April 23, 2008

TRADE TASTING - 2008 Vintus Portfolio Tour

An opportunity to taste the wines of several exciting producers got me to brave traffic to L.A. The highlights included:

· Luciano Sandrone pouring his wines, as well as a sneak peek at one of his 2004 Barolos to be released this fall
· Telmo Rodriguez showing several of his wines, including his Pegaso and Altos de Lanzaga
· Luca Sanjust of Petrolo pouring his Galatrona and Torrione
· Marie-Helene Cristofaro pouring the wines she makes with Jean Michel at Domaine Marcel Deiss
· Aymeric de Gironde with Quinta do Noval's ports, showing the first releases of their dry wines
· Alice Paillard introducing Bruno Paillard's 1999 Brut Millésime
· Brett Crittenden pouring all the top 2006 releases from Mitolo
· Carlo Schiopetto with his family's wines
· Eduardo Chadwick showing several of his Errazuriz wines and Vinedo Chadwick
· Enrico Santini showing his latest releases from Bolgheri
· Paola Antonaci pouring the D'Alessandro wines
· Alexander von Essen showing his Capaia wines
· Michele Jordan showing the Shaw + Smith and Delta wines
· the wines of Nicolas Joly
· several of Chrisitan Mouiex' wines, including the first vintage (2005) of his Chateau Providence
· The newest additions to the Vintus portfolio, with their initial releases:
· Finca Decero's beautiful first releases of their Decero Malbec, Decero Cabernet Sauvignon and Decero Amano wines from Agrelo, what is turning out to be one of the most interesting subregions of Mendoza
· Sergei Ferrer and Raul Bobet with the elegant first Ferrer Bobet wines from Priorat
· Mas Belles Eaux' delicious Coteaux du Languedoc wines. Tasting notes should be up in about 3-4 weeks, so check back here for a link, or check out the "What's New" page.

April 19, 2008

KOSTA BROWNE DINNER - We check out the 2005s

Several of us in the OC broke out some of our KB 2005s to take them for a trial run at Antonello Ristorante in Costa Mesa. Since Paul Lin was also there, we took the opportunity to do our usual "side by side" thing, where we compare/contrast our reactions to the same wines. Tasting notes should be up in about 3-4 weeks, so check back here for a link, or try the "Both Side Now" section, or check out the "What's New" page.

April 19, 2008

GRAPE RADIO INTERVIEW - Michael Browne, Kosta Browne

GrapeRadio had the chance to visit with Michael Browne of Kosta Browne winery. From the production of their first wine together in 1997, Michael Browne and Dan Kosta knew they were on to something. They'd both been bitten by the wine bug while working at John Ash & Co in Santa Rosa, and wanted to make Pinot. In 2001, KB was born and the rest, as they say, is history. With a waiting list to get on the mailing list to actually buy their highly allocated wines, the partners have established KB as one of the top Pinot producers in California.

I'll put a link in here when the show is posted. Please join us as we talk with Michael about KB's beginnings, their AVA and vineyard designate programs, and what it takes to start a successful wine business in the current market.

April 17, 2008

GRAPE RADIO INTERVIEW - Kristina Dunn, Dunn Family Vineyards

GrapeRadio had the chance to visit with Kristina Dunn, daughter of iconic winemaker Randy Dunn and talk about her role as marketing director and the early years of Dunn Family Vineyards. Beginning in 1979, Randy Dunn (then winemaker at Caymus) produced his first vintage of Cabernet from Howell Mountain fruit, arguably putting Howell Mtn on the map, and thus creating a demand for "mountain-grown" fruit from Napa Valley.

I'll put a link in here when the show is posted, so please join us as we hear from Kristina about Dunn Family Vineyards, her father Randy, and what it was like growing up on Howell Mtn.

April 17, 2008

GRAPE RADIO INTERVIEW - Jeff Bundschu, Gundlach Bundschu

GrapeRadio had the opportunity to talk with Jeff Bundschu of Gundlach Bundschu winery. As president of the winery, Jeff oversees the production of California's oldest family-owned winery. From improvements in the vineyard to an Estate-only philosophy, Jeff is continuing to refine Gundlach Bundschu's place in the history of California winemaking.

I'll put a link in here when the show is posted, so please join us as we hear from Jeff about the 150 years of Gundlach Bundschu history, and what they're doing today to keep the family business successful.

April 11-13, 2008

ROAD TRIP - Visits to Some Wineries in Livermore and Lodi

Grape-Nutz headed north to the appellations of Livermore and Lodi to make some winery visits and see just what the these two AVAs are doing to compete in the global wine market. Photos and tasting notes should be up in about 3-4 weeks, so check back here for a link (here's a link), or check out the "What's New" page.

April 04, 2008

BOOK REVIEW - Paso Robles: An American Terroir

I'd heard for about a year that a book was in the works on the terroir of the Paso Robles AVA, so when it was finally published early this year, I jumped at the chance to get hold of it. Books that delve into anything beyond superficialities of specific winegrape growing areas are few and far between, and this one is a welcome addition. It's an ambitious work and the completion and publication of the book was clearly a labor of love. The authors of Paso Robles: An American Terroir are Thomas J. Rice Ph.D., Professor of Soil Science at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo and Tracy G. Cervellone, Certified Wine Educator. Dr. Rice is a well-known vineyard soil consultant who has worked in many parts of California and elsewhere.

With a generous 8½x11 format, the book is brimming with photos, maps, and tables. Many of the photos are fascinating – I especially liked the aerial shots – and quite unlike most seen in simple wine touring guidebooks. The first part of the book deals with history, geology, climate, and groundwater in the Paso Robles area. As might be expected from a book on terroir written by a soil scientist, the focus is on soils. Covering the varied geological formations and soils of the area in great detail – how they formed, what they consist of, and how they are distributed throughout the region – it gets down to the nitty-gritty quickly. If I have one quibble with this part of the text, it's that I found it tough to digest (not being very familiar with soil science myself). And while the soil photos looked interesting, without further explanation of exactly what we're looking at and why it's significant, many looked like…….well, just dirt.

Nevertheless, there's a wealth of information in these pages. Of special note is the fact that the Central Coast is located on a different tectonic plate than most of California – and the rest of North America for that matter. Much of the region's soils have been pushed up from the ancient seabed as the plates have ground against each other. The land's origins have resulted in a high percentage of calcareous soils and rocks, including limestone, in the Paso Robles area. I thought the pages dealing with specific local soil and climatic implications on viticulture were of particular interest.

The book's second part profiles more than 70 local wineries. Grouped into 11 chapters – corresponding to 11 proposed sub-appellations for the Paso Robles AVA – this is written in a less formal style, and it's an entertaining read. The winery profiles include all the usual information about wines produced, tasting room hours and such, but they go beyond the typical guidebook descriptions to offer a more detailed and personal account of the people behind each winery. There are lots of smaller and "under the radar" wineries here that some of the more general wine touring guides miss. I would have loved to see profiles of the vineyards located within the 11 proposed sub-appellations, not just the wineries – after all, it's in the vineyards where all that terroir's happening! But the book's preface notes that further editions are planned, so perhaps this will be addressed somewhere down the road.

A series of appendices conclude the book, including an interesting case study of a specific vineyard, contact information for local wineries (many more wineries than are profiled), and general soil considerations for vineyard planting and management.
 
Overall, this is a valuable resource to anyone seeking a greater understanding of the Paso Robles wine region. There's a lot of information packed into this book for the introductory $24.95 price. If you're curious as to what makes the soil of a wine region distinctive, this is a good way to dig a little deeper.

- Ken Zinns

April 03, 2008

BOOK REVIEW - California's Central Coast: The Ultimate Winery Guide

There has been an explosion of Central Coast winery guides over the past couple of years, so what makes this one different? It's not the most comprehensive guide out there by a long shot. But what sets California's Central Coast: The Ultimate Winery Guide apart is its successful combination of coffee-table book and practical winery guide that goes the extra mile. Written by freelance food & wine journalist Mira Advani Honeycutt, and with photos by Kirk Irwin, whose work in the annual Santa Barbara County Wine Country calendars is always a visual treat, this is an attractive package from cover to cover. It's part of the "Ultimate Winery Guide" series from Chronicle Books – other titles include guides to Napa Valley, Sonoma, and the Pacific Northwest.

California's Central Coast covers San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties, with profiles of 32 wineries. The large 10x9½ format includes a number of stunning full-page photos, and boasts a forward by Jim Clendenen of Au Bon Climat. A nit-pick: for a book with so many gorgeous photos, there are no captions. While that's not an issue for the photos accompanying each winery profile, most of the other photos hold few clues as to where they were taken.

Among the handy features in the first portion of the book are recommended wine touring routes (complete with lunch tips), short guides to local towns, history, and a wonderful chapter on the "Central Coast Food Connection." Here you can learn about many of the region's best cafés and restaurants, plus local farms and farmers' markets. In addition to all this, you'll find listings for recommended wineries in different categories – Best Picnic Settings, Caves, Gardens, Historical Interest, Outstanding Tours, etc., as well as suggested wineries to visit by season. Additional resources at the end of the book include lists of historical sites, farmers' markets, wine and food events, and more, plus a more comprehensive listing of Central Coast wineries with contact information.

At the heart of the book are three chapters that group the Central Coast wineries into regions: Santa Ynez Valley and Santa Maria Valley (though there are a few Santa Rita Hills locations too), Arroyo Grande and Edna Valley, and Paso Robles. There's a full-page map at the beginning of each chapter, followed by nicely-written one- to two-page profiles for the wineries. There's plenty to keep your interest as you read about each winery, with the nuts-and-bolts information interwoven with personal touches from the owners and winemakers and with vivid descriptions of the settings. Taken together with the beautiful photos, you get a good sense of what makes each winery special.

If the book has a drawback, it's that comparatively few of the Central Coast's hundreds of wineries are covered, and most of those in the book are fairly well-known – few hidden gems here. But even with the limited scope of the book, all the extra information that's included should make it easy for even the novice Central Coast wine tourist to expand their visit beyond the wineries profiled.

Few wine books I've seen are simultaneously as beautiful and as useful as this one. For the $22.95 price, this will be a fine choice whether it sits on your coffee table or on the dashboard of your car.

- Ken Zinns