Luscious Lushes » july

Oh these hallowed Halls

winebratsf — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 21:44:14 +0000

It’s the day after the WBC, and my trusty drinking buddy Megan (@sonadora) were wandering around Napa Valley, eager to make some new discoveries. As luck would have it, we were personally invited to a Bloggers Day at Hall Napa Valley, a fairly large production facility, in St Helena. Little did I know, I would leave that day with a much kinder view of that “other” valley, as well as a profound respect for an established winery who opened their doors and barrel room to a posse of renegade bloggers.

Hall is most well known for it’s Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignons. They are also the first GOLD LEED Certified winery in California (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). They take their environmental responsibility seriously, and employ a variety of methods to ensure that they are eco balanced and green in all senses of the world. Some of the tools they use to achieve this are bio-diesel powered farm equipment, solar power, radiant cooling & heating, and sustainable farming practices. In fact, the solar power provides approximately 35% of Hall’s total reneger needs, and they are successfully selling back power during the strong sunny moths in the summer. The LEED certification process is a complex multi-year undertaking, and Hall will be the first winery to achieve this.

We met up with Joe, Amy, Liz, and the team from Hall at the St. Helena tasting room at production center. Here, we were greeted with a taste of the 2008 Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc, which retails for a very affordable $20. I found the Sav Blanc very fruity, and crisp without being sharp. It is fermented in 100% stainless steel, and has delicious citrus. The vineyard manager explained to us that thinning the canopy and dropping some of the grape clusters actually helps bring out the citrus characteristics, more so than say a grassy Sav Blanc. That brought up a good point – is that grassy flavor profile a flaw or a style? The intimation was the the grassiness can come from over shading the grapes, which doesn’t allow the natural sunlight through. I personally prefer a more well rounded Sav Blanc, so whatever the technique, this was a strong buy.

After we tasted some of the juice, we headed out to the winery to learn about how Hall practices green wine making and learn more about their winery. On the catwalk, we learned from winemaker Steve Leveque about their gravity flow winery, which they can expand in the future. Three sections in the barrel room allow the winemakers to store wines in independent temperature controlled rooms, which allows for better aging and separation.

The St. Helena winery sits on the grounds of one of Napa’s oldest structures, where the historic distillary operated in teh 1940s, making brandy and wine. The original structure was built in 1885, and that structure transformed in to the Coop winemaking facility in Napa, which was somewhat of a local eyesore. Fortunately, Hall has plans to restore the original building, and make the historical structure its hospitality center.

Today, Hall has several vineyards, including the St. Helena visitors center, the Rutherford appointment only private winery and Sacrashe Vineyard, Napa River Ranch, Bergfeld which is also in St. Helena, Hardester, and Walt Ranch on Atlas Peak. each one of these properties is chosen specifically with the intention of creating the best Bordeaux varietals possible, and represent different elevations, micro-climates and soil confabs.

After touring the winery, we headed up to the home ranch in Rutherford, on top of the eastern hills overlooking the valley. Here, in the Sacrashe Vineyard, Don Munk the Director of Vineyard Operations explained to us about the tufa soil. This vineyard in particular is planted with a high density 6×4 planting formation. The smaller vines that are planted to a higher density give a more intense fruit profile, and increase the quality in the bottle. This vineyard is organically farmed, and will be fully certified in 2010. Here, it is more important to maintain balance of nature then it is to achieve it. Practices such as encouraging owls as natural pest control, cover crops, and encouraging beneficial insects to use the vineyard are supported while minimal intervention occurs. One of the important factors is controlling the vigor of the vines. In the winter, cover crops can help penetrate the hard soil, and assist in aeration, which gives the vine roots a fighting change.

This vineyard is the basis for the flagship Cabernet blend, the Katheryn Hall Cabernet Sauvignon. Katheryn is a passport ambassador for her brand, and in fact was an actual ambassador to Austria for many years. Raised in a Napa Valley wine family, she knows what it takes to make good wine and came back to the valley after a varied career in public service. One thing that struck me at this beautiful winery was the inquisitive nature Katheryn has, and how she welcomed us in to her home, and really wanted to know what we, as the new wave of journalism, wanted from a winery and how we could form a symbiotic relationship and mutually advance each other.

Following our vineyard tour, we had a beautiful sit down lunch on the terrace overlooking Napa.

Starter: Grilled bread, buratta cheese, white anchovies, nicose olives, cherry tomatoes, capers, arugula. Paired with the 2008 HALL Sauvignon Blanc (see notes above)

Main: Wood oven roasted long-bailey farms duroc pork tenderloin, summer squash, shelling beans, chanterelle mushrooms, thyme jus. Paired with the 2005 HALL Napa River Ranch Merlot.

The Napa Valley Merlot is sourced from two different vineyards, the Napa River Ranch, and the Hardester. The Hardester vineyard is planted on the rugged hillsides, with low yield vines, and is known for big chewy Merlots. The Napa River Ranch vineyard is on the valley floor, and has rich fruit and plush mouth feel. I truly loved this merlot. Considering that I used to be a bit of a merlot snob, in that i didn’t touch the stuff, this is a big accomplishment. What a treat! Flavors of olives, cherries, plum, smoke. Richly and blanaced with a touch of cedar. Also tasted cranberry juice, chocolate. This was a soft and supple Merlot This wine was only $28, and i rate it a strong buy.

Cheese Course: Artisan cheese with fig jam, bouchon bakery herb pallidan, spanish almonds paired with the 2006 HALL “Kathryn Hall” Cabernet Sauvignon.

This is Hall’s flagship wine, and it is 100% Cabernet Savignon, 95% from Sacrashe and 5% Diamond Mountain fruit. I tasted black cherry, chocolate, lots of tannins, cinnamon and nutmeg. This was a dense, concentrated Cab, and not a fruit bomb. It was a glass of dark fresh earth without being dirty. The black fruit and spices really came through, and I felt like I could taste that famous Rutherford dust. This could easily age for 15 yrs before it peaks but it is amazing NOW. This was a special sneak peek for the bloggers, and it will be released on Release date is 9/12/09 at a retail of around $75. Considering that it is a terrific Napa Cab, even though this is normally outside of my budget, it’s a wonderful example of a Napa Valley Cabernet and I would buy it if I tasted it again.

After lunch, we participated in a bit of blending fun, but that will have to wait for the next post! All in all, I have found a new favorite Napa Valley winery. The QPR on the wines is outstanding, and the graciousness of our hostess and the entire team at Hall was lovely. A winery of this size that is interested in learning about the next generation of wine writers, wine critics, and social media gets a gold star in my book especially when they clearly don’t need to given the success that they enjoy.

Keep up the great work and I look forward to seeing you again soon!

Day 2 part 2 from vineyard to dinner

winebratsf — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 18:10:35 +0000

So here we are, leaving the CIA on the second day of the conference. We decided to keep our Bus 4 shenanigans going, so we all piled back on and were excited to see where the day might take us. Soon, we learned we were to lunch at the nearby Cuvaison. Unfortunately, upon arrival to their Calistoga tasting room, we were promptly told that we were expected at the exact opposite end of the valley, at the Cuvaison Carneros winery. Whoops! Now I’m not assessing blame, or trying to make it someone’s fault, but clearly there was a communication failure since Carneros is 30-45 minutes in the wrong direction.

At this point, the bus-o-bloggers was pretty hungry, and starting to get grumpy. Fortunately, our trusty group was wise enough to bring provisions on the bus, and you can see my friend Rob Bralow over to the right uncorked the Bella Zin with this bare teeth so we would survive the bus ride.

FINALLY we made it to Cuvaison Carneros, which is off of Duhig Road directly across from Domaine Carneros. The location is charming, since you are very close to Napa itslef, Sonoma proper, and you are on the Carneros coast, hugging San Pablo Bay. Carneros means The Rams, an old Spanish word for the ranches that once dominated the landscape here. Here, the cool fog from the San Francisco Bay influences the grapes. This cooling breeze and moisture is particularly amazing for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

Here, we were warmly greeted by Jay Schuppert, Cuvaison’s President, and he told us a bit about their operations. We were then ushered in to the wine barn, where we were served lunch in a room upstairs overlooking the vineyard. During lunch, we learned the story of Cuvaison, and how they are working to be green with several initiatives. Cuvaison practices sustainable wine growing, in addition to being Certified Napa Green in winemaking and land use. One of things that struck me was that they really work at additional greening techniques, such as the cork recycling program as well as the solar power array that generates up to 250 kilowat hours for the Carneros operation. One of the shining lights at Cuvaison was the admission that they really didnt’ understand blogging, Facebook or Twitter, bu they were wise enough to actually hire a marketing manager who did. This is a bold move in an old industry, and one that clearly benefits the winery int eh long term as it allows them to engage with a new audience without wandering around in the dark.

While we munched away, we were treated to tastes of the 2007 Carneros Chardonnay, 2007 Carneros Pinot Noir, and 2006 Mt Veeder Cabernet Sauvignon. Many of us particularly enjoyed the Pinot Noir, and Cuvaison was gracious enough to provide us with a bottle of our choice to bring home. Thank you! I will certainly come back to taste some of the other wines you have in the tasting room. I of course, chose the Pinot Noir! Some of my short tasting notes are:

Chardonnay:

Lots of citrus and stone fruit, slightly tropical with toasty spices.

Pinot Noir:

Cherry cherry cherry! Strawberries and spice, with some raspberry. Lush, very much Carneros. Yum.

Cabernet:

Blackberry, dark blue fruit, plum, floral notes. Rich.

After we bid farewell to our lunch buddies, we did some switching around so that we would have time to enjoy the Napa Valley Green presentation that we were promised in our Day 2 itinerary. We moved on to go to Staglin Wine Cellars, where Staglin, Duckhorn and Parry Cellars were waiting for us to tell us about the differences between large production operations and small production operations, and how that could impact green practices.

Parry produces approximate 250 cases of Cabernet Sauvignon, and Duckhorn produces somewhere around 20,000, which Staglin in the middle. Clearly there are differences in how you can be a sustainable winery in these sizes, and the impact on the final product must be monitored and adjusted so that every bottle of Duckhorn tastes as if it were a bottle of handmade Parry. It all started out so well, being excited to go to Staglin since someone on our bus exclaimed that this was one of her favorite wineries. Upon arrival they greeted us and welcomed us in tot heir cellar room, a beautiful dark paneled room with ta long table. Unfortunately the setup was such that it was very difficult to interact with the wineries, and in fact to hear them at all.

Furthermore, we were not able to taste any of the wines, or to see the end result from a small, medium and large winery. This was quite disappointing to us, as we- wine bloggers – are here to learn about and taste the wines. No, contrary to some of the negative blogger bashing that has been permeating the web recently, we don’t have to have wine all the time, non stop. however, when you are trying to encourage a group of bloggers to discuss your wine and in effect, evangelize our brand in their own words, it seemed like a huge missing point on their end. To add insult to injury, we were being bombarded by tweets from other attendees that were at sessions where they were interacting with their panels and tasting 10 year verticals of rare cabs. Salt in the wound you think? I think.

My primary parting thought was one of the wineries saying good bye to us and asking us to return and try their wines. Unfortunately, I am not inclined to do so as I didn’t feel like they really wanted to engage with bloggers, and while they were curious about the creatures in the zoo, not one fo them really wanted to know how to work with social media. It seems that this is huge opportunity wasted.

From there, we went to the Grand Tasting at Quintessa. A lot of wine, a strange set up in teh modern cellar, wine wine wine. The one point that i really enjoyed was that a staff member met us at the gate and explained the history of Quinetessa to us as we had a short ride up to the winery. Ahhh dinner time! Yes, we got back on to Bus 4. But we had few people change out since we needed even numbers for the vineyard dinners. Suffice it to say, we kept our core group adn made some new friends, as we headed off the 1/4 mile to Conn Creek, where we had dinner in the AVA Room. Cornerstone Cellars, Conn Creek another winery whos name is escaping me.

the AVA Room at Conn Creek is a wonderful experiment in private blending, where you can taste over 20 individual Cabernet’s, as well as blending elements like Petite Sirah, Malbec, and Cab Franc. The Cabernets are set up and grouped by flavor and richness, beginning with the softest and ending with the biggest boldest cabs from Napa Valley. There, we could make our own bottle if we attended one of their mainstream events, or – as we did at dinner – had fun making our own Cuvee Blogger! some of us winged it (ok ME!), just making a blend in the glass and experimenting, but a few resourceful people like Ward and Elizabeth Dehoff found beakers and measuring devices and really went to town using a booklet provided and blending examples. Having only been to Conn Creek once before, went he AVA Room was still a work in progress, this really was a delight.

PHEW another full day! After dinner we headed back over the hill to The Flamingo, where Vini Portugal was doing a tasting and after parties commenced. More wine, beer, wine wine wine. I’ll leave the official reviews up to someone else and leave you with this:

Napa Valley has its stars.

Napa Valley wants to connect with bloggers (mostly)

The Old Guard still needs some help.

New and different is good.

Stay tuned for Day 3 and closing thoughts!

A smattering of tastings – WBC Day 1

winebratsf — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 17:12:02 +0000

Where does the time go? The Second Annual Winebloggers Conference has already come and gone, and I am left wondering “what the heck was that bus that rolled over me “.As one of the voices behind the curtain of the WBC Scholarship, and as a huge cheerleader, proponent and fan of the WBC, I am pleased, shocked, elated, bummed, and catching my breath after the weekend.

On our first day, the rag tag Twisted Crew (@sonadora, @thebeerwench, @winehiker, @eljefetwisted, @ryanopaz, @gabriellaopaz, @houstonwino, @winewonkette) and I pulled up to the Flamingo after fighting what seemed to be an eternity in Central Valley and Infinion drag racing traffic followed by the usual Friday flow in to Santa Rosa. Arriving at 12:30 or so, I didn’t spend much time with the sponsors, something which I regret doing. Partially because many of them were familiar to me, partially because I was just plain exhausted due to unfortunate events the day before, I found my fellow people and sat down to eat some lunch.

I was excited to see so many of my friends, both those that I know in person and those that I knew only online, as new recruits tot he WBC posse. After catching up, albeit breifly, with some regulars, I was circulating the room trying to spy new faces while inspecting their name tags without looking like I was completely crazy. Fortunately, I caught up with a few new regulars.

After lunch, we attempted to do the speed tasting sessions, but well for reasons so many have discussed, it failed. Miserably. Like died on the operating table failed. In its stead, we heard about the Wine Blogger Awards. Unfortunately, I had purposely planned to skip this male dominated prom king style popularity contest, and moving it up unfortunately resulting in people not being there to accept thier awards. Eventually the wireless supposedly turned back on but as I tried to tweet my tasting notes, the wireless only stayed up for 10 seconds at a time, I gave up and just enjoyed the wines. Sorry folks, no tasting notes from me.

After the speed tasting, we beat a hasty retreat to our short but sweet annual Anti-Conference BYOB session in the small space at the front of the hotel. We did get to enjoy a large plethora of wines from attendees, and I really look forward to this time to meet new folks, try new wines, and just have a good time in an unstructured way.

Not wanting to miss a beat, we then made our way out to the pool for a very crowded very crazy Sonoma Grand Tasting. Not wanting to get crushed in the milee I pretty much avoided this, and found a spot at a table with Wine Biz Radio’s Randy Hall, his wife Jen and her amazing goat cheese, as well as some fellow bloggers. There, we shared some wine, I opened some wine,

Chritophe (@cork_dork) from Titus opened some wine, and we made our own tasting. PS for next year, PLEASE do no try to squeeze 250 people in to a space meant for 50, it just doesn’t’ work. I am sorry I missed many great wines, but I count myself lucky that I have tasted many before so didn’t really feel like I was losing out. It was just too much of a mosh pit to really enjoy your self and so instead, I opted to find an empty poolside table and sit with my buds catching up. Jen, Randy Hall’s wife, had brought some of her homemade goat cheese to share and with some wine to sip on, we snacked and chatted the afternoon away.

Oh – I forgot to mention. During all portions of the Speed Tasting and Sonoma Grand, I was readily accosted for my unusual jewelry of Wie BLogger Bling. It looks like my ribbons and charms were a hit, yet again! Yes, t

his was the idea, and I am pleased that so many of you enjoyed the camradierie of being a Naughty Wine Minx or saying tot he world Screw It! More WIne! That was the intention behind the blogger bling, as there were so many people I didn’t know and knew I wouldn’t get a chance to meet; I was pleased that it afforded me the opportunity to have random strangers become aquaintances via a common love of all thing wine and silly.

After the Grand Tasting, we made our way in to the dinner session, where I had a tizzy of a time finding not only a seat, but a seat at a table where I at least recognized one face. I know i know, I was going to mingle, but even this cowgirl gets the “I’m shy” blues and wanted a friendly face. I sat down with my favorite Cellar Rat Alan Baker, and we had a great time trying our wines and catching up, while I went table hopping to poach different wines. The table layout was that most tables were hosted by a winery, and we had a few of their wines plus others on our tables. Since I wanted a variety, I found Brad Cooper’s table (@bradinator) and poured a nice big taste of his Black Cloud Pinot Noir. WOW! Who knew such beauty came out of of British Columbia in a bottle! (Hey, @winebard stop throwing things at me).

Even though I was operating at 45% sanity, both physically and mentally, after dinner I wandered in tot he after hours tasting hosted by Russian River Winegrowers. I was please to see many wineries I knew here, and was able to taste some more treats, and chat with the locals on what was new. In there, I met up with Julie from Windsor Oaks, whom I’ve written about before here. Julie is a pioneer in the industry and is working hard to make sure that she is in tune with not only bloggers, but with what her customers want and need. I was so pleased to get a gift of their Unoaked Chard, which is just a lovely treat. Anyone in the area, MUST stop by and try their wines! They will welcome you as one of their own, and the wine is pretty good too .

I tried and tried to stay up for the after after after party but I just couldn’t do it. My body and my brain gave out. I’m sure I missed out on a lot and I’m bummed, but well, Saturday was another day!

(How long til WBC 10?)

A collection of wines

winebratsf — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:10:13 +0000

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.

It's Super! It's Saintly! It's LIVE!

winebratsf — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:09:30 +0000

I am really excited to be co-hosting St Supéry for Taste Live on July 11th. Since St Supéry has been producing outstanding wines from their 1500+ acres in Napa Valley since the early 1980’s, and since I have written about them several times before here and here, I am really looking forward to this opportunity to taste them along with you on Twitter with several groups around the country, and hundreds on line.

At St Supéry, their wine making history stems from the Skalli family’s French roots, and Bordeaux varietals are the particular focus. Additionally, St Supéry is well known for their Moscato and Chardonnay.

We will have the opportunity to taste through the following delights and talk live the returning star winemaker, Michael Scholz. Scholz is a 6th generation family winemaker from Australia’s Barossa Valley, and has created the distinctive sty le that has made St. Supéry a landmark destination in Napa Valley. He is new to Twitter, and will be answering questions about the wines for us as we taste.

St. Supéry farms according to sustainable viticultural practices, including use of c over crops, estate composting, and natural predators. On my recent adventure at the winery, Vineyard Manager Josh Anstey showed us how they do this, and walked us through their demonstration vineyard as well as thier practices.

In 2008, Wine & Spirits Magazine named St. Supéry “Outstanding Winery of the Year”, and it really shows! Their signature property, The Dollarhide vineyard, is an historic cattle and horse ranch nestled among the hills of Napa Valley. It was here that Robert Skalli, the wineries founder, planted the Bordeaux grapes in the early 1980s, and developed the Rutherford estate property as the home of the winery and their first class Cabernet Sauvignon vineyards.

These are just a few of many reasons why you should join us for our tasting on July 11th! We will be experiencing four superstar star wines:

If you are here in the San Francisco Bay Area, head on down to the Jug Shop on Polk & Pacific, where you can taste live some of the winery crew. For full details, you can visit their events page here.

If you want to host your own Taste Live with St Supéry, you can find out how by going over to the website now!

See you in the Twittersphere at 6pm PT on July 11th!

____________________________

To learn more about Twitter Taste Live, click the logo!

Now Tweet This! WBC 09 is nearly her

winebratsf — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 20:54:54 +0000

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SPECIAL BULLITAN WBC has been announced!

winebratsf — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 02:17:37 +0000

We interrupt the blog to announce that the 2nd Annual North American Wine Bloggers Conference will be held in Sonoma and Napa, July 24th – July 26th. I don’t envy the event planners because I know they made every effort not to conflict with other events. I will miss some of my friends, but hopefully we can find that sweet spot where everyone can come!

This year, we are back at The Flamingo in Santa Rosa, which is a Grande Dame out of the Rat Pack Days. Yes, while the outside seems a bit, well, WORN, the rooms are newly done and it’s got good space and a great pool.

Don’t forget to register early, as there are only 250 slots left!

Details can be found HERE

Agenda details:

Friday, July 24
12:00 noon Registration and Sponsor Lunch
2:00 PM Welcome and Conference Overview
2:30 PM Live Wine Blogging
4:00 PM Breakout Sessions
5:00 PM Breakout Sessions
6:30 PM Grand Tasting of Sonoma Wines
8:00 PM Pool Party Barbecue

Saturday, July 25
7:00 AM Breakfast on your own
9:00 AM Depart for Napa Valley
10:00 AM Breakout Sessions
11:00 AM Breakout Sessions
12:00 noon Depart for Napa Rocks at participating wineries
7:00 PM Dinner in the Vineyards at participating Napa wineries
8:45 PM Buses return to the Flamingo
9:45 PM Informal tasting of participants’ wines

Sunday, July 26
7:00 AM Breakfast on your own
9:30 AM Breakout Sessions and Industry Discussions
11:30 AM Luxe Sonoma Tasting
12:30 PM Casual lunch
1:00 PM Conference Ends

1:oopm on – if you are still around, I’m sure there will be blogger tasting, parties, and other fun stuff!

If you want to see what I thought of last year, check out these posts:

Who is Gary V?

winebratsf — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 18:55:00 +0000

Gary Vaynerchuck, VAY NER CHUK, is the rambunctious, loud, opinionated host of Wine Library TV, a video wine blog that tries to change the wine world by getting people to ignore those big critics and discover their own palate with some heavy encouragement.

Take him for what you will, he is celebrating his 500th episode at our local custom crush facility Crushpad tomorrow, July 10. Come on down and celebrate!

July is for Wine-ing!

winebratsf — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 15:58:00 +0000

The 4th of July is made for picnics, beer, lemonade and potato salad.
That makes the 5th of July perfect for wine!
Urbano Cellars is having a release party to celebrate their new wines.

2006 Dry Creek Syrah – 290 cases
2007 Green Valley (Solano) Vin Rose’ – 135 cases
2007 Lodi Viognier – 30 cases
2007 Lodi Five Barrel Blend -125 cases
2005 Green Valley (Solano) Zinfandel – 125 cases

Join me in toasting these new releases across the bay with Urbano at Periscope Cellars (click for Google Map) in Emeryville. Afterwards, we can mosey on down to Lost Canyon and maybe even invade Rosenblum. Check out other East Bay wineries at East Bay Vintners Alliance.

As I was reading the list for the July 19th Santa Cruz Mountain Passport, I was happy to see there are now several wineries in the San Carlos / Redwood City / Woodside area.

Check out the list of mid-Peninsula wineries:

Domenico Wines
La Honda Winery
Aptos Creek
Kings Mountain
Michael Martella

As much as I love driving down to Santa Cruz, with the gas prices and beach traffic the way they are right now – wouldn’t it be fun to go local?

PS if you want to Caltrain, you can walk to Dominico from the San Carlos station!