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Looking for something to do this weekend?  Why not check out Family Winemakers of California, who is holding their annual tasting at Ft. Mason on Sunday and Monday.  This annual tasting opens their typically trade-only doors to you, the unwashed masses, on Sunday afternoon from 3pm to 6pm.  Trade sessions are 1pm-3pm, and Monday 1pm-6pm.

Family Winemakers of California was founded in 1991 to help promote small, family wineries.  Specifically, it was formed to band together to help with legislation and wine policy in the state.  A lot of little voices is better than a few large ones in this case.  Their mission is to advocate the rights and interests of these small producers, and to help them sell their product.

The tasting is now in it’s 18th year.  It was originally conceived as a trade-only event, which is why the bulk of the 2-day tasting is for bonafide trade member only, where they have an opportunity for the wine trade to discuss issues, and taste each others wine.  In 1996, they opened their doors to the public, and the rest is history.

This event is one of my favorites, and not just because I’ve been working with them for the past 5 years.  Over 360 Family Winemaker members are pouring their wines.  For consumers, tickets are available for $50, which while not cheap, is a great value considering that the member wineries are typically small, and often tiny and hard to access.  For example, some names you might know are St. Supery and Hahn Family.  Some you may not but which produce lovely wines are Corison, Row 11, Owl Ridge , Sobon Estates, and Titus.  Yes, those are totally my personal favorites   There are literally hundreds of wineries that I don’t know, so I will be spending some time tasting new names.

The tasting book can be found online HERE so you can review who will be pouring.  I personally like to form a plan of attack, like targeting wineries I’ve never said, then the ultra premiums, then my faves, but you can also target the list by varietal with an online varietal map.

I hope you’ll stop by and see us!

I know i certainly would.  As luck would have it, you actually CAN get away, and for free!  Livingston Wine Cellars is currently running a contest to win a 4 day, [...]]]>

Making your way in the world today
Takes everything you’ve got;
Taking a break from all your worries
Sure would help a lot.
Wouldn’t you like to get away?

I know i certainly would.  As luck would have it, you actually CAN get away, and for free!  Livingston Wine Cellars is currently running a contest to win a 4 day, all expenses paid trip to wine country.  I live here  and I want to wine!  Err win.  Yeah that’s what I meant.  Now I have no vested interest in this contest, and in fact, I am not even familiar with Livingston Cellars, but I thought this was worth writing about since everyone needs a little extra in the vacation budget.

To enter the contest, all you need to do is write an essay about how you are “Living the Livingston Life”.  Even if you don’t drink their wine, you might be living the life without even knowing it.  Entries are being considered until December 31st, 2009, and need to be 250 words or less about how you achieve the following things in your wine life:

• Be an individual
• Stay connected with your friends and family
• Discover your world, new and old
• Make a difference to others around you

I think that most of us embody these qualities, don’t you?  The trip takes place in June of 2010, and includes stops in Yosemite, a winemaker dinner, a tour of the Central Valley wine region, a blending seminar with the Gallo masters, and a whirlwind tour of San Francisco – my hometown.

Ok so maybe you’re not in to the “Lifestyle Wine”, but there are plenty of people who are!  Everyone needs a little value in their life.  Livingston is part of the E&J Gallo Winery family.  It’s definitely a value wine, but perhaps you have family members that living in this fighting varietal world who might want to take a trip with you.

For details:   http://www.TheLivingstonLife.com/Getaway

As luck would have it, this [...]]]>

For this month’s adventure in the themed blogging topic known as Wine Blogging Wednesday, our hostess @sonadora from Wannabe Wino, is hosting us for the 5th Anniversary.  This time, Megan goes back to her love of Zinfandel, and encourages us to taste our favorite zins paired with some yummy BBQ.

As luck would have it, this post coincided with the annual ZAP Summer Celebration, which is famous for it’s BBQ and plethora of zins.  To start out, we took a little tour of some of the ZAP producer vineyards, starting out with Pete Seghesio at Saini Vineyards.  Saini was planted in 1946, and is now run by the 4th generation of Sainis.  Prior to being farmed for grapes, it was planted with apples, pears, and prunes, as was much of the Dry Creek Valley where this vineyard is located.

Saini zin undergoing veraison

You may not have known this, but dry farmed zin can be one of the most difficult grapes to grow because it can rot from the inside out; the cool fog that drifts in to the valley over the western mountains cools down the fruit and can make it damp, and prone to botrytis.  Now, if you’re in to Sauternes, this is a good thing.  In red wine, not so much!  Dry farming also can have a 1pt increase in the over all brix (measurement of sugar) a day, in the summer heat.

From Saini Vineyard, we went over to Lytton Springs, where Ridge has 175 acres planted next to their straw bale winery.  One of the most interesting things we saw was a newly planted field on the drive in, which is a purpose ffield blending of Zinfandel, Charbono, Petite Sirah, Syrah, Mataro, Cinsualt, Grenache, Grenache Blanc, Palomino and pretty much everything else in the kitchen sink.  This is an old school Italian field blend, and should be some interesting stuff.  Ridge will be harvesting this vineyard block by block, and while this will allow them to harvest depending on each varietals individual ripening, it will undoubtedly have some cross over.

The Lytton Springs Vineyard is planted on old river rock, and you can really see the red soil coming through.  This vineyard is on a small bench, that seperates the Dry Creek and Alexander Valleys, and is between 80-100 feet in elevation.  The red river rock holds those 100 year old Zin vines in the cool morning fog, with hot summer afternoons.  This will give it a district flavor profile from the Saini Vieyard, which is on the more fertile flood plain of the Russian River.

Ridge purchased fruit here since 1972, and bought he property in the early 1990s, making it part of their estate portfolio.  There has been zin planted here since the very early 1900s, when the old Captain Litton (spelling changed later) owned the land and had a large variety of grapes growing here.  That history of complementary varitals is show in that new field blend I mentioned above.

But enough about the grapes, what about the wine!  After the vineyard tours, we headed back to Seghesio in Healdsburg where we were treated to a smorgasbord of ZAP Producer zinfandels, including the delicious Rock Wall Sonoma County zin.

If you don’t know, the Rock Wall Wine Company is Kent Rosenblum of Rosenblum Cellars fame.  Rosenblum is now owned by Diageo, but Kent and his daughter Shauna started the next chapter up down the street and are producing some mighty tasting stuff.

The Sonoma County zin is a punchy one, at 15.6% ABV, but I found it well balanced and subtle, even in the 80 degree heat.  There were only 475 cases produced, so at $25 you better get out and buy some before it’s all gone.  I tasted the classic blackberry, but also some dark raspberry and bittersweet chocolate.  I was lucky enough to meet Shauna, as she was behind the table pouring, so I thank you and look forward to seeing you in September for the ZAP Volunteer Thank You party!

Rock Wall Wine Company tastes their wines by appointment only (hey, it’s a licensing thing kids!) and is located at 2301 Monarch Street, Suite 300, in Alameda.  For you locals, that’s part of the old Naval Air Station, and is spitting distance from Rosenblum.  It is part of the booming urban vintners trend, and is a member of the East Bay Vintners Alliance. I love the fact that I can taste at almost 20 wineries less than 20 minutes from my house!  Keep an eye out here for urban winery events soon.

I also had the chance to taste Duane Dappen’s zins, from D-Cubed Cellars, in Napa.   Duane is the new ZAP Board President, and I have been talking to him on Twitter, so it was fun to meet him in person.  Duane has been working in Napa Valley since the early 80s, and has worked with some of the biggest names in zin, like Grgich Hills, Storybook Mountain, and Rombauer.  Happily, he now has his own label, and was pouring both the Napa Valley and the St. Helena versions at our BBQ.

I loved the 2006 St. Helena Zinfandel, which is now in its second vintage.  It is made from the Korte Ranch Vineyard, which was planted back in 1910. Talk about some old vines!  OK, so they’re not 100+ years old, but they are old at the same.  This fruit creates a wonderfully bold and balanced zin, with raspberries, blackberries, notes of vanilla, and some herbal notes.  It’s also relatively low ABV for a zin, at 14.5%.

You can taste D-Cubed wines, along with a dozen others, at the Vintners Collective in Napa.  They are located at 1245 Main Street, and area a great destination in town!

With both of these wonderful zins, as well as a smattering of tastes of others, the BBQ boys were there serving up pulled pork sliders, ribs, and sausages.  This is classic zin food, where the richness of the BBQ sauce and its tang goes with the bold dark berry flavors of the fruit in the zin.

I have always enjoyed this event, because we not only get to stuff our faces with pork product, but we get to taste a lot of different zins in one place that is more restrained than the Grand Tasting in January.  On a final note, for dessert, I took my raspberry sno-cone, and poured some leftover zin of unknown origin in to it.  Let’s just say it was probably the best zin based dessert I’ve had since the Zinfandel ice cream at Rosenblum’s Open House Last year.

I hope you’ll go out and taste some zin for yourself, and be sure to try some tasty BBQ treats with it!

PS please stay tuned to Palate Press for some more news regarding zin soon!

The Winery Collective, an urban tasting room and wine bar here in San Francisco,  is currently offering a Summer Sipper series [...]]]>

Previously, I have written about the importance of supporting the little guy.  I still think it’s very important to find boutique wines that are limited production and unusual, so we can spend our dollars differently.

The Winery Collective, an urban tasting room and wine bar here in San Francisco,  is currently offering a Summer Sipper series at their Cannary location.  During the summer season, they are opening the Del Monte Courtyard, a gathering space for sidewalk cafes and buskers, as their outdoor winebar in a  serises of tasting events.

Winery Collective is a destination winery tasting room in Fisherman’s Wharf, that focuses on boutique California wines.  It is owned and operated by small, family winemakers, and lets the consumer taste dozens of small production wines in one spot.  They also offer a by the glass menu, as well as chocolate pairings.

The Sunday Sippers Summer Wine Tasting Series is an opportunity for wine lovers in the Bay Area, as well as visitors to San Francisco, to taste unique wines not readily found in other outlets.  The current schedule for the San Francisco Summer Wine Tasting Series includes the following wine regions:These events have different themes, and range in price from $15-25 (prepaid), offering upwards of 20 different wines to taste as well as the opportunity to speak to the winemakers of these boutique cellars.

Last weekend, the summer series kicked off with a tasting of Lake & Mendocino county selections.  It was a great aftertoon to sip some cool whites in the rare San Francisco warmth, and I look forward to the next one.

The current summer tasting schedule is:

July 19^{th –} SF Wine Pour

Taste 100 wines in one spot!  Unique opportunity to taste all over the state in one afternoon.

1-4:30pm over 100 wines for $25 (advance) / $35 (door) TICKETS: http://sfwinepour.eventbrite.com/

July 26^{th –} Napa Valley

August 2^{nd –} Sonoma

August 9^{th -} Urban Wineries

August 16^{th –} South Central Coast / Paso Robles & Santa Barbara

Hope to see you there!

Winery Collective is located in San Francisco’s Wine Tasting District at 485 Jefferson Street @ Hyde Street next to The Cannery and 1 block from the Hyde Street Cable Car Turnaround. Open daily 11a-9p for wine tasting.