"A Day in the Dust" -- Incredible Cabs and Real Values

By Mac McCarthy

SavvyTaste.com

At "A Day in the Dust" tasting of Rutherford, CA Cabernets, hosted by the Rutherford Dust Society, I found some incredible-tasting Cabs -- no surprise, though these were even more spectacular than I anticipated -- but I also found some incredible value prices, which I certainly didn't  expect -- especially from such elite wineries.  

WHAT'S THE RUTHERFORD DUST SOCIETY?

The Rutherford Dust Society is the odd-sounding name of a group promoting wines (especially but not exclusively Cabernet Sauvignons) made from grapes grown in the area around Rutherford, a small town in the middle of the Napa Valley. Society  members are the most famous name brands in Napa wine: Beaulieu, Inglenook, Heitz, Honig, Neal, Peju, Raymond, St Clement, Staglin, and others.

Andy Beckstoffer and Andre Tchelistcheff, 1989

The Society gets its name from a famous remark, "It takes Rutherford dust to grow great Cabernet," made by the most influential Napa winemaker of the 20th century, André Tchelistcheff. You may not know that name if you aren't involved in the Napa wine business -- but you will have heard of some of his works. A Russian making wines for top French winemakers, he was lured to the United States by Georges De Latour in 1938 to become the winemaker for Georges' Beaulieu Vineyards. Tchelistcheff had a huge influence on the winemaking techniques now used in the Valley -- especially for Cabernets, his specialty. He created one of the signature wine labels of the area: Georges De Latour Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon from Beaulieu Vineyards.

The Rutherford Dust Society, established in 1994, works to promote and encourage the highest standards in winemaking, to maintain the reputation of the historic Rutherford district AVA. (The history of the Rutherford area in winemaking makes fascinating reading .) The Society is also working on restoration of the Napa River and its watershed.

Rutherford, Napa Valley

There were 36 winemakers at this year's event, titled "A Day in the Dust: A Tasting of 2008 Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Blends," at Francis Ford Coppola's Rubicon Estate Winery in Rutherford. This is a tasting for the trade and the press, who turned out in force, and it was a delight to have the winemakers and winery owners themselves pouring.

BLACK CHERRY WITH CHOCOLATE POWDER--AND SOME GREAT PRICES

The common taste element of the wines this day is black cherry: The nose on most of these wines was aromatic black cherry, dusted with chocolate powder. And the taste followed through on this theme: Rich, mouth-filling, intense, with nice finishes, a balance of acid, and in most cases with enough tannin to make it clear that these delicious wines will be even more spectacular in a few years when the tannins calm and reveal the fruit in all its glory. When you think of a big red wine, these are the wines you're thinking of, and are the reason that you love this style of wine.

Each winery showed one or two Cabs, plus in most cases one or two Sauvignon Blancs (and one had a Sauv Blanc dessert wine that I regret not getting to) as well as some Merlots, and a few Pinots under the table.

I found dozens of the most wonderful, delicious, flavorful, rich and delightful red wines you would ever want to drink -- the cream of the Napa crop -- and the list prices ranged from just over $100 down to a not-quite-believable low of $24, with most bottles in the $50 to $75 range. In a day of over-priced wines, it's remarkable to find values from small, elite wineries. Every wine I tasted that day was worth every nickel of its list price, and more.

Which is as it should be -- and too often isn't. Wine prices should be a rough guide to how good you can expect a wine to be. Yet how often do you decide to buy a special wine for that party or that gift, pay that $50 or $75 for a "fine wine" and get -- a big disappointment. That $50 Cabernet Sauvignon is too tight, to tough, to difficult to enjoy. That $100 bottle of French Bordeaux is so "austere" -- read, "completely lacking in  fruit" -- that you just can't enjoy it. How often does the wine industry send our everyday winedrinkers, defeated, back to their sub-$10 wines from Trader Joe's, convinced there's some kind of game going on and they don't know the rules.

Well, if they had a chance to taste these top-notch Rutherford wines, they would find the wines they are looking for -- and at fair prices. Too bad they probably won't be able to find them. As always at these grand tastings, the majority of these finest of wines are made in small lots of a few hundred cases -- the cream of the winery's crop made in quantities too small to show up in your local Liquor Barn or supermarket, or even in your fine-wine shop if you live outside Northern California. And that's heartbreaking. These wines are ringing endorsements of what California wine can be, of what the Napa Valley is famous for, and of the wonders of "Rutherford Dust."

This tiny supply, of such wonderful wines, at such honest prices, gives wine lovers a powerful incentive to join a few of the winery wine clubs so you can get in on the limited allotments. (If you can even squeeze into their clubs!)

Sojourner

A ROUNDUP OF SOME WONDERFUL CABERNETS AND CAB BLENDS

Here are a few of the highlights, with retail price and production level where I remembered to get that info. (Many of these wines are not even listed on the vendor Web sites.)

Heitz Cellar 2005 Trailside Cabernet Sauvignon - $70 - Big and tannic, round and mouthfilling.

Heitz Cellar 1995 Trailside Cabernet Sauvignon - Wonderfully subdued compared to 2005. Nice nose. I liked the 2005 more.

Honig Vineyard and Winery 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon - Campbell Vineyard - $75.

Hunnicutt 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon Rutherford, $75, 125 cases, to be released next spring - wonderful aroma, delicious.

JRE

John Robert Eppler Wines JRE 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon Rutherford - wonderful aroma, very rich and round.

John Robert Eppler Wines JRE 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Rutherford - Nice black cherry all around, very drinkable.

John Robert Eppler Wines JRE 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Rutherford Reserve - The black-cherry sensation a little more intense in this one.

MCG Cellars - McGah Family Wineries 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon Rutherford - $42 - 275 cases - That incredible nose and flavor of dark cherries dusted with chocolate powder! Rich, smooth, unctuous -- sensational.

Meander 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon - $65 - 400 cases - Incredible aroma - with that French liquorice-chemical-tire note. Rich.

Meander 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon Morisoli Vineyard, Rutherford - $124 - 40 cases - Wonderful aroma, rich, corner-filling, with fine tannins. A standout.

Neal Family Vineyards 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon, Rutherford, $75 - The only one I tasted here that didn't thrill me, due to a slightly odd note in the nose that carried through in the taste - don't know what it was, but it disappointed me.

Pedemonte Cellars 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon, Rutherford - $26 - 360 cases - A wonderful taste with a loooong finish -- a wonderful wine in every respect, plus the price is hard to believe. This is not half as good as the other wines, but is exactly on their level and maybe even a bit above (that long finish is wonderful).

Peju 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Rutherford Reserve -$100  - Yes; yes, that is very much a delicious Cabernet. Miss Lisa Peju, the icon in its ads, was there pouring, along with her mother.

Peju

Quintessa 2008 "Quintessa" blend 87% Cab, plus Merlot, Petite Verdot, Cab Franc, and 1% Carmenere. $150 - 8,000 cases. Good. Not the best here, but good. I was surprised that it was the most expensive Cab being shown; I wouldn't have guessed it. I was also taken aback that they said they made 8,000 cases -- eight thousand cases? Yes. Of a $150 wine? Yes. Wow. Nice work if you can get it. Why? How? I got a blank look, as if there is no marvel in superior wines produced in tiny lots for half the price.

Raymond Vineyards 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Rutherford - $60 - 60 cases - Nice and round, but it's still early for this one, the tannins are still too high.

Raymond Vineyards 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon Rutherford - 65 cases - Yes, that extra year helps. Good wines, but not I wasn't as impressed as I expected to be.

Rubicon Estates 2008 Rubicon - $250 - Mostly Cab. Creamy, velvety - a quiet, thoughtful wine - I had to pay attention to appreciate it.

Rubicon Estates 2008 CASK Cabernet Sauvignon - $75 - A nice cherry nose, good taste.

Sojourn Cellars 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon, Beckstoffer Vineyards Georges III -- $95 - 140 cases - Wow. Rich, sweet -- Zowie! That's a lot of wine for under $100!

Sojourn Cellars 2008 Cuvee -- Great! Rich and delicious.

St. Clement Vineyards 2008 Star Vineyard Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon - $80 -  Not much nose (unusual in this crowd), but lots of fruit flavor, with a tannic tang that suggests this should lay down for a bit.

Sullivan Vineyards 2008 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Rutherford - $55 - A good middle, with a nice tannic backbone.

Sullivan Vineyards 2008 Coeur de Vigne, Rutherford - $90 - 49% Cab, 40% Merlot, the rest Petit Verdot and Cab Franc - A nicely balanced wine.

Sullivan Vineyards 2008 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, Rutherford - $100, club  only. Good, again with the tannic bite. All these Sullivan wines need to lie down for a few years and think about it.

Tres Sabores 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon Rutherford Perspective - $85 - Silky! (No, I don't know what "Rutherford Perspective" means. Is it like "Seaview" where there's no sea?)

Tres Sabores 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Rutherford - $80 - Same vineyard - no nose, but black raspberry on the palate.

SOME OTHER REALLY GREAT RUTHERFORD REDS

The Rutherford district produces quite a few other red wines besides Cabernet Sauvignon -- Merlot and Pinot Noir as well as Cab Franc and four or five others. Here are standouts from this tasting.

Sojourn Cellars Pinot Noir - 2009 Rodgers Creek Vineyard, Sonoma -- an under-the-table wine that's not produced from Rutherford grapes. - $48, 575 cases.  This is exactly what I like in a Pinot: Light, flavorful, with a long finish.

Sullivan Vineyards 2008 Merlot Rutherford - Very, very nice: The fruit shows up in the middle and the finish.

Sullivan Vineyards  2008 Reserve Merlot Rutherford - $100, 100 cases, for wine-club members only (you tease!). Round, with a tannic bite.

Tres Sabores 2008 Zinfandel Rutherford Estate - $35 - This is a Wow! with more finish than a typical Zin -- in fact, it's not typical of a Zin but boy is it good!

.

AND TASTY RUTHERFORD SAUVIGNON BLANCS

You'd think it a waste of the most valuable Cab-growing dirt in the country to raise Sauvignon Blanc grapes instead, but the Rutherford growers obviously don't agree. Most of the top-of-the-line wineries showing at this event had Sauv Blancs from grapes grown in Rutherford on offer.

The 2010 Sauv Blancs, newly bottled, were for the most part very similar to one another. Each had that Sauv Blanc nose and the citrusy flavor typical of this wine when it's made well. They were not as stony as the New Zealand style (which is good because I'm getting tired of that style), but were tasty, with a nice light tang that will go well with food, or on the deck on a hot summer day. Here are some I tasted, all 2010 Rutherford  Sauvignon Blancs except where noted.

94574 Brand - $18 - Nice citrusy flavor.

Alpha Omega - $36 - Slightly different from its rivals, a bit more complex, a good finish - 275 cases.

Alpha Omega "1155 Rutherford" - $52 - Also complex, a bit "French," which is a good thing.

Fleury Estate - $50, 150 cases - Nice acid, a light tasty tang.

Frog's Leap - $18 - Nice acid tang, palate clearing - bring out your Chinese food!

Honig Vineyards - 2009 - $25, 1300 cases - A little malolactic gives this and interestingly different taste - a bit of pineapple?

John Robert Eppler (JRE) Wines - 2010 Fume Blanc - French style, nice fruit nose, a bit less citrusy, but with a light tang -- mild, easy to drink. Didn't get a price - and their Web site doesn't even mention this white. Hmm.

Long Meadow Ranch - $18 - classic SB nose, flavor - good.

Conspire- $28; mild, tasty, and pleasant. (Amy Aikin puts her reds are under the brand name 'Meander'.)

Round Pond Estate - $24 - Pleasant, a good drink.

Rutherford Grove - 2009 Rutherford Bench - didn't get the price - Seemed a bit richer than the others, somehow.

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What do you think? Which are your favorite Cabs? Pass this article along, and subscribe above for our occasional wine reviews and opinions.  --Mac 

Big Woop Whoops Napa Valley ... And Offers A By-The-Glass Lesson

I played tourist today, visiting Calistoga which is a place that I have not spent much time in over the past 10 years or so. But in the process, I re-discovered a hard lesson for vintners in the "by the glass" process.

I lunched at a restaurant called Brannan's Grill which I had been to a number of years ago and had a nice experience...then.

This time, the food was forgettable and the wine memorable only for its mediocrity.

And there is no way to know whether the mediocrity is inherent in the wine or in its manner of opening and storage. And therein lies an important lesson for wineries.

I first ordered Brian Arden Syrah, Napa Valley 2008, Masked Man Vineyard, $13/glass. It was thin, flaccid, had no structure, no tannin and did a poor imitation of Syrah-flavored Kool-Aid. I thought the wine had been opened too long. I asked for another glass from a fresh bottle. And found the same thing. I don't know if this was crap wine to begin with, a stale bottle or both.

Not wanting to cause a fuss for a second time, I ordered another glass of wine, Allora Cabernet Sauvignon "Tresca" Napa Valley 2006, at $15/glass. Thin, faint fruit, shy, retiring tannins and little structure. Wimpy is the most charitable word I can think of.

But the Allora matched my lunch well: a "charcuterie plate" with three square inches of bland country pate, a small crock filled with pale, fatty meat chunks and some Redneck Charcuterie: fried pork rind. On, and burned baguette slices.

If I were a tourist from some distant place, I would take away some sour memories. But because I live in wine country, I know this is not the best food or wine that Napa Valley has to offer ... but a one-time visitor doesn't realize this.

First impressions can be the only impressions that get carried back home.

And that's a lesson that vintners should keep in mind especially if they're promoting their wine by the glass. Even if they are not actively promoting a by the glass program, they need to hammer it into sales reps heads that a proper method of preserving an unfinished bottle is vital to preserving the winery's reputation.

I've never had Allora or Brian Arden wines before this experience. So I can't say whether the transcendental plonkiness of the wines I sampled came from the wine or the way it was stored. Or both.

The counterpoint to it all came tonight when I paid $9.99 for a bottle of "Big Woop" which is a rough-and-ready, one-liter, screw-top Aussie red that seems mostly Syrah, but also has some Grenache and Mourvedre flavors running amuck. This was a boistrous,wine with a riot of flavor that elevated the pizza it was matched with ... all in all, a far better -- and less expensive -- gustatory experience than lunch.

SavvyTaste News For July 22

• Is Cabernet Sauvignon’s Hegemony Over?


• How much wine outside the winery is cooked?


• Arrogant Frog Hops Into Yellow Tail Niche


• Drink Like A Woman: Ladies Take The Booze Biz By Storm


• Is organic wine better for you than regular wine?


• Almost One-Quarter of Americans Report Binge Drinking in the Past Month


• 101-year-old birthday girl celebrates with pizza and wine


• Wine labels: unfathomable, infuriating and intimidating


• Dom At World Market: Proof the wine biz has changed forever


• Edible: Make Personalized Wine At City Winery And Brooklyn Winery


• Wine Pairing: Rules Are Meant to Be Broken

SavvyTaste News For July 14

• HEY FRANCE! Being Proud of Your Country's Wine Doesn't Mean Anything if You Don't Drink It


• A Wine Rack...For Your Bike


• Regional wine labels: Is a wine where it says it's from?


• The Objectivity of Taste


• What It Takes To Make Wines Of True Character (With Matt Powell of Draconis)


• Grower Champagnes


• Rutherford: As The Dust Settles, Fine Wine Emerges


• Pla i Llevant: An Island Region of Growing Quality


• Boisset Applies The Burgundy Touch With Its Winery Acquisitions In California

SavvyTaste News For July 13

• Enobabble: Debating the "minerality" of wine


• Popularity takes a toll on pinot grigio


• Alcoholic beverages in Australia to sport health warning labels


• Red Wine Counters Effects of Microgravity


• OZ: Taking Aim at 'Nanny State'


• Bloodhound works as wine tester


• Vine grafting: Cabernet, Merlot vineyards become Petit Verdot, Malbec


• Lompoc Wine Ghetto: Get Your Wine On Alternative


• Gallo's Growing Barefoot Brand Is No. 1


• "A good wine costs €150 a bottle ($212.52). A luxury wine starts at €300 ($425)"
  


• Rutgers Prof: Rep. Paul Ryan's wine choice speaks volumes


• Budget cuts and Burgundy: Paul Ryan’s rank hypocrisy


• So What if Paul Ryan Drank a $350 Bottle of Wine?


• Wine Loves “Transparency” Until it doesn’t


• A critique of wine criticism


• Sonoma County Pinot Noir rebounds


• Wrong temperature can spoil wine's taste


• Heat, light can damage your wine


• Red blends are big for Northwest wineries


• Rutherford winery and vineyard sold for $40 million - More Details


• New technology aids fight against wine counterfeiters


• Tasting Your Brain: Spinning the Wheel of Flavours in Wine


• High alcohol and global warming


• Resveratrol-Enriched Red Wines: What's it worth to you?


• Cheap wines worry doctor


• Think like Mediterraneans for richer, fuller lifestyle


• Wine: Don't Tell Me It's Healthy


• Alcohol consumption guidelines inadequate for cancer prevention


• A mature approach to tippling


• First-ever rosé DOCG raises skepticism among Italian wine pundits


• Champagne Harvest to Start at Earliest Since 1822 on Dry Weather


• Soave Makes a Refreshing Return

Savvy News Links For July 8

• Sweet Wine Drinkers Might Not Wear Panties ... SAY WHAT?
• Is white wine better for my teeth than red wine?
• Feral Pinot Noir?
  
• Drinking wine can increase your life span
  
• Too Much Alcohol in Wine or Too Many Wines with Imperfect Balance ?
  
• Still California Dreamin'
  
• Alexander Valley Vineyards - Great Family Values and Wine
  
• Wine blends back in the mix
  
• Why are there 'systematic errors' in wine alcohol labels?
• Blood And Sweat: Wine And Olive Oil In Italy's Deep South
  
• Winemaker Interview: Greg La Follette
  
• Final day in Napa ends up in Sonoma
  
• Fashionable Bordeaux Without the Fashionable Pricing
  
• Brief history of wine
• Social Cost of Alcohol claims Exaggerated: NABIC

Links courtesy of Wine Industry Insight

Passaggio Shows How Delicious A Rose Can Be

Cynthia Cosco's Passaggio Wines  first caught my eye with a Chardonnay so wonderfully delicious that I changed my mind about white wines (see my review and discussion at http://savvytaste.blogspot.com/2010/11/three-tasty-whites-passaggio-foppiano.html), especially the much-abused Chardonnay.

Now Cosco, who is a winemaker and manager at the custom-crush facility Crushpad in Sonoma, CA, has produced a Rose that has exactly what I like best in a Rose: Fruit and flavor.

The fruit is a pleasant red cherry on the nose, and a lovely light cherry on the palate. This is a summer deck wine par excellence -- fruit that makes it seem lightly sweet (though it's dry), good acid balance, and packed with a surprising amount of flavor. This Rose is just delicious, there's no other word for it.

Passaggio Grande Cappello ('Big Hat') New Generation Rose Wine 2010 Napa Valley (13.4%) is a Cab Rose -- certainly the best Cab Rose I've ever tasted. It's priced at $18 at the winery, plus shipping unless you drive up to pick it up, as I did. Unfortunately for you, Cindy only made a small amount, as a trial run, and I got two of the last bottles - one of which I took to an appreciative 4th of July party, where the celebrants were also surprised that she was able to turn a Cab Rose into such a delightful beverage. But both bottles are now gone, so, like me, you will have to wait for Cyndy to finish and release next year's -- let's hope she makes more this time!

Rock Wall's Sparkling Blanc de Blanc -- A Hit

By Mac McCarthy
SavvyTaste.com

I went over to Rock Wall Wines on the island of Alameda in San Francisco Bay to the release party of the newest sparkling wine -- Rock Wall 2010 Blanc de Blanc California Sparkling Wine ($18), and I loved it.

Founder and Winemaker Shauna Rosenblum has created a bubbly targeting popular tastes, including mine: Wonderful fruit gives it a sense of sweetness though it is in fact dry. The wine has nice somewhat Fuji-apples flavor throughout -- round, without the astringency that gives sharp edges to Champagne and its clones.

The wine is 75% Russian River Chardonnay, from the Lono Vineyard -- the only vineyard the Rosenblums actually own outright (all their other grapes are on contract--unless, as rumored, Kent buys one of the Renwood wineries), and 25% Muscat Canelli from Clarksburg, fermented dry. I assume it's the Muscat that gives this beverage its extra fruit kick. I like fruit in my wines.

They had the wine finished at Weibel, in Lodi, which makes sparkling wine and so has the hardware needed to add the dosage and bottle the wine under pressure. The wine was made using the Charmat method, which involves a secondary fermentation in tanks and then is bottled under pressure; rather than the méthode champenoise (or traditionnelle) used in French Champagne and Spanish Cava, in which secondary fermentation takes place in the bottle. The Charmat method produces smaller, long-lasting bubbles and a light, delicate, refreshing sparkling wine (it's the method used in making Prosecco, for example).

This is a very enjoyable, even pleasurable sparkling wine -- delicious! There are only 333 cases. 

Rock Wall produces two other sparkling wines: a Sparkling Grenache Rose, done methode Champenoise but only left on the yeast a short time to retain the fruit ($25), and a Sparkling Mixto of half Chardonnay and half Grenache, with a more tropical fruit sense ($25).

Is Kent Rosenblum Buying A Winery?

By Mac McCarthy
SavvyTaste.com

Sources tell us that Kent Rosenblum, founder of famed Rosenblum Cellars in Alameda, California, is shopping for a winery in the Jackson Valley, in Amador County, California.

Angela Kooken, VP of Administration at Renwood Winery in Plymouth, California, acknowledged that the winery is in talks with a potential purchaser, but would not name the other party or comment further.

Calls to Kent Rosenblum have gone unreturned. So it's still a rumor at this point, though an intriguing one.

Financially trouble Renwood has been under a bankruptcy-court-approved receiver for the purpose of working out a consent agreement among a number of parties so that it can be sold [see coverage in Wine Industry Insight].

Renwood has two facilities. Their main facility and tasting room, on Steiner road near Plymouth in Amador County, in the hills northeast of Sacramento, is a fairly well-appointed production facility. The secondary production facility, on Buena Vista Road in Jackson Valley outside Ione, was characterized by an observer as an "aging lifestyle winery," like many other wineries in Jackson Valley. Renwood has vineyards in the Shenandoah Valley, and also 56 acres at Buena Vista Road. This property has Zinfandel, Chardonnay grafted to Syrah, and five acres of Mourvedre, plus Souzao used in Renwood's port wines. They have recently added Nebbiolo and Barbera to this vineyard.

Since he sold his eponymous Rosenblum Cellars in 2008 to beverages giant Diageo for $105 million, Kent has shifted his attention and offices to Rock Wall Wines, a winery and custom-crush facility on the island of Alameda operated by his winemaker daughter, Shauna, and his brother, Roger.

Rosenblum became a pioneer in developing California Zinfandel as a fine-wine grape when he opened his winery in 1978 in an aircraft hanger on the Alameda Naval Air Station -- and thereby also pioneering the concept of urban wineries. Kent recently expressed to this reporter his disappointment with how the winery has been run by Diageo since the sale -- though Diageo's Chateau & Estates Division also runs well-regarded California wine brands such as Beaulieu, Chalon, Acadia, Provenance, and Sterling. In the past two years, Diageo has been selling off top-notch Rosenblum Cellars vintage wines at heavy discounts (and likewise the wines of Chalon, Acadia, Provenance, and Sterling in quarterly sales), apparently clearing out the warehouses. Some longtime Rosenblum fans claim to detect a decline in the quality of recent vintages of the Rosenblum Cellars wines. Meanwhile, Rock Wall's new wines show great promise and range; one may look forward to the products of Kent's possible new venture in the Sierra Foothills.

Death To Wine Snobs

Snobs suck!



This 1997 episode from San Francisco's Bay TV features wine guy Lewis Perdue (60 pounds heavier than he is now) who believes that wine snobs are a lot worse than the anti-Christ. You don't have to study wine to like it. Hell, you don't have to study Snapple to know what flavor you like. What YOU like is what YOU like.

Pay no attention to those wine snobs behind the curtain.

They're just petty totalitarians who all like the same taste in wine and want you to feel inferior if you don't like their choices. The only thing you need to know about wine appreciation is to drink wine that doesn't suck and to spit out the wine that does.

NOTE: the wine brands seen in the segment have changed since 1997...some good ones now suck and some of the sucky ones are not bad at all. Trust your own taste.

Lew now writes about the wine business at wineindustryinsight.com, about wine drinking at savvytaste.com, about wine and health at french-paradox.net and about the books he's written at lewisperdue.com.

More Delicious East Bay Vintners/Passport 2011 Wines

The San Francisco East Bay areas of Alameda, Oakland, and Berkeley--where the urban wineries movement began, and thrives with more than 20 wineries, some tiny, some large like Rosenblum--produces delicious fine wines and, even better, surprising wines from winemakers trying to step beyond the ordinary, and succeeding at it.

So though I visit many of these wineries at various times during the year, I love the annual Passport event where I get to round out my experiences and see what they've come up with lately.

I wrote last month about the two most dramatic winetasting experiences I enjoyed; now let's quickly review some of the others at this event. (All wineries can be found at the EastBayVintners.com site.

Verve makes its white French Columbard from juice imported from France, an unusual approach that makes it the only winemaker here not using straight California grapes. French Columbard makes a tart, green wine that's refreshing, though it's not my personal favorite so I only gave it a B. Nice to see they're trying something different. They also produce a Syrah which is quite delicious -- A- -- and only $17 a bottle.

JC Cellars, another urban-winery pioneer, has a widening range of wines, having started with Jeff Cohn's favorite, Zinfandel, and now producing Rhone-like blends and more. I liked the 2007 Arroyo Seca-sourced Grenache, with 15% Syrah to round it out, though the fruit wasn't as dramatic as I expected from a Grenache.  Still it was tasty - A-. The 2007 Petite Syrah from Eagle Point Ranch in Mendocino is big and rich and tannic, and reached into every corner of my mouth; it's an A- but is priced at $45. This year's Imposter, a Rhone-style blend, is terrific - a solid A - much tastier than in past years: a round, broad, deep flavor and wonderful nose.

Sharing the same near-Jack-London-Square space as JC Cellars is Dashe Cellars, notable for their Zinfandels, like this 2009 Dry Creek Valley number at $24  and delicious. Their 2009 Grenache, $24, tastes amazingly like a really great Grenache -- Dashe's wife, it turns out, is from that area of France. Welcome, may I have another taste please? That great strawberry-based fruit flavor! The Dashe 2009 Reisling from McFadden Farms, $20, is a tasty winner -- A -- a touch off dry, just as it's supposed to be.

Urban Legend Cellars had a few more wines besides the wonderful Rose I mentioned earlier -- they poured a prerelease Tocai Friulano from Chiles Valley, $24, a typically odd-but-interesting Italian white, somewhat like a Sauvignon Blanc. They are also one of the few in this area to produce a Reisling, the 2010 Lake County, $18, and a delicious one at that -- a prerelease of their 2010 from The 80 Vineyard. It's rich, round and full, and slightly off dry, and completely delicious.  I also liked the 2010 Sauvignon Blanc, made from organic grapes from Lake County, $18.

The Shaeffers like blends, and their Lolapalooza ($26), named after their calico cat, is made of mostly leftover Grenache with a small amount of Syrah and Mouvedre; the result is delicious, bright strawberry flavors.  Their 2009  Uptown blends Merlot and Cab well, though it's not really Bordeaux-like. It's sold in one-liter bottles with a "flippy" beer-bottle stopper -- $20, and you can bring it back for a refill for $16 at a time -- how's that for offbeat? It's a solid table wine, very drinkable.

The 2009 Tempranillo, from Clarksburg and priced at $24, has a peppery aroma, and is rich, with a big middle palate. Like most of the Urban Legend wines, it has a wonderful aroma.

Eno Wines was showing an 07 Pinot from the Santa Lucia Highlands -- a nice aroma, slightly tart, reasonably rich; $35. I liked it.

They also had an 07 Grenache from near Ukiah, also a bit tart, $25 -- this would work best  as a beverage wine, one to have with food. Their 08 Syrah, from a cool area of Sonoma, is also tart, but with rich fruit. They seem to like a tang to their wines. B+. I was thinking these two wines would make a good blend.

Irish Monkey has a big Merlot; B++. Good, though not my style.

From Cerruti Cellars I tasted a delicious Zin -- 2008 Flat Bed Red, a California blend, $15 only -- A- but, sadly, only 81 cases made. See? You really have to live in Northern California, or have wineries like this on your email list so you can grab them as soon as they are released! Their 2006 Clift Vineyard/Oak Knoll Cab, at $40, OTOH, was just OK to my taste: B.

I missed many fine wineries this year--Tayerle, Prospect, Stage Left, Periscope, Urbano. If you ever have a chance to tour East Bay wineries, you should not miss them. You'll find a complete list at http://www.EastBayVintners.com, along with a map, when they are open, and whether they have tasting rooms (not all do, but that's rapidly changing -- bring a crowd and they'll probably open doors just for you!).

God, isn't wine the most wonderful thing?

The Two Most Interesting Wines at the East Bay Urban Wine Trail last month!

The two most interesting wines at the April 2011 Passport to the East Bay Wine Trail tasting event, which took place in several winery locations in the San Francisco East Bay -- specifically Oakland and Alameda -- were a Pinot from a new winery called Stomping Girl Wines, and an unexpected reworking of Urban Legend's awesome and award-winning Barbera Rose.

There were many other great-tasting wines, too, and I'll get to them later. For now, let's reflect on  the wild ride that small wineries can take you on. It's their bold vision, after all, their ability to make a wine any way they want because they aren't beholden to volume store chains (they can't actually sell into giant chains, so they might as well do what they please) that makes them so very interesting to us wine adventurers. This is the special joy of boutique wineries: You never know what they'll come up with. It's an adventure.

And sometimes the adventure bites you on the ass, when a winemaker decides to completely change your favorite wine from last year. 

Which is what Marilee and Steve Shaffer did to me this year at their Urban Legend Cellars on 4th St. in Oakland, our first stop on the tasting trail: They changed how they make their Barbera Rose, which last year was my favorite rose at the RAP rose event. It had huge fruit and was bursting with flavor. They sold out, it was so tasty -- not bad performance for a rose!

Whadja Do To My Wine!!

This year Steve said he wanted to make it in a more spare style -- and sure enough, all that fruit was gone, baby! It was still a good rose, but -- it was very much like a fine Loire rose, reserved, thoughtful, pleasant. Why would you do that to your fabulous, unique Barbera rose, Steve? I can get Loire roses anywhere -- I can't get Urban Legend rose anywhere else! Steve simply shrugged: He has a different vision for where he wanted his wine to go. 

I was crushed.

Temporarily, as it turned out. 

The following month I saw Steve and Marilee at the RAP (Rose Avengers and Producers) event at the Butterfly Restaurant in San Francisco, and from a sense of duty went over to taste the new-wave rose again. And got a big surprise! It was wonderful!

It was not the rose of last year -- it was a new rose, different in style, but entirely delicious on its own terms: flavorful, aromatic, delicious -- wait, I said delicious already: It was -- well it is delicious! And the aroma!

What happened? Say, Steve -- when I tasted your rose last month -- had you just bottled it? "Yes; that week." 

Oh, well! It was still in bottle shock! And it only took a month to completely change its character in the bottle -- from fine, yes, ok, fine -- to Wow, I love it!

What a world!

It's the 2010 Rosato di Barbera,  it's $18 and worth it, they only made 180 cases because they like to torture people, and I will be buying some for myself when I go by there in a few days, so you'd better hurry and go there or order from the Web site, where you'll find a bunch of other good reds and a Sauv Blanc that ain't bad at all, either.

Stomping Girl Wines - Now THAT'S a Pinot!

Because many of the tiny wineries in the urban areas have no tasting rooms of their own, they share with others, and during the East Bay Urban Wine Trail event this spring the East Bay VIntner's association arranged to have each tasting-room-owning member host two or three or more other wineries too. 

This also made it more convenient for the visitors, as it reduced the number of stops -- there are two dozen wineries in the Oakland-Berkeley-Alameda area! They crammed them all into six venues. That was great. (But there was a bright idea gone astray -- they offered a bus to take you from place to place, but miscalculated with only one bus, which took forever to show up and was so overcrowded I expected people hanging off the roof.)

Urban Legend, my first stop, hosted three other wineries: Adams Point and Urbano Cellars, whom I know, and a brand-new winery I had never heard of and still know little about: Stomping Girl.

They showed three Pinots. Most wonderful of the three was the 2009 Corona Creek Vineyard, Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir. The aroma was Burgundian. The taste was gentle, flavorful, with a looong finish. All I could think was, "Now that's a Pinot!" It's what you want to get in a Burgundy Pinot at its best, often pay big bucks for, and often get disappointed by. But this one is no disappointment, and it's $34. This knocked me off my feet. I have got to buy me some of this stuff. Maybe I'll sell my car....

They showed two other Pinots that were also good, only overshadowed by the Corona. A 2009 Lauterbach Hill, Russian River Valley Pinot Noir, $38, was rich, complex, with a really, really long finish -- I call it 'A Thinking Man's Wine': You take a sip and then you have to stand there thinking about it for a while! This is a Wow A++ wine, only outdone by its Corona sister.

In this company, their 2009 Beresini Vineyard Carneros Pinot Noir ($34) was good, but not as impressive.

You can buy the wines online at http://www.stompinggirlwines.com/ or get them at various  places in the Berkeley area, or pick some up at their offices in Berkeley. And read on the site about how they got the name.

I'll cover more of Urban Legend's wines and those of the other Wine Trail wineries in my next post!

How I Learned To Love White Wines (Too)

I've always been a red-wine guy. The kind of whites that pass by at parties and in bars have always seemed boring, bland, and uninteresting. Chardonnays in particular, but also Pinot Grigos. Sauv Blancs from New Zealand set up a brief flutter because their stony-brooks tang was a nice change. But even they bore after a while.

The Change came subtly at first. At an industry Bordeaux tasting, I tried some white Bordeaux and was greatly surprised - they tasted really good!

Then I fast talked myself into trying a bottle of Cyndy Cosco's Passaggio Unoaked Chardonnay - and jumped out of my chair! This was delicious! Full of flavor, fruit, interest! Wow, where has this been all my life?

Starting last year I've been making a point to start with the whites at the industry wine events before heading to the reds. I've discovered two things: There are a lot of winemakers trying their hardest to do something interesting with white wines. And there are still a lot of boring whites out there.

But the fact that there are so many interesting and different whites, especially Chardonnays, is a wonderful discovery!

ROCK WALL GRAND OPENING EVENT
 -- A DELICIOUS CHARD AND THREE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT SAUV BLANCS!

So I made a fast trip to Rock Wall Wines' event in May celebrating the opening of their new tasting room determined to follow my Give-White-Wine-A-Chance rule. And am I glad.

Rock Wall Wine Co., In Bldg 24 of the old Alameda Naval Air Station on the island of Alameda in San Francisco Bay, is both Shauna Rosenblum's Zin-focused winery, and a custom wine facility with nine boutique wineries. I tasted a Chard from Rock Wall, and three very different Sauvignon Blancs from Carica, R&B, and JRE.

The Rock Wall tasting room

Rock Wall  2009 Chardonnay Reserve Russian River Lone Oak Vineyard was an absolutely delicious Chardonnay, that, while oaked, rivals Cosco's Passaggio for tastiness. It has a wonderful bouquet, and tropical flavors plus apple - very pleasant, and as it opened up it just got more delicious. $30, and they only made 643 cases this year.

That sent me over to the other wineries serving that day, looking for more whites: I found three Sauvignon Blancs, each very different in style and flavor from the next! What a wonderful treat!

Dollhaus of Carica

Carica  2008 Sauvignon Blanc ($21) is made with 25% of an SB clone called Sauvignon Musque, which I had never heard of before, but which winemaker Charley Dollbaum claims is widely planted in California. It adds a tropical flavor to what is sometimes a stark wine, yet it's dry and with just enough clean acid to work well with food. It was so smooth and balanced, with such nice fruit, that I liked it much better than I do any NZ Sauv Blancs I've had.

Delicious Sauv Blanc for $10

Next table over, R&B Cellars was pouring their version, a 2007 North Coast Sauvignon Blanc they dub Serenade in Blanc (all their wine names use Jazz music themes), which is 80% tank-fermented to produce what they said was a Sancerre-like flavor. I found it fruity but lean, and liked it. It's only $13, which I like also.

And next to him was JRE (John Robert Eppler) Wines, whose 2009 "Tradition" Sauvignon Blanc with grapes from Napa also included Sauvignon Musque, only 6%, but it did the job of lifting the SB up above the norm, making it tropical-fruit forward and delicious!

My, what a wonderful lineup of whites!

I only had time for a couple of reds by this time-- the Napa Petite Sirah 2009 from Rock Wall had the most wonderful aroma! It was delicious, an A+ drink, but $40, sigh.

Ehrenberg Cellars 

I also retasted the Lodi Petite Sirah from Ehrenberg Cellars, which I had bought a case of six months ago when it was released - rich and delicious, just as I expected. Sorry, forgot to get the list price...

Finally, I stopped by Carica again for their reds and got to taste a very nice 2008 GSM (Rhone-style blend) called The Siren: 70% Kick Ranch Syrah, 15% Grenache, and the rest Mouvedre. At $32 it was *wide* - I don't know how else to put it: It had flavors across my tongue from left to right and front to back. It had beginning, a wonderful middle, and a nice finish. Complex and sophisticated, this is what you go for in a GMS.

I also got in a quick splash of their Kick Ranch Syrah 2007, at $30, very nice indeed.

Blandy's Bicentennial Madeira Tasting - Yum!

I am now completely sold on Madeira.

I had little experience with the fortified wine produced on the mid-Atlantic island until I had a chance last year to attend a trade tasting put on by the The Tasting Panel Magazine and notable wine advisor Anthony Dias Blue for the ancient & honorable house of Broadbent - recounted in my post "I Had No Idea It Could Taste That Good!"

It was an eye-opener on many levels. First, I found that I liked it a lot. Second, it actually does go with food -- many foods. Third, it's the only wine I've found that really does go with chocolate! (The delusion that dry red wine goes well with chocolate is one of those ineradicable urban legends.)

The Invite

So when 'The Tasting Panel' invited me to taste the wines of the equally renowned Madeira house of Blandy's, celebrating its 200th anniversay and hosted by Chairman Michael J. Blandy, I of course jumped at the chance. I hastened to the San Francisco hotel where the full range of Blandy's dozen Madeiras, in various vintages including, envy me!, a 1920 Bual, were being poured in a walkaround tasting.

I explained in detail the amazing origins of Madeira in my earlier post, so I will skip ahead to the tasting notes in this one.


VERTICAL
We were treated to a vertical of Malmseys -- This requires a brief side note on the styles of Madeira, each made from a particular type of grape: Sercial, which is dry, good as an aperitif; Verdelho, medium dry and also suitable as an aperitif; Bual, medium-rich and good with cheese and desserts; and Malmsey, a "rich" dessert wine. There are also select versions: Vintage Madeiras are from a particularly fine year, from one grape variety, and casked for 20 years or more. A novel version introduced by Blandy in 2000 is the "Colheita," also a single-vintage cask-aged Madeira but released earlier than 20 years -- and thus more affordable than the vintage.

My reactions: The 5-year Malmsey was good. The 10-year was delicious, with a lovely caramel aroma. Teh 15-year was a "wow!"

We finished with a 1985 Malmsey (that we were told sells for $150 a bottle -- and even a cheapskate like me has to admit it was almost worth it: Absolutely stunning!

We went around the room retasting these and others in the lineup. Here are my brief, simple reactions to very complex wines. In general I prefer sweet, rich, round, and mild.

"Rainwater," a medium-dry Madeira aged in oak for 3 years; "C"
Sercial 5 Years - "C"
Verdelho 5 Years - "B-"
Bual 5 Years - "B"
Alvada 5 Years - This is half Bual and half Malmsy, so it was like the Bual but with more complex, yet priced at under $20 a bottle. "B+"
Malmsey 5 Years - "B+" - very nice, rich, mellow, balanced!
Malmsey 10 Years - Also "B+", rich, with sweet tones.

The Winemaker, whose name I idiotically didn't get.

Old Sercial 15 Years - Only a C; there was a sort of lemon tang to this that I didn't like.
Malmsey 15 Years - "A-" - Rich!
Malmsey-Colheita 1994 - A Malmsey from a single year: "A-" - smooth, wtih a nice tone, even-handed.
Malmsey 1985 - Wow! "A" - 24 years in the barrel, in this case in American oak - You can taste the grape (which oddly you often can't in wine).
Terrantez 1976 - This is a rare grape; I gave it a "B"
Verdelho 1968 - "B-" but it has a sharp edge to it.
Bual 1968 - "B" - fine; also sharp-edged
Sercial 1966 - "B" - OK, a little too dry for me; very pale.
Bual 1920 - History in a bottle, they said; hard to believe you're drinking a 90-year-old wine. It was fine; sorry, I thought it would be more noteworthy, but it only came up to a "B".

Madeiras can be surprisingly affordable considering their exotic nature and the long barrel times on some of these. The younger ones (5, 10, 15 year) can range at retail for under $20 to around $40. The ones from the 1960s get up into the hundreds of dollars a bottle, but then you have to ask yourself how much a Bordeaux from that era would cost you. And you can get Buals from 1948 for not much over $500; or a 1920 Bual for a thousand. In perspective, these are the least expensive high-quality aged wines you're likely to have in your cellar and bring out for guests.

Impressive. I like these far better than any Port or Sherry; I like them quite a bit more than some overpriced but underflavored Bordeaux I've had in my time.