsberg Blanc De Noir Brut

2007-12-30T08:17:00.000-08:00

SaraGrace bought this bottle for the holidays. With the yumminess of the Malvasia Bianca in mind she wanted to try something new.

The presentation is great. The tasting notes are excellent. It comes in a clear Champagne bottle. The label gives more than the legal minimum with details on production (Méthode Champenoise, barrel fermented, etc.) and grape mixture. There is appellation listed as this cuvée comes from several appellations. It is distressing though that they did not at least list California - leads one to believe that more than 15% of the grapes come from elsewhere.

It had an composite cork typical of sparkling wines. The cork showed 1/8 inch penetration.

It had a colour reminiscent of a Chardonay with a like nose. Teensey bubbles.

It had a crisp slightly sweet anise flavour. After pouring a full flute, I got an almost cheesy taste on inhaling the CO2; but that could have been the pizza in the oven.

The Verdict:

OK, but I'm not a bubbly fan

Style:	Champagne
Varietals:	Pinot Noir, Chardonay
Appellation/Terrior:	None
Vintage:	2004
Vintner:	Schramsberg
Alcohol:	15% by Volume

NV Stony Ridge California Malvasia Bianca

2007-12-29T13:57:00.000-08:00

We bought this bottle of bubbly at the Crooked Vine tasting room which is co-located with Stony Ridge. It was an unusual purchase as we don't usually buy bubblies, but it was unusual in that the grape Malvasia Bianca is not a normal component in a sparkling wine, and it tasted wonderful.

The presentation is OK. It comes in a Champagne bottle. The label gives the legal minimum. There is no indication anywhere on the bottle of when either the grapes were grown or when it was put bottled. With a non-vintage wine you typically will see the range of years "hidden" on the label somewhere indicating when the grapes were grown to differentiate it from the non-vintage bottlings of other years. This is not so with his particular wine. The only way to tell is to see the tasting notes. The cherub on the label is nice, but doesn't do the original (carved in a giant cask in their tasting room) justice.

It had an composite cork typical of sparkling wines.

It had a golden colour and cinnamon on the nose.

The Verdict:

My favorite sparkling wine.

Style:	Champagne
Varietals:	Malvasia Bianca
Appellation/Terrior:	California
Vintage:	NV (2005)
Vintner:	Stony Ridge
Alcohol:	12% by Volume

1993 Stag's Leap Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

2007-12-25T10:50:00.000-08:00

I bought this bottle in 1998 as a gift to my mother. She decided to crack it open Christmas eve.

The presentation is good. It comes in a Bordeaux bottle. The label gives the legal minimum and an explanation of Stag's leaps different Cabernets. The atypical rack on the eponymous stag shown on the label is quite attractive.

It had a real cork with ¼ inch penetration. The wet end of the cork was black and it broke with the pressure from the corkscrew. It left a shit brown tattoo. The condition of the cork is indicative of the storage conditions for this bottle. It was only last year that my mother got a proper cellar, so it's not surprising that this bottle is showing more than its 14 years. The ullage (fill level; indicative of air exchange through the cork) was still at a respectable base neck level, so I was not too worried that the wine had spoiled.

The wine itself had a rich tawney colour and brandy like aromas. I smelled tea. A legless swirl brings sweetness to the nose, not unlike a port.

It tasted like a rich beef stew. There was some sediment in my glass, and around the neck of the bottle were small flecks of tannin. Phyliss smelled chocolate.

The Verdict:

Given the storage conditions we should have opened this wine a few years ago, but it was still very drinkable.

Style:	Bordeaux
Varietals:	Cabernet Sauvignon
Appellation/Terrior:	Napa Valley, California
Vintage:	2004
Vintner:	Stag's Leap
Alcohol:	13.8% by Volume
Price:	Don't remember

2004 Bridlewood Syrah Port

2007-12-24T15:55:00.000-08:00

We bought this wine on our annual pilgrimage to the Santa Barbara wine country. We went into the beautiful winery with high expectations, but this single bottle was our only purchase.

Since Kristin was over, it was a double dessert wine night; we Drank this wine to follow the Van Halen Concert (after the Mole dinner of the previous post.)

The presentation is poor. It comes in a Rhône style split bottle. The label gives only the legal minimum and the meaningless words "Winner's Circle Selection". Given that the winery has an equestrian theme, the "Winner's Circle" is the name of their wine club. (Note that the grammatically incorrect use of apostrophes is that of the winery and not this author's). The Tasting notes are OK, but both the notes and the label itself show that the wine marketer did not pay attention in class. This is an estate wine - yet the label does not show that. It is also incorrectly labeled a "Port" - which it cannot be because it is made from an inappropriate grape for a "Port". In reality it is Fortified Dessert wine made from Syrah grapes.

It had a real cork with no penetration, and it left only a wet tattoo.

It did have a thick red port colour with the aroma of Blackberries and chocolate. The legs were slow to form.

It was a thick, full wine that left a burning alcohol taste on the pallate.

The Verdict:

Pass

Style:	Dessert
Varietals:	Syrah
Appellation/Terrior:	Santa Ynez Valley, California
Vintage:	2004
Vintner:	Bridlewood
Alcohol:	18.1% by Volume
Price:	Don't remember

2003 Barón Balché Dulché

2007-12-23T11:27:00.000-08:00

We bought this wine on our annual pilgrimage to the Valle de Guadeloupe. Balché is one of the few wineries in this region that you do not have to make an appointment to taste. We had great hopes when our host led us 10Mts underground to thiner cask aging cellar where we tasted their purveyance. We selected several wines, and were led back upstairs where our hopes were dashed when the bottles we wished to purchaced were pulled out of a tin shed on the desert floor where it was currently 100ºf.

We Drank this wine to follow the Mole dinner of the previous post.

The presentation is OK. It comes in a clear split bottle. The label is printed on clear plastic and is all in Spanish. The real cork was penetrated about ¼ inch, left the faintest tattoo and smelled of vinegar. Really shows the poor storage of the vintner.

It was a pale blush brandy colour, with lots of sugar on the nose and the faintest scent of Botrytis. I would expect a desert wine to be as leggy as Marilyn Monroe, but it took 2 swirls to get 4 faint legs to show. All of that swirling rewarded us with sweet raisins on the nose.

Drinking it was like drinking liquid sultanas. Brilliant. Our friend Kris who is very partial to Ports got a hint of walnut.

The Verdict:

I loved it, but do to the poor storage techniques of the vintner, I would be careful to inspect closely any bottles I purchased in the future.

Style:	Dessert
Varietals:	Syrah, Ruby Red
Appellation/Terrior:	Valle De Guapeloupe, Baja California
Vintage:	2003
Vintner:	Balché
Alcohol:	13.5% by Volume
Price:	Pricey for a Mexican wine

2006 Shooting Star Blue Franc

2007-12-22T09:55:00.000-08:00

This wine came in my Steelehead wine club shipment. Shooting Star is Jed Steele's "Bargain" label.

SaraGrace really wanted a wine with dinner, but she had prepared chicken mole; makes it hard to pull a red out of the cellar to accompany it, so I was looking for something unusual. The Lemberger (Known as Blaufränkisch in it's native Austria) that Steele sent us was right up that alley.

The presentation is OK. It comes in a Bordeaux bottle. 2005's rear label had all sorts of great information, but that was lacking on the 2006. The Tasting notes on Steele's website are less informative about this instance of Lemberger but interesting on Lemberger as a whole. I love the cinc franc note for a label.

It had a capped agglomerated cork. There was no penetration to the cork, and no tattoo. It's colour was like a dark tea, and had no nose to speak of.
After the swirl we did get some berry aromas, and no legs.

This wine was a smooth, easy drinker with a Pinot like body. Given that it is a rather young vintage, we ran it through the Vinturi - which gave it a fresh berry aroma and believe it or not improved the colour as well.

The Verdict:

Smooth Easy Drinker. Serviced the Mole sauce.

Style:	Germanic
Varietals:	Lemberger
Appellation/Terrior:	Washington State
Vintage:	2006
Vintner:	Steele
Alcohol:	13.5% by Volume
Price:	Came in a wine shipment with 3 other bottles

2004 Mayo Alexander Valley Stone Ranch Carignane

2007-12-21T18:26:00.000-08:00

This wine was bought on Easter Sunday 2007 at one of the few open tasting rooms in Glenn Ellen.

I opened it after returning from a Rosenblum tasting; I had my mind set on a Rhône for dinner. SGK had cooked up some Shrimp; a Syrah just would not do, but a much lighter Carignane just might. It took some searching through the cellar, but I turned up just the bottle I was looking for.

The presentation is OK. It comes in a Zin bottle (Why???) But the rear label gives lots of info on this not so common varietal. By not so common, I mean as a single varietal; Carignane is a common wine in Rhône style blends as well as a minor (less than 15%) in Napa Zins; but you don't find it too often bottled on it's own. It had an Amalgamated cork capped by true cork.

There was no penetration to the cork, but it left a good tattoo. It had a light, almost Pinot colour. There was a sweet nose, and faint late legs.
After the swirl it had an almost Balsamic aroma, and a faint light chocolate taste.

After an hour, more earth was added to the flavour, but the wine was still slightly too acidic. It would be a good summer wine.

The Verdict:

It does not look like Mayo is still bottling this grape; but it might make a good summer wine if you can find it.

Style:	Rhône
Varietals:	Carignane
Appellation/Terrior:	Stone Ranch Vineyard, Alexander Valley AVA, California
Vintage:	2004
Vintner:	Mayo
Alcohol:	14.8% by Volume
Price:	I don't remember

2003 Windsor California Merlot

2007-12-18T17:59:00.000-08:00

This bottle of wine was given to us last year by our realtor, Deborah Lopez as a thank you for her business. It's a vanity label from Windsor Vineyards.

I opened this bottle at 7:00am to add to a beef stew as a cooking wine, and then saved the last glass to accompany it.

The presentation was OK. It came in a traditional Bordeaux style bottle. The label has the minimum required information.

It had an amalgamated cork tipped with real cork. There was penetration only through the real cork, and it left no tattoo.

The wine was deeper that I would expect from a Merlot; more like a Cab.

It had a very light nose, but alot of the aroma could have dissipated since I didn't get around to evaluating it until it had been open almost 12 hours.

I had to over-swirl it to get any legs at all, and the post-swirl nose was still lame.

It has a slight wet sponge to the taste, but not enough to make me pour it down the drain.

Stew is about the only meal that I prefer a Bordeaux to accompany, and this Merlot worked fine with it.

The Verdict:

On a par with a Charles Shaw or Gato Negro. (this is not a bad thing)

Style:	Bordeaux
Varietals:	Merlot
Appellation/Terrior:	California
Vintage:	2003
Vintner:	Windsor Vineyards
Alcohol:	15.3% by Volume
Price:	Gift

Volunteering at Lost Canyon

2007-05-03T16:26:00.000-07:00

I have a couple of friends who have volunteered to help out at wineries, and I always thought it would be a good way to learn something. When I was last at Lost Canyon, they asked if I would be interested in volunteering, so I said yes. They have since emailed me twice, asking for help. The first time was to help pour in the tasting room. That did not strike me as a learning experience, so I declined. The second time was to help rack the wine.
When you rack a fermenting beverage, you are simply taking the must/wine/wort/beer/cider from one container and putting it in another. You do this for a variety of reasons, the most common one being to remove it from the lees (sludge). This is a fancy way of saying that you don't want all of the dead yeast and other solids that are rotting at the bottom of your container to flavour your end product.
Other reasons could be that you want to blend the beverage, or introduce oxygen to help a stalled fermentation.
The reason that Lost Canyon was racking was for none of the above. This was the 2006 harvest, and the Pinot Noir was not the best quality in fruit that year, and the wine maker felt that the Pinot would benefit from some additional colour. The way that he decided to add colour was to swap casks with the much darker Syrah. This caused a pre-mature blending of the Syrah, but he was ok with that.
My job was to help siphon the casks into the stainless steel tanks, and then back again into the opposite casks. SG got the glamorous job of washing the casks.
There were 46 casks in total that we were working with that day, and the winemaker wanted to make sure that there were no "bad" casks getting blended with the rest, so he handed me a turkey baster and a wine glass and told me to taste them all. Good work if you can get it :-)
I was amazed that the same wine could taste so different out of different casks. Not only the toasting, but the age of the cask and the type of wood all made a difference. It's one thing to read about it, but quite another to taste two wines that are identical but for one of these variables, and have it stand out so sharply.
All in all I learned a lot. I had some fun too. It would have been nice for the Lost Canyon folks to offer a bottle to take home in appreciation for 16 hours of work (8 by me and 8 by SG) but they didn't.

The Verdict:

I would volunteer there again only if the task was different, as it would give me a chance to learn some more.

Changing habits

2007-05-01T10:03:00.000-07:00

It's been a whole week since my last post. This is because there's been some changes in our wine habits at home.
My wife is on a diet, and I am very proud of her for sticking with it. The side effect of her diet is that we are drinking less wine. Sure, I'm not on a diet; but I don't drink alone (generally) so this translates into "Since SG is on a diet; Michael isn't drinking unless there are guests over" which translates into less wine to review here.
Our cellar is full. Now that we have moved to Alameda, we no longer have the 1000 sq foot passive cellar that we had in San Francisco that could hold a virtually unlimited amount of wine. Summer is coming. This means that we need to drink our current holdings down to the point where they will fit in our new Viking wine cellar before we make any new purchases. This means that when I do have guests over (see earlier point) and therefore get to drink some wine, that is always something we already hold, and therefore likely to be something I already talked about here, and as much as I loved the 2005 Rosenblum Heritage clones Pettite Sirah from the San Francisco Bay AVA, I do not see the need to write about it 3 times in as many months.
So this dear reader is my apologies for the week long drought of wine stuff. I'll fix that as yesterday I volunteered at Lost Canyon and helped them rack some wine and learned quite a bit in the process. I'll talk about that tomorow.

2005 Cline Ancient Vines Contra Costa Zinfandel

2007-04-25T09:14:00.000-07:00

This wine was one of the mixed case we picked up at Costco about a year ago. We chose it because Matt Cline is the winemaker at our favorite house of Zin - Trinitas.

This was the 1st bottle of the 3 I had with Mandy when she came to visit. An '05 is a little on the young side, but I was scraping for something to drink that would not upset my wife. That damn diet again! I figured that if this was outstanding that being a Cline it would be easy to replace.

The presentation was excellent. It came in a traditional Zinfandel bottle. I'm not sure what the 3¢ stamp on the label is supposed to signify, but as it's canceled with an Oakley postmark my guess would be that it has something to do with the acquisition of Cline's Oakley vineyards. The front label has the legals, and the rear contains some good supporting info like Cline's definition of Ancient (80-100 years), why you should care that the grapes are that old, tasting notes, and terrior. They even declare where the minority of the grapes come from (Lodi) which they do not have to do with a County designated wine like this one.

Cline's website is excellent. It gives great info on their vineyards, practices, and history. The tasting notes are also similarly detailed.

It was stoppered with a real cork that left no tattoo. Given the youth of the wine, I was not surprised at the lack of sediment that this implies.

It had a good colour, but was more translucent than I would expect given the varietal and age of the vines.

Initial nose was charcoal and anise.

The swirl yielded a single leg; unusual as with the 14½% ABV I would expect more. The swirl also brought dark fruit to the nose, but none at all on the taste.

After a few minutes open, I did get a hint of fruit. More with every sip, but I don't think It will ever yield any Jam.

I decided to decant it, and we all headed out to Rosenblum for a tasting whilst the Cline breathed in the decanter. Upon our return, it had indeed opened up better, gaining a meaty texture like a mushroom. More fruit. SaraGrace got Cherry's and Plums, and Mandy said it was "Yummy".

I do have another bottle, and I will hold it for at least a year, if not more and probably decant it the morning of the day I plan on drinking it.

The Verdict:

Not as full flavoured as an old vine zin should be. This wine also suffers from being sold to young. It will age to be at least a good wine, but by the time I can tell if it will be outstanding, there will no longer be any available for purchase.

Style:	Zinfandel
Varietals:	Zinfandel, Alicante Bouschet, Carignane
Appellation/Terrior:	Contra Costa County, California
Vintage:	2005
Vintner:	Cline
Alcohol:	14.5% by Volume
Price:	$18.00SRP

2002 Danzānte Della Sicilia Merlot

2007-04-24T07:05:00.000-07:00

I do not remember where I picked up this bottle of Sicilian Merlot, given the appearance of Robert Mondavi's name on the label, it is likely that it was a gift rather than something that I purchased myself. If indeed it was a gift, and if the giver is reading, then my sincerest apologies for forgetting, and my thanks for the gift.

The presentation was excellent. It came in a traditional Bordeaux style bottle. Given that this is an Italian wine, the labeling requirements are different than most of the wines that I talk about here. The minimums are here, EU quality (IGT) and geographic indicator (Della Sicilia), vintage, and booze content. This wine could never be granted the more prestigious DOC or DOCG indicators as it is made with grapes not traditional to the region where they are grown. IGT (Indicazione Geografica Tipica) is more like an American AVA in that it indicates that the overwhelming majority of the grapes that make up this wine were grown in the region specified, and that the region has a history of winemaking and the expectation that the region is beneficial to the craft. (DOC and DOCG carry varietal requirements as well).
The label is also marked with the names of the owners of the winery - Bob Mondavi and "Marchesi De' Frescobaldi" (Italian for "The Marquis of cool-self confidence"). You should be familiar with Mondavi; Frescobaldi is an Italian winery of like size.
The rear label gives some tidbits as well; tasting notes, harvesting info, and history of the IGT as well as the names of the actual wine makers - Tim Mondavi and Lamberto Frescobaldi.

There are extensive tasting notes on the Danzante website add quite a bit of value when choosing this wine.

It had an amalgamated cork. There was no penetration and it left no tattoo.

The wine was more translucent that I would expect from a Merlot; almost like a Pinot. It did have a good red colour, reminicent of a checkered tablecloth at a pizza resturant.

It had blueberries on the nose and a hint of smoke - but since I had just fired up the BBQ; the smoke could have been on my hands.

The swirl left 4 legs on one side of the glass, and more fruit on the nose. Perhaps pomegranate, and believe it or not grapes. It was light and sweet tasting; but the sweetness was an illusion as at 13% it's fairly dry. That's a neat trick; to give the illusion of sweetness. Some vintners (Rosenblum) do that by overwhelming the wine with fruit; it was more delicate here.

After the full pour I got more of the classical Bordeaux on the nose; it should go well with Beef (which coincidentally is what I was having for dinner).

I like it. I wish I could remember where I acquired it.

After about 1½ hours I got boysenberries and apples on the tongue, and yes it did go well with the tri-tip that I was smoking with lavender.

The Verdict:

My predjudice against the Mondavi's was overcome by this wine. If all Merlot's were this good then I would not have a bias against Bordeaux style wine. Must be the Italian influence :-)

Style:	Bordeaux
Varietals:	Merlot
Appellation/Terrior:	Della Sicilia IGT, Italy,
Vintage:	2002
Vintner:	Danzānte
Alcohol:	13% by Volume
Price:	Gift

2000 Ciardella Santa Cruz Mt Pinot Noir

2007-04-23T11:42:00.000-07:00

I have not written about any wine recently because my wife is on a grape-free diet and I dislike drinking alone. I was able to break this Bacchus free streak with the arrival from England of a dear friend of mine, Mandy. On Friday night we opened three wines, (two previously un-reviewed) and on Saturday, a Pinot with my dad's girl friend (my dad does not drink reds), and Sunday for dinner a bottle from the old world.

Today's wine is from a friend of mine from my days at Borland in Santa Cruz, Randy of the Redwoods. Randy, no longer lives amongst the redwoods, but instead he's trying to open a winery just south of the Willammette valley and over the CA border north of Shasta. When Randy did live in the redwoods, he volunteered at some of the mountain wineries and I believe that this wine was a gift from him.

The presentation was good. It came in a traditional Burgundy style bottle with an attractive pen and ink of grapes on the label. The front label has the legals, and the back covers some of the history of the vintner as well as a blurb about the climate in the AVA.

The winery has no website, but a quick Google on them returns a list of awards that their Burgundy style wines have won.

When I went to remove the stopper, I was disappointed to find a plastic capsule and an amalgamated cork. A plastic capsule does not detract from the flavour of the wine, but appears cheap. The cork was penetrated about 1/8 in and left a very light tattoo.

The wine was the colour of dried blood , but translucent as you would expect in a Pinot. There was vinegar on the nose - which along with the colour worried me, as this wine spent at least 12 months in questionable storage at our ski cabin rather than in my cellar.

After a legless swirl, the vinegar nose dissipated, and the initial taste was tangy - almost like it was still fermenting which it should not have been doing.

Despite this, the wine still went down easy (as most Pinots do).

The Verdict:

Any conclusion would be unfair, as I was lax on it's storage conditions.

Style:	Burgundy
Varietals:	Pinot Noir
Appellation/Terrior:	Santa Cruz Mt. AVA, California
Vintage:	2000
Vintner:	Ciardella Vineyards
Alcohol:	12.5% by Volume
Price:	Gift

Mayo Family Winery Valley Hospitality Center

2007-04-20T10:03:00.000-07:00

On Easter Sunday we were driving through Sonoma county on our way home from Safari West. We chose this route so as to allow us to stop at Kunde, where I was looking forward to tasting some row designated Zins. Alas, it was Easter and there was a dearth of tasting rooms that were open. The first open tasting room that we came across was the attractive Mayo Family Winery.

When they sat "Family Winery" they really mean it. Every member of the Mayo family, up to and including distant cousins work at the winery. Our pourer was Courtney, who is some sort of a cousin to the founders on what she called "The Family Internship".

The tasting room was in a glorious setting. Set amid the vineyards in a new barn-like structure at the intersection of two country roads. The atmosphere inside was conducive to a pleasant tasting experience (even if it was a bit crowded; which I will forgive them for being the only open tasting room for miles). Courtney was very accommodating by allowing us to substitute reds from the regular tasting list for the whites on the reserve list. She also told us some good stories about the vineyard and the Mayo family.

The wines were nice. Although they produce some purportedly good Zins, we didn't get to try any as they had sold out; however Courtney did sell us some pre-release Zin on the promise that we would cellar it. They did have a varietal that you do not see very often outside of a blend: Carignane. That was refreshing. I always like to see an unusual bottling every once in a while. It shows that the vintner is not afraid to experiment.

There was a tasting fee, but I don't remember how much as it was waived with my purchase.

The Verdict:

If I am in Glenn Ellen when they have some of their Zins on hand, I will stop in again.

Wine for Dummies

2007-04-19T15:50:00.000-07:00

I bought this book a while back because we found that we were buying and tasting so much wine that we thought we should educate ourselves a little bit. It was not actually the first book we bought for this purpose, but the first book assumed that you were familiar with French wines, and we weren't, so we picked this guy up.

It makes a good bathroom read. It does not provide any real details on the differences between different AVA's or even varietals; but it does introduce some terminology and practices that should be useful to a newbie.

It was especially good at explaining why the French systems are in place, and what they really mean, and why you should care that a grape is a Bordeaux varietal or not.

What I did not like about it was it's winery recommendations. Each chapter had a recommended producer list associated with it, and they were all the supermarket wine producers (but then again; what can you expect from a book endorsed by Robert Mondavi himself)

The Verdict:

If you read my posts and don't know what I'm talking about, then it's a good buy. If you do know what i'm talking about, then it could still be an interesting browse.

Rosenblum Red Rangers

2007-04-18T13:32:00.000-07:00

Rosenblum has two tasting rooms - one in wine country and the other at the winery in Alameda CA, less than 2 miles as the crow flies from my front door. It was founded by a hobbiest, Veterinarian Kent Rosenblum and has evolved into a good sized operation with about 50 single vineyard wines. Rosenblums wines are what is refered to as "Fruit Bombs" by most aficianados. It's a style well adapted to Mataro, Petite Syrah and Zinfandel but IMHO less well adapted to the other Rhône, Burgundy, and Bordeaux varietals that the good Dr. makes.

Rosenblum's wine club is slightly different in their wine club memberships; most winery's offer a Whites only, a Reds only or a mixed club. Rosenblum offers 3 clubs as well; Premier, Red Rangers, Explorer's Club. The difference primarily lies in your commitment: Monthly, Bimonthly or Quarterly.

The club gives a less than stellar 10% discount and complimentary tastings.

They also promise admission to the annual club party and BBQ.

We joined this club for two reasons:

They are close - Every time Rosenblum changes what they pour in the tasting room we can easily drop by and taste it for free. And when you like The Good Doctor's style of wines, that's a big deal.
The party - The wine club BBQ is a much heralded Alameda event.

The Verdict:

We like their wine enough for reason #1 to be almost enough to keep us as members; and as they have not had the BBQ since we've become members; we'll see if reason #2 is enough to throw it over the top come June.

Trinitas Wine Society

2007-04-17T14:08:00.000-07:00

The Trinitas Winery is unvisitable. But it has some of the best wines that I have ever tasted. I initially found them because I was looking for the holy grail of old-growth zins - I wanted to find the oldest zinfandel vineyard in the world and drink it down. What I found was Matt Cline and Erin Jacuzzi's hobby winery. Both the Clines and the Jacuzzi's have been in the California wine business since the days of redwood barrels. The Cline family has huge holdings and makes oceans of wine. Trinitas is what they do for fun, and the Zin I mentioned is from a little vineyard in Oakley that frikkin rocks.

The club gives the usual 20% discount and complimentary tastings at the Meritage resort in Napa.

Shipments are 2 wines each 3 times a year, targeted to cost $65.00 plus tax and shipping a shipment.

They also promise "Special release wines not offered to the public" and "Large format bottles" as well as "Invitation to winemaker dinners in Northern and Southern California and Invitation to our annual barrel tasting"

When I joined the Trinitas Wine Society, it was literally the only way to purchase their wine, and even now most of the wine offered to me as a member is not available from their website to non members. The absolute best Cabernet Sauvignon I ever had came from a Trinitas shipment. It was part of a 47 case production of ancient vine cab. I have also tasted several varietals and cuvées that I would not have tried from anyone else including an old vine Mataro and Black Malvoisie.

I have yet to be offered large format bottles or invitations to anything; but I have only been a member for 2 shipments - lets wait and see what happens at harvest time.

The Verdict:

I love their wine so much that you would have to pry my membership from my cold dead fingers. Since I like their wine this much, and it is not really available to non-members then the membership is completely worth having.

Steelehead Wine Club

2007-04-16T09:57:00.001-07:00

The Steele Winery is located in downtown Kelseyville in the The Clear Lake AVA, but they both own vineyards in, and source grapes from, many different locals.
Jed Steele, for whom the winery is named is a wine industry veteran; having worked in the industry since the '60s and being the original winemaker for Kendall-Jackson.

We stopped in at the Steele winery one cold spring day during a camping trip that we were on, and had such a good time at the tasting room, that we bought a couple cases of wine. We joined the club for the discount.

The club gives the usual 20% discount and complimentary tastings. They go a little farther and extend the free tasting to your guests. Other than appearing in person at the winery, it also appears to be the only way to purchase special bottlings and library wines.

They also claim to give members "Invitations to special events for members-only at the winery" but in the last 16 months I have yet to receive a single one.

Shipments are 3 wines each 4 times a year, priced a reasonable $45.00 a shipment. This is a deal price wise ($15 a bottle including shipping cost!). The winery produces over 40 different wines under 4 different labels; Stymie, Steele, Shooting Star, and Writer's Block.
I have never received a Stymie in my shipments, but that can be explained by the pricing limit that they set for themselves.
We joined this club for the discount, and have since appreciated the access to the library wines (in particular the Pacini Zins) and the exposure to a couple of varietals and regions that we would not ordinarily purchase. Blaufrankisch and Barbera are two varietals that Steele introduced us to. Washington State is is a region I would not have tried without being a "Steelehead".

The Verdict:

A good beginner's wine club. We remain members for the economical pricing.

Wine Clubs From A Consumer's Point Of View

2007-04-13T12:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I talked about what a winery gets out of having a wine club. Today I'm going to talk about the other half of that question: What a consumer gets out of a wine club. Next time, I'll start on some of the wine clubs I have belonged to and thier benefits and drawbacks.

From the consumer's perspective, a wine club gains them several things -

Cheaper Wine - All wine clubs grant discounts over the SRP of their wines. The de-facto standard for winery sponsored wine clubs is 20%. This is usually on all wine, not just the regular shipment, and is also usually in addition to volume discounts. Upon occasion, I have joined wine clubs strictly for this discount.
Better Wine - Most wine clubs at smaller winerys will have wines that are only available to wine club members. These are usually very small batches that were the pet project of the wine maker, or from vineyards that produced a limited amount of fruit. I have also joined wine clubs strictly for access to these wines.
Futures Access - Winery's sell futures. Some only sell futures to wine club members. What a wine future is, is you get to buy today a wine that is not yet released. Usually at a discount above and beyond your club discount. Why would you want to do this? Well, some wines sell out before they are released; so the only way you can get them is to buy a future. Another reason is cost; most wines will sell at a multiple of the future price upon release. If you can pay $25 today for a $75.00 wine next year, it can really save you some cash.
Saved Effort - Not everyone lives conveniently close to a winery that they can easily drop by and taste the new wines as they are released. A wine club guarantees that you will receive the new wines for your tasting pleasure without having to visit the winery.
Access To Old Wine - Winery's typically hold back a portion of each release in the "library" these wines are usually offered first to wine club members when they have peaked.
Exposure To Different Wines - Since you do not choose the wines that get shipped to you, you will get exposed to wines or styles (or even winery's in some cases) that you have not tried before
Special Events - Some winery's have barrel tastings, food pairing seminars, customer appreciation events, etc. that are only available to wine club members.

Wine Clubs From A Winery's Point Of View

2007-04-12T08:24:00.000-07:00

Over the next few days I am going to talk about wine clubs. What are their benefits and what are their drawbacks. What I look for in the ones I join.

From the winery's perspective, a wine club gains them several things -

Bigger profit margins - The biggest per bottle profit on a sale for a winery is the bottle that you buy directly from them. The reason for this is that they have to steeply discount the wine that is sold to their distributors.
Guaranteed sale - A wine club membership is a commitment by the consumer to purchase n number of bottles on a regular basis
Test market - The winery chooses which wine to send you. They can choose to send you a wine that you might not ordinarily try on your own, thereby exposing you to a new product in an attempt to build demand for that product
Disposal of library wines - Wine improves over time before finally spoiling. This leaves winery's in a quandary - should I hold the wine until it's peak when it will command a greater price? And therefore risk not being able to sell it before it starts to sour? The answer is to sell most of your wine upon release, but hold some back. Now, how do you rid yourself of too much wine that you have held back? Your members!
The ability to discount their wine - Winery's would love to sell more wine directly to consumers (go back to item #1 - bigger profit). One way to encourage consumers to buy directly from the winery is to sell the wine at a discount relative to retail price. Any discount they give you is paltry to what their distributors are getting, yet may be significant enough to you to encourage you to buy more wine than you would otherwise.
Under normal circumstances it is a bad idea for a winery (or any manufacturer for that matter) to sell their products at a price lower than their retailers can afford to sell it at, because if they do, then they are put in the position of competing with their partners and thusly alienating them.
As a matter of fact, many distribution contracts disallow you to sell your products to consumers at a discount. This market protection scheme is not unreasonable to expect. The creation of a class of consumer called a member allows a winery to sell their products at a discount without breaching their distribution contracts.

2004 Lost Canyon Stage Gulch Syrah

2007-04-11T13:25:00.000-07:00

Our friendly Rosenblum pourer and oenology student Pam had been dying to take us across the estuary to Lost Canyon for a while, and when we did this was one of the wines I bought.

SaraGrace and I opened it in our tent-cabin at Safari West after dinner, when the kids were down and we could relax on the porch.

This wine was not accompanied by food, but rather by starlight and the sounds of the African savannah at night. Downright romantic if you ask me :-)

The presentation is OK. It comes in a traditional Rhône bottle and while the rear label gives no additional information, the sell notes and vineyard notes do.

This wine had a deap, rich colour and cherry blossoms and apricots on the nose.
The initial taste was smokey and reminiscent of pomegranate. It even left legs on a plastic glass!

After the swirl I got cherries. Definately cherries. While not the fruit bomb of a Rosenblum, definately more fruit than a Carina or Rusak.

The Verdict:

Yum. I liked it. at $35.00 I probably won't have it often.

Style:	Rhône
Varietals:	Syrah
Appellation/Terrior:	Sonoma Coast, California
Vintage:	2004
Vintner:	Lost Canyon
Alcohol:	14.2% by Volume
Price:	$36.07

2004 Rosenblum Redwood Valley Annette's Reserve Zin

2007-04-10T08:29:00.001-07:00

We bought this wine when we dropped by the vineyard to pick up our club shipment. Pam was working the tasting room and as usual knew exactly what I like.

This Zin is more transparent in colour than most of the good Doctor's wines, with a browner tinge than you would expect from a young wine like this one, with a hint of sediment. It had legs even before the swirl, so it promised to be big!

This wine had the aroma of pluots that I have come to associate with Rosenblum. There were also hints of cinnamon. It tasted of plums, apricots, chocolate, chocolate and chocolate some more. Very tasty. There is a pucker of tannin that follows a full mouth gargle, and nutmegs on the finish.

We had this wine with left-over Indian food (dahl bhat and chicken makanwala). Who says that whites go better with Asian food? This Zin held up to the complex flavours of an Indian curry with bells on. I would say that it went better with this curry than the '99 Pacini went with the Kobe beef.

The presentation was good. It came in a Bordeaux bottle with an agglomerated synthetic cork. The back label gives some info, and the tasting notes give more.

The Verdict:

Yum. Glad I bought two. Want more.

Style:	Zinfandel
Varietals:	Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, Carignane
Appellation/Terrior:	Redwood Valley, California
Vintage:	2004
Vintner:	Rosenblum
Alcohol:	15.5% by Volume
Price:	$28.55

Rios-Lovell Tasting Room

2007-04-09T12:55:00.000-07:00

Rios-Lovell is the last winery that SG and I visited in Livermore. We thought that we were on our way home, when we passed it on Tesla Rd. We decided to stop because it's a winery that's a favorite of SG's friend Meg, and we have a bottle, untasted in our cellar and we would be bummed if we tasted that wine and then wished we'd stopped.

The building the tasting room was in was an attractive Mission style adobe. The pours were good size and they had 12 wines on the tasting list.

The goodness stops there.
The tasting glasses were tiny mouthed vessels that you couldn't fit your nose in.
During the first pour (A sparkling wine that the pourer called "Champagne") we were forced to listen to a pitch on their wine club. In case you are interested, their wine club sucks - only a 10% discount for a 24 bottle a year commitment.
The next bad sign was their wine list - they were all over the map. Rhone; Burgundy; Bordeaux, Zinfandel, Italian, Spanish, Port, Sherry, Sparkling. Jack of all styles master of none.
Then they switched pourers on us midway through.
All of this would be acceptable if there wine was any good. Which it wasn't. Some were not bad, and one was OK. We bought the OK one, and then they still charged us a tasting fee.

The Verdict

Not worth the stop.

2005 Kenwood Russian River Pinot Noir

2007-04-08T11:21:00.000-07:00

This is a restaurant wine. We bought it at a restaurant, and indeed, it's part of Kenwood's Sonoma Series made specifically for the restaurant trade.

We were staying at Safari West (Highly recommended BTW) and the dinner that night was BBQ Chicken. We bought this wine because $30 for a bottle of Kenwood was better than $6 for a glass of wine-from-a-box. It's a pinot because BBQ Chicken was what was on the menu.

The colour was highly transparent (to be expected) and reminiscent of watermelon juice. It was sweet on the nose, and went down like Kool-Aide. It had a charcoal finish. As the evening progressed, it got cooler out which in turn chilled the bottle, and it actually improved the wine.

The presentation was fair. It came in a Burgundy style bottle with a real cork. The labeling was poor. The front label had nothing on it but the legals, and the rear stated two facts:

"Grapes for this years pinot were grown..." - Indicating that they do not use the same vineyards year after year, making a verticle tasting meaningless.
Aged in French oak for one year

Not a lot to go on. The tasting notes are a little better.

The Verdict:

It was a restaurant wine at a zoo. It was as good as could be expected.

Style:	Burgundy
Varietals:	Pinot Noir
Appellation/Terrior:	Russian River, California
Vintage:	2005
Vintner:	Kenwood
Alcohol:	14.5% by Volume
Price:	$30.00

Cedar Mountain Tasting Room

2007-04-07T16:46:00.000-07:00

SG and I returned to Livermore last week. We were checking out a camping spot at De Valle Reservoir, and of course couldn't resist stopping at a tasting room (or 3).

Cedar Mt was the first we stopped at. Actually it was the second; the first, Garre, also had a deli, and since it was lunch time we thought a tasting and lunch would go well together. But Garre's tasting room and their deli are not open at the same hours. What a shame; as even if their wines sucked, it would have been worth the stop since so few winerys serve food. Due to the proprietors bad planning we deigned to patronize the place and moved on down the road. Garre's loss was Cedar Mountain's gain since we bought wine (we always buy wine).

Bad first:
The tasting room at Cedar Mt. was reminiscent of a double-wide. The restrooms were porta-potties. Not looking good. The lighting inside was poor, so I had to approach a lamp to properly judge the colour of my pour.

Now the good:
The interior had photos of the winemaker as a little girl in New York's Finger Lakes. This was the only attempt at history. The vines surrounding the tasting room were young, but in a few years will provide a nice surrounding to taste in. There was a picinic area with Bocce courts. Too bad they didn't have a deli :-( The barn where they make the wine was picturesque (and one of the reasons we stopped).

The Verdict

Out of the 4 wineries in Livermore that I have stopped at, Cedar Mountain's tasting room ranks second. This isn't saying much though, as I would not make a trip out to the end of Tesla Rd to specifically visit them.

Murrieta's Well Tasting Room

2007-04-06T10:32:00.000-07:00

Given the proximity of the Livermore Valley to the Bay Area, it's actually pretty amazing that it's not a more touristed wine region. Indeed, until recently I had never been tasting in the region. Our visit to Murrieta's Well coincided with a look at some property out on Mines road in the Livermore AVA. The property turned out to not be what we wanted, but rather than waste the trip we thought we would stop in at a winery, and Murrieta's Well was the first one we stumbled across on our way out of the canyon that Mines Road runs up.

Murrieta's Well is actually a Wente property. Now, I'm not a fan of Wente (best known for their White Zin), and had I known that Murrieta's Well was a Wente property, I probably would have driven past. That said, Murrieta's Well is Wente's premium label and the wines are not what you would expect from a bulk producer like Wente.

The tasting room is great. There is lots of history surrounding the site (They named it for the artesian well where the legendary Joaquin Murrieta and his band of desperados watered their horses), and the setting is glorious. A new rustic building built into a hillside surrounded by vines.

The pourer we had was knowledgeable about the wines he poured for us, and even was familiar with the European regions that the grapes originated in. Unfortunately on the day we arrived, they were not pouring their Zin, which comes from an 85 year old vineyard, nor their "Zarzuela" Which is an Iberian grape blend that would have proved interesting.

There was a $5.00 tasting fee, but it was waived upon purchase.

The Verdict:

Out of the 3 Livermore wineries that I have visited, this tasting room was the best.

2002 Lincort La Cuesta Cab

2007-04-05T08:11:00.000-07:00

Last Labor day we loaded the kids in the Yukon and drove them down to Legoland for their birthdays. An ulterior motive was that we would be passing through some superior wine regions. So, whilst the kiddies napped; Mom and Dad would taste.

One of the winery's in Solvang that we tried was Lincourt. They only had one red on for tasting that day, but since the overall experience at their tasting room was excellent, I bought a single bottle. That would be their vineyard designated Santa Ynez Cab.

If you have been reading me for any length of time you will have figured out that I simply tolerate Bordeaux grapes - They are neither my favorite nor my least favorite. Now, because of this I tend to buy them and not drink them, causing my cellar to accumulate about 100 bottles of Bordeaux based wine (Cab Franc, Cab Sauv, Merlot, Petite Verdot, etc). I'd like to make room for more Zins, Petite's and Cal-Itals so I need to make an effort to drink some of the Bordeaux's. A couple of years ago this would not have bin a big deal as I had a passive cellar of almost 1000 square ft, but now I have a much smaller Viking wine cellar and space is at a premium.

The cork left me with a spotty tattoo, and there were some legs. The wine was a good, rich burgundy colour. I got strawberries on the nose and no pucker on the tongue, but could taste the tannins of a cab. This is a good example of a classic cab. It had a slightly sour finish at first, but later opened up to finish with fine white pepper and course ground black pepper.
SG said it was heavy and spicy with booze on the nose. I didn't get that. I did get strawberries on the palate though.

We later took paper cups of the Lincourt for a walk around the block, and damned if it didn't look good against the white cup. The colour was superb.

The presentation was good. It came in a proper Bordeaux bottle, stoppered with a real cork. The front label has the windmill that sits prominently in the center of their vineyard on it and looks nice. The rear label gives some info, and the tasting notes give you a bit about the vineyard.

The Verdict:

I am still not a Bordeaux bigot, but I liked it. I didn't like it fourty bucks worth though; $20 would be fairer.

Style:	Bordeaux
Varietals:	Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot
Appellation/Terrior:	Santa Ynez, California
Vintage:	2002
Vintner:	Lincourt
Alcohol:	13.9% by Volume
Price:	$42.02

1999 Steele Pacini Zin

2007-04-04T08:33:00.000-07:00

The 1998 Pacini Zin is the wine that got me hooked on Zin. We were at the Steele tasting room, and it wasn't even on the menu; it was a library wine that was close to being lost, so they were pouring it to see if they could sell some. I bought a case. A few months later I called the winery to ask if I could get any more; and they only had 8, so I rounded out the case with '99's. That was a year ago. At the time I had a vertical tasting of the '98 and the '99 and found the '98 superior; so I laid down the rest of the '99's until now.

Jed calls the Pacini "Old Vines"; the oldest vines in his vineyard are 67; with the median age probably slightly lower. Since "Old Vines" is not a regulated term, it's open to interpretation. I would call 50-80 year old vines "Mature" and 80-100 "Old" and anything older than a century "Ancient" - but again it's relative. The reason Older vines are sought after is that their lower yields concentrate flavour - and since the Pacini vineyard cannot be irrigated, the yields are closer to those you would get from 80 year old vines.

Now, most people would say an 8 year old Zin is pretty long in the tooth; and you would be right - except that Jed aquired this vineyard in '96 and the first few vintages by any winemaker tend to be overly tannic. The Pacini is no exception; and we all know the cure for too much tannin - let 'em age.

Enough of that. Let's open the wine.

The cork was chock full of sediment (as you would expect from a wine this old) but there was no slippage on the neck of the bottle, so it should have held up well. The tattoo that the cork left me was as dark and persistent as henna. The colour of the wine was that of dried blood - to be expected in an older wine, but a warning that I might have let it age too long.
The nose was of cassis - that's (currants in English but since it's French that makes it more posh). The swirl left twisted legs on my glass.
On the first taste there was toast and the pucker of tannin. If this was a Bordeaux grape I would say there's enough tannin to let it lie a couple more years.
At this point a slight toothache I'm having is distracting me from my sensory inputs - particularly taste and smell, but I did get rich berries on the finish.
I poured a glass to accompany dinner - cherry smoked Kobe ribs. I generally like Zins with bar-b-que, but I'm not sure if this was the best pairing, as it brought out an almost chemical taste, almost like lighter fluid, which is odd as I did not use lighter fluid to start the coals (but then again it could be that darn toothache).
Saragrace got a Bourbon taste - could be related to the toast I got initially.
Later that night I had a second glass, and my daughter popped a dot in my mouth (the candy) and wierdly - I got a smoked salmon taste. I found that interesting, so I stole a watermellon flavoured jelly-belly from my son and hot dogs on the palette. Again I'm suspect as between the fact that the kids had hot dogs for dinner and my toothache I don't trust it.

The presentation was ok. It came in a proper Zin bottle, stoppered with a real cork. The rear label gives no info, but the tasting notes give you a bit about the vineyard.

The Verdict:

I will drink my remaining bottles now, as each day from here on out is killing this wine.

Style:	Zinfandel
Varietals:	Zinfandel
Appellation/Terrior:	Mendocino, California
Vintage:	1999
Vintner:	Steele
Alcohol:	13% by Volume
Price:	$14.61

Corey Creek Tasting Room

2007-04-03T09:46:00.000-07:00

Corey Creek was the second and last winery that my father and I stopped in at on our recent funereal trip to Long Island.

Corey Creek was a small wine maker that was purchased by the larger Bedell. I don't have a problem with that, or that they have their own tasting room. I'd prefer it if they didn't try and hide that fact though; it's a bit like being suckered in to Charles Shaw, not knowing it's really Franzia.
The tasting room was in a glorious setting. A gravel parking lot surrounded by vineyards. The building itself while new, was built in a rustic style that went well with the surroundings. It features a back deck overlooking the vineyards that would be simply awesome in the summertime.
At the late hour, we were the only ones in the tasting room. They had a couple of the Bedells on the menu, as well as a raspberry wine (my first).

There was a tasting fee, but I don't remember how much as it was waived.

The Verdict:

I wasn't impressed enough that I would make it a "Gotta stop here" if I was in The North Fork again; but there was nothing wrong with it.

2004 St. Francis Sonoma Old Vines Zinfandel

2007-04-02T08:33:00.000-07:00

This is the third bottle we opened up on Friday night. It was one of the Costco mixed case bunch.

This wine had a rich burgundy colour with peaches on the nose. The fruit smell was not strong enough to hide the alcohol smell from the 15.5% in this bad boy. As the high booze content would suggest, this wine was anything but legless.
On the tongue I got plums and chocolate. I was surprised again that this "Costco special" would be as pleasing as it was; but then again perhaps I'm just addicted to zins...
Later on in the evening a distinct buzz had been achieved and a second glass gave me a nose that was close to the burnt rubber you get in a syrah - and I thought I could taste it too. Another tasting the next evening banished that note as a delusional drunk thought as it was as good on the second day as it was on the first.

The presentation was good. It came in a proper Zin bottle with a synthetic cork. The back label gives some info, and the tasting notes, while for a previous vintage, at least give what they mean by "old vines".

The Verdict:

I would buy more, and would like to try their other Zins.

Style:	Zinfandel
Varietals:	Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, Alicante Bouschet
Appellation/Terrior:	Sonoma, California
Vintage:	2004
Vintner:	St. Francis
Alcohol:	15.5% by Volume
Price:	$18.65

2004 Rodney Strong Knotty Vines Sonoma Zinfandel

2007-04-01T07:35:00.000-07:00

This is the second bottle we opened up on Friday night. We had bought this about a year and a half ago at Costco as a part of a mixed case; most of which were Zinfandels that the vintners had claimed were "old vine". As there is no governance over the use of "old vine" you have to take any vintners claim to old vines with some sceptiscism. Old to one vintner may mean 20 years, whilst anything under 80 to another is young. Fortunately, Mr. Strong dates his vines on the rear label - at least some of them come from 100 year old vines.

Mr. Strong also claims "Estate" on the label - in this case it's a meaningless claim because Mr. Strong's estate is non-contiguous and in several different AVA's.

I was very pleasantly surprised by this wine as I usually don't expect an excellent wine from a vintner of this size.

The colour was almost as purple as a Petite Sirah (but then again it could be that my glass was still stained from the Petite we had just finished). The nose had white pepper on it and the first taste was of black currants. MMMmmmm.

My wife got citrus on the nose and apples on the tongue. I couldn't get the citrus even after an additional swirl, but after she mentioned it I got both apples and pears on the palette.
By the end of the bottle, I was getting concord grapes sans-fox and SaraGrace was getting lemons.

The presentation was good. It came in a Bordeaux bottle with a real cork. The back label gives some info, and the tasting notes give more.

The Verdict:

I would buy more and drink it now.

Style:	Zinfandel
Varietals:	Zinfandel
Appellation/Terrior:	Sonoma, California
Vintage:	2004
Vintner:	Rodney Strong
Alcohol:	14.5% by Volume
Price:	$18.45

2004 Rosenblum Rockpile Petite Sirah

2007-03-31T07:43:00.000-07:00

We bought this wine the day before my wife left for Florida and she's been bugging me to drink it since. I wanted to cellar it up for a while; but she won :-) and last night we hickory smoked a tri-tip and opened her up.

This wine has a colour reminiscent of Welch's grape juice; indeed after the swirl you even get the persistent bubbles in the meniscus just like you do with Welch's, and my glass acquired a purplish pink colour from the swirl.
The initial nose was of apricots. After the swirl the nose opened up to cherries.
My first taste was thick and dry. Typical of Rosenblum, it was jammy (how do you get dry jam?).

After a half hour, the cherries joined the apricots on the palate. I suspect this wine is unfiltered because of the little cinnamon-like sparkles of sediment that collected in the bottom of my glass.

This was a fun wine to drink - leaving my wife with a purple clown smile from the rim of her glass.

The presentation was good. It came in a traditional Rhône bottle with an agglomerated synthetic cork. The back label gives some info, and the tasting notes give more.

The Verdict:

It wasn't quite ready. This wine would benefit with more time in the cellar.

Style:	Rhône
Varietals:	Petite Sirah
Appellation/Terrior:	Rockpile, California
Vintage:	2004
Vintner:	Rosenblum
Alcohol:	16.0% by Volume
Price:	$39.15

The Old Field Tasting Room

2007-03-30T08:53:00.000-07:00

My father and I were in New York for less than happy reasons; my cousin who is also my god-father had died and I was attending his funeral. I had been reading a lot lately about the wine industry on Long Island; and the North Fork in particular, so after the funeral my father and I went out Orient Point and stopped at a couple of places at random on the way back to the pine barrens. The Old Field was the first place we stopped.

The tasting room was in a glorious setting. A gravel parking lot surrounded by vineyards and the rustic old hen-house converted into a tasting room was perfect. The pourer was the winemaker. He is proud of his sparkling wine, claiming it to be "The best in America". He also makes three Bordeaux style wines - a Cab Franc, A Merlot, and a blend. The reds were OK. This winery had it all - history; atmosphere; good wines. Too bad the winemaker was a pompous ass. He spent more time chatting his friends than his customers. This ruined what would otherwise have been a great tasting experience.

There is a $5 tasting fee.

The Verdict:

So-so reds combined with a mostly rude winemaker/pourer don't overcome the wonderful atmosphere and good sparkling wines. I'll give it a pass.

2003 Firefly Ridge Central Coast Syrah

2007-03-29T10:09:00.000-07:00

This was another Safeway deal. I was attracted to the Central Coast appellation, year, and price ($7.99). I initially thought it was slightly young in taste; but my wife liked it. Upon further research it turns out to be Safeway's private label. Congrats to Safeway's buyer.

The nose on this wine was of burnt rubber, followed by figs. Now, burnt rubber? Many people freak about this; but it is a typical characteristic of a Syrah and no; it does not taste of Burnt rubber. I take it a sign of quality; If this aroma is present, then the winemaker really knows how to make a Syrah.

I liked the deep burgundy colour. The taste was tannic, lemony and slightly sour. Where did my figs disappear to? But there was more to it than that - there was something there that I can't quite put my finger onto; but it was a taste that I liked.

The presentation was OK. Traditional Rhône bottle with an agglomerated cork. The label lacked info - even a website; but then again this is a private label wine OEM'd by Safeway - you wouldn't expect much to tie it back to the original vintner.

The Verdict:

My wife liked it enough that I bought more.

Style:	Rhône
Varietals:	Syrah
Appellation/Terrior:	Central Coast, California
Vintage:	2003
Vintner:	Firefly Ridge
Alcohol:	13.5% by Volume
Price:	$8.69

2001 Villa Encantado Sonoma Dolcetto

2007-03-28T18:23:00.001-07:00

This was yet another Wine Shop at Home wine. Villa Encantado (Spanish for enchanted villa) is actually a private label produced by Viansa in Sonoma (not to be confused with the vintner in Solvang).

Dolcetto is Italian for sweetling. And this wine is indeed sweet. It had a cherry nose and a light red colour more reminiscent of a rosé than a red; indeed this wine might even taste good <aghast>chilled</aghast>. No; seriously this Dolcetto is so light and fruity that it goes down like Kool-Aide on a hot summer day. It's as smooth as a wine cooler.

The presentation was good. It came with a real cork in a traditional bottle. While the label was weak in the information they give; they get bonus points for the bottle as it's unusual. The cork was literally encrusted with crystals.

The Verdict:

I bought more.

Style:	Italian
Varietals:	Dolcetto
Appellation/Terrior:	Sonoma, California
Vintage:	2001
Vintner:	Viansa"
Alcohol:	11.2% by Volume
Price:	$18.39

Lost Canyon Tasting Room

2007-03-27T12:50:00.001-07:00

Lost Canyon is one of the 4 winerys that you can visit during a lunch break if you work in Alameda. It is also probably the most obscure of the three, and has very limited tasting hours.

The tasting room is in the lobby of the winery, and because it is such a small winery, the gentleman pouring our wine was no other than Jack States himself; the vintner behind Lost Canyon's wines.

Jack gave us a tour, and led a good discussion on barrel choices and the different types of Oak trees used in their manufacture. I learned more about this subject in the hour and a half we were there than I have anywhere else. This is what visiting a winery is all about.

There is no tasting fee.

The Verdict

It's a good tasting room. I will go again; as a matter of fact I signed up to be a winery volunteer.

2002 Pura Vida Howell Mountain Zin

2007-03-26T09:17:00.000-07:00

Like the last wine was an example of the good side of wine clubs; this wine is an example of the downside. It was part of our Wine Shop at Home shipment for March, and turns out to be a custom label second.

Custom labels, or vanity labels make popular gifts; frequently real estate agents or other personal service professionals will have some made up to give as thanks to their clients. Or perhaps you got married at a winery and wanted to give your guest a gift of your own "personal" wine. There's really nothing wrong with custom labels, except that they are rarely better than average.

What makes me believe that this is a custom label wine is that:

There is no URL on the bottle
Googling for Pura Vida returns no winery
On the bottle it says "Cellared and Bottled by Terroir Napa Valley Wines"
On the Terroir Napa Valley Wines web site they do not list the Pura Vida Label
And the Wine Shop at Home resells custom labels straight from their web site.

I opened this bottle to accompany some BBQ venison tenderloin steaks. It had a light colour, like a pinot. First sniff gave me charcoal, shortly followed by fruit. very skinny legs only presented themselves at the end of the drain. Then a re-sniff gave me apricots and cherries.
The taste was light with definite oak. It had a boozy finish.
After the first 1/2 glass, I let it sit while I attended to the steaks.

The wine improved slightly with the accompanying meat. It aquired a smokey flavour.
The glass I had after dinner showed the spice and oak I expect from a cab. Why ruin a Zin with Bordeaux flavours???? It also did not open well as it acquired a slightly sour if not bitter taste after breathing in the bottle for a couple of hours.

The presentation was ok. It came with a real cork in a Bordeaux bottle, with no extra data on the label. The tasting notes that accompanied it gave good information about an AVA that I am not familiar with (Howell Mountain), but little about this wine in particular.

The Verdict:

Not so bad I wouldn't cook with it. Should be a $7 bottle of wine.

Style:	Bordeaux
Varietals:	Zinfandel
Appellation/Terrior:	Howell Mt., California
Vintage:	2002
Vintner:	Terroir Napa Valley Wines
Alcohol:	15.2% by Volume
Price:	$18.39

2004 Trinitas Napa Cab

2007-03-25T12:49:00.001-07:00

This is why I like wine clubs. This cab showed up in the mail (with it's twin) and there is no mention of it on Trinitas's web site. Not even when you log in as a member to buy wine. This is a wine I never would have gotten to taste if I was not a member of the "Trinitas Wine Society" And let me tell you, I would have missed a fantastic wine.

This is the third of three bottles that we opened up for the Venison BBQ on Wednesday. Yes it's a little young for a cab; but I had two of them so I could lay one down and taste one now; and boy am I glad I did because even though I am not partial to Bordeaux varietals; this wine knocked my socks off.

It was legless (but then again so was I by the time I finished it) and a deep (but not bright) purple. Inhaling it's aroma got me high on apricots or perhaps even pluots. There was a charcoal taste on top of the fruit; but hey; cabs are not supposed to have this much fruit.

Since there was an oaky bite in the finish, we let the wine open up a bit and poured some more. Now we get legs; and inhaling it's aroma was like a wake up call of goodness.

The presentation was ok. It came with a real cork in a Bordeaux bottle, with no extra data on the label.

The Verdict:

I will buy more if Trinitas ever releases this one. I'm not sure that the other bottle that I have will last long in my cellar, simply because I want to drink it now.

Style:	Bordeaux
Varietals:	Cabernet Sauvingnon
Appellation/Terrior:	Napa Valley, California
Vintage:	2004
Vintner:	Trinitas
Alcohol:	14.5% by Volume
Price:	$28.98

Dashe and JC Cellars Tasting Room

2007-03-24T11:59:00.001-07:00

Dashe Cellars and JC Cellars are co-located in Oakland's Jack London Square. They used to be co-located in Alameda with Rosenblum; but Rosenblum grew too big and needed the space. At first ear, Jack London Square should be a great place for a tasting room - it's Oakland's only tourist stop after all; but the winery is located off the main path so to speak; so you won't just stumble across it.
We were the only ones there at lunchtime.
Co-located tasting rooms are a mixed bag; on one hand you get more than one winery without having to worry about driving. On the other, they are not usually located at the winery, so the chances of running into someone who actually knows how the wine is made is slim. I figured that since this co-located tasting room is in the co-located winery that we would have the best of both worlds; but alas, we didn't. The girl pouring for JC wasn't bad; but the Kiwi they hired at Dashe, while a nice guy, didn't know anything about the wines he was pouring. They lose points for that one.
The tasting room itself is in their receiving dock, so you do get to see some winery happenings whilst sipping.

They both have a $5.00 tasting fee. That's EACH. That's uncalled for. Other co-located tasting rooms that I have been to shared a tasting fee. The money is credited back to you if you purchase.

The Verdict

I will probably return; if only because my wife has not yet tasted here and it's so close to home; but I certainly won't hurry back.

2002 Kunde Estate Zin

2007-03-23T10:07:00.001-07:00

This is the second of three bottles that we opened up for the Venison BBQ on Wednesday. It is a wine that I picked up at Safeway earlier this year. What attracted me to it was again the 2002 year - wines at Safeway don't usually get that old, and 2002 was a bitchin' year for zin.

This is an estate wine, which legally only means that the vintner owns the vineyard and fermented and aged the wine on the premises. Since the perceived value of estate (amongst those that do not know what it means) is high, plonk makers over use it. On the flip side, at a family run vineyard (as the photo of the Kunde family on the label attests to) this usually means wine from their house, so they are more careful with it (which was the original point of the estate designation on American labels).

The presentation was good. It came with a real cork in a Rhône coloured Bordeaux bottle, with no data on the label. The reason this rates better than an OK is the tasting notes are fantastically detailed.

The wine opened to a big fruity jammy nose full of raspberries. Mmm mmm. The first sip gave a fruit taste with a hint of charcoal. Subsequent sips were predominantly blackberries. There were legs all over the place.
Doug called it big but not monster and claimed a smokey finish.

The Verdict:

Oh Yea. Loved it. Bought the last 14 bottles at Safeway. Liked it enough that I would like to visit Kunde and taste some of their block designated wines.

Style:	Zinfandel
Varietals:	Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, Grenache, Mourvèdre
Appellation/Terrior:	Sonoma, California
Vintage:	2002
Vintner:	Kunde
Alcohol:	14.1% by Volume
Price:	$17.39

2004 Steele Catfish Zin

2007-03-22T12:32:00.000-07:00

The wife and kids left for Florida on Tuesday, which gives me the chance to BBQ up some venison that I've had in the freezer for a while now (The wife won't eat Bambi), so I had my friend Doug bring over some salad and jerk sauce for the deer and popped open a bottle of Catfish to sip on while the coals got hot.

Catfish is Steele's signature Zin. It's a field blend of century old Zinfandel and whatever else was planted to replace dying vines in the last 100 years. This particular Catfish came in my wine club shipment. When I was last in Kelseyville I bought the 2003 Catfish so was eager to try this one.

The 2004 Catfish is superior to the 2003. It had a much better balance. Thick legs with a beet red colour. The nose was weak enough that I actually snorted some before I could smell it. There was no presence of jam. The great balance in this wine overcame all of this, and it was very enjoyable.

The presentation was great. It came in a proper Zin bottle, stoppered with a real cork. The catfish intertwined into Steele's regular stained glass logo is nice. The rear label gives a great overview of the wine, and the tasting notes give you even more.

The Verdict:

I enjoyed it. Doug really liked it. $20 is a very fair price for this wine.

Style:	Zinfandel
Varietals:	Zinfandel, Merlot, Carignane, Alicante Bouschet, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, others
Appellation/Terrior:	Clear Lake, California
Vintage:	2004
Vintner:	Steele
Alcohol:	13.5% by Volume
Price:	$20.01

2004 Steele Shooting Star Barbera

2007-03-21T08:31:00.000-07:00

I first had a Shooting Star Barbera when it came in my Steele wine club shipment; it was a 2003. I enjoyed it as a light pizza accompanying wine, so I ordered more, but alas All they had by the time I got around to ordering it was a 2004; but hey how different could it be?

Well, it turns out quite a bit different. This Barbera, while having the same light and bright colour as the 2003 had more of a Bordeaux flavour to it than the Cal-Ital I was expecting. There was Bordeaux on the nose too; I can only surmise that Jed chose a different vineyard for this vintage, and that vineyard had some Cab Franc or Merlot vines interspersed. I cannot believe that the blending would have been done intentionally, as a Barbera isn't strong enough to be included in a Super-Tuscan.

The wine was legless; but with the low alcohol, that was to be expected. True to form, this Barbera tasted like the house red at a Pizza restaurant (and as Barbera is the wine for the masses in Italy), and since this is what I was expecting it went well with my supper of leftover spaghetti and re-heated panini. There were no fruit flavours.

After 45 minutes, I re-tasted and it was light and airy, with only the lingering reminder of the Bordeaux taste, so I decanted it and waited another 1/2 hour and it opened up quite a bit.

The presentation was OK. It came in a Bordeaux bottle; which is an improvement over the traditional jug (think Carlos Rossi). It had an agglomerated cork, which given that this is Steele's budget label is to be expected. The label was poor, listing only the legal requirements.

The Verdict:

Barbera is a good Pizza wine. This vintage did not stand up to the 2003, so I am unlikely to buy more, but as I liked the 2003 I would have tried the 2005 if Jed had made one, but it does not appear that he did.

Style:	Italian
Varietals:	Barbera
Appellation/Terrior:	Lake County, California
Vintage:	2004
Vintner:	Steele
Alcohol:	13.5% by Volume
Price:	~$12.00

Rosenblum Cellars' Alameda Tasting Room

2007-03-20T07:00:00.000-07:00

I like tasting rooms. You can drink a little wine, get a feel for the style of the vintner, and learn more about how the wines you are drinking were affected by the methods of the winemaker. You can also usually get vintages not available elsewhere; indeed some winerys only sell their wine at their tasting rooms or to their club members.
There are 4 winerys that are easy to visit during a lunch break if you work in Alameda; with one in Alameda proper (there used to be 4 in Alameda itself; but they were co-located with Rosenblum and eventually had to move due to space restrictions). The one I'm going to write about today is the one in Alameda, Rosenblum Cellars.
Urban winerys like Rosenblum are at a disadvantage to those located amongst the vineyards in that most people don't go looking for a tasting room located in an industrial complex, (and they also can't produce estate wines; but that's a different topic) And Rosenblum is no different; you would never expect it to be where it is.
The tasting room itself is upstairs overlooking the big receiving area, and is open to it. It simultaneously feels cozy and airy - a difficult thing to do. I have been there twice now; once midweek at lunch time and then again on a Saturday. The weekday tasting was definitely the better of the two; we were the only ones in the tasting room and therefore got to monopolize the time of the pourer. It also helped that we came on a day when they were changing the wines available in the tasting room; as we got to taste twice as much wine.
I returned on the Saturday because Rosenblum's website said that they offer tours at 1:00 and 3:00. Upon arrival, the tasting room was filled to overflowing with people spilled into the receiving area (with additional tables set up to service them). And no tours. They should remove the mention of a tour from their website as the lady pouring our wine said that they do not do tours when it's crowded; which is every weekend.
My other negative comment is that their weekday tastings hours are 11:00-6:00; this does not leave much time to drop in after work. You would think given their location at the ferry terminal, that staying open after work would attract a few commuters?

The $5.00 tasting fee is free to club members.

The Verdict

It's a good tasting room. There is a larger number of wines being poured than most; and you can look at thier website to see what is being poured before you even go in.

2002 Voss Napa Syrah

2007-03-19T08:17:00.000-07:00

This wine was one of what I call a "Safeway Bargin" I was at Safeway, and noticed it at the checkout. It was cheap, so I took a chance. After all the fruit that I've been having in my wines recently (thank you Rosenblum), I was welcoming the chance to return to a more traditionally flavoured wine.

The presentation was good. It came in a typical Rhône bottle. It had a real cork, and an outstanding label (even if the tasting notes contradict the label). The front label had the legal requirements, and the rear, in addition to the standard tasting notes gives real info about the decisions made in the making of this wine. The inclusion of viognier in the blend may sound unusual, but it's true to the style of a Côte Rôtie and improves this particular vintage greatly.

It had slight legs. The cork left me a light tattoo, with next to no penetration. The colour and nose were both light for a syrah, but then again I've been drinking lots of Rosenblums' lately so I may just be too used to the over fruitiness of the good doctors wines. It was nice and smooth. I drank it with a BBQ'd pork loin that I had for dinner, and it neither added to nor detracted from the meal. After the bottle had been opened for a couple of hours, I had a sip following a piece of licorice and boom it exploded with a mouth full of richness.

The Verdict:

For $10???!!!! I returned to Safeway and bought every bottle they had on display. This tastes like a $20.00 bottle of wine.

Style:	Rhône
Varietals:	Syrah, Viognier
Appellation/Terrior:	Napa, California
Vintage:	2002
Vintner:	Voss Vineyards
Alcohol:	14.9% by Volume
Price:	$10.85

Containers

2007-03-18T07:11:00.000-07:00

Since I always mention the type of the bottle, you might be thinking that it's some sort of pet peeve of mine. I mean why should you give a rat's about the bottle the wine comes in? It doesn't affect the way it tastes after all? Or does it?
For the most part, no it doesn't. There are exceptions -

Exceptions to bottle taste

Jugs - A draw back about a large bottles in general is that since wine does not do well once opened, you should plan on drinking it right away, but with the quantity of wine in a jug, you will end up getting good and sloshed by the time it's empty (although; maybee that's what the customers of Jug wine have in mind anyway). On the plus side for large format bottles (but not jugs) is that if you plan on cellaring your wine for any significant length of time, a large format bottle will do a better job. The reason for this is in a large format bottle (like a magnum), less wine is exposed to oxidation than in two regular bottles. A jug, on the other hand, is not designed with this in mind. In a jug, more wine is exposed to the oxidizing effects of the air in the bottle. And lastly, There is no serious wine maker currently bottling wine in a jug. Every jug I have seen is rot gut plonk.; so its also a good indicator of poor quality.
Boxes - Now, box wine is not really "Wine in a Box" it's wine in a bag; with the bag in a box. The upside of box wine is that you can take several days to consume the wine without worrying about oxidation. The reason for this is that there is no air in the bag to cause oxidation. The downsides are:
1. Can't age your wine - Wines in a bag don't breath; so they are poor for aging.
2. Plastic - The plastic bag can impart a plastic or "New Car Smell" taste to your wine
3. Quality - No serious wine maker that I know of currently distributes their product in a box; so the likelihood of obtaining a quality wine in a box is low
Colour - Wine bottles are dark in colour for a reason - Sunlight affects the taste of wine. I don't need to say much here, because only Bum Wines come in clear bottles (and if you are drinking them then you are probably not reading my blog)

And here are the reasons for choosing a traditional bottle:

Serving size - a 750ml bottle is the perfect size for two people to drink with a meal
Tradition - As I have said before; Wine is a luxury item. Part of the enjoyment of luxury items comes from the tradtions and rituals associated with them.
Indicators - If I am finding it difficult to choose between two wines I have not had before, the one in the correct style bottle for the type of wine will always be the one I choose. Why? well, if the vintner paid attention to that level of detail, than chances are he or she paid close attention to all the other levels of detail that it takes to produce a good wine.

The Verdict:

Your likelihood of finding a good quality wine is highest if the wine comes in the proper style bottle for the wine; least likely if the bottle is made of clear glass (but you knew that). The rest fall in the middle in this order:

Proper style of bottle
Improper style of bottle
Much further down the scale: Box
Jug
Clear bottle

2003 Rosenblum Base Camp Syrah

2007-03-17T07:48:00.000-07:00

When I last went to Rosenblum for a tasting; they were not pouring the Base Camp Syrah. I was attracted to it though, as it was an older vintage (for a Rosenblum), and Santa Barbara IMHO produces California's best Syrahs. It didn't hurt that it was discounted either; $14.00 is a great deal for any Santa Barbara Syrah.

The presentation was good. It came in a typical Rhône bottle. It had a real cork, which is a departure for Rosenblum, which usually features agglomerated synthetic corks.

The labeling was fair - all the necessary information is present (Vintage, Vintner, Terrior, Varietal, and Booze content) but not much more.

It was leggy, and the nose was full of jam, which is unusual for a Syrah.
The flavours brought out chocolate cacao. My friend Stephanie said it tastes like a desert wine. This wine begs the question: Why jam in a Syrah? Jam is usually reserved for Zins or Petites; in other words bigger grapes that don't get overwhelmed by the fruit. That said I liked it.

The Verdict:

While the Jam overwhelmed the "Rhoneness" of a Syrah; I went back to the winery today and bought more.

Style:	Rhône
Varietals:	Syrah
Appellation/Terrior:	Santa Barbara, California
Vintage:	2003
Vintner:	Rosenblum Cellars
Alcohol:	14.9% by Volume
Price:	$14.69

2005 Château Doppee Unlabeled Pinot

2007-03-16T08:47:00.001-07:00

As I mentioned in the review of the Truchard Zin, my wife has a friend Meg, who works for Wine Shop At Home. Well, Meg's Husband Vic works for The Winery At LaGrange, and is an avid winemaker in his spare time. Meg brought out a couple of Vic's creations for us to try, so Wednesday night after slurping down the David Bruce Pinot I wanted to compare Vic's vintage to the pro.

Vic's wine proved to taste as good as the pro's, which shouldn't be too surprising given that Vic spends a lot of time around the pros. In addition to the typical grape taste of a Pinot, I also got pomegranates. There was a tingly after taste; probably due to ascorbic acid that is typically added to homemade wines.

The presentation was that of a homemade wine. It came in a Zinfandel bottle rather than a Burgundy bottle, but hey; I bet it's what Meg and Vic had on hand at the time. There was no label. It had an agglomerated natural cork that had started to unglue - not to the point of damaging Vic and Meg's fine product, but I'm glad I listened to Meg and opened it now rather than let it cellar for a couple of years as I might have ruined it had I done that. (Rule#1: If the Vintner tells you personally to drink the wine now; do so with all expedience).

The Verdict:

I enjoyed this wine, and if Meg and Vic are nice enough to give me another bottle you will hear no complaints coming out of this mouth! I am fortunate enough to also have a bottle of Shiraz that they made, and I'm looking forward to opening it soon.

Style:	Burgundy
Varietals:	Pinot Noir
Appellation/Terrior:	Unknown
Vintage:	2005
Vintner:	Château Doppee
Alcohol:	Unknown
Price:	N/A

2005 David Bruce Central Coast Pinot

2007-03-15T08:33:00.001-07:00

The weather in Alameda has been fantastic this last couple of weeks, so much so that we're running out of meat to grill on the barbie. Yesterday when my wife was out buying Kobe beef, pork loins, and other choice smokeables she also picked up a bottle of Pinot on the recommendation of someone at Costco who claimed it to be "chewy" (As in gum; not Wookie).

Now, I'm not normally a Pinot fan, as they tend to lack the fruit and body of my preferred wines (I like my jam) but on a hot day, a light wine is appreciated. and this one was light and airy. I drank it like kool-aid, so it's good that it was also lower in booze content than I'm used to or else I'd of got sploshed.

The presentation was OK; it came in a Burgundy bottle with a painting of David and Goliath. The label lacks any data whatsoever except that required by law. They loose points for that one. The website also has nothing. Obviously Mr. Bruce is trying to market his wine on the quality of the artwork on the label. I don't usually drink wines this young either, but it's a good thing I did as it had an agglomerated natural cork; Which if you read my closure post, is bad news if you want to cellar your wine.

No legs, but I wouldn't expect any either. Now, Pinot usually tastes like grapes, and this wine was no exception, but it also had cranberries. Which is good. Don't take this the wrong way, but this is the wine that Ernest & Julio wanted drinkers of Hearty Burgundy to think they were getting.

The Verdict:

I enjoyed this wine, it's appropriate for a hot day. At $20 it's over priced. It's worth $10

Style:	Burgundy
Varietals:	Pinot Noir
Appellation/Terrior:	Central Coast, California
Vintage:	2005
Vintner:	David Bruce
Alcohol:	18.8% by Volume
Price:	$19.57

Closure

2007-03-14T08:52:00.000-07:00

No, this post is not about some airy-fairy "You'll feel better after moving on" idea; it's about the thingy at the open end of your wine bottle that keeps the wine in and the air out.

According to Beekman, the Romans used to seal their amphora with "a coating of pitch or gypsum over the opening of a vessel or a film of olive oil floating on the surface of the wine. I for one am glad that this is no longer common practice. Think of the drawbacks of these 3 methods;

Pitch - this involves un-processed mineral oil in contact with my beverage??? cannot be good for you, and think what it would do to the nose!
Gypsum - better than pitch, but marginally so. Gypsum is porous, flaky, and delicate. I would imagine that if you did not accidentally break it, that you would still be picking pieces of chalk out of your glass.
Olive oil - well, at least this is edible. Not the most transport worthy stopper, and an oily film on my wine?? I think not.

Then there's the medieval method of stuffing wax coated cloth into the neck of the bottle. Ingenious, but not exactly up to aging in a damp cellar for 10-20 years.

Thanks to some unnamed Portuguese, and fortunately for us, stopper technology has improved over the years. Enter the Cork.

Corks are great. It's a natural substance that is non-toxic, and grows on trees. It provides a safe and secure seal to your bottle, and a self satisfying pop when properly vacated from the bottle.

Corks come in many styles. If you're interested check out Real Cork for a dissertation. In my reviews, I simplify this to two basic styles; real cork ("Natural Cork Closure" by real cork's definition) and agglomerated (any other cork closure). I differentiate because what I call agglomerated corks contain glue, and according to their own manufactures websites, they are not intended for cellaring (so drink them quick!)

Enter the Synthetic Cork.
Synthetic corks are a relatively recent innovation, and are becoming less rare. They were originally introduced for 2 main reasons:

Cost - since you don't have to wait 52 years to grow an oak tree, these closures are cheaper.
Corkiness - Corked wine is an expensive problem, and synthetic corks don't cork.

Synthetic corks also come in many styles; and again I have simplified my reviews to mentioning 2 types. Whole stoppers like the ones produced by SupremeCorq; and "agglomerated" which are made of small bits of rubber bound together.

While IMHO there is nothing technically wrong with a synthetic cork, they are (with many an exception) more often found on lower quality wines than high quality ones. This may be due to the cost.

Enter the Screw Cap.
Both natural and synthetic corks have the disadvantage of requiring a tool to open the bottle. Screw caps do not. They are also extremely cheap. They also crush easily, so if you open a bottle on the beach and want to bring the remainder home you need to be careful that it does not leak in your picnic basket.
IMHO there are 3 things wrong with screw caps and one of those is purely perception.

Ritual - Wine is a luxury item surrounded by rituals, and I would argue that part of our enjoyment of wine comes from these rituals. Without a cork, you loose the bottle opening ritual
Evaluation - Without a cork, you lose some of the techniques to judge the quality of the environment that the wine was stored in. A screw cap gathers no sediment, and likewise will not tell you if the wine was stored too hot or too cold for too long.
Perception - There is only one serious wine maker that I know of (Bonny Doon) that is using screw cap closures. The vast majority of screw capped wine is rot gut plonk.

The verdict

While you cannot tell for sure the quality of of a wine by it's closure; wines with real corks are more likely to come from good vintners than ones with agglomerated, synthetic or screw cap closures. Agglomerated corks are worse than any kind of synthetic as a few months in your cellar will ruin the wine. Screw caps are no fun, and hardly anybody of note uses them (unless you like Night Train?)

2004 Rosenblum San Francisco Bay Zin

2007-03-13T08:35:00.001-07:00

I bought this bottle when I went to the lunchtime tasting with some friends from work. Rosenblum only had splits left at the winery, so that's what I ended up with. I figured that being splits, that they would be perfect for my wife to take with her to Florida next week.

Alas, last Friday I was possessed by Bacchus and he needed an extra glass of wine, so I drank this bottle immediately after the three Trinitas wines (of the past three posts), and my wife fell asleep while watching Star Wars, (causing me to finish the split) so I was a little lit when I made my notes :-)

A typical Rosenblum, meaning it's a little on the young side, but it was good never the less. The presentation was good; the split bottle was Bordeaux style, but hey it's a split. It had an agglomerated synthetic cork that left a tattoo on the webbing between my thumb and forefinger, showing great sedimentation.

The labeling was good - all the necessary information is present (Vintage, Vintner, Terrior, Varietal, and Booze content) and in the right places. The tasting notes on Rosenblum's web site give much more information, with datum down to the vineyards and personal history of the growers. That's the type of information that I like to see; too bad there's no room on the label for it.

I don't remember any legs (I was buzzing remember?) but, given the high alcohol content of this wine I assume that there must have been. It tasted of blueberry jam.

The Verdict:

I enjoyed this wine, and will certainly try the other split when I'm sober enough to give it a proper evaluation. Bacchus sure liked it, and at about $17.00 a (split adjusted) bottle this is a good buy, and should prove excellent in a few more months.

Style:	Zinfandel
Varietals:	Zinfandel, Petite Sirah
Appellation/Terrior:	San Francisco Bay, California
Vintage:	2004
Vintner:	Rosenblum Cellars
Alcohol:	15.6% by Volume
Price:	$8.16 (split)

A Trinity of Trinitas: Trinitas 2003 Mataro

2007-03-12T09:30:00.000-07:00

Last Friday; My mother, her girlfriend and another of her friends all showed up tonight for dinner. We BBQ-d a couple of tri-tips and needed some wine to accompany. Since my mother and her friends all live in Concord; I figured a selection of Contra Costa wines would be in order; so over the course of the evening we opened 3 different bottles from Trinitas. This is the third bottle of those three.

Trinitas is Matt Cline's Hobby vineyard. Matt is the wine maker for the largish vintner Cline (which owns a lot of vineyards in Oakley). He married a scion of the Jaccuzi family; Erin. The Trinitas label is a partnership between Matt and Erin and Busch and Rodeno families of Oakley. Their goal is to show off the terrior of heritage vineyards in Contra Costa County.

I bought this particular wine based upon my good experiences with their 2002 Bigelow Zin. I opened it without any idea what I was getting into.

The presentation was OK. It came in a Bordeaux bottle; but then this wine is a blend of Rhône; and Burgandy varietals so the bottle cannot be traditional. It came with a real cork.

The labeling was good - all the necessary information is present (Vintage, Vintner, Terrior, Varietal, and Booze content) and in the right places. Oddly, Trinitas has chosen less-used names for two of their grapes; Mataro for Mourvèdre and Black Malvoise for Pinot Noir. The rear label gives tasting notes and history of the region as well as the goal of the vintner; but does not hint at fermentation techniques oak? brix? punch down? etc.)

There were some legs, and a rich nose. The colour was brilliant. It tasted of strawberry jam followed by booze. The boozy taste makes me say that this wine is unbalanced, but it is good.

The Verdict:

I enjoyed this wine, but with the alcohol after taste am not sure I would choose another 2003 - When they release the 2004 though I will likely try it to see if 2003 was an exceptionally sugar rich harvest (accounting for the extra booze)

Style:	Meritage
Varietals:	Mourvèdre, Petite Sirah, Pinot Noir
Appellation/Terrior:	Contra Costa County, California
Vintage:	2003
Vintner:	Trinitas
Alcohol:	14.5% by Volume
Price:	$21.75

A Trinity of Trinitas: Trinitas 2004 Old Vine Cuvée

2007-03-11T08:04:00.001-07:00

My mother, her girlfriend and another friend all showed up on Friday night for dinner. We BBQ-d a couple of tri-tips and needed some wine to accompany. Since my mother and her friends all live in Concord; I figured a selection of Contra Costa wines would be in order; so over the course of the evening we opened 3 different bottles from Trinitas. This is the second bottle of those three. Read yesterday's post for the first.

I bought this particular wine based upon my good experiences with their 2002 Bigelow Zin. I opened it without any idea what I was getting into. This wine is a piece of California history - reading the blend of grapes in this puppy is like pulling layers of history off of California's plantings. I would love to believe that this is a field blend of grapes from vineyards that have evolved over the centuries (19th, 20th and 21st).

I am very glad that I had cow on the BBQ as one sip and swirl was enough to see that this wine was meant for beef. The tri-tip was on indirect heat with dried lavender thrown onto the coals to generate smoke (sort of an "Herbs de Provence" smoker) and the lavender really complemented the wine. By accident I ended up with a superior pairing.

The presentation was good. It came in a Rhône bottle; but then this wine is a rather odd blend of Provençal; Rhône; and Zinfandel varietals so the bottle cannot be traditional. It came with a real cork.

The labeling was good - all the necessary information is present (Vintage, Vintner, Terrior, Varietal, and Booze content) and in the right places. The rear label gives tasting notes and history of the region as well as the goal of the vintner; but does not hint at fermentation techniques oak? brix? punch down? etc.) Oddly, Trinitas has chosen less-used names for two of their grapes; Mataro for Mourvèdre and Black Malvoise for Pinot Noir.

There were some good legs, and a nose full of jelly. The colour was a brilliant burgundy. This is truly a heritage wine; the richness of the old vines really shines through.

The Verdict:

Awesome for accompanying smoked meat a BBQ. Well drinkable at other occasions as well. at less than $20 if you are having meat - buy it. I am planning my next BBQ now just so I have an excuse to drink my next bottle of this superior vintage.

Style:	Heritage
Varietals:	Zinfandel, Mourvèdre, Carignane, Petite Sirah, Alicante Bouschet, Pinot Noir
Appellation/Terrior:	Contra Costa County, California
Vintage:	2004
Vintner:	Trinitas
Alcohol:	14.0% by Volume
Price:	$15.66

A Trinity of Trinitas: Trinitas 2002 Bigalow Zin

2007-03-10T07:29:00.001-08:00

My mother, her girlfriend and another friend all showed up last night for dinner. We BBQ-d a couple of tri-tips and needed some wine to accompany. Since my mother and her friends all live in Concord, I figured that a selection of Contra Costa wines would be in order; so over the course of the evening we opened 3 different bottles from Trinitas.

Trinitas is Matt Cline's Hobby vineyard. Matt is the wine maker for the large vintner Cline (which owns a lot of vineyards in Oakley). He married a scion of the Jaccuzi family; Erin. The Trinitas label is a partnership between Matt and Erin and Busch and Rodeno families of Oakley. Their goal is to show off the terrior of heritage vineyards in Contra Costa County.

I first became interested in this particular wine when I started to drive past the vineyard on my way to our ski cabin in Kirkwood. You will see it on your right hand side as you are about to cross the Antioch bridge across the Sacramento river on your way out of the Bay Area. It contains what may likely be the oldest Zinfandel vines in existence. When most of CA was ripping out wine grapes during the "Great Experiment" of prohibition; the vines of Oakley remained in the ground. The Bigelow vineyard contains mostly 120 year old zinfandel vines. Not even Dalmatia can claim an entire vineyard of this grape that old.

This is one of my all time favorite Zins. 2002 was a great year, and this vineyard produces the richest fruit one could imagine. Kudos to Matt and Erin for preserving this vineyard from the city of Oakley's machinations to turn it into a Wal-mart.

The presentation was ok. It came in a Bordeaux bottle rather than a Zinfandel one. It had a real cork. There was a fair amount of sediment around the neck; enough to leave a faint tattoo on the web of my thumb indicating that this wine was stored up-side down (This is good).

The labeling was good - all the necessary information is present (Vintage, Vintner, Terrior, Varietal, and Booze content) and in the right places. The rear label gives tasting notes and history of the region as well as the goal of the vintner; but does not hint at fermentation techniques oak? brix? punch down? etc.)

There were some good legs, the nose was prominent of loganberries. With a brilliant colour, this is a wine full of fruit. The term "Jammy" in this case refers to a spread that you would put on toast. If only there as a jam that tasted like this, PB&J would never be the same (skip the PB!) You can really taste the old vines in this wine. Imagine if you bought a single Jelly Belly jelly bean that somehow ended up with all the flavour of the whole bag - and that's the type of grape that this wine is made of.

The Verdict:

The only Zin that comes close to this one is Trinitas's 2003 CCC Old Vine Zinfandel. Buy it at any price. I would pay upwards of $50-$75 for a bottle of this, so at the $25 I paid for it it's a steal (but don't tell Matt or Erin I said so)

Style:	Zinfandel
Varietals:	Zinfandel
Appellation/Terrior:	Oakley (Contra Costa County), California
Vintage:	2002
Vintner:	Trinitas
Alcohol:	15.0% by Volume
Price:	$24.36

2005 Rosenblum Heritage Clone Petite Sirah

2007-03-09T08:08:00.000-08:00

Wednesday at lunch some co-workers asked me if I wanted to join them for lunch at Rosenblum. It sounded like fun, so off we went. Little did I know that that lunch would be liquid only, but lots of fun was had.
Previous to this, my only exposure to Rosenblum's products had been at restaurants, and my company's informal monthly wine tasting events. My impressions there had been that every Rosenblum was young. What I found at the winery did not change that impression (indeed even the guy behind the counter agreed with me) - Rosenblum's releases all would benefit from another 8-18 months in the cellar. What did impress me is the gigantic selection of individual wines - Rosenblum makes an awfully large number of single vineyard vintages. They currently list 34 different 2004 wines for sale on their site. Wow. I am a big fan of single vineyard vintages - you get a much better feel for the terrior that way IMHO. The other thing that I like about Rosenblum is that they source a good number of their grapes from Oakley - and the flavours that the ancient vines in this region, combined with the earth and the sun and the river air of Oakley impart to a wine make it amongst the yummiest terriors I know of.

I would normally not drink a wine this young, but the tasting room left me craving more.

The presentation was good. It came in a typical Rhône bottle. It had an agglomerated synthetic cork.
The labeling was fair - all the necessary information is present (Vintage, Vintner, Terrior, Varietal, and Booze content) but in odd places and sometimes inconsistent; for instance the booze and appellation are both listed on the rear label - and the appellation is listed as San Francisco Bay, but the verbiage states "...from Napa and Sonoma to the base of Mt. Diablo." I'll give you that Oakley is at the base of Mt. Diablo, and within the San Francisco Bay AVA; but Napa and Sonoma are not - and given the listing of the San Francisco Bay appellation, grapes from Napa and Sonoma combined can only make up less than 15% of the fruit used in making the wine, so why list it? The only reason I can think of to do so is to market this wine to consumers who have no clue about wine regions outside of Napa; but then again with this wine only available at the winery - are they likely to get any consumers like that?

There were some legs, the nose was medium, and oh what a body! It had the body of a desert wine, and was extremely yummy. With a colour like purple lipstick, this is a wine full of fruit. Plums and Mangoes. Pomegranate and Blackberry. If this wine was a jam, it would be awesome spread upon a scone with or without clotted cream.

The Verdict:

With the discount that I got at purchase time (I joined their wine club) it is highly worth it. This wine is wonderful now, will be superb at Thanksgiving and truly great next year.

Style:	Rhône
Varietals:	Petite Sirah
Appellation/Terrior:	Oakley (San Francisco Bay), California
Vintage:	2005
Vintner:	Rosenblum Cellars
Alcohol:	14.4% by Volume
Price:	$14.69

2002 Truchard Carneros Zin

2007-03-08T08:29:00.001-08:00

Over a year ago my wife signed us up for The Wine Shop At Home, mainly because her good friend Meg was a consultant there, but also to get exposure to wines we wouldn't otherwise find. The Wine Shop At Home is an MLM company (if you want to learn more about MLM companies check out the great information at SaraGraces.com), so this also gave Meg an excuse to come out and visit us for a wine tasting party. Good fun.

The upside of The Wine Shop At Home is that we get 2 wines delivered to us each month (and 4 in December). Now, these wines are pretty hit and miss - as often as you get an excellent wine, you will get one that rates just fair. My biggest complaint though, is that most times the wines are on the young side, meaning that I cellar them and by the time they are ready, The Wine Shop At Home no longer carries it. Bummer. This is why any time we get one that does not suffer from excessive youth, we try it right away.

Since the Truchard was a 2002 it was definitely the right age for a Zin, so we popped it open.

The presentation was non-traditional. It came in a Bordeaux shaped bottle that was the brownish green typical for a Burgundy style wine. It did have a real cork. The labeling was fair - all the necessary information is present (Vintage, Vintner, Terrior, Varietal, and Booze content) but the information on the rear label was more about the colours they chose for the label than the techniques they used to create it.

The nose was not big, but the body was full of fruit. Pomegranate and plums. very nice, but lacked balance with the alcohol - you were left with a strong booze after taste. Colour was average, and unfortunately I did not note the legs because I was using a striated glass (my regular tasting glasses being all in the dishwasher at the time)

The Verdict:

Slightly overpriced. This is a $15 bottle of wine, and if you can find it for $12 It would classify as a good deal.

Style:	Zinfandel
Varietals:	Zinfandel
Appellation/Terrior:	Carneros, Napa, California
Vintage:	2002
Vintner:	Truchard
Alcohol:	14.2% by Volume
Price:	$18.89

2002 Dingač

2007-03-07T08:01:00.000-08:00

So, as my wife was ordering coffee, I was left wandering the Alameda marketplace with my 1½ year old daughter on my hip, and decided to pop into Farmstead Cheeses & Wines and browse.
I noticed an unfamiliar label amongst their Zins - it appeared to be a Croatian wine. It was in a traditional Zin shaped bottle; so I quickly got excited thinking it may be something special. A few words with the proprietor confirmed my suspicion. I could hardly wait to get it home and try it.

Having been a self confessed Zin fan; I am always on the lookout for a good Zin; the older the vine the better. And what better place to find old vines than the ancestral homeland of the vines smuggled into New York by Gibbs in 1832.

For those unfamiliar with the origins of Zinfandel; in 1832, Herr Gibbs absconded with some vines belonging to the Hapsburgs and kept in their royal collection in Vienna. Herr Gibbs relocated to Long Island where one of those vines ended up being called Zinfandel. (Oddly enough; no Zinfandel is commercially grown on Long Island today). Up until UC Davis researchers stepped in, no one knew where the Hapsburgs got the vines from originally. It turns out that a little known Dalmatian grape called Crljenak Kaštelanski was the source of the clones.

This bottle is labeled "Premium red wine" from Pelješac Peninsula. Given the lack of appellation laws in Croatia, and knowing a bit about how vineyards are managed there; this wine is probably a field blend of Crljenak Kaštelanski (non-cloned Zinfandel), and Zin ancestors Plavac Mali and Dobričić. Un-oaked.

The wine was very un-zin-like. Perhaps given the nature of the field blend and likelihood of non-clones in the vineyard this should not have been surprising; never the less I was disappointed. Too much black pepper. More reminiscent of a mid range Cab than a California Zin. That said, it had a great colour, and was as leggy as all get out. Weak nose.
The presentation was good. I appreciate the traditional bottle. It's getting rare to see Zins packaged in proper Zinfandel bottles (Green, strong shoulder, narrower at the base than the shoulder) it seems that the generic Bordeaux bottle has gained favour. The cork was also real.
As far as the label goes; I like the donkey, but dislike the typical European lack of varietals on the label. For a region lacking formal appellation laws, the omission of a varietal listing is most disturbing.

The Verdict:

While I was disappointed because I was expecting something different; I shouldn't have been. It was a wine worth the price (but not much more).

Style:	Zinfandel
Varietals:	Crljenak Kaštelanski, Plavac Mali, Dobričić and others
Appellation/Terrior:	Pelješac Peninsula, Dalmatia
Vintage:	2002
Vintner:	Dingač
Alcohol:	13.5% by Volume
Price:	$24.27