Since Copper River Salmon is currently available, I thought I’d repost this article from two years ago to remind you to enjoy some CRS while it is in season.
Read on for more about CRS paired with a Babich pinot noir from New Zealand and a Vino V pinot noir from the Santa Barbara area. We also tasted the wine with difference musical selections to see how the aural experience changed out palates.
Get your CRS while you can and enjoy it fresh with a pinot noir or try a Washington merlot! It’s also fabulous with The Ojai Vineyard’s Red (pinot-syrah blend) or White (currently a blend of 41% Riesling, 31% Chardonnay, 28% Viognier)–I tried them both on Friday night, and while they’re both winners, I preferred the more earthy, richer Ojai Red over the minerally Ojai White; both retail under $20.
A month or so ago I went to a tasting at Paradise Pantry in downtown Ventura where Vino V winemaker Michael Meagher showed off his chardonnay, his Confundido blend, his pinot noir, and his syrah. I knew the syrah and even used it for the Wine Blogging Wednesday North vs South Challenge, so I was excited to experience the others. At a rushed tasting that night (we had a documentary on loons we’d planned to catch that night and we were on bikes), I … Read More
If only I had mastered being in multiple places at the same time…!
But I’ll be here in Ventura doing the #crushit twitter tasting then attending my son’s elementary school talent show (he and five other students are doing Bill Wither’s classic “Lean on Me” with guitar by a parent!)
If I could, I’d be at tonight’s 6:30pm San Francisco film screening of Zev Robinson’s new documentary Dinastia Vivanco: Giving back to wine what wine has given us at the Viz Cinema, to be followed by a wine tasting. And I’ve already seen the film–Zev sent me an advance copy. We were hoping to arrange a screening in Southern California…
The film traces the Vivanco family’s 100 year history in wine-making, and what each of the four generations contributed to the development of the business, in a unique story as much about vision, persistence and passion as it is about wine.
As a teenager in the early 60’s, Pedro Vivanco started delivering his family’s wine by bicycle, then rose to become a major but anonymous producer for well-known Rioja brands. In the process, and as a result of 40 years of collecting, he and sons Rafael and Santiago have created what many consider the world’s best wine museum, reflecting their passion for wine culture and philosophy of “giving back to wine what wine has given us.”
Canadian-British filmmaker Zev Robinson first visited the Dinastia Vivanco winery and museum in 2009 to film material for his series of documentaries on Spanish wine, and ended up creating an hour long film on the family saga that has played an essential, but little known role in the transformation of Rioja wine.
Founded in 1915 as a small, personal winery, the film traces the contributions of each of the four generations in building the winery. Now run by winemaker Rafael and Santiago Vivanco, the director of the Museum and Foundation, the documentary uses interviews with the family and others conducted during Zev Robinson’s five filming trips to create a narrative interweaving the family’s history with that of the evolution of La Rioja.
Zev is working on a few other wine related projects including one about the Douro, due to be released September 2011. He’s done two previews; this is the second one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SjhATsAiXY
And he’s doing a documentary about Catavino’s Gabriella and Ryan Opaz and the Wine Bloggers Conference. This preview includes an interview with me from last summer in Walla Walla:
Last month’s #PlanetBordeaux Twitter TasteLive tasting was fun but a bit of a fiasco: the wine went to the wrong address! Wine Blogger David Rodriguez waited there until FedEx redelivered then drove back to my house to join the group of wine enthusiasts I had gathered who, while waiting, were tasting wine from Planet Bordeaux, Enoforum, and two Crushpad projects.
By the time the Planet Bordeaux wines arrived that we were supposed to be talking about, everyone on twitter had already tasted through the line-up! We joined in at the last minute with the last rose…
Fortunately, this month’s #CrushUp wines arrived the same day as the Planet Bordeaux wines–plenty of time in advance of the Taste Live on Twitter event Thursday, June 9 from 4-6pm (Pacific time). The Crusher wines are from Don Sebastiani & Sons and originate in Clarksburg, California, an AVA in the Central Valley formed in 1984.
How can you participate? Don Sebastiani & Sons will be hosting tweet ups in Sacramento, Seattle, Chicago, and Trenton, NJ at the same time–one big national party live and online. In Sacramento, winemaker Greg Kitchens will lead the discussion and field questions.
You can also pick up The Crusher and tweet and taste along with us–or follow the tweet stream on twitter checking out the hashtag #crushit. These are the ones we’ll be tasting (and in this order):
The Crusher 2009 Chardonnay
The Crusher 2010 Rose
The Crusher 2009 Pinot Noir
The Crusher 2009 Petite Sirah
The Crusher 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon
When I opened the Wild Rock Infamous Goose, the grapefruit aromas first knocked my socks off and then a thought crossed my mind and made me put my socks and shoes back on: I had to have this wine with my favorite caesar salad, made by Cafe Zack, and with or without anchovies, I didn’t care.
I mean, I really liked the wine. I did. But you see, I knew that my favorite salad would bring out the best in the wine and the wine would bring out the salad as well. And so I had to put my shoes and coat back on and go get one.
And I was soo right! It was so worth it!
What I love about Cafe Zack’s caesar salad is that it doesn’t taste like most: it’s light and fresh and lemony with just the perfect amount of garlic. Too many caesar salads are drenched in dressing: they’re greasy to me, oily, ugh. I can’t tell you the number of caesar salads that have disappointed me. I don’t even know why I bother–except that a well made one is so wonderful that I keep trying them…
And what to pair with salad can certainly be a challenge.
The pairing of the Infamous Goose with the Cafe Zack caesar made the salad creamier, richer while the wine’s grapefruit notes became more complex. According to the winery, Infamous Goose Sauvignon Blanc grapes grow in the river bed of the Wairau River in Marlborough. In the Winery, the juice was fermented in stainless steel and spent two months on the lees before fining and filtration. Tasting Notes: Fresh, crisp lime, grapefruit and cut grass aromas and flavors with lively acidity and a refreshing finish (and I’d agree!)
Of course you don’t have to run out and track down a caesar for your Goose. It would make a great afternoon summer wine and certainly go well with fresh seafood or grilled chicken. I bet it would be tasty with lox and bagels. Personally, I’m looking forward to having it with pesto made from arugula, rosemary and basil.
But if you can, discover its pleasures with a salad or two, caesar or otherwise, this spring or summer. It’s widely available for around $12.
PS Thanks to the folks who sent this to me as a sample–even if it meant I had to go back outside!
And if you’re a locavore looking for a locapour, or if you’re at Cafe Zack enjoying your salad, try Cantara Cellars Sauvignon Blanc. Zack’s tries to keep it on their list but I know both the winery and the restaurant are out until the new vintage is released.
In his column, Jeff recommends several wine sites and wine bloggers worth reading and why. His list of 12 sites includes Joe Roberts aka 1 Wine Dude, Alder Yarrow of Vinography, Tyler Coleman aka Dr. Vino and Steve Heimoff of Steve Heimoff.com, all fine wine bloggers, many I have come to know, some better than others, at the various wine bloggers conferences and through social media.
Steve talks about monetization among other topics and in a comment on Steve’s blog, Jo not only points out that the wine bloggers worth reading and writing about were all males (and I think they’re all white as well), but she was also willing to follow up on this topic on her own blog and to discuss this in public AND call attention to the fact that women in wine end up on the “living” section of the news. (Another commenter left this link with numbers to back up the observation about gender and race).
Jo then listed women wine writers that she thinks have “grace and style, who are blogging and have sites that really matter.” And –here comes the good news–I am featured on her list of these women wine bloggers!
For her article, Jo compiled the photo above. From left to right, you’ll see Megan Kenney aka Sonadora of the blog Wannabe Wino, Sondra Barrett Ph.D who blogs at SondraBarrett.com, Alana Gentry who blogs at girl with a glass, and finally myself.
So if you’re looking for some weekend reading, you might explore one or more of these sites–written by both men and women. And certainly you should make Jo’s blog part of your regular reading!
When a wine blogger comes to visit, it’s an occasion to pull out all the stops–and the corks–and open lots of wine!
And since we don’t live by wine alone, it’s also a great opportunity to enjoy some fine food!
Such has been the case with the recent visit by David Rodriguez of Puerto Rico who I met at the first Wine Bloggers Conference in 2008. He needed someone in country who could sign for wine and store it for him since it couldn’t be sent to Puerto Rico. With my mom’s consent, he started sending wine to the cellar (my cellar!) at her house, the house my grandfather built and moved into in 1961. (Read more about my grandfather’s cellar here.)
We started a few weeks ago with a salmon dinner up at the cellar where David was taking inventory and figuring out what to do with his wine collection. With the salmon, we enjoyed a Vincent pinot noir (from Portland Oregon) and a few other wines as well. A few days later, two of David’s friends from Los Angeles joined David and I for an amazing meal at Lou’s on Vine.
Then we had lunch at Paradise Pantry and went through the featured tasting (notes to come) and finally last night several of us gathered at my grandfather’s one more time. We started with some crackers and cheeses and opened up two white wines –Le Cigare Volant, a white blend of Roussanne and grenache blanc by Bonny Doon Vineyard and Wine Cast, a blend of roussanne and marsanne. David made his infamous “California ceasar” with smoked salmon, capers, avocado and more mixed with arugula while I seared ahi tuna and placed it on a bed of field greens, white stilton and apricots with a citrus champagne vinagrette and sesame oil.
The chemistry between wine and food never ceases to amaze me. I’ve tasted several Bonny Doon wines, including this one, but it did nothing for the tuna while the Wine Cast just made the food and the wine sing. When we tasted the wines with the salad David made, the Wine Cast was dull while the Bonny Doon shined bright.
Our next two courses were a pesto I made with arugula, rosemary and basil, and a bolognese sauce from Ferraros Restaurant to which I added mushrooms and wine. The Bonny Doon was better with the pesto but probably not my first choice (I love NZ sauvigon blancs with pesto, especially ones with herbs like rosemary in them! I’ve been enjoying Brancott’s but I bet Wild Rock’s Infamous Goose would be great too!) We tried two reds, Inkling Syrah and a Biali. These were both fabulous with both pasta dishes but especially with the meat sauce. (And somewhere I have more extensive tasting notes which I plan to add to this blog post!)
As my palate develops, I have come to appreciate the chemistry between wine and food. I am no longer willing to have a wine that doesn’t work with a meal. When the flavors combine, it’s big magic. When they don’t, it can be a big disappointment.
These days, when a wine doesn’t work well with what we’ve made for dinner, I open something else and then figure out a meal the next night that will go better with the wine. I urge you to do the same: keep a number of wines around so that if one doesn’t work, another will.
So don’t blame the wine!
PS As I mentioned, I have a few more details plus photos to add to this post…but I am finding I have quite the backlog of wine blog posts so at this point I want to just get some of them–like this one– out there even though I know there’s more I’d like to do here…sigh! A wealth of wine–could be worse!
I was up at Old Creek Ranch Winery last weekend to taste their new releases (yum! but more on that in another post!) and I realized I had neglected to post the poems that Joan Macbeth sent me from our March workshop at OCRW that were inspired by and written while tasting OCRW’s Napa Valley Cabernet and other wines as well as by the ranch itself. Here’s a link to the poem I wrote about the cab; here’s a link to the poem Danika wrote about the Old Creek Ranch Cab she loved so much she bought a bottle and took it back to Canada to share with her husband! Danika explains the workshop and the process here.
Keep reading for Joan’s poems about Old Creek Ranch Winery’s cabernet sauvignon and grenache.
wine predator.............. gwendolyn alley 