Category Archives: wine review

(WBC Post 3) Dry Creek Valley Zinfandels: the more the merrier!

Zinfandel Heaven

So there I was, in the Grand Ballroom of the Flamingo Hotel in Santa Rosa at the Wine Bloggers Conference, surrounded by empty dinner plates, empty dessert bowls, empty wine glasses and empty wine bottles.

My stomach too was empty. But the hotel was full, full, full, as full as the bellies in the banquet room.

What’s a gal to do?

Get in a conversation with Leslie who reps the Dry Creek Valley wines, of course, and get invited back to their hospitality suite and load up on crackers, cheese, grapes, nuts, chocolate, and–most importantly for a budding wine blogger–lots and lots and lots of Dry Creek Valley ZINS!

“Bring a glass–we’re all out!” she urged.

I followed her through the swarms of wine bloggers, across the lobby, passed the bar with a funk and r&b band blaring, through the courtyard and around the pool toward a banner proclaiming “Dry Creek Valley Vineyards” or some such. Inside, two tables were laden with 2 dozen or more half full wines, and another table held the promised cheese and other munchies. Where to start first?

I set my bag with my laptop down and staring me in the face was a bottle of Mauritson 2005 Growers Reserve Zinfandel so I started there. Only 257 cases were produced of this 15.5 alc wine with plenty of fruit and zin attitude to stand up to the alcohol. Ahhh, finally, heaven, zinfandel heaven. And for a wine lover who cut her teeth on Ridge Zinfandel, it really was.

I felt positively schizophrenic, manic even, trying to decide what to do and doing everything at once: drink? eat? help them pack up? do all at the same time and stay out of the way?

It didn’t really matter though, with all those beautiful wines waiting…wines which unfortunately were getting packed up quicker than I drove up here. My day was just starting–but Leslie’s very busy day was about done!

“Here, take some,” she urged. “Taste them tonight at your leisure!”

I grabbed some bottles, more or less randomly since they all sounded great, and she threw in more: “Dutcher Creek, you have to have this. And you liked the Mauritson? You have to have this Rockpile. Oh and this Quivira, and this Red Rooster was poured at dinner, you missed that, and …”

Next thing I knew there were quite a few bottles and we were scrambling for a box to put them in, as well as packing up the food, and collecting information about all the wines and Dry Creek Valley’s various vineyards.

“Have you checked into your room?” asked Leslie as my pile of goods grew greater.

“No,” I admitted, “this was all so last minute I don’t have a reservation. I can go stay with my nephew in Berkeley if I don’t have much more to drink, or try to find some place close by.”

Next thing I knew, she was handing me a room key card!

Heaven–Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel is your name!

(WBC Post 1) Wine Predator Drinks Up 1st Wine Bloggers Conference

Wine Predator Drinks Up 1st Wine Bloggers Conference

I’m drinking an iced coffee on a warm sunny day in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, from the lobby of the Flamingo Hotel, host of the First Wine Bloggers Conference and watching cases of wine roll by which they are opening rapidy as they set up for the next tasting of Sonoma wines.

Wine bloggers wander around a bit dazed; the women all seem to be drinking coffee as we all gear up for more wine! I seem to be the only person publicly bloggging; maybe people are in their rooms writing but I doubt it. Last night when Gary Vaynerchuk gave the keynote, he asked how many people in the room have a blog and most of them raised their hands–probably 150 of the 180 people in the room. But when he asked how often people post, only 10 of us post 5 or more times a week. (And yes, I was one of the 10!)

Since I drove in last night (in the new wonderful soon to be written up car!), I have tasted 10 or so Zinfandels from the Dry Creek Valley,  tasted a half dozen wines from New Zealand, walked through the organic and biodynamic winery Quivera with the winemaker Steve Cantor,  enjoyed an incredible lunch of local foods and venison navy bean soup and Quivera wines, and followed by two breakout sessions. My head swims with wine and wine words.

Adventures and details to follow soon–after I taste some more Sonoma County wines! After that, we have dinner tonight at Sebastiani with keynote speaker Alice Feiring author The Battle for Wine and Love or How I Saved the World from Parkerization which I recently devoured and can’t recommend highly enough!

Am having a fantabulous time–wish you were here!

P.S. Since they ran out of nametags, I get to wear my Lettre Sauvage letterpress beautiful card around my neck!!

Tsharke Only Son 2005 Tempranillo & The Still Life Cafe

Day 9: Flash floods, Still Life Cafe, last bottle of Aussie wine

While a flashflood watch was in effect when we were fishing in the eastern Sierra south of Bishop, turns out it was a deluge the previous night which closed Highway 395 just north of Independence, and slowed traffic to an escorted crawl.

Even though this flashflood was 24 hours old, only one of four lanes on 395 was open and the thick mud, black with soot from last year’s fires, surrounded us; plentiful water flowed and had yet to run clear. Continue reading →

Brothers in Arms 2002 Shiraz: Thai green curry & more surprises

Day 8: last night, Reds Meadow, Brothers in Arms shiraz

What is it about these Australian wines (or is it Grateful Palate Imports wines??) that they offer so much creativity in what could be a boring enterprise—the label of a wine bottle?? For example, Boarding Pass,

from R Winery, which we enjoyed before dinner in early July the night Dave Staeheli flew in from Alaska to pick up his son, which has a ticket around its neck and a boarding pass on its belly! Yummy too, before dinner; with our steak dinner we downed a bottle of another Australian, “Red Edge” Cabernet in honor of the Big Monkey who used to be a red head—“Now THIS is GOOOOD!” he said. “What is this? I really like it! It’s not as fruity as that other stuff.” Cabernet, I told him, you prefer cabs over shiraz. “Yes,” he agreed. Since I bought it thinking it would be one he’d like, I was glad to be right!!

The Red Edge is a classy package but not going to win a beauty contest or stand out on the shelf or on the table in any way that will spark a conversation while Boarding Pass, which looks like a boarding pass, will catch your attention and likely fly off the shelf into your shopping cart.

Tonight I am about to open a bottle of Brothers in Arms 2002 shiraz which I just retrieved from where it was nestled in the rocks and under the alders in the creek to cool it to cellar temperature of about 60 degrees; I imagine, after this warm day, it would be in the 70s otherwise–yuck, especially for a high alcohol wine like this one (15%).

The cap is remarkable—embossed on top: two hands clasp, shirt sleeves rolled up, muscles flexed, and along the bottom on a tangerine tape it reads in black script “Brothers in Arms” with a red postmark for Langhorne Creek South Australia. The label is cream with the black script and red postmark, and the top and bottom of the label looks ot be hand torn. This label also has wine spilt from a broken bottle but that just adds to its charm as it does to Dead Letter office, another one of my favorite labels (and shiraz too!) The text on the back explains that five generations have grown grapes there and now brothers turn those grapes into wines like this one.

A wine can’t be all fancy label and braggadaccio. The wine in the glass must be at least as good as the bottle it came from. The bottle of 2006 Ringland Ebenezer shiraz is beautiful, graceful, evocative—and the wine is bold, rich, inviting, and rewarding, its promise fulfilled.

As the sun breaks through after many rambunctious thunders (no lightening from our vantage point of our fishing spot along the San Joaquin River) and some scattered rain (enough to make the sagebrush and the Jeffery pines break out the perfume), I break the lead carefully so that the top is still attached for show, I manipulate the broken corkscrew to release the cork, I pour a small amount into the Mexican green glass (I really should have brought a real wine glass on this trip!!)

Hmmn, unusual! Reminds me of spice, and herbs– Thai spices: galangal ginger, lemon grass, green curry, coconut milk, mint. No kidding! And some of that Thai green curry spice lives on from the nose to the palate. But don’t let me scare you—it’s really good! Rich and creamy, fruity of course but not as fruity as others. The richness here is meaty and fatty, almost like a porkchop (or a lambchop with mint jelly?) The label says the wine is typical of the region and I can’t wait to find out if Thai green curry is typical of the region. If I wasn’t in the middle of nowhere, at least an hour drive and 2000′ elevation gain up to Minarets summit and again then down into the town of Mammoth, I would google this wine and find out if anyone else tastes Thai green curry in this shiraz. Hmmn, I wonder how this shiraz would be with Thai food?

The remaining question is: how will it be with the trout I am hoping the Big Monkey will return with any minute for dinner?? Otherwise, we’re having pasta from the van’s pantry…which I better put on to boil just in case! With a wine this tasty, it doesn’t matter what else we might have to eat!

2005 Dead Letter Office shiraz: worth finding

DAY 2: Grandviews from this Dead Letter Office

Day 2: White Mountains, Inyo National Forest, Eastern California

After an easy oatmeal breakfast with coffee and exceptionally delicious treats from the Alabama HIlls Cafe and Hard Rock Legends bakery in Lone Pine (a croissant and even better a Danish made with locally grown fresh peaches), the boys play more ball and I dive back into Mysore yoga challenges with Barbara Henning (You, Me and the Insects). She’s plagued by bugs and heat; here we have no pestering insects and the temperature is perfect. My life is calm while she is learning how to manuever a scooter in crazy traffic…(has a car gone by yet today? Maybe one or two?) She is surrounded by hordes of people and no one she knows; the two people I love best are laughing and playing together. We can’t see or hear another human; there is no one else within miles.

Too soon, we pack up and continue to Schulman Grove. Random patches of wildflowers including various purple and violet penstamen delight us, and soon we’re at the Visitor Center. The Ranger on duty has been there 18 years; my first visit there was 20 years ago when I was on a college environmental studies field quarter with ecologists Dr. Kenneth Norris and Dr. Stephen Gleissmann. There was no visitor center or much information then; now it is a lovely space, a log cabin with windows and light and a wood burning stove for the plentiful cold days, especially in early season, around Memorial Day, when the days are cold and the popular 4 mile long Methusalah trail still has snow on it.

We spread peanut butter and jelly on bread and head up the Bristlecone cabin trail, a new trail built within the last 5 years. The trees may not be that “old” along this part of the trail (maybe a few hundred or a thousand not like the 3-4,000 year old trees on the other side of the mountain), but the child is excited about seeing the old cabins and the mine remnants and that motivates him to keep moving under the hot sun. Continue reading →

Marquis Philips Roogle 2005 shiraz: 10,000′ high

DAY 1: White Mountain Bristlecones: served with a shiraz mustache

July 5, White Mountains, Inyo National Forest, Eastern California served with
porkloin, grilled corn, and 2005 Marquis Philips “Roogle” shiraz, chilled briefly in a bucket of snow

At 10,000’, we’ve left paved road and the Schulman Grove of the Bristlecone Pines in the White Mountains of California’s Inyo National Forest to climb steadily up a well maintained dirt and gravel road. Sagebrush, a calf high shrub, dots the hillsides with soft green, and sends up gray green flower spikes which will bloom yellow by late August. Abundant coral red Indian paintbrush bracts burst in color between the sage while purple lupine lines the road and sends wafts of grape through the window to mingle with whiffs of sage.

We’re headed for the Patriarch Grove at over 11,000’ where, Continue reading →

Majella 2001 Coonawarra shiraz: a puzzle

summer means salmon

Last winter I proclaimed that when fresh, wild Alaskan salmon came in season, especially Copper River salmon, that we should have it every night that we possibly could.

This June, we have followed through on my proclamation by enjoying salmon several nights a week. The first night we had Copper River salmon, I almost swooned I was in so much ecstasy: this salmon is sweet and rich: it’s like candy and you just can’t get enough of it. It has all the best, classic characteristics that come to mind when you think salmon, or even salmon sushi, combined with the flavor of fresh caught wild trout.

I understand the flavor of the fish has to do with the quality of the river–Copper River in Alaska is super cold, rugged, and glacial fed. Continue reading →