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 It’s day 2 of the Wine Bloggers Conference, and we’re off on the little yellow school buses to explore some of the Walla Walla terroir. Fortunately for us Bay Area folks,who aren’t used to the heat, it was a warm but pleasant day for walking around the vineyards and our bus was off and ready to go. Armed with my trusty compatriots Lynnette, Ryan and Ward, we were joined by some new friends and headed off to taste some of Walla Walla’s wines.
Our bus was hosted by Walla Walla’s mayor, and we were off to Watermill Winery’s vineyards in Milton-Freewater. Juts over the Oregon border, this area was first settled with orchards and vegetable farms. Now, we were examining the hard packed cobblestone soil, which is the remnant of the alluvial fan. With 200 feet of packed cobblestone, the soil is well drained suited perfectly for the big reds that we were tasting. Saviah Cellars was founded in 2000, and Watermill first planted grapes in 2002. This is a Certified LIVE vineyard, which in Oregon is Low Input Viticulture and Enology – very similar to a sustainable certified vineyard here. They are only allowed one herbicidal spray a year, and believe that microbiological health of the soil and vineyard is paramount.
The 2007 Watermill Malbec tasted of blueberries and black berries with chewy plums and huckleberries. There was a hint of smoke and white pepper, and we were told that growing Malbec on the rocky soil was unusual. The result is a dense intense wine that I really enjoyed. next we tasted the 2007 Watermill Cab Franc. Being a girl who loves cab franc, I was a bit skeptical, but this was a lovely plummy red fruit example with spicy smoke. the rich & smooth wine was a Tansy treat. we also tasted the 2008 Saviah Cellears Malbec, which was a great companion to the Watermill verison. This wine comes from the same vineyard, but showed more earth, leather and tobacco, followed by cigar box.
From Watermill, we headed over to Waters for lunch. More on that in my next post!
A few weeks ago, I found myself in Walla Walla, Washington, attending the 2010 Wine Bloggers Conference. These meeting of minds brought together over 300 wine writers, blogers, and professionals to eat, drink, be merry, and learn from each other. Among some of the sessions, there was one that particularly stood out in my mind because it continues the discussions about writers vs. bloggers. Are writers bloggers? Are bloggers writers? Are we the same? Are we different? Should we play by the same rules? What’s going on here?
Bloggers and writers are often sparring about this subject, and even though some writers (i.e. Steve Heimoff, who delivered a dry but somewhat interesting keynote) claim to be bloggers, there are still some hotpoint differences while maintaining a core thought process that is the same. More Effective Writing in Your Blog with Meg Houston Maker, Andy Purdue and Hardy Wallace pitted bloggers against professional writers ,and sought to discuss how to best express yourself with the written word, while keeping your voice pure and true. Let’s just say that there is still a quiet war being waged between the two and while I see many writers who are trying to bridge the gap by being great bloggers, bloggers may be writers, but we are not PROFESSIONAL writers and therefore are not subject to the same rules.
According to Meg, writing is thinking is hard. - and thinking is hard. True enough. It might be easy to chuck up any blog post, but it does take thought to forumlate a thought provoking post that is more than a wine review. Even those blogs that are strictly wine reviews (Wannabe Wino) put thought and critical thinking in to play when writing posts. Meg also came up with some other interesting tidbits, 25 in all, and I’ve picked a few of the choice ones to chew on below.
Write for the reader and not for yourself. Really? This is my blog; I am not writing a novel, and I don’t need to sell 40,000 copies. I’m not sure this is a valid point for many bloggers, as we are not getting paid to put our pens to paper. While I certainly hope that you enjoy what I write, I am not editing my content to please my audience. What’s your take?
Assume limitless intelligence and no prior knowledge. This is good advice for anything that you do, particularly writing and professional work. I am constantly reminded of this in my work life, as my audience might be an uneducated user with no prior experience, but might also be a user with more experience than I have. Know your audience and play to them.
Tell a story nobody else can tell. Having a unique voice is important. Why do readers navigate to your blog? Being interesting and authentic will give you an edge. Who wants to read your blog if you are like 100 other blogs?
Position yourself in the narrative. Providing evidence that you know what you’re talking about is important for any subject you want people to listen to you about. While I don’t consider myself and expert on many things, I do occasionally know what I’m talking about and backing yourself up with facts and knowledge will encourage your audience to look to you as the authority. This is true for both professional writers and bloggers.
You may not know what you think at the start of a piece, but you’d better know by the end. You better know at the beginning – if you are writing a piece on something you are passionate about, which all of your posts should be, why wouldn’t you know your position from the get go?
Exclamation points should be reserved for exclamatory remarks. I struggle with this one, but in general it’s true. Just because you are writing a blog, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use good grammar.
If you don’t know something, you may need to find it out. Also, you may have an opinion about these facts; this is welcome to your readers. Absolutely true – if you learn something new at a tasting, or at an event, or just in passing, you should research the topic to make sure you are sharing the best information possible. There is nothing worse than spreading the gospel of wrong information.
Don’t assume your experience is the same as your reader’s. Don’t resort to clichés. Nobody’s interested in reading clichés. Is that why certain blogs who rely on porn, photos, and snarky roasts are so popular? I think not.
Be ruthlessly authentic about your own experience. Don’t over-rely on metaphor, especially sexual metaphor. Wine is an experiential product, so find, focus on, and talk about your own true experience in your most authentic voice. This is the story only you can tell. Here here!
Re-read your work the next day, then publish. If you proof instantly, you’ll still be in love with the person you were when you wrote it. I fundamentally disagree with this as I believe a blog is much more about instantaneous access and publishing. If you continue to read and reread your blog posts before you publish them, they will be a different entity. Yes, I believe that you need to proofread and review your posts before you publish them, but I don’t think you should stew on them for too long because your purity of voice will be lost in the tediousness of editing your work.
Learn to work with an editor. A good editor is on your side, trying to coax out your best story. This is great advice for professional writers, however, working with an editor for a blog is overkill. I choose to not have someone telling me what to write, that is why I blog and choose not to work for a magazine or other publication.
You need a good ending, but not a clever ending. Don’t trick your reader at the end; they will never forgive you. Agreed, however, a clever ending will catch the reader. Who wants to reader a boring story?
The end will change the beginning. This is why you cannot write a story in only one pass. This might be true, but as a post is a full story, if you sketch it out and put some key points down before writing the entire story, you will be able to write it in a fairly quick and concise manner. If your story changes and changes, I fear you might lose your voice, and the purity of the piece will be abandoned for the sake of editing. I do work on my posts a few times before publising, but I don’t believe in changing the beginning based on the ending – otherwise, you would be completely changing your novel when you write the last chapter, which doesn’t make sense to me when I am working my best to write a full and complete story.
If you succeed at this, and if you tell the truth—your own truth—you will have achieved one of the most intimate and beautiful of acts: you will have penetrated another mind. This is absolutely true and I couldn’t have said it better myself.
While I”m not sure I agree 100% with these themes, I do agree that writing with passion and thought is critical if you want to be taken seriously. The core difference, as I stated in the session, is that – as bloggers – we are not paid. At least I am not paid. I do this out of my love of wine and my passion for the subject, a well as my slightly maniacal need to have myself heard (even if I’m a forest of trees and no one is around to hear me). As in my IT career, when one is paid to do something, regardless of the love or passion they might feel, they are prevented from truly expressing their passion by the boundaries of the organization they work for. As someone pointed out in the session, there are certain baseline requirements that the law and common decency require – not that every blogger follows these ground rules – so I’m not talking about liebling a winery or inciting riots. That said, while I love my day job (at least in theory, i love what i do), I am not allowed to do whatever I want whenever I want it. I must play by the rules of those that sign my paychecks. Not so in my blog. I am not blogging for a winery, I am not blogging for the WSJ. I am blogging for me, and I hope that other people will be interested in reading it. When I started blogging it was purely for me, and because my friends got tired of my old school e-newsletters. Now, I blog because I want to share my knowledge with other people that want to learn. I hope I have accomplished this, and I look forward to incorporating some of these 24 theories with my own personal spin.
 Being a California girl, while I have spent some time diving up the coast and meandering through Ashland, I have not spent a lot of time in Oregon. I have spent even less time examining the finer points of Oregon wines, specifically Oregon Pinot. Those of you who have known my taste buds know that I am a pinotphile and I usually reach for a pinot before any other red wine these days. As a local to the Northern California, I have access to some amazing wines. Recently, however, I have had the opportunity to do some in depth exploration of Oregon wines and have fallen in love. Again.
It all started with a little blogger conference in Walla Walla. Having the choice to fly in to Seattle or Portland, I chose Portland since I had several friends in the area, and I was dying to meander through Oregon wine country. Enter my friends at Solena Estate, and a mini WBC blogger tour of Willamette Valley was born. My Oregon wine friends put together a blogger tour of the area that would seek to educate, palate tease,
 and giggle our way through the area.
First, let’s just kick off the day by saying that our transportation was not your typical wine country bus. I knew something was up when Lynnette said “you’ll know your vehicle when you see it”. Enter Double Decker PDX, a new tour company that (poor chaps) agreed to take thier maiden voyage with us to wine country. Sitting on top of the old London Transport double decker bus, fully outfitted in leather seats, a wine cooler, and Froot Loop Donuts from VooDoo Donuts, we were off to visit the wine country in blogger style.
Our first stop was the new Grand Cru property of Solena Estate Winery. This property is where the winery was founded, and as we took a tour around, we were treated to a bit of history from Laurent & Danielle Montalieu, the owners of this beautiful property. Solena was founded in 2000 when Laurent & Danielle purchases the “Wedding Vineyard”, 80 acres of rolling hillside vineyards. Instead of a gift registry, the couple asked people to buy them pinot noir vines – a novel gift idea, and one I might steal if I ever get married with 80 acres of land on my hands. The result was 80 pinot noir vines with 6 different clones, and the Estate Vineyard was born.
Down in the barrel room, Laurent had a surprise for us in 6 barrel samples of the 2009 Pinot Noirs, from various vineyards. Handing each of us our own personal thief (a dangerous proposition if I’ve ever seen one), we were allowed to wander free sampling six wines, with several of them having wood variations. The barrel tasting experiences isn’t new to most bloggers, however, the ability to taste all six pinot noirs side by side, with a few extra tastings of wood variations, really gave us food for thought and interesting conversation topics. My personal favorites were the Guadalupe and Hyland Vineyards, but we also tasted the Thistle, Kaltia, and Monks Gate Vineyards. In the end, I performed some blending experiments and came up with some truely unique and Oregonian examples of Pinot Noir that I would be proud to bottle myself.
Once we had sufficiently mastered the art of using a wine thief, something I personally needed no education in, we went upstairs to the beautiful event space for lunch. Here, we were treated to four courses, each paired with a Solena wine, with an extra pinot thrown in for good measure. Yes, I was lucky – I sat across from Danielle, and once the girls get talking…well you know . Wine flows and all that.
First: Early Summer Corn Soup / 2008 ElvenGalde Chard
The sweet creaminess of the corn and the salty smoke of the pancetta paired beautifully with the crisp minerality of this chard. For this non chard drinker, I really loved this wine, with tons of citrus and spice.
Second: Plank-Roasted Wild Salmon / 2007 Domaine Danielle Laurent Pinot Noir (Wedding Vineyard)
This wine shows it’s true colors of cedar, earth, and mushrooms with a backbone of bright red fruit. No fruit bomb, it’s chewy spice and cloves really went well with the fennel in the salmon.
Third: Grilled Cascade Flat Iron Steak (or Lentil Loaf, which I’m sorry to say was the wrong choice) / 2008 Hyland Pinot Noir
Has all of the Burgundian charachter that I expect in an Oregon pinot noir. Perfumed and delicate, it stood up to the meat (that I stole off of Melanie’s plate)
Fourth Rosemary & Fleur de Sel Shortbread, Oregon Berries, Bellweather Farms Carmony / 2008 Late Harvest Riesling
Dessert! Need I say more?
The pairings were simply masterful and many of us savoured each pariing wine. Fortunately, Danielle made sure we were well stocked and that our glasses were never empty, so we were able to top off any wines that were low. Err, well, at one point that was all of them. My favorite pairing was the Salmon, which was simply divine, both with the Chard and the Pinot. Kudos to Chef Matt Howard for really showing us what all the options for Pinot Noir can be – it’s not just for pork and fish!
What I learned was, the Pinot Noirs of the Willamette are varied and nuanced, and when you have a warm year, they closely resemble those wines from the Russian River and Santa Lucia Highlands. There is more in the Willamette than Pinot NOir, and there are many sub appellations that are very unique within the larger AVA. Please go givist Oregon and discover for yourself! Solena welcomed us with a red carpet expereince, and loved that we were all so excited to be there. While I have tasted some of the wines before, the unique opportunity to taste so many different pinot noirs in one place really inspires me. Solena has two tasting rooms: One in the tiny town of Carlton, in the Yamhill-Carlton district, and the new Grand Cru property. Please make sure you take the time to stop by if you are in the Willamette!
Stay tuned for Bloggerpalooza Part 2: Soter Winery
There’s a lonely goat herd, yodeleeellooooheeho! Or in this case, there are some horses, some cows and a whole lot of scrub brush. Up on top of Atlas Peak, VinRoc creates micro crafted small lot Cabernet Sauvignon. Above the fog line, overlooking the Foss Valley, where open pastures and oak trees haven’t been overtaken by vineyards, the vineyards are actually east of Stag’s Leap, which is something you don’t realize when you are driving up the hill mandering past a way of life rarely seen in Napa these days.
The estate vineyard is located between 1500-2200 feet on volcanic rocky soils, with sunny days and cool nights. Because of the inversion layer up here above the fog, it’s actually cooler in the summer with more average hours of sunlight than the valley floor.
We first started out on the viewing platform with the Enjolie Rose, a dry Provencal style wine made from Grenache and Barbera grapes. It was dark salmon in color, created by fermented the juice on the skins for longer than most typical roses. It had a sweet candy nose butwas bone dry with raspberries and strawberries, with a very low ABV. This type of rose is perfect for summer sipping on those very hot days, and at $14 a MUST BUY for summer quaffing.
Next, we moved on to the proprietary red blend, RTW. Now, this could be Round the World, Red Table wine, Really Terrific Wine, or Rocking Thea’s Wine – whichever you prefer, it was really lovely. This blend of Cab and Merlot had cocoa, bright dark red berries and dusty plums, and is made by selecting the Cab that won’t be used in the Estate Cab, and blending it with purchased merlot fruit. The spice on the finish was just what I needed as we sat in the chilly breeze on an unusually dreary day. This is a special red wine, and at $40 is a treat you can afford more than once a year. BUY
Once we were inside the cave behind the newly built Japanese Craftsman house and visitors center, we talked to Michael a bit about his wine making techniques. By harvesting one ton at a time, out of the total 15 tons in the vineyard, they are able to tightly control the harvest vine by vine, creating the best wine possible. Each ton yields free run juice, which is fermented separately from the single pressing that occurs afterwards. Once this process is complete, the barrels are fermented separately, and then blended with the rest of the harvest, to create the superior Cab that we tasted.
The 2006 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon had rich dark black ffruit, with figs, baking spice, and black pepper. I tasted a ot of coffee notes as well as cigar box and cedar, followed by the rich fruit of blackberries and cherries. It did have a hint of leather and tobacco, and evolved as we sat there talking for an hour. With only 200-300 cases produced, every bottle is a work of art.
By providing a minimally invasive environment, these truely are handcrafted wines. Given the abundance of $100 Napa Valley Cabernets, I am not typically a big fan of the over priced cult wine. That said, this hand made, nuanced cab is a winner in my book. Yes, it’s pricey, but buy a bottle and hold on to it for a while. You won’t b e sorry. SPLURGE
VinRoc provides visitors with a unique and welcoming hospitality experience, in the middle of literally nowhere. You will forget you are in Napa, and think you are in the foothills of horse country in Kentucky, but with really good wine. If you’d like to visit VinRoc for yourself, they are open by appointment only and can be reached at 707-265-0943. Please tell Michael and Kiky I sent you!
Freshly back from the 2010 Wine Bloggers Conference in Walla Walla, Washington, my laptop is dead my brain is overloaded.
Stay tuned as I learn how best to blog from my iPad, and await the return of a working laptop!
Graff Family 2007, from the Chalone appelation to be precise. Graff Familiy is from Sonoma, but these grape hail from teh Chalone region in Monterey County. The Chalone AVA has some of the oldest producing vines in California wine country, and is composed of limestone, granite and clay. The wide diurnal temperature swings are great for Chardonnay and other white wines
The Pinot Gris is fermented in French Oak, and tasted of honey, peaches and honeysuckle flowers with pear notes. It had a very creamy texture with low acidity and was nicely balanced, with a hint of wet river rock and minerality. I really enjoyed it and if I were to encounter is again I would certainly BUY it. Pinot Gris is becoming a go to white for me, with it’s mellow smooth flavor profile and softer approach than it’s sister Pinot Grigio; try it as your new summer sipper!
 In the continuing journey through the alphabet of wine, F is for Thomas Fogerty 2007 Gewürztraminer. This variety has several variations, from off-dry to sweet, and produces a very aromatic and exotic white wine.
This example tasted of tropical fruits, coconut, guava and pear, topped with a dusting of baking spices. It was off-dry to dry, and the spiciness was refreshing on a warm day. It’s a great alternative to Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc, and is terrific with Thai or Indian food.
Keep drinking, keep discovering!
  
Hospices du Rhône. Day 2. What happens when you take several hundred (probably hungover, definitely tired) wine writers, bloggers, lovers, and somms, and throw them in a conference room at 9am with eight glasses of wine in front of them ? Lots and lots of champagne. that’s what happens. wait…strike that. Reverse it. But you can’t! I was pretty well baked by my Cold from Hell, but to be up bright and early so as not to miss the Walla Walla sneak peak, I was given a delicious treat of several glasses of some damn tasty grower champers that Chaz brought in at his own expense to wake us all up. YUM!
Ok enough of the 9am drinkfest. On to the syrah.
K Vintners was started by Charles Smith, who used to manage rock bands and lived in Copenhagen for 11 years before moving to Walla Walla. Always having passion for wine, he’s an innovator, a marketing genius, and loud. Roll all that together with walla Walla wine, and you get a larger than life character who defies the rules. The winery is located at the base of the Blue Mountains, and opened to the public in 2001, producing wines from Wahluke Slope and Walla Walla Valley, primarily syrah as well as field blends.
Smith believes K is about KOMMUNICATION and, bad puns aside, he says that people should use language that people can communicate with internationally; that language is wine. Smith feels that too much of wine is making beauty where there is natural wonder; he focuses on showing off the unique fruit of Washington, and uses subtle oak influences as to not overpower the natural beauty of the wine. He is, in some ways, the ultimate terrorist. wine should be about a feeling, and here in Walla Walla, Rhone producers are small. Wine is what they live for and they are passionate enthusiasts.
K focuses on syrah for several reasons; first, it has a distinctive quality that no other wine has. Additionally, the high steep slopes in the Walla Walla area are difficult to work, which makes for more interesting wine and a challenge. Syrah is global, with France representing the old world and ancient vines. Australia shows us the AC/DC of the varietal, with a new world fruit bomb style (think Angus with the flaming red hair) that is indicitive of the passion and terroir of the Barossa. Finally, when you get to Walla Walla, you have the geology of tumbled river rock, salty soils, and a long growing season o the high desert plains of Walla Walla. There is a pioneer and rogue belief system in Walla walla, which allows them to do anything the want to with little thought about if anyone did it before them or was previously successful.
 Charles Smith 2006 Syrah Pheasant Vineyard Wahluke Slope – was a chewy caramel dusted in mocha bramble berry, with baked plums and bittersweet chocolate. I tasted black cherry, dried orange rind as well with just a slight hint of herbal flavors. This is a very dense wine, but it was smooth and mellow with a plush finish. It was quite refined and let’s just say I struggled to spit this out at 9am. This vineyard was planted in 2000 along the Columbia River, on sandy loam and peaty gravel in the Wahluke Slope AVA. This sandy soil makes for a more floral and herbaceous wine.
2006 Syrah The Deal – Sundance Vineyard Wahluke Slope – shows a meaty smoky wine with blackberries and tar. The refined tannis show notes of tangerine, and while it was a bit gamey at first int he glass, that soon blew off to a smooth long finish and nice mouth feel. The Deal is all about respect, integrity and doing what you want to do in the vineyard. The Sundance Vineyard has a slight northerly slope which creates a cooler site, in a very warm region. This wine tastes of cool climate syrah, and is grown in sadny loam over coarse sand which provides excellent drainage. Only two miles from Pheasant Vineyard, it was planted in 1997 and creates a very different wine profile.
2006 Syrah Cougar Hills, Walla Walla – has more minerality than the first two wines, with lots of lavendr and orange marmalade, followed by graphite. the Couger Hills Vineyard is located in the southern region of the Walla Walla valley, and has loamy soil with river rock and gravel, as well as a layer of volcanic ash. This ash adds complexity to the vines which were planted in 2000 and are sustainably farmed.
2006 Syrah Wells, Walla Walla - With only 1.5 barrels made of this wine, we were in fro a rare treat. that’s about 35 cases in the world, and it was made as an experiment in 100% whole cluster fermentation. the Wells vineyard is half an acre that sits 1500 feet up on the south fork of the Walla Walla river, and has rocky cobblestone soil. I tasted fresh cherries, strawberries, and vibrant red and black fruit. This was brighter and fresher than the earlier syrahs and just lovely.
2006 Syrah Phil Lane, Walla Walla - is the estate vineyard. Three barrels of this wine were made from 1.5 acres of grapes planted in 2001, which produces a highly aromatic wine with bright raspberries, rose petals, and flavors of mole sauce.
 Chief Mutineer Alan Kropf "moderates" the champagne bottle 2006 Syrah Motor City Kitty – Stoneridge Vineyard, Royal Slope Columbia Valley is created from a resurrected vineyard which lay fallow on the ground for years before Charles Smith rescued it. The Stoneridge Vineyard has very rocky soils, and with six different rocky types, produces very different wines. It is windy up there on the hill, and the the thick skinned fruit creates inky black juice with robust and smooth wines. I found a very dense, sweet cherry wine with flavors of cough syrup. The wine sits for 23 months in neutral barrels and is then hand bottled, to produce 50 cases of a powerful and rich wine with whole berry fermentation.
2006 Syrah Royal City – Stoneridge Vineyard, Royal Slope Columbia Valley - includes some of the Stoneridge Vineyard fruit and had flavors of coffee, milk chocolate, and black cherries. It was chewy and dense but well balanced and had some lovely spice notes on the back end.
In closing, ALL of these wines that were poured were rare and small production. They were all amazing and each one shows a slightly different slant ont he Walla Walla terroir and what is going on in Washington wine. I am very much looking forward to tasting more Walla Walla wines in a few weeks at the Wine Bloggers Conference!
Special thanks to the Hospices du Rhone team!
 Where no WineBrat has gone before…I am the first one to admit that I am uneducated about most wines outside my sphere of influence; yes I drink them, yes I occasionally enjoy them, but I don’t know much about them. When I was invited to attend Hospice du Rhône this year as a media guest, I jumped at the chance to attend the world’s penultimate tasting event of Rhone varietals. I was jumping up and down for months, and then I got the cold from hell. Suffice to say, Bratty was not amused. As I drove through the endless row of wines between Salinas and King City, and then past the oil derricks and in to Paso Robles, I was more excited about taking a nap and some Nyquil than the bowling event that would ensue later that evening. fortunately, I was domiciled in the hotel that was across the street from the event center, and I arrived early enough in the day, that I crashed out instead of taking in a few tasting rooms.
As I rallied with a combination of Rhone medicine and bowling silliness, I was looking forward to the next day’s educational seminars. I am sorry to say that I missed the South African seminar early on Friday morning, but I rallied enough to attend the Côte-Rôtie seminar later in the morning. Côte-Rôtie is located in the northern Rhône, where the vineyards are distinguished by their vertical slop and stone calls. The wine is primarily red Rhône, focusing on Syrah, many co-fermented withViognier. This area has a very different style than the southern Rhone, and winters are wet with a cold wind, as well as fog that can make ripening the grapes a challenge. Wines from Côte-Rôtie share a lot of similarities tot hose of South Africa, and are earthly, gamey and rich.
The presenting producer, Domaine Michel et Ogier, is founded on land where seven generations farmed grapes. In 1997, the latest generation arrived after studying in Burgundy to grow Rhône grapes; prior to his arrival, the grapes were sold to a negociant, but that soon began to change. 1982 wasn’t a particularly good year in the Rhone, and the negociant didnt’ want the grapes so the family made their own wine. Soon, the negoicant came back wanting the finished wine, and the winery was born.
2008 viognier de Rosine Vin de Pays showed lemons, necterines, peaches, apricots and honey with crisp lemon rind and peach nectar. The vineyard was planted in 2000, with the first vintage being 2004, and marked a change or the producer. Prior to 1997, when the next generation arrived, only red wines were produced, so the viognier (as opposed to syrah co fermented with viognier) was a departure. It was a cold summer and a difficult year, but this has made the viognier fresh and crisp, with a nice minerality and grapefruit zing. Ogier doesn’t believe is performing battonage, or the stirring of the lees, as this adds a certain fatness to the wine. Viognier possesses its own fatness and structure, and he refrains from battonage to allow the wine to show it’s natural light.
2008 Viognier Condrieu shows the appellation distinctions that occur in Cote Rotie. This example was a much darker golden yellow color, but I had trouble finding the nose (granted I had trouble findnig MY nose but I was hopiung for more obvious aromas in the wine0. The Condrieu is farmed in an area of 6-7 villages, where farms are on steep slopes of old granite based soil; this vineyard i 15 years old, and shows creamier slightly sweeter stone fruit, Meyer lemon, orange blossom, a hint of jasmine, green apple and pink grapefruit. Again, in this example, new oak was avoided to show fresh clean flavors from the wine. Aging in neutral oak with no battonage allows fresh clean wines that are very Alsatian in nature.
The rest of the wines, which were red) were lost on my cold, but it was interesting to taste the wines of the area, to compare with my baesline of New World syrah.
I attended Hospieces du Rhone as a Media guest; however, I paid my own travel expenses and lodging, as well as for most of the local supply of kleenex.
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It’s amazing what can happen in the social networking arena. Take, for example, a recent tasting I went to hosted by the Penisula Wine Enthusiasts. As an avid MeetUp member, I know that these organized social gatherings can be a great way to meet new people who are like minded. This group goes a step farther, and partners with Uncorked Ventures, to provide the wine enthusiasts with a great array of unusual wines for sipping and for purchase.
Uncorked Ventures‘ seed was planted when Matt Kraiuse and Mark Aselstine were on a family vacation to South America in 2009. Sharing a passion for good wine and good wine, they decided to grow their avocation in to a business focused on delivering high quality, hard-to-find wines at a fair price to customers who can’t readily access such wines. Given the selections we tasted at the last MeetUp, I’d say they are accomplished this goal nicely.
First, we tasted three selections from South Africa. Not knowing very much about South Africa myself, I was excited to taste these wines and started with 2009 Groenland Sauvignon Blanc had the grassy nose of a New Zealand Sav Blanc, but the palate has soft tropical notes with a touch of green pepper and citrus fruit. If you are a Savvy drinker, BUY this wine; the excellent QPR and interesting flavors will be great for the summer. Next, we moved on to the Slnghook Pinotage. Since I’m not a Pinotage fan, I’m going to skip right to the 2006 Groeland Antoinette Marie Classic, a Bordeaux blend. I enjoyed this wine and tasted dark red fruit with chocolate and coffee, in a smooth and velvety wine. It wasn’t the most complex wine, but it was a nice easy drinking red.
On the other side of the table the little known Americans stood waiting for me. First, a Rhone white from Stolpman in the Santa Ynez Valley, 2007 La Coppa Blanc. This is a somewhat atypical blend of 60% Roussanne with 40% of Viognier co-fermented with the Roussanne, which gives this wine a beautiful aromatic profile. The classic honeysuckle and apricot flavors of the Viognier are combined to give a creamy long finish, with peaches, nectarines, and preserved lemons. this is MUST BUY and with only 260 cases produced, I have a bottle waiting for me if the weather ever warms up.
Another of my favorites, the 2007 Kaena Hale Rhone red, a blend of 65% Grenache and 35% Syrah. It’s no surprise that I loved this wine given my recent addiction to Rhones, but at $18 this can be your house wine. Again, as a very small production wine of only 120 cases, I would RUN OUT AND BUY SOME before it’s gone. In 2007, there was very little water in the vineyards, resulting in low yields and intense fruit flavors of blackberries, cherries, and plums over a chocolate bar.
Finally, we had the 2007 Emerson Brown Cabernet Sauvignon 2007. This is the personal label of Keith Emereson, winemaker at Vineyard 29, and Brian Brown, winemaker at Round Pound. I’m picky about my Napa Cab these days, but this was a nice example that was not overly extracted or bombastic, and there were some beautiful notes of blue and black fruit, bittersweet cocoa, and black current. The finish had a hint of river rocks, which was refreshing and smooth. This is a splurge at $50, although that is very reasonable for a small production Cab these days. BUY this for a special dinner, or hold it in your cellar as it will age nicely for quite some time.
If you’re in the Bay Area, I encourage you to check out the Peninsula Wine Meetup to taste some of these great wines. If you can’t make it out here, check out Uncorked Ventures Explorer Wine Club, and get some of these cool things sent to your door! As someone who gets a lot fo exposure to wines, it’s refreshing and exciting to taste wines that I don’t know, or have not tasted before. I look forward to the next event, where we can try some other new and unusual wines! Thanks guys and keep up the good work.
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