September is California Wine Month and so for the rest of the month we will be featuring various regions of California and encouraging you to visit. As a native Californian, I may be a bit partial, but California is a truly beautiful state graced with gorgeous weather and has been hit really hard by wild fires which has discouraged tourism.
So just in case you haven’t gotten the message,
CALIFORNIA IS OPEN FOR BUSINESS!
And we’d love for you to come visit!
California’s wine growing goes back to the Mission days when the Jesuit planted what came to be known as “Mission” grapes in the 1700s, and the industry was flourishing by the 1770s. California Wine Month celebrates our 250-year winegrowing history and recognizes the achievements of California vintners and growers in preserving tradition and driving innovation.
Did you know:
- California has 4,800 vintners?
- California has 5,900 growers?
- California is the world’s fourth-largest wine producer?
- California is the source of 81 percent of the wine made in the United States?
- California is the most visited state in the U.S. for food- and wine-related activities?
So it seems appropriate to make our first stop just south of the Capital of California in YOLO COUNTY’s CLARKSBURG, to the home of Bogle, and where the Bogle family is celebrating has been farming in the Delta since the late-1800s and in 1968, the father and son team of Warren and Chris Bogle planted the first 20 acres of vines in Clarksburg.
According to a press release, “Today, Bogle Vineyards farms 1,900 acres of grapes using the latest sustainable growing techniques and processes. Bogle is one just a handful of wineries that pays its partner growers a per ton bonus for adhering to stringent voluntary sustainable practices and regulations. The success of Bogle over the years is firmly rooted in one thing: the day-to-day involvement of the Bogle family. This is the sixth generation of the Bogle family working in the Delta and with hard work and respect for the land, the Bogle family hopes to ensure another six more generations are able to farm along the Sacramento River.” http://www.boglewinery.com/ In 2018 California State Fair Lifetime Achievement Award went Bogle Vineyards in recognition of their contributions to the California wine industry.
Jody Bogle
“We feel privileged to be awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award this year, especially as it is our 50th year in the wine business,” says Jody Bogle. “It’s pretty amazing to think it all started with just 20 acres of wine grapes in 1968.”
In addition to this important award, Bogle also received the 2018 Green Medal Award Winner for Sustainable Winegrowing Leadership which honors the vineyard that best demonstrates the “3 E’s” of sustainability by excelling in Environmentally sound, socially Equitable and economically viable practices.
Warren Bogle
“We believe it is our responsibility to ensure our estate vineyards and our partner growers are implementing the latest sustainability techniques,” says Warren Bogle. “It is vital that we care for the land and resources to ensure future generations can continue to farm as we have.”
Celebrate with Bogle on their 50th Anniversary Tasting Weekend Saturday and Sunday, October 6 and 7 from 11:00 am – 5:00 pm. Taste and toast to Bogle’s first 50 years! Wine tasting and small bites will be offered, plus talks from Bogle family, winemakers and winegrowers will be scheduled throughout the day. General Admission is $20 with Wine Club Members at $15 and Children are $5.
WINES
For our own celebration, we opened three Bogle Wines, the famous and always popular Phantom which I bought on sale at Cost Plus, a 2015 Petite Sirah which was a sample sent from Jo Diaz of PS I Love You (a Petit Sirah advocacy group), and the 50th Anniversary Reserve Petite Sirah which was sent to me as a sample along with two anniversary glasses.
MENU
- Cheese Plate – Le Cremeux Kaltbach, Mimolette Isigny, Bellavitano Espresso, Emmi Le Marechal, Cypress Grove Ms. Natural fresh goat milk cheese, Marcona Almonds, assorted green olives
- Green Salad
- Roast carrots, zucchini, and mushroom
- Beef shanks with mashed potatoes prepared in an instant pot
- Dark chocolate truffle bark with toasted hazelnuts and dried cherries
2014 – Phantom – Proprietary Red Wine – 14.5% alcohol SRP $15
We love the bottle and the spooky label! And we love what’s inside too — that’s why I bought two bottles when I saw them on sale at Cost Plus!
color – pink red, maroon
nose – cherry, raspberry, rhubarb; a bit of oak and alcohol that overwhelms at first loam, earth, dirt, clay
palate – the palate is very nice on this wine, rich tannins, and cherry fruit, nice acidity at the back of the palate
pairing – great with the strong, aged cheeses
So what is the secret of the Phantom? What’s inside you wonder? I figured it was mostly Petite Sirah since that is what Bogle is known for and what grows so well in that area, so I went searching and learned the following stats:
The 2014 is a blend of
42% Petite Sirah
34% Zinfandel
14% Cabernet Sauvignon
10% Merlot
that was aged for 24 months in one and two year-old American oak.
I knew it!!
2015 – Petite Sirah – 13.5% alcohol SRP $10
SAMPLE provided for my review consideration
color – rich and dense, burgundy; a stemmy quality, no translucency here!
nose – blue fruit, blueberry pie, but not too sweet or jammy
palate – a jammy quality, with plenty of tannins to balance it out; a nice stone river rock minerality on the palate.
Another great wine for the money. Friends that I know will often go for a bottle of Bogle when they don’t know what else to grab. Bogle wines are consistently good for the price. There is richness, it is not flabby, but also nicely fruit forward and balanced.
pairing – I liked it with our funky cheese, Sue enjoyed it with the sharp notes in the espresso cheese, the mimolette brings out the blue fruit in the wine and the tang in the mimolette. This wine handles big cheeses well. I could see this wine with a quiche with ham or bacon; Sue thought about French Onion Soup. We also discussed that this is a great BBQ wine, and I tested it out with Tri-tip –yum! While this wine was fine with our braised beef, it is much more a BBQ wine.
50 years – Reserve Peitie Sirah – Quick Ranch – Clarksburg – 15% alcohol SRP $42
SAMPLE provided for my review consideration
Less than 1800 cases of this wine were produced following 24 months aging in French and American oak barrels (no new oak) with one bottle going to each wine club members. It is only available in the tasting room until sold out which is expected by spring.
The stemless glasses feature the 50th Anniversary logo that honors Warren V Bogle and his pioneering planting of the winery’s first grapevines in 1968. His signature, taken from a purchase agreement for some of the family’s first acreage, is represented on the logo. While these glasses are a lot of fun and commemorate this historic occasion, the wine tasted much better out of a Reidel Petite Sirah glass.
color – dark, deeper than maroon or red velvet curtains
nose – when properly decanted this wine is all about the blue fruit, there is a fun funkiness, lovely rich earthiness, diving into the nose after this wine has been opened up for a while, the blueberry cobbler fruit loveliness.
palate – this wine really delivers on the palate, it is viscous, it is smooth!
If you are going to splurge on the wine, make sure you put it in a vehicle that will make the wine deliver!
There is a beautiful complexity when drinking this wine out of a bordeaux glass, and in a Petite Syrah glass, the wine is so assessable, enjoyable and pleasurable that you just want to drink it, whereas in the Bordeaux glass where you want to sit and contemplate the wine while in the commemorative glass it’s enjoyable just not that complex.
pairing – a powerful wine that stands up to powerful foods. It loved the cheeses that we chose this evening. This wine was fabulous with our menu this evening.
The rich decadent wine was so smooth and lovely with our rich fall/winter fare. It loved the roast carrots, zucchini, and mushroom. It loved the beef shanks over the mashed potatoes.
The greatest thing about this evening’s meal (besides the celebratory wine!) was the ease of working with the instant pot. We got the meal going, had the veggies in the oven cooking, and the potatoes boiling. This allowed us to sit back relax, sip the wine and write about it until the meat was done. From there it was just a matter of mashing the potatoes, throwing together the salad, finishing off the gravy, and putting the meal on the table.
Happy Anniversary to Bogle!
Happy California Wine Month!
wine predator.............. gwendolyn alley 
Love Bogle, one of the first wineries we visited when we arrived in Sac in the late 90s. Still have a glass from that tasting ;-D
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What a great memory! I was supposed to visit last September but didn’t have time. Living in SoCal, I should be able to get there but we usually drive north up the coast instead of through eh central valley.
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