Volunteering at Lost Canyon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.