Santa Cruz Mountain Wine Tasting...on a Monday

I know that many tasting rooms are closed on Mondays, particularly in smaller regions like the Santa Cruz Mountains. And yet, when I found out last minute that my friend from London, Eve, was in the SF area and available to do something on Monday, I thought - wine tasting!

I researched online and picked four wineries that were all meant to be open: David Bruce and Byington, on Bear Creek Road, and Bonny Doon and Storrs, in Santa Cruz. Nevertheless, after winding our way up to David Bruce, we found it closed! Apparently they had just changed their hours - that week! Byington was open though, so we meandered further down the switchback road to tasting a nice range of whites and reds at Byington Vineyard and Winery. Here, I bought one bottle of reduced 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon that needs to age another 5 years. But at $18/bottle, I thought it was worth a try, and it waived the tasting fee.

Byington has a nice property where they often host events, such as weddings, so Eve and I explored before heading down the mountain to continue on Highway 17 towards Santa Cruz. It was a crystal clear day, and here is a photo of the Pacific Ocean from Bear Creek Road. The bright white in the distance is not clouds; it is reflection from the sunshine!

Once in Santa Cruz, and finding Bonny Doon closed (they also had apparently just changed their hours this week), we found our way to Storrs Wine off River Street in the Old Sash Mill area. I had heard of Storrs, but couldn't recall trying any of their wine. It turns out that they have a lot to offer considering they produce only 8,000 cases/year. I ended up buying three bottles - 2008 Sauvignon Blanc from Monterey, a 2005 Rhone style blend, and a 2006 Pinot Noir. Here is the label for the red blend:

All in all, it was a good day and a successful exposure to new wine. Next time, I will be more careful about opening hours though!

Also in Santa Cruz over the weekend, I discovered Soif wine shop. One of the buyers, Luke, is a friend of one of my college friends. After being introduced, and trying a few things, I walked out with half a case.....It is great to know that Downtown Santa Cruz is going a bit more upscale than when I lived there for university nearly a decade ago.

And finally, as the temperatures in the Bay Area have dropped over the past week, the vines themselves are telling us it is definitely autumn.

Veraison

It's a far cry from a vineyard, but the grapes in my backyard are starting to turn from green to red! It is so interesting to watch the process on a daily basis, instead of my vineyard visits which are always just snapshots at one point in time.

WSET Certified

I finally received the results of my WSET Advanced test. I passed with Merit! WSET is the Wine and Spirit Education Trust, and I have taken both the beginner and intermediate courses with them, both of which were fairly easy given my base knowledge of world wines. The advanced course was more challenging, as we covered all sizable wine regions in the world, along with climate, soil, grape varieties and styles for each.

So what does this mean? Being Advanced certified gives a future employer the assurance that I have a high standard of knowledge about wine. But really, it was just a lot of fun!

Quiet summer...zzz

My recent lack of posting has been due to two important events. First, I spent all of July in Spain, and other than a few days tasting sherry in Jerez, there isn't much to mention on the wine front, other than the fact that nearly all the house wine I drank for a pittance was of very good quality. You usually never knew what you were drinking, but it didn't matter. The house wines go with the food, and do the job when you are on holiday and on a budget!

Cala de Deia, Mallorca

Examples of Sherries, Jerez de la Frontera


Fino Sherry

The second event of note is that after I got back to London from Spain, I decided not to drink for a month....I made it 25 days (a first for me!) and broke my alcohol fast last Saturday night after running a terrain race in Wales. I celebrated with a bottle of Pouilly Fuisse.

I will aim to post more regularly, as I drink through some of my collection before moving back to San Francisco at the end of September. After a few years here in Europe, Napa - here I come!

Annual Davy's Summer Wine Tasting

This year was my third attendance at the Davy's Summer Wine Tasting in Greenwich. Each year I have been here in the UK, I have attended this tasting with friends, and it is always a fantastic event. Held at the Davy's Cellars in Greenwich, the tasting venue has switched between the Davy's warehouse and the cellars themselves. This year, I enjoyed the cellar setting, with more ambiance and fun corridors to walk down to discover new wines.


As I normally do, I started out with sparkling wines and whites at about 10:45am, making my way onto the reds around 12 in time for our 1pm lunch reservations. The sparklings that stood out to me where the all of Lallier Champanges, the Prosecco, and the Laurent-Perrier Brut and Ultra Brut. The Lallier Brut Millesime Grand Cru 200 (£35.95) was outstanding, managing to exude toast without being very full bodied. The Lallier 1er Cru Rose Champagne Brut was also absolutely delicious, and at £29 a more reasonablel value.

Of the whites, my favourite stand bys of Sancerre (Blanc Cuvee Les Moulins Bales Leon Vatan 2007 and Rose Les Villots Leon Vatan 2006, both at £12.50) and Pouilly Fume (Domaine du Bouchot 2007, £12.50) stood out. The best value white was by far the Davy's White No 1. At £5.50 a bottle, it is a nice, dry, quaffable wine.

By the time I reached the reds, I was only interested in something that would really take my breath away, and I found it in the Chateau Gigognan Vigne du Prieure Cotes du Rhone 2005. Let's just say it takes like a Chateauneuf du Pape, but at £13, it is well below the typical CdP price point. This one is well worth buying by the case for Rhone style red wine lovers. There were also some good value Chilean reds, but to be honest, there are always good value Chilean reds around.

As always, an enjoyable, intimate and successful event. Well done Davy's!

Wine and Cheese Party, Boston, MA

In May, I organised a wine and cheese party for a friend's wedding in Boston, Massachusetts. The party was catered by Christy Tenhaeff, a local Boston chef who is friends with the bride. I chose all the wine selections, and matched them with cheese pairings that Christy sourced for me.

The event was a huge success, with the goal being to expand attendees horizons on wine regions and varietals that they may not be familiar with. The wedding was a destination wedding for most of the guests, so the wine and cheese party kept with the theme, and all wines came from other destinations, specifically outside the U.S.


Here are the eight wines we served, all sourced from Ball Square Fine Wines in Somerville, MA. Ball Square did a fantastic job working with us remotely, and they were accommodating every step of the way with our requests and requirements. All the wines were between $11-17, except for the dessert wine, which was a value at $20 for 750ml.

• Sparkling: NV Santome Prosecco, Italy - clean, refreshing and well-balanced. Guests really enjoyed discovering a non-champagne sparkling wine.

• White: 2006 Nasiakos Moschofilero, Greece - a Sauvignon Blanc-style wine, this was excellent and a huge hit with the guests. I know from my travels to Greece that not all wines are this high of quality, so I was pleased to serve this as a good example of what the region can produce.

• White: 2008 Huber Gruner Veltliner, Austria - this was another fun wine to serve. Aromatic, minerally, white flowers and stone fruit flavours.

• White: 2007 Gerard Bertrand Chardonnay, Southern France - This was the safety wine, but was not as popular as I expected. It was a lightly oaked Chardonnay, but guests were more intrigued with the more exotic varietals on offer.

• Red: 2005 Sartori Valpolicella, Veneto Italy - Lightest of the reds served, I was reduced to the one liner of "this is like a Pinot Noir" which of course, it is not, except for its place on the lighter red spectrum. This Valpolicella had bright raspberry, light spice and oak. The light body and medium acidity paired it well with the mini por sandwiches.

• Red: 2006 Chateau Coupe Roses Minervois, Southern France -The heavy-hitter of the group, this is what I offered to those who say they only like Cabernet Sauvignon. It is actually a Carignan, Grenache and Syrah blend, but the high tannins and somewhat closed fruit give it a Cab-like quality. The actual flavours were more raspberry and herbs.

• Red: 2006 Crios de Susana Balbo Syrah/Bonarda, Argentina - This wine is absolutely delicious. Dark chocolate and black currant, this wine is medium bodied and incredibly drinkable.

• Dessert: 2005 La Foncalpre Monbazillac, France - I love serving dessert wines because I feel that many people have such a limited experience with "stickies" or ice wines that they are always surprised by the smoothness and honey like quality of a Sauternes, or as served here, Sauternes-knock off from a nearby Bordeaux appellation.

The event was a fun and I hope informative experience for the 35 guests. I provided tasting cards so they could remember what they drank and track down the wines if they are locals. I know that the hosts, Brea and Nathan Ashcraft, enjoyed themselves and thought the party was a success.

Me on the right with the bride and groom

Decanter New World Fine Wine Tasting: Grand Tasting

On Saturday, I attended the Decanter Magazine New World Fine Wine event in London, courtesy of publisher Sophia Dempsey. I attended both the Grand Tasting and the South American Wines Masterclass lead by Peter Richards.

I chose to use the Grand Tasting as an overview, tasting from a few tables from each of the represented regions: USA, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and South America. In the end, I tasted from 10 wineries but I enjoyed the depth rather than breadth of my approach.

A few highlights include the 2007 Ken Forrester (Stellenbosch, South Africa) FMC, Forrester Meinert Chenin Blanc (£18). The slightly off-dry start lead to a floral after taste with incredible length. It also helps with the wine maker is pouring for you in a checkered shirt and brightly-coloured bow tie, enthusiastically waxing poetic on his trade.

I also thoroughly enjoyed the 2008 Cloof Wine Estate (Darling, South Africa) Crucible Shiraz (£30). It was at this booth that I bumped elbows with Oz Clarke, after my tasting companion exclaimed, slightly too loudly, "Oh my God, it's Oz Clarke!" I started looking around for him 10 feet away, not assuming he was literally standing next to me. We felt proud of ourselves for independently choosing a booth that he wanted to taste at, and proceeded to spend the next 10 minutes eavesdropping on his conversation with the pourer. It turns out he has visited this particular winery, but hey, it's still a good recommendation!

Another honourable mention goes to the 2005 Vasse Felix (Margaret River, Western Australia) Heytesbury Cabernet Sauvignon (£30s). The strong berry flavours were still bright, with a tannin structure to keep it all in line without overpowering the fruit. This is drinkable now, but should continue to age well another 5 years.

Two more mentions go to the 2008 Saint Clair Pioneer Block 7, Berry Block Sauvignon Blanc (£15) which is exactly what an NZ Sauv Blanc should taste like and the NV Domain Ste Michelle (Washington & Oregon, USA) Blanc de Noirs (£11) whose clean, fresh strawberry fruit calls for summer sunshine and comfy patio furniture.

I did taste a few duds, and I was stumped by a white wine by Domaine Serene (Oregon, USA) which is actually made from 100% Pinot Noir. They call it Coeur Blanc and although tasty, seems rather too much of a gimmick perhaps.

Overall, it was an excellent event with interesting wines and a nice representation, although small, of what the New World is producing. But lest I complain, I remind myself that I am going to the London International Wine Fair this week. With over 25,000 wines to taste, I don't care how much I spit; I may be stumbling home.

A few whites to spark a train of thought

On a recent visit to Vinoteca near Farringdon, I had two interesting whites: 2007 Kamptal Gruner Vetliner 'Lois', Loimer, Austria and the 2007 Colli Piacentini Malvasia 'Tasto di Seta', Castello di Luzzano, Italy.

I enjoy trying Gruner Vetliner whenever it's offered at trusted establishments. They have the right balance of acidity and aromatics that goes well with any food, but they are equally enjoyable on their own. This one was reminiscent of Pinot Gris, but a "good" Pinot Gris, not the pub swill on offer by the glass.

The Malvasia was even more interesting, with more length to it and stronger floral on the nose. I partly ordered it because my drinking companion had turned up her nose to it, not wanting an Italian white, and declaring that she couldn't stand Pinot Grigio (not that this had any similarity to one). I have to admit, I do have a Pinot Grigio aversion, no matter where it's grown, but it's comments like these that make me want to get in people's heads and taste buds and try to figure out what they are are actually tasting (i.e. why they don't like a certain wine).

I had another friend recently confuse acidity and tannin at a recent tasting, which is a classic example of how, if you don't have the basic terminology sorted, you will not only confuse other people but you have less of a chance to find out what you actually like, and why. I suppose this is why I have an interest in wine education and leading tastings. I am on a personal mission to help people understand what they are drinking, so that they will have more positive experiences in the future trying and buying new wines.

Wine Clubs

I was asked today about the options for "wine of the month" type clubs by an American who has moved to London. After giving it some thought, I realised that the predominant wine clubs in the UK are of the wine-by-the-case variety, and are usually offered by an already established retailed such as Sainsbury's Nectar Wine Club, Waitrose Wine Direct , or Majestic Wine Warehouse.

The model for these retailers are typically to send you a case of mixed wine once each quarter. The emphasis is on seasonally-relevant wines (i.e. rose in summer, heavier reds in winter), good value (£4-6 per bottle), and usually from larger, yet often unknown, producers.

I have always preferred ordering my own mixed cases from Waitrose or Virgin Wines, and I particularly like the Virgin Wine method of offering a Wine Bank, where £20 is debited from your checking account each month and then whenever you choose to purchase wine, you use your pre-paid credit. They were also very flexible with me when I went travelling 8 months ago, freezing my direct debit, but maintaining my credit for whenever I returned to the UK.

I am wondering what other UK wine club options there are. I will research this further and post about my findings, but in the meantime, if anyone knows of a higher-end, smaller-quantity wine club, please let me know by posting a comment!

April Wine in Revew

Being back in San Francisco for a week and seeing friends socially all month longth means that I have had the opportunity to taste several new wines this month. I will use this post as a catch-all for some of the more notable or interesting finds.

Vino Mexicano

When you think of Mexico, you probably think those Corona commercials or spring break trips to Cancun before you think of a glass of fine wine. Me too! But on a recent visit to Ensenada in Baja, Mexico I visited two vineyards in the Guadalupe Valley region, both demonstrating the breadth and quality that this region can produce.

The area’s Mediterranean climate allows several varietals to thrive, including Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, Tempranillo, Nebbiolo, Grenache, and the list goes on. Mexico only produces a few million cases each year, with about half of that coming from L.A. Cetto, a Guadalupe Valley mega-producer. L.A. Cetto (pronounced “la chetto”) experiments with 67 varietals, presumably still trying to find the perfect grapes for the soil and climate.

Wine isn’t as new to Mexico as you might presume. Vineyards werefirst planted by Spanish missionaries in the late 1500s, although it wasn’t until the 1800s that the Guadalupe Valley area was planted with the capability for sizeable production. The industry has boomed in recent years, although it is still trying to find its way onto the global wine map. Recently, there was a Wines of Baja tasting held in San Francisco, so the word is spreading fast, but the region needs to overcome significant geographical and historical prejudice before the wine world starts to take them seriously.

I tasted at L.A. Cetto and Casa Pedro Domecq, whose tasting rooms are just down the road from each other, only a 30 minute drive from Ensenada. Tasting fees are low ($3-5) and the ranges I tasted were surprising. Domecq’s tasting offerings illustrate how the lack of local wine regulation encourages experimentation, as I tasted a Chenin Blanc/Chardonnay blend, a Grenache Rose, and a Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Nebbiolo blend. None of them were outstanding, but the majority of them were quite good, and I even bought the bottle of Chateau Domecq as a souvenir wine (which paired well with marinated and barbequed tri-tip over the weekend).

L.A. Cetto offers more single varietals, such as a pleasing Viognier, a food-friendly oaked Chardonnay, a very good Bordeaux blend, and a well-balanced Cabernet Sauvignon Rose. Both vineyards provide tours of the facility and have modern and spacious tasting rooms. It would be interesting to have had time to visit more boutique wineries, which I imagine would involve a lot of knocking on doors to have a taste rather than rocking up during any established and well-organised tasting hours.

NZ wine tasting stats

I spent a three hour train ride from Sacramento to San Jose this week updating my wine tasting spreadsheet with all my notes and ratings from my New Zealand trip. I thought I would share some interesting statistics about what I tasted:

• Over the course of two months, I tasted (and wrote notes) on nearly 250 New Zealand wines, representing over 50 different wineries. Most of these were either at wine festivals or on wine tasting tours, but I did jot down tasting notes whenever I could at a restaurant or bar as well.
• Of the wines tasted, the greatest majority were Pinot Noir (65), then Riesling (35), Sauvignon Blanc (30) and smaller quantities of other varietals such as Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, and red single varietal or blends. These numbers reflect my taste more than the actual ratios of NZ wine production, but of course, Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc are what have given NZ it's international reputation.
• My scoring distribution is divided as follows: I gave 12% an "excellent", 35% "very good", 36% "good" and 17% either an OK, non-rated, or bad (as in there is something actually wrong with the wine). I haven't decided yet if these ratings are perhaps too generous or a fair distribution. It's not fair to re-rate in hingsight, but if I was on the fence (good/very good) I gave it the lower rating when entering the scores.
• I tasted in all the major wine regions, including Auckland (Waiheke Island), Hawke's Bay, Martinborough, Marlborough, Nelson, and Central Otago. The only wine region I didn't explore much was Gisborne, on the north island. Since they are known mostly for their Chardonnay, it wasn't a high priority for me.

I will post more on specific regions and wineries, but in the meantime, feel free to ask me any questions about a specific wine you may have seen in your supermarket or wine store. There is a good chance I can tell you what it tastes like before you decide to buy it!

Revisiting California Pinot Noir and...a Conundrum

After a few months of tasting Pinot Noir across New Zealand, I came home to discover a few California Pinots in my cellar that I bought a few years ago. The first is 2004 Etude Carneros and the second is 2005 Baker Lane, Sonoma Coast, Hurst Vineyard. I remember buying the Baker Lane after reading a stellar review about it on vinography. I wasn't sure how long to keep them, but curious to open at least one of them, I brought the Baker Lane on my Ensenada cruise last weekend.

We opened the bottle on Sunday night, and it was definitely the best of the three bottles we brought (2004 Jordan Cabernet Sauvignon and Caymus Conundrum* being the other two). The aromas were black cherry, jammy, and bright berries. It was definitely ready to drink and paired excellently with my mushroom soup starter and my norwegian salmon main. Everyone at the table loved it, and I was glad I had saved it for a semi-special occasion.

To close the gap in my cellar, I also purchased an Etude Carneros Pinot Noir from '05 so that I can do a vertical tasting with the '04/'05 at a later date.

*I've had two Caymus Conundrums in the past week - a 2007 and a 2006. Both vintages teetered on the edge of an off-dry riesling more than the predominant Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, and Viognier blends that I recognise from previous years. The website indicates that the blend of grapes is still true to its roots, but maybe there is more Muscat in recent vintages to give it the higher sugar content? Either way, I still thoroughly enjoy this wine, and consistently find it to be a crowd-pleaser and to pair with a variety of foods. I trust Caymus on this one, but I am still really curious to know what's inside the bottle!

My Top 4 NZ wines

It would be impossible to sum up my New Zealand wine experience in one post, so I will write several posts over the next month to focus on different topics. I suppose the best way to tell which wines I was most impressed by is to know which wines I actually chose to purchase and bring back to the US with me.

I (mostly) restrained from buying bottles until the very end of my two month trip. Bottles I bought along the way were consumed along the way or given as gifts. In the end, I only brought back reds with me, the main logic being that reds are the wines you cellar and age, and that's what I wanted to do with my purchases. It's harder to get as excited about a white wine, even though I did discover some fantastic ones in the form of off-dry Rieslings and of course Sauvignon Blancs.

Here are the four wines I purchased, and a bit of background as to how I discovered and chose this particular wine:

2007 Mt. Difficulty Pipeclay Terrace Pinot Noir: The bouquet has strong floral notes (dark red roses and lilac according to the vineyard), with dry dirt, earthiness and hints of chocolate. All very impressive flavours for a young Pinot Noir. In fact, I don't think I need to hold on to this one for more than a few years. It will be in the category of ready to drink when I am ready to drink it.

I tasted this wine at Wine Taste in Queenstown, one of those wine dispenser tasting stores that can be a great substitute for visiting the vineyards themselves. I did taste in Central Otago, but only in the Gibbston Valley area, just outside Queenstown. After looking forward to Central Otago Pinots my entire trip, I was disappointed with the Pinots I had at Gibbston Valley Vineyard, Waitiri Creek, Chard Farm and Amisfield. They were good, but not great. Mt. Difficulty is farther east in the Bannockburn area, where prestigious wineries such as Felton Road and Akarua are based.

Price: $90 NZD in country ($53 USD or 36 GBP equivalent). International distributors here.

2007 Nautilus Four Barriques Pinot Noir: I first tasted this wine at the 2009 Marlborough Wine Festival in Blenheim at the Nautilus booth. It was the only wine that day that I purchased a second tasting of and in a full glass size. I thought my enthusiasm for the wine might just be the wine talking until I tasted it again first thing the next morning at the vineyard itself. It was just as good, with raspberry flavours and oak or cedar spice. A terrifically well-balanced wine, it was on my favourites list.

Both events were only halfway through my trip, so I wasn't able to purchase and carry the bottle with me at the time. When I was making my final wine decisions during my last week, this wine still came back to me, so I had my friend, Annette, ship it to me. Oddly enough, she is renting a room in Blenheim from the marketing director of Nautilus, so it was fairly easy for her to procure a bottle and ship it to my hostel in Christchurch only a few days before I left the country.

Price: $60 NZD in country ($35 USD or 24 GBP equivalent). This wine is not distributed outside New Zealand, however Nautilus also makes a very good Sauvignon Blanc and regular Pinot Noir. International distributors here.

2006 Ata Rangi Celebre: This is a 50% Merlot, 30% Syrah, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon with excellent white pepper and tobacco reminiscent of Northern Rhone Syrahs. Fruit flavours of dark plum and bright berries round out a fantastic wine to pair with steak or rich sauce pastas.

I drank this wine quite a bit during my stay, first at the vineyard in Martinborough where I purchased a bottle, then later on that night when I shared the bottle with fellow wine travellers, again at dinner with a friend in Queenstown and finally at Wine Tastes, just to confirm my choice. At $32 NZD retail, it is a good value and very enjoyable. See reviews from well-known wine critics here. I have also enjoyedthe 2007 Ata Rangi's Crimson Pinot Noir.

Price: $32NZD in country ($19 USD or 13 GBP equivalent). International distributors here.

2004 Alpha Domus "The Navigator": A Bordeaux-style blend from Hawke's Bay on the North Island, the Navigator is well-structured but drinkable now. It contains Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec. As published in Hawke's Bay Today Sip of the Week: "It's almost a crime to have this wine shut away in a bottle - there should be enormous open vats of it out in the public spaces for us to all swim around in."

I tried this wine at the vineyard at the 2009 Hawke's Bay Wine Festival, noting that it was excellent (as was the similar "Aviator" although at a $45NZD price tag). I was pleasantly surprised to find it during my last week in the country, and I look forward to opening this in the near future (I don't think I can wait!)

Price: $25 NZD in country ($15 USD or 10 GBP equivalent). International distributors here.